How to Rank Well in AI Search with GEO

Summary

• Understanding what GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is and how it has changed the way we optimise websites compared to traditional SEO approaches. SEO is the foundation of search and GEO builds on this. We will see the difference between SEO and GEO but also how they work with each other in search rather than against each other.
• GEO needs a strategic plan and tracking everything is not the best plan of action. Focus on both what happens on your website and outside of your website.
• The shift in search: AI Overviews and AI Mode have already created the shift, to which companies had to adapt. The shift is from traditional search engines to AI-powered search experiences like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode (used to be called SGE during the experimental phase) that synthesise information rather than just listing links. As of late, there are no definitive answers as to how much LLM usage has grown over the years, however the behaviour change and the impact that has been recorded for companies are very telling. SEO has now evolved.
• Having a GEO framework is important when trying to understanding how GEO ranking data measures your visibility in AI-generated responses and why tracking this data matters.

The search landscape has changed. If you’re still optimising solely for traditional search rankings, you’re missing where your audience is increasingly finding information. AI-powered search experiences now dominate how users discover content, and brands need to adapt their strategies accordingly.

What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It’s the practice of optimising content to appear in AI-generated responses and citations within search engines and AI assistants.
GEO represents a fundamental shift in how we think about search visibility. GEO is not replacing SEO, it builds onto SEO.

As artificial intelligence evolves so should our strategies. Many have said that this is the end of SEO, but is that really the case? GEO is not replacing SEO, it builds onto SEO. Traditional SEO focusses on optimising and ranking your pages in search result lists, while GEO focuses on getting your content cited and featured within AI-generated responses themselves (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AIO, Google AI Mode, among others). The SEO fundamentals remain the same however the goal has changed towards optimising pages for more than just the SERP on search engines.

The question now becomes, “Are we visible in Large Language Models (LLM)?” and “What are the key metrics to focus on?”.

The answer will be different for many companies but something to consider is if your content can be easily accessed by users, LLMs and search engine crawlers, is content clear, easy to read and can it be easily understood and quoted/cited. The goal has always been the user and that should not change. With all these changes happening, one of the better approaches would be to ensure you have a clear understanding of why and how this all works.

AI search engines process information differently than traditional search. Where Google’s traditional search displays a list of ranked pages, generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode synthesise information from multiple sources to create comprehensive responses. They read your content, assess its authority, and either quote it or ignore it.

LLMs and their retrieval processes

1. These LLMs do not process and access the same data in the exact same way, there are some differences, which means you cannot just focus on optimising with ChatGPT in mind and expect the same results to appear across all LLMs.
2. The retrieval processes are different for each LLM. Some make use of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), while others make use of pre-training data.

• • Pre-training data means that the search engine or retrieval system crawls websites at specific times (knowledge cutoff, the point where LLMs stop crawling until the next time) and the LLM is trained on this large dataset
  • RAG works differently and a good example of this is Perplexity, where crawlers crawl the website continuously, find the best result or most relevant to the users prompt and provide the answer. This is the change! Ranking on the first page of Google does not mean you will automatically get cited.

Success is no longer just about ranking first in search results, as ranking first now looks a lot different than ranking in position one a few years ago. It’s about being the authoritative source that AI engines trust enough to cite. This shift requires rethinking how we create and structure content. This is where GEO comes in.

Why GEO Ranking Data Matters for Your Brand?

The zero-click search trend means users are getting their answers directly from search results or AI-generated overviews. When your brand appears in AI responses, it indicates how your website is being interpreted. The focus shifts from organic ‘ten blue links’ to building authority and trust, even without a click. Many view this ‘no click’ or ‘zero-click’ as lost traffic, however that is not what this means. This does not mean a user is not becoming aware or will not eventually click through.

When a user types in a prompt/question in the LLM, the LLM provides a synthesised answer. Now, it does depend on the type of prompt but essentially this could lead to brand awareness for new users. These new users could directly click on the link to your page or go back to the SERP and search your brand because users are now aware.

Some prompts lead to brand awareness, other prompts lead to decision making (where users are comparing different prices or products from different brands, in order to find the best), others build credibility (users were aware of the brand but uncertain if the brand is trustworthy). This is why E.E.A.T (traditional SEO) still matters.

It all comes down to trust, in-depth content that is factually correct, page speed, technical elements (which will be discussed later in this article) and being the source LLMs will cite.

Does Traditional SEO Still Matter?

The short answer is yes!

Traditional SEO will still matter as long as there is search. Users have a need and a want and to satisfy the need/want a search happens to which an answer (given in many forms) is provided. The difference is the way search happens and where it is happening (outside of just Google/Bing).

