What Is GEO?

• GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation

• AI SEO - AI Search Optimisation

• AEO - Answer Engine Optimisation

• LLMO - Large Language Model Optimisation

We love a good acronym in SEO world but they’re all basically the same thing; whereas SEO is about helping search engines understand your content, and helping users find your site, GEO is about helping Generative Engines understand your content and present it to users.

And by Generative Engines, we mean LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Claude etc.

Whether you personally love it or hate it, adoption of AI is growing by the day. Your customers are using it, your competitors are using it and if you’re not at least looking into it, you’re going to be left behind.

While traditional SERPs aren't disappearing anytime too soon, the way users interact with them is shifting into a hybrid model.

I Don’t Have The Time/Money/Inclination To Keep Up With Another Marketing Fad!

If you’re sitting on the sceptical fence here, there’s good news and bad news….let’s get the bad news out the way:

• The GEO bad news (if you’re a sceptic)
  
  

  • GEO, AI and LLMs aren’t a fad. AI has been around for years, larger businesses have been using it for decades and it’s already interwoven with the internet.
    
    

  • It just feels new because the larger names we’re getting more familiar with (like ChatGPT) only launched into mainstream use a few years ago.

    
    

• The GEO Good News

  • If you’re already up to speed with SEO, you’re already most the way there.

  • The reality is, there’s very little that differs between traditional search engine algorithms (SEO) and those of LLMs (GEO)

GEO Is The Next Evolution Of SEO

I’ve worked in digital marketing for nearly 20 years now, and one of the consistencies throughout that time has been the regularity of the cry that SEO is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So long as there is organic search, there will be the need for it to be optimised.

The strategies may change; the approach, the technology and the theory may evolve, but the practice itself remains consistent. Put the user at the heart of your strategy and you won’t go far wrong.

What’s The Difference Between SEO and GEO?

There isn’t much difference in terms of input needed; helpful, quality content and a well structured, technically compliant website.

Content: For GEO, there’s less margin for error. Your content has to be on point and hitting those EEAT value signals perfectly.

For example, in an internet with hundreds of thousands of websites shouting about how they offer the best XYZ on the market, Generative Engines are looking for proof - they’re looking for those EEAT metrics:

• Why are you the best?

• Who says you’re the best?

• How are you proving you're the best?

This means your content has to offer this information up on a plate:

• Are you proving your knowledge through your content or are you just selling your products or services?

• Where are your awards and accreditations?

• What about your reviews?

One of the true real differences in how a search engine returns a list of results and how a generative engine returns a window of content is its attitude to brand names.

• A search engine will (usually) assign ownership to that brand - who else can sell you better than you?

• A Generative Engine will assume you might be a bit biased - to get an honest view of a brand, you need to listen to what others say.

AI models skip the PR fluff and actively look for distinct data, hard statistics, and clear expert answers.

Technical: As with content, the majority of the principles applied to technical SEO, apply to technical GEO too.

The primary differences come down to elements like formatting and Schema mark up (also called structured data which is like putting sticky notes on everything on your website written in the computer's native language), as well as sitemap for AI crawlers stating what they can access of your content to protect your IP while maximizing citation visibility.

It’s about making sure your content and your website is as simple and easy to parse (read) as possible.

Want to know more? Get in touch.