The sport has modified, and fairly just lately, too.
Generative engine optimization (GEO), AI Overviews (AIOs), or simply an extension of search engine marketing (now being dubbed on LinkedIn as Search In all places Optimization) – which acronym is right?
I’d argue it’s GEO, as you’ll see why. And in case you’ve ever constructed your individual massive language mannequin from scratch like I did in 2020, you’ll know why.
We’ve all seen numerous scary (for some) knowledge on how click-through charges have now dropped off the cliff with Google AIOs, how LLMs like ChatGPT are eroding Google’s share of search – mainly “search engine marketing is lifeless” – so I gained’t repeat them right here.
What I’ll cowl are first rules to get your content material (alongside along with your firm) beneficial by AI and LLMs alike.
Every thing I disclose right here relies on real-world experiences of AI search successes achieved with shoppers.
Utilizing an instance I can speak about, I’ll go along with Boundless as seen under.
Screenshot by writer, July 2025
Inform The World One thing New
Think about the dread a PR company may really feel if it signed up a brand new enterprise shopper solely to seek out they haven’t received something newsworthy to advertise to the media – a troublesome promote. Conventional search engine marketing content material is a bit like that.
We’ve all seen and carried out the somewhat drained final content material information to [insert your target topic] playbooks, which try to show your web site into the Wikipedia (a key knowledge supply for ChatGPT, it appears) of no matter business you occur to be in.
And let’s face it, it labored so effectively, it ruined the web, based on The Verge.
The elemental drawback with that sort of search engine marketing content material is that it has no info achieve. When trillions of webpages all comply with the identical “finest follow” playbook, they’re not telling the world something genuinely new.
You solely have to take a look at the Info Achieve patent by Google to underscore the significance of content material possessing worth, i.e., your content material should inform the world (by way of the web) one thing new.
BoundlessHQ commissioned a survey on distant work, asking ‘Ideally, the place would you prefer to work from if it had been your alternative?’
The outcomes supplied a set of knowledge and this sort of content material is excessive effort, distinctive, and value-adding sufficient to get cited in AI search outcomes.
After all, it shouldn’t take AI to supply this sort of content material within the first place, as that will be good search engine marketing content material advertising in any case. AI has merely pressured our hand (extra on that later).
In spite of everything, in case your content material isn’t distinctive, why would journalists point out you? Bloggers hyperlink again to you? Folks share or bookmark your web page? AI retrain its fashions utilizing your content material or cite your model?
You get the concept.
For improved AI visibility, embrace your knowledge sources and analysis strategies with their limitations, as this stage of transparency makes your content material extra verifiable to AI.
Additionally, updating your knowledge extra usually than yearly will point out reliability to AI as a trusted info supply for quotation. What LLM doesn’t need more moderen knowledge?
search engine marketing Could Not Be Lifeless, However Key phrases Undoubtedly Are
Key phrases don’t inform you who’s really looking. They simply inform you what phrases set off advertisements in Google.
Your content material might be interesting to college students, retirees, or anybody. That’s not concentrating on; that’s one dimension suits all. And within the AI age, one dimension undoubtedly doesn’t match all.
So, kiss goodbye to content material guides written in a single type of English, which win visitors throughout all English-speaking areas.
AI has created extra jobs for entrepreneurs, so to win the identical visitors as earlier than, you’ll must create the identical content material as earlier than for these English-speaking areas.
Key phrase instruments additionally allegedly inform you the search volumes your key phrases are getting (in case you nonetheless need them, we don’t).
So, in case you’re planning your content material technique on key phrase analysis, cease. You’re optimizing for the fallacious search engine.
What you are able to do as a substitute is a strong market analysis based mostly on the uncooked knowledge sources utilized by LLMs (not the LLM outputs themselves). For instance, Grok makes use of X (Twitter), ChatGPT has publishing partnerships, and so forth.
The discussions are the actual subjects to put your content material technique round, and their quantity is the actual content material demand.
AI Inputs, Not AI Outputs
I’m seeing some discussions (suggestions even) that creating data-driven or research-based content material works for getting AI suggestions.
