SEO vs. GEO: What Needs to Be Changed?

Traditional SEO is designed to help search engines crawl, index, and rank web pages. Its success depends on aligning content with known ranking factors such as keyword relevance, technical performance, internal structure, and authority signals like domain authority and backlinks.

In practice, this has led to content strategies centered on keyword targeting, optimized metadata, long-form pages, and link-building campaigns. Performance is measured in rankings, impressions, and organic traffic. If a user clicks, the strategy has worked. Thus, SEO’s primary strategy is to rank high on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

SEO has shaped the way we’ve created content for the last 20 or so years, centered around classic search engines. Without abandoning SEO, the opportunity relies on new generative AI search engine platforms.

Generative/LLM engines operate more like editors than directories. They scan vast amounts of content, focus on its semantics, extract relevant passages, evaluate credibility, and generate responses based on the most commonly-accepted answer, blending multiple sources into a single answer.

In this context, entire pages don’t really matter; rather, it’s about whether a specific explanation, definition, or insight is clear enough to be summarized or cited. Users may never visit the source website, but the source still shapes the response.

GEO is therefore about influence rather than traffic. It optimizes for inclusion in AI-generated answers, not just visibility in search results. 

In summary, unlike SEO, GEO’s primary strategy isn’t about ranking. It’s about increasing brand visibility. Its end goal isn’t website clicks, but to get your brand mentioned in the results on LLM platforms for users’ most common search prompts.

There are different aspects to take into consideration when planning GEO:

• • Consistent positioning message – Generative engines rely on clarity and consistency to understand who you are and when to reference you. If your positioning strategy is vague or inconsistent, AI will avoid citing you. Thus, it is your responsibility to ensure all content presents your organization in the same way. Furthermore, if your positioning message is clear and concise, it will be projected by your employees, clients, partners, and prospective customers across channels.

• • Logical structuring and formatting – Shift content from a “traffic magnet” role to an “explanation” role. Create “definition-like” content that directly and concretely answers buyer questions. Structure it so it is easy to understand (for AI engines and for readers), short, and hierarchical. Thus, your content becomes “answer-ready” for AI engines and should be written by an experienced copywriter.

• • Direct and unambiguous language – Use simple, factual language. Avoid exaggerated or unverifiable claims. In content that includes jargon terms, ensure to explain terms or add a glossary section. As in SEO, readability is critical, and content quality is more important than quantity. Thus, ensure that AI-generated content is reviewed by professional writers with experience in the field.

• • Credibility and accuracy – In line with Google’s “E-E-A-T” concept (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), generative engines prefer credible sources. They need to identify that your content has authority in your space. Verifiability is key. If your content is backed by real experts, it becomes a trusted source. But a trusted source is not enough. As mentioned before, consistency is king. This means that generative engines are also seeking a comfortable level of consensus across other web properties. Once that is found, you can make sure your answer will be included in LLM search results. Thus, your goal is to share reliable, consistent information that will reflect well on your business.

• • Technical BOT accessibility – Maintain technical SEO/GEO hygiene. Ensure that your website is not only accessible to GoogleBot. There are over 100 bots available today (e.g., GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot). Allow them to crawl your content to learn further about your organization.

Now that you know all about GEO, what can you expect from a consultant offering GEO services? 

Typical GEO services include:

• • GEO audit & strategy: Assessing how often a brand appears in various generative engines, and how it’s presented.
  • Entity optimization: Clarifying brand, product, and topic entities so AI systems clearly understand who you are and what you do.
  • LLM-optimized content: Creating, rewriting, or reformatting pages, FAQs, and explainers that are easy for AI to extract, summarize, and cite.
  • Prompt & intent mapping: Aligning content with how users ask questions in AI tools.
  • Authority & citation building: Increasing mentions in trusted third-party sources that AI engines rely on.
  • Technical foundations: Structuring content so it’s easily read through and reused by LLMs.
  • AI visibility monitoring: Tracking visibility, brand inclusion, accuracy, and positioning in generated answers.

SEO remains crucial. Without strong foundations, discoverability, and authority, GEO efforts will struggle. That being said, GEO determines whether content is found in today’s AI-mediated discovery process.

Let’s be clear: the future is not SEO vs. GEO. Rather, it’s SEO expanded for a world where new search engines answer questions themselves.

Brands that continue to optimize only for rankings will see diminishing returns over time. Those that optimize for clarity, authority, and explainability will shape the answers users receive, whether or not a click ever happens.

• • SEO is no longer sufficient on its own.
  • Success now depends on influence and brand visibility rather than traffic.
  • Build strong digital PR and third-party media coverage
  • GEO prioritizes clarity, concepts, and readability over keywords.
  • Content must now be chunkable and answer-ready.