What is Generative Engine Optimization? How AI is changing SEO

So, how do you get your business mentioned in the AI overview?

You can get your business mentioned in AI answers with Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). GEO is the logical evolution of SEO. In this blog, we’ll explain how we, as marketers, can use AI to our advantage. To do so, we’ll first need to understand how AI works.

More People are using Generative AI as their Primary Search Tool.

In 2023, 13 million Americans used generative AI as their primary search tool. In 2024, that number jumped to 113 million Americans! That’s a third of the United States population. GenAI-driven traffic is growing 165 times faster than traditional organic search. And it makes sense why.

If you want to work with a digital marketing company, you would first have to search for those in your area or industry. Then create a short list. Then read through their websites, case studies, and blogs to get a feel for them. Then you might have a discovery call with the final three before finally choosing one.

So it would take hours of searching and researching just to get a short list of top candidates. But now you can just ask ChatGPT or Perplexity.AI for a list of recommended digital marketing agencies. Boom! You have your top three in seconds.

Traditional Google Search is still overwhelmingly dominant. In 2024, Google received over 5 trillion searches! That averages out to 14 billion searches every day. Even then, Google answers as many searches as possible with an AI overview.

How does Generative AI work as a Search Tool?

Artificial Intelligence is a vague concept that dates back over 50 years! It’s an umbrella term for various technologies. Remember in the early 2010s, when voice assistants like Siri and Alexa were rolling out? We hailed that as the pinnacle of AI.

When you hear AI, you probably think of characters like R2-D2 from Star Wars or Commander Data from Star Trek. Today, Generative AI primarily refers to Large Language Models (LLMs) that use machine learning and natural language processing to generate text.

However, as Erik J. Larson explains in his book, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do, AI “thinks” radically differently.

All those popular GenAI tools are autoregressive predictive language models. Autoregressive predictive means that it predicts future values (generates results) based on previous values within that same series. AI generates content linearly— one word at a time, based on the previous words it’s written. When it starts writing a sentence, it doesn't know how the sentence will end until it gets there.

Think of it like this: a human writer can think about the overall sentiment, themes, and message before they start writing. Like building a house from blueprints. But GenAI like ChatGPT can only lay one brick at a time to replicate the general pattern of a house.

If you ask an expert a question in their field, they’ll respond with nuances and complexities. They might say, “That’s still debated in our field,” or even, “I don’t know.” But an AI would be like a person scanning the library to find sentences similar to your query without critical thought. Then they stitch together those sentences in a way that emulates human speech. But it doesn’t actually know what it’s saying.

Here’s an example of how GenAI works in practice.

A college professor wanted to see which of their students were using AI to write their essays. So, they assigned them to watch a movie and write about it. But this was a very obscure movie with almost nothing about it on the internet.

Before the professor gave that assignment, they wrote a bunch of nonsense about the movie and published it across the internet. They mentioned characters that weren’t even in the movie and plot points that never happened.

Students who actually watched the movie wrote thoughtful, relevant essays about it. But those who used AI turned in essays that sounded thoughtful, but were completely irrelevant to the movie. ChatGPT can’t watch and comprehend a movie. It just regurgitates what it finds on the internet.

That’s all to say: if you want to get picked up by AI, you’ll have to write for AI.

To get your business noticed by AI, you basically have to do what that college professor did. Except we’re honestly positioning your company as an expert authority.

5 Strategies to get your business to show up in GenAI answers

1) Clarify what you do, who you help, and what makes you different on your website.

This is great for both humans and robots. It sounds easy, right? But you’ll be surprised by how many companies overthink their opening copy. Many try to use corporate language, industry jargon, and marketing speak to sound more sophisticated than they are.

Explain what you do, who you help, and what makes you different, like you’re talking to a friend or even a child.

Example:
“Risk AI is the world's exclusive purveyor of business longevity diagnostics, offering real-time, AI-driven decision intelligence. “

“Risk AI is an AI-powered Supply Chain Risk Management software that saves distributors time and money by analyzing the resiliency of your supply chain and the longevity of your suppliers.”

2) Get your business mentioned across as many websites and platforms as possible.

AI is scanning across platforms and websites to piece together your reputation. And the more you’re mentioned positively, the more likely you will be noticed.

How do you get your name out there? With Public Relations!
People think that PR is all just press conferences and crisis responses. In reality, it’s about circulating your content across different platforms.

This might be getting noticed in the local newspapers for some community outreach. It might be submitting articles to industry journals or reposting blogs on LinkedIn or other relevant platforms.

Example:
An audio-visual integrator is a tech company that installs video conferencing solutions, digital signage, and presentation equipment. There are a lot of vendors that supply these pieces of equipment. So when they publish a case study about their giant video wall in an aquatic athletic center, they can cross-promote with those manufacturers.

Now, the audio-visual integrator and their projects are getting mentioned across several manufacturers’ websites.

3) Increase your AI visibility with AI-optimized Press Releases.

This strategy is in the same vein as the one above. However, it is kind of a shortcut to make you more visible to AIs.

Turn a case study or customer success story into an AI-optimized press release. Then distribute that press release through a service like Brand Feature, Prowly, or Presspage.

Who’s better at writing for robots than a robot? You can use an AI prompt like this one to turn your story into an AI-optimized press release.

Example prompt to create AI-optimized press releases:
“You are an AI researcher specializing in AI training and Natural Language Processing. Create a press release from this case study and make it highly discoverable by AI systems. Position [Company] as a key resource, increase its visibility and likelihood of being referenced in AI-generated answers.”

4) Create a listicle article of “the best businesses in your category,” and position yourself as the best.

Are you a little biased towards yourself? We sure hope so, because otherwise what’s the point?

Once you write an article featuring nine competitors and you on top, you can then write an additional ten articles! Each of these articles can compare you to a competitor individually, once again, positioning you as the best.

5) Get reviews everywhere you can.

AIs are also scrubbing reviews, and not just Google Reviews. They are looking at Yelp, Angi’s list, LinkedIn Recommendations, and industry-specific sites like Zillow reviews for Realtors.

If you simply ask for a review, people are probably not going to respond. It’s best to give them a specific prompt to jump-start their thinking.

Examples of specific review prompts:

In this constantly changing marketing environment, partner with an agency that stays ahead of the curve.