The way people search for information is changing dramatically. We’ve entered the era of AI-driven search, where users ask questions to chatbots and voice assistants instead of typing keywords into a traditional search bar [ashishjaiman.medium.com]. In fact, 77% of ChatGPT’s U.S. users now treat it like a search engine, and nearly 28% of Gen Z already start product research on ChatGPT before even going to Google [martech360.com]. Analysts predict that by 2026 traditional search volume could drop by 25%, with organic traffic falling by more than half [ashishjaiman.medium.com]. Nearly 80% of consumers are expected to use AI-enhanced search in the next year, underscoring that this is no niche trend [ashishjaiman.medium.com]. For brands and marketers, the writing is on the wall: to stay visible, you need a GEO strategy from the get-go.
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization (also known as AI Search Optimization or even Answer Engine Optimization). Just as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helped brands rank on Google’s results page, GEO is about showing up in AI-generated answers [ashishjaiman.medium.com]. The difference? Instead of ten blue links, an AI like ChatGPT or Bard provides a synthesized answer, and you want your brand’s insights and content woven into that answer. As our co-founder James Hamilton puts it, platforms like ChatGPT, Bard, Claude and others are “quickly becoming the front page of the internet” [martech360.com]. Those brands who adapt to AI-driven search now are positioning themselves to win in the long run.
SEO vs GEO: Expanding the Optimization Playbook
It’s important to understand that GEO doesn’t replace traditional SEO – it builds on it. All the on-page optimization, content quality, and backlink authority you’ve cultivated for Google still matter (in fact, AI answer engines often pull from the top search results, studies show 70% of sources cited in Google’s AI overviews overlap with the top 10 organic results [searchengineland.com]. However, AI search optimization goes a step further. As one expert quipped, “Google SEO = on-page content + structure + backlinks. AI SEO = all of that + Reddit mentions + review sites + social mentions + PR… anywhere and everywhere your brand is mentioned online (not just linked)” [linkedin.com]. In other words, credibility is verified, not just claimed. Generative AI algorithms look for evidence of your brand’s authority across the web, from consistent facts in Wikipedia or knowledge graphs, to positive reviews and third-party articles about you [martech360.com].
Another big shift is in user behavior. Instead of terse keyword queries, people interact with AI in a conversational way. One analysis found the average AI query is 23 words long in natural language, versus just 4 words in a typical Google search [ashishjaiman.medium.com]. Users are asking detailed questions and expecting direct, context-rich answers. This means your content strategy must anticipate and directly answer complex questions clearly and accurately. The goal isn’t just to rank anymore, it’s to be cited as part of an AI’s answer [linkedin.com]. This requires rethinking how we create and structure content.
So, how do you actually build a GEO strategy? Below we break down the first crucial steps to ensure your brand shows up in AI-driven search results.
Step 1: Audit Your AI Search Presence
Before crafting a new strategy, start by assessing where you stand. How visible is your brand today in AI-generated answers and recommendations? You can do some quick experiments: ask ChatGPT or Bing Chat about your product category, or pose a question that your website content should answer, and see if or how your brand is mentioned. This can be eye-opening (for better or worse). You might find, for example, that an AI tool recommends a competitor or cites an article that doesn’t include you.
For a more comprehensive view, consider using specialized tools. The oakpool.ai platform, for instance, offers a free GEO analysis tool that gives marketing teams a clear understanding of how their brand surfaces across leading generative search platforms (from ChatGPT and Google’s SGE to Claude and Perplexity) [martech360.com]. This kind of audit establishes a baseline: you’ll identify which AI engines “know” your brand, what they’re saying (or not saying), and where the gaps are. Treat this as the foundation on which to build your GEO strategy.
Tools like oakpool.ai can jump-start this process by scanning AI platforms for your brand presence and delivering a report on where you stand. In the context of GEO, oakpool.ai’s free tool helps pinpoint opportunities, showing where your content is missing from AI answers or which facts need reinforcement. More broadly, oakpool.ai provides brands and marketers with a unique software-and-services solution to boost AI search visibility, ensuring you stay front and center as search evolves.
Step 2: Solidify Your SEO Foundation for AI Success
A GEO strategy starts with solid SEO. Think of it this way: if search engines are the farms where AI systems harvest their information, you want to be sure your crops are healthy. High-quality, authoritative content on a fast, well-structured site is still table stakes. Classic SEO best practices, from keyword research to earning backlinks, remain critical because strong traditional search rankings dramatically improve your odds of being picked up by AI answers [searchengineland.comsearchengineland.com]. In fact, Bing’s AI chat (Copilot) directly cites sources from Bing’s index, and Google’s SGE summaries heavily draw from pages that rank well in regular search [searchengineland.comsearchengineland.com]. The takeaway is simple: classic SEO visibility drives AI visibility [searchengineland.com].
