Will GEO Change How We Search Websites?

Of all the shiny objects vying for our collective attention in the marketing ecosystem, one that is particularly compelling to me is agentic engine optimization (AEO), also known as generative engine optimization (GEO) – we haven’t quite settled the debate on the acronym yet. And the reason is less the actual functionality of GEO itself and more the series of dominos that it is creating that is completely shifting the way we think about measuring web engagement.

Traditional SEO and trying to optimize sites for ranking is something that I’ve always found fascinating. It’s always been that perfect marriage of the technical best practices and content-level support to empower marketers in my world of CMS platforms. The same is true for GEO.

Like its similarly acronymed counterpart, GEO is all about serving and optimizing your brand’s content to appear in front of audiences when they need it. Unlike SEO, GEO is targeting the ChatGPTs, CoPilots, and Geminis of the world that are combing through millions of sites to arm consumers with relevant information the same way Google, Bing, and other search engines have done for decades.

GEO is the opening of a tunnel that can lead us into a completely new world of digital experiences and content optimization. Getting ahead of it early is critical to maintaining relevancy in this new era of web.

A Content and Tech Issue

Content strategy’s role in SEO/GEO is obvious, though not uniform. Various articles (not discovered via AI) will tell you that while SEO values links and keywords, generative engines care more about companies presenting the content in a way that’s easy to comprehend for generative AIs to index. This may include imagery and interactive content but is often about brevity or quesiton/answer style formats.

But this is also a platform problem to solve, which is particularly interesting to me given what I do on a daily basis. Your CMS moving forward needs to enable and prioritize what generative AIs care about. Not only is loading speed and accessibility important, but the structure and delivery of the content is critical.

I’ve watched countless marketing teams add paragraphs of content to pages for the sake of SEO, which is now much less relevant. Resonating with the best answer is now better than including the longest, most keyword-infused answer. It’s a shift in strategy that changes the way you approach your content. 

Strategies for Closing Your AEO/GEO Gap

You may at first be inclined to use an AI tool to help solve the challenge of creating new or optimized content. I mean, isn’t that what these generative platforms have been designed to accomplish, freeing you as a content marketer up to do other strategic activities?

While tempting, that would be a shortsided mistake, because creating AI “slop” to feed the AI engines creates a feedback loop of mediocrity and reduces your credibility scores.  
Instead, focus on the following approaches:

• Add structure. Include relevant schemas, heading tags, markdown summaries, and crawler files.  
• Speak bot. Write content using natural language, with a bias toward a question & answer format.
• Define credibility. Be authoritative, showcasing expertise through a quality experience using proper metadata.
• Move fast. Launch your updates quickly and keep content fresh.

Humans still have an important role to play and you should trust your teams that they understand and can articulate your brand and values best. With the strategies above, you can still work smarter and more efficiently without relying on AI as a crutch.

How to Move Forward

While it feels like all of this is happening quickly (which it is), it’s not like we’re all going to wake up next month and all users have stopped using traditional search and discovery behavior to interact with your brand. But it’s worth going through the exercise of asking yourself what your customers need today, what they might need next year, and how your site can deliver in both timeframes.

So no, you don’t have to re-architecture your site tomorrow. The first step is to work with your content developers and technical developers to ensure that your site begins to account for GEO and what is going to get you found in AI inquiries.

And then enter with the mindset that the way your content and website is both presented and discovered digitally is going to go through multiple iterations over the next few years. The best thing you can do is create an agile environment to evolve with where and how your customers are looking for you.

And if you need help, we’re here guiding companies through this new territory.