When AI transforms the way people search online, businesses face new challenges. While AI Chatbot and Google's AI Summary provide answers directly to the page, it becomes visible when there are fewer users and fewer users.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, has been a long time with the process of improving website rankings on Google and Bing through tactics such as keywords, backlinks, metadata and more and Site architecture.
Currently, generation engine optimization, or GEO, is a new area that ensures that your brand is visible in AI-driven search tools such as ChatGpt, Prplexity, and more. and Google's AI overview. Geo emphasizes structural, authoritative, conversational content that can be easily processed and cited by large-scale language models (LLMs).
Currently, businesses are facing two battles. Maintain your position in traditional searches, ensuring that AI systems recognize and cite as authoritative answers. Whether it's called SEO, GEO, or simply good content, playbooks to stay visible are changing rapidly, and the cost of sitting is not possible.
Businesses look at click-through rates Drop itthey have no choice but to pivot in an age where AI is Provides complete service Answer to a user query.
“We haven't seen AI searches. We're already redesigning the web,” Rich Pleeth said. former He is currently a Google Marketing Executive, co-founder and CEO of Finmile. “Traditional SEO has been about keywords and backlinks. But with AI search engines like ChatGpt and Gemini, discoverability is now about authority, clarity and context. It's about being an answer, not just rankings.”
This means that online companies need to rethink their overall content strategy: talking like a human, showing domain expertise, and designing for machine readability.
Prees said his company is moving from keyword-driven tactics to an A-Optimized strategy. “It means structured conversational content that answers the actual user's intent,” he told Pymnts.
“Think rich FAQs, clean schemas, and high value-dense white papers. If your content is LLM-friendly, it won't be visible in the next search wave.”
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The old one is new again
Several business owners told Pymnts the same: Focusing on high quality authoritativeness and Clear content to help readers and shoppers or Rather than using gimmicks to increase click-through rates, website visitors.
“Unlike traditional SEO, which relies heavily on owned content and backlinks to verify permissions, Geo throws a wider net,” David Clare of Digital at The Hill told Pymnts. “We support authentic questions, consistent trade and media coverage that enhances expertise, and owned content that directly answers authoritative profiles on platforms such as Wikipedia and Crunch-based.”
“The important thing is, when SEO needs links, brand mentions are enough, and even if the overall landscape becomes more complicated, lowering one barrier is enough,” Claire believes. “Communities like Reddit and Quora form voices that AI chooses to amplify.”
ONAR CEO Claude Zdanow said, “Traditional SEO tactics like keywords, backlinks, and algorithm manipulation are not enough. To make them visible, we need to focus on conversational relevance and structured, rich content.”
For ecommerce companies, this means “preparing product feeds with clear, detailed titles and descriptions, tagging products using the buyer persona and use case context, and surface dynamic offers that correspond to real-time intent,” added Zdanow.
“The goal is to make content or product information easy to read and doable in AI systems.so Can be provided directly with chat-based or individual discovery. ”
Others emphasized the multi-channel approach. Katy Dwyer, founder of KDD Marketing, recommends that you become active on multiple social platforms, develop video strategies and keep your Google Business Profile up to date with time, website links and contacts. information,photograph and more.
However, not all experts are convinced that GEO is a revolution. “Let me do something dull: there's nothing like “geo,” says Jeff Ferguson, CEO of Amplitude Digital. This is the same as SEO tactics that are being repackaged under the new label,” he told Pymnts. “The basics haven't changed. They're relevant content, clean site architecture, and authoritative signals from trustworthy sources.”
John Fairley, Senior Vice President of Marketing Operations at Walker Sands, agrees to some extent. “GEO is not replacing SEO. Rather, it is based on it. Search rankings are still important, but there are two features now. They affect both human users and AI systems that provide real-time answers.”
The bottom line means that businesses must act.
“This is more than a minor adjustment to your search strategy,” Claire said. “It's a fundamental change in the way brands establish trust and visibility. Companies that adapt will shape the way AI communicates. Their story. Someone who doesn't risk being completely ruled out. ”
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