Make sure your website is technically sound and optimized:
- Indexability & Speed: If your content can’t be easily crawled or is bogged down by slow load times and pop-ups, it won’t surface in AI answers. Follow Core Web Vitals and avoid any blockers that might prevent content from being retrieved efficiently [searchengineland.com].
- Structured Data: While there’s no special schema markup solely for AI, using structured data (like “Article”, “FAQ”, “HowTo”, “Product schemas”) helps clarify your content and improve search visibility [searchengineland.com]. One case study found that pages with robust schema were more likely to win a spot in Google’s AI overview [searchengineland.com]. Schema won’t guarantee an AI citation, but it contributes to the overall authority and clarity of your pages.
- E-E-A-T Signals: Clearly highlight your expertise and trustworthiness. Include author bios, cite sources for facts, and keep content updated. Both users and AI models pay attention to these credibility signals [searchengineland.com]. Demonstrating Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-E-A-T) in your content can make it more likely to be chosen as a trusted source in a generative answer.
In short, optimize for humans and search engines first, and you’ll already be halfway to optimizing for AI. The better your page ranks and the more trustworthy it appears, the more attractive it is for an AI to pick up.
Step 3: Create “Answer-Ready” Content
Optimizing content for generative AI means making it easy for the AI to find and quote your information. Remember, an AI isn’t going to read your whole 2,000-word article live for a user, it will look for concise, relevant pieces to stitch into an answer. Here’s how to adapt your content creation:
- Lead with Clear Answers: Don’t bury the lede. Start your articles and pages with a brief, factual summary of the answer to the primary question, much like a TL;DR. Models like Google’s SGE prefer when a page opens with a direct answer that they can quote [searchengineland.com]. For example, if the page’s question is “How to build a GEO strategy?”, the first few lines should directly answer that in a nutshell. Then you can delve into details. This way, AI can grab the top snippet for an answer, and curious human readers can click through for the full context.
- Organize with Questions and Headings: Structure your content around the questions users ask. Use headings and subheadings that reflect common queries or tasks [searchengineland.com]. This not only improves human readability but also aligns with how AI “thinks”, often breaking down a query into sub-questions. Consider converting long, wordy sections into Q&A formats or step-by-step lists [searchengineland.com]. For instance, this very article is structured in steps to answer the overarching question.
- Make Facts and Stats Easy to Cite: AI systems love “atomic” facts, standalone, verifiable statements they can pluck and reference. Whenever you provide a statistic, date, or quote, cite a credible source for it [searchengineland.com]. (Notice how we’re doing that throughout this post.) Models like Bing’s AI and Perplexity display their sources alongside answers, so if you want your brand to appear, give the AI a clear, sourced fact it can show. Always link to the primary source of a statistic or claim when possible [searchengineland.com].
- Keep Content Fresh and Relevant: Generative AI tools prioritize up-to-date information. Review and update your key pages regularly with new data, insights, or developments. Don’t just change the date on an article, add real improvements or new findings [searchengineland.com]. This signals to AI that your content is current. And since AI answers can change week to week (one study found 70% of pages cited in Google’s AI results rotated out within 2-3 months [searchengineland.com], maintaining freshness can help you regain or retain those citations.
- Use Multiple Formats (Text, Tables, Video): Sometimes a table or chart is the easiest way for an AI (and a user) to consume information. For comparisons or lists of options, consider adding a table that clearly lays out key points, AI models can interpret structured data like this effectively [searchengineland.com]. Additionally, if a visual or video would explain something better, include it. Even AI search experiences are beginning to cite videos (YouTube results have appeared in AI answers for “how-to” queries) [searchengineland.com]. Just ensure to accompany multimedia with descriptive text or transcripts so the AI can index that information.
By designing your content to be answer-ready, you increase the chances that an AI will choose it when assembling a response. Think in terms of scannability and clarity, both for algorithms and for people.
Step 4: Leverage External Proof and Signals
Traditional SEO mostly focuses on what’s on your site and who links to it. GEO requires casting a wider net. Generative AI models draw on a vast swath of the internet, so you’ll want to ensure that positive, accurate information about your brand exists wherever the AI might look. In practical terms, this means investing in your off-site presence and reputation:
- Encourage Reviews and Testimonials: AI answers often incorporate ratings, reviews, and sentiment. For example, if someone asks an AI, “What is the best CRM software for small businesses?”, the AI might not just quote company websites, it could mention which product has the highest customer ratings on G2 Crowd or Capterra. Make sure you’re actively encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews on relevant platforms. High ratings and volume of reviews can influence an AI’s perception of your brand’s quality.
