The history of search offers hints about where we are headed in the AI era. However, there is still much to learn and do to take practical steps forward.
AI will change the way people search. Instead of short queries that once required digging through mixed results, users can now ask complex questions and get answers directly.
However, much of the work of optimizing for AI overlaps with what SEO professionals have been doing for years. Our community has already adapted to this change and is well positioned.
This article outlines practical steps to navigate the evolving situation.
SEO, AEO, GEO: Defining new terms
Before we get into it, it’s worth understanding some terminology. This is still new, and no single label fully embodies this AI layer on top of SEO.
Two terms have caught our attention:
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). We focus on optimizing your content to be selected as an answer in AI-driven results such as Google’s AI Overview.
- GEO (Generation Engine Optimization). We describe a broad range of approaches across generative AI platforms.
I don’t think either is perfect. AEO is a bit unwieldy and GEO runs the risk of being confused with geography or local search.
However, these are the terms currently in use. For clarity, this article uses GEO.
Let’s dig deeper: The origins of SEO and what it means for GEO and AIO
How GEO can scale your SEO
While tools like ChatGPT are definitely cool and early adopters, including myself, spend a lot of time tinkering with them, the bigger story is different.
For most people, AI will be more important than as a standalone tool, and more as it is integrated into phones, web browsers, and search engines.
GEO is a new layer on top of SEO.
Tools like ChatGPT often find and edit information.
These tools provide an abstraction layer and do much of the heavy lifting.
While search engines like Google still scan the digital world and collate its information to make life easier for users, search engines like Google continue to provide the best digital maps of the entire world.
If traditional SEO is keyword matching, AEO is the best answer and the easiest to integrate into AI responses.
GEO: Strategic Foundation
There is no solid consensus on GEO strategies, but most of the recommendations are simply good SEO.
That said, strategies that have stalled in a zero-click environment can regain utility in AI mode, where AI scrutinizes and collates user information.
Here are some basic strategic foundations to put in place to establish visibility with your AI tools.
1. Focus on the customer
I’ve long been a proponent of bringing traditional marketing thinking to SEO, and GEO is a natural evolution of that approach.
Get to know your audience. Create personas, collect feedback, and define the persona’s goals, pain points, and the jobs that depend on the products and services they support.
Customer insights are the key to building a customer-first strategy that gives you an edge in the AI era.
2. Genuine expertise wins.
The web is full of less obvious derivative content. This poses a problem for AI.
Model collapse occurs when the AI continues to train on AI-generated content without new signals, resulting in increasingly stale and inaccurate results.
The solution is what humans still do best. Fresh insights from below.
- Interview.
- Original research.
- proprietary data
They offer something new to AI and are worth citing.
That’s a chance. Speak up and bring something original to the table.
Frameworks like Value Proposition Framework and SCAMPER also support the SEO content marketing process.
3. Branding is key
Homepage traffic is increasing as a result of mentions in AI tools.
Recent research shows that engagement from AI-driven traffic can even outperform organic, which has long been the gold standard for user engagement.
Make sure your branding is strong.
Give your products and services unique names to make them easier to reference by AI tools and easier for users to search.
Get the newsletter search that marketers rely on.
4. Websites are important
Websites are still important in the age of AI.
Everything you publish has the potential to drive branded searches and drive people to your site.
Structure your home page so that visitors can quickly explore and find more information.
Dig into your customers’ wants, needs, and pain points to answer the questions that matter most to them.
The ALCHEMY website planning framework can help guide you through this task.
5. Works with conversational content
Think beyond static blog posts. Consider:
- Detailed FAQs based on customer insights.
- Step-by-step instructions.
- A long-form guide with follow-up questions in mind.
Organize your content to cover all of your customers’ questions and concerns.
Remember, many people are looking to AI to learn more about you.
6. Beyond Google
Gen Z is already using TikTok and Instagram as search engines.
YouTube remains the second largest search platform in the world.
AI-powered tools are just the next step in the ongoing increasingly fragmented top-funnel discovery.
Your approach is to diversify your content and make sure it shows up wherever people look.
- your own website.
- Third Party Sites and Industry Publications.
- Social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
- Search engines such as Google and Perplexity.
- Video and professional platforms such as YouTube and LinkedIn.
Think of modern AI SEO as search optimization everywhere.
Digging deeper: What’s next for SEO in the age of generative AI?
What to do next: Practical steps for marketers
AI helps people research and make purchasing decisions. Your role is to participate in the discussion.
Modern SEO is in good shape. Much of what we want from AI is based on the strategic SEO work we’re already doing.
Add in PR, social media, and content creation (which often fall under the SEO umbrella), and you’re well on your way to a functional GEO strategy.
It’s important to start. To stay ahead:
- Create citation-worthy content. AI (or human journalists) write articles you want to see. That means clear answers, evidence, unique insights, and perspectives, not fillers.
- Anticipate the entire conversation. Don’t just answer the first question, answer the questions that follow. If you’re asking, “How will AI change SEO?”, you’ll also want to know, “How should I do it?” Incorporate it into your content.
- Machine and human structure: Use headings, lists, FAQs, and concise summaries to help AI analyze your work. But don’t forget about the depth of the story that keeps people reading.
- Diversify your discovery footprint. Don’t rely solely on Google. Research your audience, understand Hangouts, and publish in the formats and places your audience is currently asking questions, including LinkedIn, YouTube, podcasts, and industry forums. AI tools crawl everything.
- Focus on authority signals. Show the humans behind the content. Add author bios, cite sources, and add links to works elsewhere. AI engines, like search engines before them, rely on trust and authority.
- Experiments, measurements and improvements: Experiment with different formats, test and measure how your content appears in AI Overview, track mentions of your brand, and adapt. SEO has always been iterative and this new era is no exception.
Opportunity in chaos
As SEO evolves into GEO (or whatever it ends up being called), this really becomes the best approach.
There is no doubt that many changes are occurring.
But a lot of it is part of the same gradual evolution we’ve seen in the past, where clicks go down and Google starts answering questions directly.
AI has made it easier for customers to find the information they are looking for.
They may not read it on the site – at least initially – but the AI will, and that’s what matters.
Another of our strengths as SEOs is that change is constant.
If you’ve been involved in SEO for a long time, you’ve probably experienced things like Panda, Penguin, Mobilegeddon, BERT, and useful content updates. The list is long (and can cause PTSD for many of us).
The key is to treat this as the next evolution. AI is being integrated into search and will likely be the way the masses adopt this technology.
Don’t consider this the death of SEO.
Instead, think of SEO and AI (or GEO/AEO, etc.) as close contributing partners and let your plan evolve as conditions change.
Your job as a marketer is to provide your tools with the information they need to drive customers to you or your clients.
This change will likely mean fewer short-term maneuvers and tactical opportunities, but better outcomes for companies that do the basics well.
At its core, good SEO/GEO is good marketing: understanding your customers, meeting their needs, and communicating clearly.
There is opportunity in chaos. For those willing to accept challenges, try new tools and keep moving forward.
That’s what we’ve always done as SEOs, and that’s why we’re in the best position to embrace this new world.
Dig deeper: SEO at the crossroads: 9 experts on how AI will change everything
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