Given the dearth of true data-driven content material that AI craves, get pleasure from it whereas it lasts, as that may solely work within the brief time period.
AI has raised the content material bar, that means individuals are particular of their search patterns, such is their confidence within the know-how.
Due to this fact, content material entrepreneurs will rise to the problem to supply extra focused, substantial content material.
However, even if you’re utilizing LLMs in “deep” mode on a premium subscription to inject extra substance and worth into your content material, that merely gained’t make the AI’s high quality minimize.
Anticipating such fanciful outcomes is like asking AI to rehydrate itself utilizing its sweat.
The outcomes of AI are spinoff, diluted, and hallucinatory by nature. The hallucinatory nature is among the explanation why I don’t worry LLMs resulting in synthetic basic intelligence (AGI), however that’s one other dialog.
Due to the worth degradation of the outcomes, AI won’t wish to threat degrading its fashions on content material based on AI outputs for worry of turning into dumber.
To create content material that AI prefers, it’s essential to be utilizing the identical knowledge sources that feed AI engines. It’s lengthy been identified that Google began its LLM challenge over a decade in the past when it began coaching its fashions on Google Books and different literature.
Whereas most of us gained’t have the price range for an X.com knowledge firehose, you may nonetheless discover artistic methods (like we’ve got), akin to taking out surveys with strong pattern sizes.
Some significant press protection, media mentions, and good backlinks can be important sufficient to shift AI into seeing the worth of your content material, being judged adequate to retrain its fashions and replace its worldview.
And by data-mining the identical knowledge sources, you can begin structuring content material as direct solutions to questions.
You’ll additionally discover your content material is written to be extra conversational to match the search patterns utilized by your goal patrons after they immediate for options.
search engine marketing Fundamentals Nonetheless Matter
GEO and search engine marketing usually are not the identical. The reverse engineering of search engine outcomes pages to direct content material technique and formulation was efficient as a result of rank place is a regression drawback.
In AI, there isn’t a rank; there are solely winners and losers.
Nonetheless, there are some heavy overlaps that gained’t go away and are much more important than ever.
In contrast to search engine marketing, the place extra phrase depend was typically extra, AI faces the extra constraints of rising power prices and shortages of pc chips.
Meaning content material must be much more environment friendly than it’s for serps for AI to interrupt down and parse that means earlier than it might decide its worth.
So, by all means:
- Code pages for sooner loading and faster processing.
- Deploy schema for including context to the content material.
- Construct a conversational answer-first content material structure.
- Use HTML anchor soar hyperlinks to totally different sections of your content material.
- Open your content material to LLM crawling and use llms.txt file.
- Present programmatic content material entry, RSS feeds, or different.
These practices are extra factors of hygiene to assist make your content material extra discoverable. They will not be a recreation changer for getting your group cited by AI, however in case you can crush GEO, you’ll crush search engine marketing.
Human, Not AI-Written
AI engines don’t cite boring rehashes. They’re too busy doing that job for us and as a substitute cite sources for his or her rehash as a substitute.
Now, I’ve heard arguments say that if the standard of the content material (let’s assume it even consists of info achieve) is on level, then AI shouldn’t care whether or not it was written by AI or a human.
I’d argue in any other case. As a result of the very last thing any LLM creator desires is their LLM to be retrained on content material generated by AI.
Whereas it’s unlikely that generative outputs are tagged in any approach, it’s fairly apparent to people when content material is AI-written, and it’s additionally fairly apparent statistically to AI engines, too.
LLMs may have sure tropes which can be widespread to AI-generated writing, like “The way forward for … “.
LLMs gained’t default to producing lived private experiences or spontaneously producing refined humour with out heavy artistic prompting.
So, don’t do it. Maintain your content material written by people.
The Future Is A New Focused Substantial Worth
Getting your content material and your organization beneficial by AI means it wants to inform the world one thing new.
Ensure it presents info achieve based mostly on substantive, non-LLM-derived analysis (sufficient to make it worthy of LLM mannequin inclusion), nailing the search engine marketing fundamentals, and retaining it human-written.
The query now turns into, “What are you able to do to supply high-effort content material adequate for AI with out costing the earth?”
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