What on Earth is GEO?

SEO = Search Engine Optimisation

GEO = Generative Engine Optimisation

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Simply put, GEO is the process of optimising your content for AI search engines. Why it’s called GEO and not GSO (Generative Search Optimisation) is beyond me - maybe they should have consulted a marketing agency before shipping that particular acronym…

Why is optimising for AI Searches important?

AI search engines like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity are becoming more and more commonplace, and are quickly becoming the preferred way of starting a search online.

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While traditional search engines like Google are still a large part of general search optimisation, knowing how to maximise GEO is becoming increasingly necessary, not as an opposing strategy to traditional SEO, but as a complimentary one.

How does GEO differ from SEO?

AI search engines don’t crawl, index and rank like traditional SEO, they instead use ‘AI Agents’ to continuously read and ingest content, then extract any information they find relevant to create a curated answer, often from multiple sources. 

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Unlike ‘basic’ AI models, AI Agents have the ability to analyse prompts, meaning they can better understand the context and key information needed to answer the question.

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Through an iterative process known as the Thought-Action-Observation cycle, the AI Agent analyses the prompt, reasons about what information is needed and then uses tools (like web search, calculators, or databases) to gather relevant data or perform tasks. This process is repeated until the Agent is confident it has given the best answer it can, based on the relevance, clarity of information and authority of its sources. This means much less ‘hand-holding’ is required from the person doing the search, and is what makes AI search engines so powerful.

Differences in optimisation approach

In order to optimise SEO, you want your website to have the right backlinks, keywords and technical frameworks. This makes your content more likely to show up first in searches, earning you more clicks.

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In order to optimise GEO, you want the content of your website to be easily digestible for AI, meaning it’s well-sourced, uses clear content structure and easy-to-understand language. This makes your content more likely to be used and referenced in the search response, earning you more influence.

How Aro Digital is adapting

The complexity of AI search engines has spawned a new generation of specialised tracking tools designed specifically to monitor performance across AI-powered platforms. 

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How is Aro Digital planning to keep up with it all? To nobody's surprise, it’s with AI. The best way to stay on top of new developments is by using the tools themselves. Critical thinking and individual discernment are still very important when it comes to actually updating our processes, but it can’t be denied how helpful AI tools are.

Postface: Did I use AI to write this article?

You might have noticed that the layout of this blog is itself very GEO-optimised, so did I use AI to write it? At the risk of being obtuse, yes… and no.

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The proper answer is that I wanted to try two different approaches when researching for this article – one traditional approach, and one AI approach. Here’s what I found:

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I spent roughly an hour reading articles and building out my base of knowledge using my own judgement. I laid out my notes in the most clear and logical way possible, then I entered my question into Perplexity and compared the results.

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They were pretty astonishing. The content of both outcomes was fairly similar; I ended up with the same general conclusions about optimising GEO.

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The difference of course, was in the speed and articulacy of the AI response. In a fraction of the time (only as long as it took to read through) I had a comprehensive, well-referenced and easily digestible answer to my question.

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Did my own research help me better use the AI search engine to get better results? Definitely. Was it necessary? Probably not.

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I still decided to go with my original copy and use the AI summary as a guide, but I can’t deny that when it comes to initial searches, you’ll be hard pressed to beat an AI Search result.

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The final takeaway: AI is truly finding its way into every aspect of our lives, and that means adapting or being left behind. When it comes to refining your process for the new AI environment, don’t be intimidated - if you’re already on top of your SEO, then GEO will be a natural next step. You can be confident that we’ve got your back as well – reach out to us any time!

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Plus, if you’re ever feeling lost, you’re only one AI prompt away from the answer…