- Public Relations and Press Coverage: Earned media plays a role in AI visibility. Press articles or authoritative blogs that mention your brand can serve as evidence of your expertise or credibility. In AI search, narrative consistency and press coverage are becoming factors in ranking [martech360.com]. If every article about your company highlights your leadership in a certain field, an AI is more likely to reflect that narrative. Aim to get thought leadership pieces, interviews, or news about your brand out there in reputable publications.
- Social and Community Mentions: Generative models like GPT-4 have been trained on huge datasets that include public forum discussions and social media (to some extent). That means mentions on platforms like Reddit, Stack Exchange, Quora, or popular community sites in your industry can matter. While you can’t control conversations, you can participate helpfully in communities and ensure your own social channels are putting out consistent, positive messages. Consider where your target audience seeks advice (Reddit? Discord communities? Twitter chats?) and have a presence there. As noted earlier, GEO is “anywhere and everywhere your brand is mentioned online.”
- Consistent Business Information: Ensure that facts like your company description, product details, and leadership names are consistent across sources (your site, Wikipedia, industry directories, etc.). Inconsistent information can confuse AI models. Use schema markup like “Organization” on your site to clearly state who you are, and update any outdated info on external sites.
- Own Your Knowledge Panel/Data: Work on getting or improving a Google Knowledge Panel or entries in Wikidata/Wikipedia if relevant for your brand. These centrally-edited sources feed a lot of AI answers. While not every brand will have a Wikipedia page, providing accurate info to data aggregators and being notable in your space can help.
The overarching principle is “prove it”. AI will not simply take your website’s word for how great you are, it looks for corroboration. Every positive mention or high-quality link reinforces your credibility. On the flip side, keep an eye out for negative or incorrect information circulating about your brand, as AI might pick that up too. Proactively address misinformation through content or outreach.
Step 5: Monitor, Measure, and Adapt
Building a GEO strategy is not a one-and-done project, it’s an ongoing process. The AI search landscape is evolving at breakneck speed, so continuous monitoring and adaptation are essential:
- Track Your AI Citations: Regularly check how (and if) your content is being cited in AI-generated results. This can be tricky since not all AI platforms provide transparent citation lists. However, tools and services (like oakpool.ai’s visibility reports) can help by programmatically querying various AI engines and logging where your brand appears. You can also do manual spot-checks for key queries. If you suddenly drop out of AI answers that you used to appear in, dig into why, has a competitor’s newer content replaced yours? Did the AI model update?
- Watch for Traffic and Branding Impact: You might notice changes in your web analytics that trace back to AI referrals. For instance, if Bing’s AI chat cites you, you may see referral traffic from Bing or a spike in branded search because users saw your name and then searched it. New metrics might include “assisted conversions” (people who were influenced by seeing you in an AI result and converted later) or brand query volume (are more people searching your brand name after exposure in AI answers?) [searchengineland.com]. These indirect signals are important to capture, since AI might not always send a click your way even when it uses your info.
- Stay Agile with Content Updates: Given the volatility of AI results (they can change with model updates or as new content is indexed), be ready to update your strategy. If a particular high-value query stops showing your content, you may need to produce a fresher or more in-depth piece on that topic, or improve the off-site signals around it. Maintain a content calendar that allows for periodic refreshes of your important pages.
- Keep Learning: AI search is a new frontier, and best practices are still being written. Follow industry blogs, webinars, and case studies about generative AI in search. For example, SEO experts are actively studying how Google’s SGE picks sources or how tools like Perplexity choose which facts to cite. What you learn can inform tweaks to your GEO approach (e.g., if you discover that freshness is weighted highly for a certain category of queries, you might update those pages more frequently).
- Benchmark Against Competitors: Track how your competitors are doing in AI search. If they start appearing in places you don’t, analyze their content and digital footprint for clues. GEO strategy is so new that seeing what works for others can provide inspiration for your own tactics.
Above all, embrace experimentation. Try different content formats, monitor results, and iterate. We’re all learning in this fast-moving AI search era, so a culture of testing and flexibility will serve you well.
oakpool.ai – Powering Your GEO Efforts
oakpool.ai is the software + services sister company of oakpool. We design and build infrastructure, intelligence, automation, and services that enable brands to show up powerfully in the AI Search era. Our free GEO (AI Search Optimization) tool is the first of its kind and only free solution on the market. By combining expert guidance with cutting-edge software, oakpool.ai helps brands measure and improve their visibility inside AI-generated answers, ensuring that your content and messages are present wherever customers are asking questions.
Conclusion
The rise of AI-driven search is a monumental shift, but with the right strategy, you can turn it into an opportunity. A GEO strategy ensures that when people ask the AI overlords of search for answers, your brand’s voice is part of the conversation. By auditing your current presence, strengthening your SEO core, crafting content that AI loves to quote, building trust across the web, and staying adaptive, you’ll be well on your way to GEO success. The key is to start now. As we like to say, first things first, begin building that GEO foundation today so you’re not playing catch-up tomorrow.
