For two decades, search engine optimization (SEO) ruled the internet. Now, with the rise of chatbots, a new field is emerging: generative-engine optimization (GEO), the art of making your content a preferred reference for artificial intelligence.
Article contents:
- The SEO era: How it shaped the internet
- The ChatGPT disruption: The end of the link era
- The rise of GEO: A new hope for marketers
- Early GEO wisdom: What works?
- The new content landscape: Writing to be cited by machines
- The AI solution for the AI problem
- Conclusion: A bloodbath for traffic, but marketing goes on
- Frequently asked questions
The SEO era: How it shaped the internet
For two decades, almost every online business had to worry about Google. This gave birth to a $75 billion industry: search engine optimization (SEO). SEO shaped the way almost everything looks on the web. It is the reason behind how headlines, online recipes, and e-commerce listings are written. It is the reason why much of the web looks strange, as if written for something other than humans.
The ChatGPT disruption: The end of the link era
Then came ChatGPT. Within months, searchers became conversationalists and were given answers, not links. Google began putting AI-generated answers at the very top of its search pages. For some sites, that was an “apocalypse” for traffic. For tens of thousands of SEO experts, it was chaos. “Chatbots keep all users on the platform until they get a satisfactory answer, and if it’s informational, they might not visit you at all,” says Aleyda Solis, CEO of a consulting firm.
The rise of GEO: A new hope for marketers
Amidst this chaos, marketers are converging on a new playbook. The SEO era is over. Hello GEO. Generative-engine optimization is the best way for marketers to reassure employers and clients that there are still ways to gain an edge for their brands in the world of AI. Chatbots are still training on the web, constantly scraping it, and sometimes still linking to it; so optimizers still have hope.
Early GEO wisdom: What works?
Early conventional wisdom is beginning to take shape. Solis says large language models tend to summarize and quote passages or “chunks” of pages, with citations rather than prominent links. If you want to be cited, you must publish content with that in mind. Publishers now must “structure content in a way that is easier to capture”—in quotable chunks, with clear authorship.
Tim Wurstl, head of digital strategy at a marketing firm, agrees: “I’ve found that when it comes to AI, lists work well. They are looking for expert content. If you can put together a document that is easy to scrape, they will actually cite it.”
The new content landscape: Writing to be cited by machines
These recommendations combine to yield something that looks very much like the default way famous chatbots speak: with plenty of bullet points, in a style and tone resembling software documentation or FAQs. Good mentions on Wikipedia and Reddit, which appear frequently in AI answers, can also help, as do mentions in YouTube videos, which are ingested by models as well.
The AI solution for the AI problem
Dozens of startups have emerged to provide GEO solutions. Profound, for example, promises clients help in “appearing” in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, and others. CEO James Cadwalader says: “You create content in the hope that it will be sucked up and spat back out.” To help with that, Profound offers something else: using AI to create AI-optimized content. In other words, AI will help solve the AI problem.
Conclusion: A bloodbath for traffic, but marketing goes on
Traffic stats don’t lie: it’s a bloodbath for websites. A web written to grab search engine attention may soon become a web written by machines to grab AI attention. The competition for those remaining eyeballs will be fierce. Everyone will be looking for an edge, and the GEO world will claim to offer one. As Cadwalader puts it, seeing a bright future for his company at least: “Marketers are still going to market.”
Frequently asked questions
What is GEO (Generative-Engine Optimization)?
It is a set of practices aimed at optimizing content to be cited or included in answers generated by chatbots and AI-powered search engines.
What is the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO focuses on achieving high rankings in a list of blue links. GEO focuses on making your content the preferred source that AI quotes when generating concise answers, where the user may not click on any link at all.
What are the best GEO strategies?
Early strategies include creating well-structured content (such as lists and tables), providing clear and authoritative information, writing content in easily quotable “chunks,” and securing mentions in trusted sources like Wikipedia and Reddit.
