Ranking in search engines like Google is still essential for businesses to reach their audience in the right moment, but the mainstreaming of generative AI tools presents a new channel that brands must get right – GEO.
In September 2024, OpenAI’s ChatGPT hit over 3.1 billion monthly visits, overtaking Microsoft search engine Bing’s traffic for that month (1.8 billion visits). It’s an amazing achievement for a relatively new player, but it’s also no surprise.
If you need to do some research for work – do you open Google as your starting point? What about writing a strongly worded email to your internet provider, or crafting a cover letter for a job application? If you’re not using ChatGPT for these tasks, why are you wasting your valuable time? Even the most basic internet users will notice the helpful AI overviews at the top of Google search results, these punchy summaries answer your question and throw in supportive citation links. The mainstreaming of AI is afoot.
As a content marketer, my team and I spend a fair part of our week on SEO efforts for clients to help them rank in Google and build authority online for their expert topics. But lately, we’ve been evolving our services to consider the new ways audiences are looking for information online. Keep reading for everything you need to know about GEO and its impact on content marketing.
What is GEO?
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is a major development that’s changing the way people search and interact with information online. GEO is all about creating content with AI search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI overviews in mind.
GEO positions your brand to appear in AI-generated results when audiences search for queries related to your product, service or expertise. Achieving better visibility in AI-generated responses will help your brand be easily discoverable in this new era of digital behaviour.
What’s the difference between SEO and GEO?
Generative AI doesn’t just list websites like traditional search engines, they generate comprehensive answers by pulling information from multiple sources.
SEO content is structured around keywords and links, while GEO content needs to be more integrative, offering citations, stats, and a broader context that AI can utilise. For SEO, success is often measured through metrics like click-through rates, bounce rates, and time on page. GEO uses impression metrics that measure how often your content is included in AI-generated responses and how relevant it is to user queries.
What does GEO mean for my content marketing strategy?
Just as humans value authenticity, it appears that generative AI also has a need for high-quality, informative and accurate content (see the ‘Garbage in Garbage Out’ or ‘GIGO’ rule). So it turns out creating content for generative AI might not be too dissimilar from creating content for real people.
This means it’s crucial that content strategies consider in-depth storytelling and formats like podcasts, detailed blogs and guides, compelling case studies and whitepapers, and that they’re created with expert input and a human perspective for accuracy, value and engagement.
While social media plays an important role in our media diet with its easy, bite-sized content, generative AI thrives on the rich, well-structured, long-form content that we rely on for important decision making, entertainment and education. And there’s room for both in your content strategy.
The bottom line is that if you’re not feeding the machine with high-quality, extended narratives, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to boost your brand’s visibility, authority, and engagement. So, how do you make long-form content work for your comms strategy in the age of AI?
Creating content for GEO
For your brand or business to appear in Generative AI, it needs to be optimised not only for keywords, but for how well it can be integrated into AI-generated responses. Here are a few tips:
Citation optimisation
Strategically incorporate references from authoritative and credible sources that can significantly increase your content’s trustworthiness. Well-chosen citations can increase the likelihood that your content will be featured in generated responses.
Statistical integration
Stats play a crucial role as AI-driven engines often look for data to create compelling, fact-based responses. The integration of up-to-date, accurate, and contextually appropriate statistics can help your content stand out in AI-generated results, as these engines use data to substantiate the responses they generate.
Contextual relevance
With GEO, contextual relevance is even more critical because AI-driven engines generate responses based on a holistic understanding of the query. This means structuring your content in a way that flows logically, answers potential follow-up questions, and provides a comprehensive response to the initial query.
Unlike SEO, GEO is less about standing out on a list of search results, and more about becoming a part of the answer itself.
If you want to discuss adding authentic, long-form content to your marketing strategy to get ahead of GEO, or want pointers on setting up a content strategy from scratch, email me at claire@thinkinghatpr.com, and we can schedule a very human coffee consultation.
Want something a little different? Read Liv Cox’s guide on how to diversify your social media strategy.
