Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) & AI Overviews: What You Need to Know

Are you being referenced and cited in AI-powered search engines & Large Language Models?

GEO & SEO are very similar. These new tools are resulting in people searching more than ever. It’s important to continue focusing on your SEO efforts with an extra focus on content that clearly and directly answers your audience’s needs.

Contents

• What is GEO?
• Popular “AI Search Engines” Examples
• Risks
• Benefits
• What to do
• The future
• GEO vs SEO
• Summary

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the process of optimizing content to receive visibility in AI-powered search engines & Large Language Models (LLMs) like Gemini, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google’s AI Overviews & AI Mode.

Popular “AI Search Engines” Examples

Google’s AI Overview

Google may include an AI Overview, which can be expanded, above their traditional search results. It includes some citations clearly on the right.

Condensed

Expanded

What are the risks of AI-powered search?

#1. Less Clicks

Generated responses reduce the need to click-through – particularly for informational queries. You’re at risk if your business model requires clicks – like a blog that makes money based on display ad impressions. Traffic should no longer be a primary goal; it should be brand visibility leading to a conversion.

#2. Less Control of the Message

The information often comes from multiple sources. It is more difficult to be the single authoritative voice on a subject.

#3. Falling Behind

You’re at risk of losing organic visibility if you don’t regularly update your existing content and create new content that answers what your audience is searching for. Needing ongoing SEO & Content Strategy is more important than ever.

What are the benefits of AI-powered search?

#1. Low Friction Visibility

Your brand appearing or being cited in a generated response is a low friction way to gain additional brand awareness and visibility. No combing through results, no page load times, no scanning through fluff in an article, just an immediate response.

#2. Additional Visibility

People are searching more. While people are starting to use AI-powered search engines & LLMs, people are still using Google even more. Searches on Google increased over 20% in 2024. We expect both avenues of organic visibility to continue seeing increases.

What should you be doing?

#1. Focus on Brand Visibility

Appearing in generated responses is about brand awareness and visibility more so than getting traffic. Getting brand visibility to lead to a conversion is the focus here.

#2. Ongoing SEO

GEO and SEO are very similar. Your site’s content still needs to be discoverable, crawlable, indexable, and authoritative. So, many traditional SEO tactics are still valuable for GEO.

#3. Ongoing Content Strategy

What is your audience searching for? Are you answering their questions? Does your content rank on Google and Bing? Is it being cited in AI-generated responses? Are you creating something unique? If not, create and publish the content your audience wants and what differentiates you from the crowd.

#4. Higher Focus on Existing Content Optimizations

Search results and generated responses are constantly changing. You need to consistently have the most up-to-date content, match your audience’s natural language, structure your content so it’s easier for crawlers to understand, offer something unique, and tweak based on what is and isn’t working.

#5. Support with Paid Search & Media

Google is a for-profit business and has its own revenue goals to hit. Paid search is not going away. Continue to bid on converting keywords and support brand visibility needs with other paid media.

What does the future look like?

GEO isn’t replacing SEO. It’s building on it. The brands that understand the difference will be the ones that lead the pack as AI continues to shape how we find information. 

#1. Increased Reliability

As all the AI-powered search engines & LLMs continue to develop and compete with one another – the responses should continue to be more thorough and reliable.

#2. Increased Utilization

As the responses continue to be more thorough and reliable, more and more people will continue to use AI-powered search. ChatGPT had, at the most, 37.5M searches/day in 2024 – and this should continue to grow.

#3. Traditional Search Remains on Top

While AI-powered search should continue to grow, it should not overtake traditional search anytime soon. ChatGPT had, at the most, 37.5M searches/day in 2024 – Google had more than 14B searches/day, 373x more. AI-powered search may chip away at this difference through time, but that margin is not going away any time soon. 

GEO vs SEO

Traditional SEO is about getting your brand on the first page of Google. GEO is about getting your brand, product, or point of view mentioned in the actual answers these tools generate.

There are no blue links to click with these AI resources. No scrolling through pages. Just the user asking a question and the AI giving them an answer – often sourced from multiple places, including (hopefully) your content. 

The good news? You don’t have to choose between GEO and SEO. 

Most of the tactics that make SEO work – strong content, technical optimization, and E-E-A-T principles – still apply in the world of GEO. But the mindset shifts. Instead of optimizing solely for clicks and rankings, you’re now optimizing for brand visibility in a response. 

Here’s what that looks like in practice: 

• Answer questions clearly and directly. AI search is designed to provide fast and helpful answers. Write like you’re trying to win a featured snippet. 

• Keep content fresh. AI tools favor recent, updated information. Stale content is invisible content. 

• Use natural language. AI models respond best to content that sounds human. Write how people talk. 

• Support with structured data. Structured data, such as schema markup, helps search engines and AIs understand your content better. By using structured data, you can provide additional context to your content, making it more likely to be surfaced by AI tools in their responses. 

• Create genuinely useful content. AI pulls from multiple sources. You likely won’t make the cut if you’re not saying something unique or valuable. 

Should I Stop Caring About Traffic? 

Not exactly – but you should reconsider your objectives. 

If your strategy relies solely on traffic (especially ad-driven models), you may be in trouble. However, if your primary goal is lead generation, brand awareness, or conversion, then GEO opens up a whole new channel for visibility – one where your audience may learn about you without ever visiting your site. 

The key is to create content that works in both places: traditional search results and AI-generated responses. 

Summary

GEO & SEO are very similar. These new tools are resulting in people searching more than ever. It’s important to continue focusing on your SEO efforts with an extra focus on content that clearly and directly answers your audience’s needs.

• What is it? GEO is the process of optimizing for AI-powered search engines & models like Gemini, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google’s AI Overviews.
• What is the risk? Less website traffic. Traffic should no longer be a primary goal; it should be brand visibility leading to a conversion.
• What is the benefit? Generated responses are a low friction way to gain additional brand awareness and visibility. An immediate response is quicker than loading and combing through a page.
• What to do? Focus more on goals of brand awareness & visibility leading to conversions versus web traffic. Continue SEO, Content Strategy, & Paid efforts. Ensure there is a focus on optimizing existing content.

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