An Introduction to Generative Engine Optimization for Business Owners
As of early April, Google, the world’s largest internet search engine, has rolled out an update to its AI Overviews (AIO) feature, which summarizes answers to questions at the top of their results pages. This update added more direct links to trusted sources in the answers.
While traditional principles of search engine optimization (SEO), or the process of making website content easy for search engines to find, are still impactful for your business’s website. Learning to cater your content to visibility within these AI-powered applications will be crucial to the long-term sustainability of your business.
What is Generative Engine Optimization?
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of designing content for your business website in a way that caters to visibility in AI-powered applications like Google’s AI Overview or Perplexity’s search result summaries. GEO is a relatively new discipline in the world of online content marketing. The concept and term were coined in 2024 in a study, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization.
For example, if someone wants to find affordable lawn care maintenance, their first step is going to be to look it up online. Thanks to Google’s AI overviews and tools like it, the customer will be given an answer compiled by artificial intelligence. GEO is how you get your business featured in those AI Overviews.
The difference between SEO and GEO
In the same way SEO aims to help your business’s website rank higher in Google search results, GEO aims to influence AI applications to include your website in their results and answers.
Where SEO and GEO differ is in the details.
| Method | Website | Content | Time to impact |
| SEO | Relies on data metrics like the time visitors spend on your business site to gauge whether to present your website’s pages or content higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). | Favors websites that use searchable terms called keywords and answers relevant reader questions and intentions. | Updating pages could improve ranking on SERPs within days or weeks using SEO practices. |
| GEO | Takes a look at your whole website and brand to determine if your business’s content is coming from a reliable or trustworthy source and would be a good place to pull information from. | Uses well-structured content with in-depth answers to questions. | AI and LLMs may take longer to understand the contextual relevance of your site’s data and incorporate it into answers. |
Understanding how these factors can guide your branding strategy might take time, but learning what you can early while GEO is still a more abstract approach might make all the difference as AI and LLMs evolve.
While the online world keeps changing and finding new clients is a hurdle complicated by artificial intelligence, Northwest is still the same old trusted registered agent we’ve always been. We’ll help your business stay compliant and even help it grow to keep up with changing demands in your business when you hire us to be your registered agent.
Using GEO to Drive Traffic to Your Business Website
Like it or not, AI is becoming more integrated into the internet every day and is going to impact your business if it hasn’t already.
Data collected by DataforSEO even shows that on mobile results, AI Overview answers are steadily rising in industries like health, food, and beauty care. So, if you’ve started an LLC for your natural soap and skin care line, be ready to respond accordingly to grow your client base.
Tips on optimizing your business website for GEO
Since GEO is somewhat of a cutting-edge idea, the factors that make for a great GEO strategy haven’t been quantified like SEO has.
That said, you can take what we do understand so far, like the aspects GEO shares with SEO, and be more thoughtful in a few key ways with how you design and build your company’s website:
- Build topic authority: Ensure every bit of content you publish offers experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or E.E.A.T., which is how Google judges content worthy of being listed on the front page of search results. Cite credible sources, include quotes from experts, and use relevant data and statistics to strengthen what you have to say.
- Answer complex questions: Go in-depth with articles, pages, and posts, aiming to answer a broad spectrum of questions within your niche or industry to help build your business’s authority around the services you offer. The more angles you cover, the more often LLMs will see fit to reference your work.
- Structure information effectively: Clarity and easy readability on your website mean even more than before. Using organizational tools like charts and tables, strong headers, bullet points, and numbered lists (like this numbered list) helps both humans and AI parse your site.
To see how your business website stacks up, use AI-based tools like AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and other AI help bots regularly to see if your website and its content are being referenced or cited within them around your business’s focus.
Cue the GEO Adaptation Montage
While the concept of GEO is less than a year old, evidence of AI’s and LLMs’ influence can be seen with a simple Google search (and probably summarized by an AIO at the top of that search). Business owners need to begin adapting and implementing GEO strategies into their marketing approach as soon as possible.
Crafting well-structured content, using strong linking, and aiming to build greater contextual relevance are all approachable ways business owners can stay relevant as AI becomes our go-to source for quick information.
