by Lexie Thomas, WP owner and content expert
I’ll confess, I feel old(ish) as I set up this article. As a fresh college grad with a new gig, dabbling at improving our small business’s website, I connected with a very enthusiastic marketing pro who delivered to me my first keyword spreadsheet, complete with search volumes. That was my introduction to search engine optimization (SEO).
Fast forward and we’ve got an alphabet soup of Os to handle. SEO still matters. But as we know, AI is here to stay, and so we’ve welcomed (with reluctantly opening arms in some cases) answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO).
Most businesses are familiar with what SEO is: a multitude of strategies and tactics, both content related and technical, that help boost your page to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) when consistently applied to your content and website. It’s keywords and page speed, mobile friendliness and metadata.
It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that many SEO best practices are foundational to both AEO and GEO. But businesses need to move past the SERP as the flagship indicator of a quality website. Because organic search traffic is increasingly coming from AI platforms vs. traditional search engines, our websites need to adapt and optimize for the new search landscape.
What are AEO and GEO?
While closely related, these two siblings do differ in their goals.
AEO is narrower in focus compared to GEO. AEO is content optimized in a way that delivers a direct, clear answer to a specific question with the aim of showing up in position zero—like a featured snippet—or being the answer delivered by voice search. We spent a little time on the new search landscape and AI overviews in a post earlier this year.
GEO is optimizing your content to be a trusted source for the large language models (LLMs) that power AIs like ChatGPT and Gemini. It’s about your thought leadership becoming integral as these platforms help people conduct research and compare options.
It’s worth noting—celebrating even—that the May 2025 Google core update resulted in LLMs diving deeper than they had been (past the top 10 organic search results) for their answers. This means more good content is getting surfaced.
What are some ways to make your content more GEO friendly?
In a recent webinar I attended hosted by MarketingProfs (“Beyond Keywords: B2B Writing for Generative AI & GEO”), President & CEO of Marketing Mojo Janet Driscoll Miller shared some great insight on how to evolve your keyword strategy for GEO.
- Identify a key phrase that you’re ranking for in traditional search.
- Confirm that topic is one AI provides an overview for.
- Check to see if you’re a source for the overview.
If you’re not a source in the AI results but you’ve got content on that topic that ranks traditionally, that’s a good place to start. As previously noted, it doesn’t need to be top 10. Pick your strongest pages that also support your company’s objectives and go from there.
Focus on enhancing this content with a new perspective and take a deeper dive into the “hows” and “whys.” Your goal is to increase your authority on the topic matter.
Here are some other boxes to check as you’re creating new or updating existing content for GEO:
- If you’re a local business, make sure to weave in your location-specific keywords.
- Rework any phrasing that feels too academic—write as if you’re chatting with a friend and your content will resonate better for natural language processing.
- If you’re not using schema, now is the time to start. Schema is an agreed upon, universal language you add to your website coding. This tagging system helps search engines and AI engines alike know exactly what kind of content they are encountering. Schema exists for things like FAQs and how-to articles. You can learn more at Schema.org.
The Write Place is ready to help you update or create new content for your website that helps you stay in front of how AI is impacting how we find and evaluate brands. Contact us today!
Supporting sources and related reading:
- Generative Engine Optimization: A Content Marketer’s Guide for Adapting to AI-Driven Search (MarketingProfs)
- If AI Can’t Find You, Neither Can Your Customers: How AI Is Changing the Rules of Brand Discovery (MarketingProfs)
- Generative Engine Optimization Guide: 10 GEO Techniques and Examples (SURFER Blog)
- Schema Markup: Deciphering the Language of Search Engines (Search Engine Land)
Featured image source: PictureXpress (Adobe Stock), arsyi_06 (generated with AI, Adobe Stock)
