The New Era of Search

Search is evolving. And it’s happening fast.

When you ask Google a question, you often get an AI-generated answer (not just a list of websites to explore).

This shift is creating a new reality for marketers. To stay competitive, your brand needs to show up in AI-generated responses, not just traditional search results. 

That’s where generative engine optimization (GEO) comes into play.

What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

GEO is the practice of optimizing content to appear in the responses generated by AI-powered search engines such as ChatGPT, Google, Perplexity, Claude, and others.

Instead of focusing solely on traditional search engine rankings (like SEO does), GEO is about ensuring that your content becomes part of the answers that generative AI systems deliver when users ask questions.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

When I asked Perplexity who provides the best VPN service, the chatbot pulled information from multiple sources across the web and synthesized it into one comprehensive answer.

The key difference is that your content isn’t necessarily competing to be the top result—it’s competing to be part of the answer itself.

Why Does GEO Matter?

AI-powered search is exploding in popularity. 

ChatGPT hit 100 million users faster than any app in history. Google’s AI Overviews now appear for billions of searches every month. People are increasingly turning to AI assistants for everything from product recommendations to research help.

Like good sales personnel, these AI assistants can sway purchasing decisions. If AI-generated answers mention your brand or product, you’re instantly part of the consideration set. With no mention, you may not even be seen. 

Here are some other benefits of investing in GEO:

• You get organic visibility without paying for ads
• You drive qualified traffic back to your website
• Your brand can be promoted 24/7
• Your brand becomes more credible in your industry

With all the benefits, you might think GEO requires completely new skills and strategies. But here’s where things get interesting.

GEO & SEO Are Closely Linked

The strategies that make you visible in search rankings are largely the same ones that get you mentioned in AI answers.

Traditional SEO is all about creating high-quality content, making it accessible to search engines, and building backlinks.

GEO works off of a similar foundation.

If you’re consistently publishing content around topics closely tied to your brand, making it easy to access and understand, and earning credible mentions across the web, you’re already doing GEO—at least in part—whether you realize it or not.

Think about it: AI assistants also want to provide helpful, accurate information to users. And they pull that information from the same internet your SEO-focused content lives on. The more your brand is associated with the topics you care about, the more likely it is to be referenced in an AI-generated answer (generally).

If you’ve been doing solid SEO for years, you’re already much of the way there with GEO. The fundamentals haven’t really changed.

But are there any tactics unique to GEO?

I think there will be some interesting tactics that will emerge specifically for AI systems, especially as we better understand how they retrieve, interpret, and synthesize information. Research into GEO is still in its early stages.

Based on what we’re learning, there are a few specific ways AI systems may behave differently:

• Unlinked brand mentions seem to carry more weight. AI systems may give brand mentions more weight even when they’re not linked. This is a kind of a big deal because even casual mentions of your brand across the web could boost your AI visibility.
• Content with quotes and statistics tends to perform well in AI assistants. One study analyzed 10,000 real-world queries and found that pages containing quotes and statistics had 30-40% higher visibility in AI responses compared to content without them.
• Server-side rendering might be important for AI visibility. At least for now, many AI crawlers seem to have trouble executing JavaScript, so if your content relies heavily on client-side rendering, it might be invisible. So it might not get picked up, processed, or included in AI-generated responses.
• Fresh content will likely get favor from AI tools. This is pretty straightforward: AI tools want to provide the most current information possible.
• Wikipedia presence could potentially boost your AI visibility. Since Wikipedia seems to make up a significant portion of AI training data, having an accurate Wikipedia entry for your brand might increase the likelihood of being mentioned in AI responses. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s worth considering.
• UGC platforms appear to influence generative engine visibility. Platforms that allow user-generated content (UGC)—Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, etc.—appear to have high exposure in generative engines. So brand presence on these platforms may become an important factor in GEO.

Much of what we “know” so far is based on educated guesses. We’re still in the early stages of GEO. And there’s still a lot to figure out.

A Mindset Shift for Marketers

To succeed in the AI landscape, reframe your mindset about SEO. Many of the old best practices are still relevant. But new research coming out will definitely shape how we approach GEO in the coming months.

For decades, marketers have been optimizing for clicks, rankings, and SERP features. But generative engines are different—they give answers directly. This could significantly change how people discover and consume online content.

In this new era, visibility often means showing up inside the answer itself. So you need to start tracking how often AI is actually pulling from your content as a source.

To track your AI visibility, try Semrush’s AI Toolkit. It helps you monitor your visibility in tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others.

Sign up to get started today.