GEO and Your Brand – Leaning into LLMs

Understanding and implementing GEO 

You can’t seem to do anything online these days without hearing about GEO, or generative engine optimisation. The panic is palpable, with businesses worried that their previous investment in SEO and content is now null and void. But fear not: GEO is not the new SEO. It’s not a replacement, it’s an addition. Another weapon in your marketing toolbox.  

So, what exactly is GEO? How does it work? And how can you lean into the new world of LLMs (large language models) for better brand visibility? 

Here’s a quickfire guide to help you make GEO work for you. 

What is GEO? 

Generative engine optimisation means optimising your website and content for AI. You’ve seen the AI generated answers at the top of Google’s search results, right? Well, GEO is the process of creating content that these types of LLMs/AI tools can use to answer user queries, provide clarity on the search subject, and quote or link to in their results.  

Rather than a replacement for SEO, GEO is an addition. It’s simply a sign of the times, where new technologies force us to find more creative ways to earn visibility.  

How does GEO work? 

Where SEO has many technical and offsite aspects as well as onsite content signals, GEO is much more grounded in content quality. GEO works on conversations, not keywords. To make GEO work, you need to create structured, semantically-rich, and query-focused content with purpose.  

It’s important to remember that we live in a time where access to accurate information is expected almost instantly: within a couple of keyboard clicks or a quick voice query. Also, AI is learning through a vast range of resources, including extensive social platforms such as Reddit. It’s trained on how modern users speak, and trained to respond to their queries with clear, contextual and easy-to-understand references.  

Essentially, GEO is all about influence – making your brand the go-to source for citations on your specialist subjects.  

GEO tips to consider in your copy 

With the need to satisfy both SEO and GEO, the quality of your content has never been more important. Here are some quick tips to help you create AI-friendly copy: 

• Take a powerful, top-level subject and create a hierarchy of related/sub-queries to give your content a scannable structure of information; map the user journey and create a modular response. 

• Pose specific questions in a natural, conversational tone, and answer them clearly and concisely; think in how, where, why, what queries, and how the information exchange would flow during an in-person interaction. 

• Start with a detail-rich, no-fluff synopsis, followed by bite-sized, headed sections to create a clear journey through the subject. 

• Use bullet points, tables, graphs, data points and evidence where possible. 

• Make your content easy to extract – detail-rich snippets, single sentence highlights etc. 

• Show your knowledge but in laypersons’ terms – clarify technical details to ensure audience understanding. 

• Harness SEO and marketing efforts to build visibility and improve rankings for increased chance of AI citations. 

• Create content around user needs and pain-points; write to solve problems, not sell. 

• Regularly review and refresh your content to keep it relevant and precise. 

Key benefits of GEO 

Implementing GEO into your content and web strategy will help your brand achieve topline visibility in the search engines and build a reputation as a voice of authority and accuracy in your industry.  

While content may be scraped and combined with other sources in AI overviews and LLM tools, if your website is regarded as a relevant and credible source for the query, you’ll benefit from embedded, underlined links within the AI generated text and standalone site links in the carousel displays: 

Need GEO support for your website?

GEO is an ever-evolving landscape right now, and it can be hard to keep up with – especially if it’s not your usual day-to-day job. With a vested interest in keeping up with these changes, our experts can help you to maximise your online visibility by applying the latest best practice rules to your content. There’s no truly defined’ right way’ at the moment, and the impact of GEO is still being debated across the industry. Where one article will show data that demonstrates low-levels of GEO traffic compared to more traditional SEO, another will evidence rapid increases in web citations and visits from its implementation.

With our combined SEO and GEO copywriting skills, we can help you to optimise your website for the new era of AI search – get in touch to book a consultation.