How Does SEO and GEO Support Each Other?

To have that distinctive triangular structure that does not collapse, the foundations need to be great. SEO is the foundation (the cement that holds this together) and GEO & AEO build onto that.

How? SEO focusses on the on-page, off-page and technical components of the website to improve visibility within the SERP (Search Engine Response Page), while GEO builds onto the existing content to improve visibility in AI and build trust.

GEO-optimised content is well structured, provides definitive answers that could be used within PAA (People Also Ask boxes on Google), is comprehensive, supported by other sources and is updated as time goes on. Optimising only for blue-link rankings may miss opportunities. This is where GEO may come in to fill the gaps in AI search. GEO provides guidance to help your website remain visible and discoverable within both traditional and AI search.

These are only a few among the many factors to consider, ROAST focusses on many aspects of GEO and SEO to help a website help a user as they are what matter most.

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO and GEO have a similar goal of improving visibility but are different in the way they optimise for it.

SEO is the foundation where we optimise content to appear and rank within the SERP, while GEO builds onto SEO by optimising for AI visibility (getting cited by LLMs). Instead of just focusing on appearing on the search engine, we optimise for search engines, LLMs and social.

Despite the differences, SEO and GEO work well together. With all these changes in the digital marketing world, websites should consider including both SEO and GEO to improve visibility everywhere.

Key GEO ranking factors

AI systems prioritise content that is accurate, reliable, helpful, well-structured, contains a clear hierarchy that defines the topic well and introduces new information that is not widely replicated across the web. It is important to note that not every prompt needs a dedicated page and not every page needs to be updated often. Focus on where there is a gap and improve existing pages to tighten that gap. If there are no existing pages to improve then consider a new page that will help a user and is relevant to your offering.

Become a Primary Citable Source

AI engines prioritise sources they consider authoritative and reliable. The goal should be creating comprehensive content that serves as a definitive resource on specific topics.

Here are a few suggestions on what to focus on to become a primary citable source:

• Implement rigorous fact-checking processes
• Cite credible sources for any claims you make.
• Provide your own research to back your claims.
• When you publish original research or data, you open the possibility for your content to be cited.

Optimise for conversational queries

Users phrase questions to AI differently than traditional search queries. Instead of typing “best [NICHE TOPIC],” users might ask “How can I improve my profile to get more traffic?”. This just proves why SEO is not “dead”. People are still searching and SEO relies on search, but the way people are searching changes and websites need to adapt.

Here are a few suggestions on what to focus on to optimise for conversational queries:

• Structure your content with question-based headings that mirror how users ask questions.
• Create a logical and easy to follow heading structure.
• Provide clear, concise answers immediately after each heading.
• Use natural language and a conversational tone throughout your content. Think about the follow-up questions someone might ask and address those as well.

As Google states,

“While it might be tempting to create separate content for every possible variation of how people might search (for example, by focusing on other queries that people have asked, or fan-out queries), doing so primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses in Google Search violates Google’s scaled content abuse spam policy. This is also an ineffective long-term strategy, as a high quantity of pages doesn’t make a website higher quality or more relevant to users.”

Always remember that we are optimising for the user, even though AI visibility is important, we should not lose the human element when writing and providing information.

Implement Entity-Based Content Structure

AI engines understand entities (specific people, places, things, and concepts), and the relationships between them. Your content should clearly define entities and connect related topics throughout.

Leverage Statistics and Quantifiable Data

Incorporate relevant statistics, percentages, and numerical data throughout your content, as AI systems may cite well-sourced statistics. This provides evidence that can possibly be cited but is not the sole reason why content is cited.

Technical Optimisations for Better GEO Performance

Technical fundamentals remain important for GEO. As discussed earlier in this article, users find your website in various ways and optimising for this is important. Page speed, UX (user experience), content structure, schema implementation and many more remain important.

According to Google, “Technical clarity ensures your content is ready or discovery and indexing, and all existing technical SEO best practices continue to be worthwhile.”

Below are some important technical considerations:

Structured data and schema markup

Help AI engines understand your content but there is no need to overfocus on this. Implement relevant schema types for articles, FAQs, how-to content and organisation information.

Clear content hierarchy

Helps AI parsing. Use proper heading structure (H1, H2, H3) logically, ensure paragraphs focus on single concepts and maintain consistent formatting throughout.

Page speed and technical SEO fundamentals

Including UX, site speed, logical hierarchy, proper heading formats and clear calls-to-action still matter.

Authoritative backlinks and external citations

This signals credibility to AI engines. When reputable sources link to your content, it reinforces your authority.

Mobile optimisation

Become increasingly critical as AI search grows on mobile devices, where users frequently interact with AI assistants and search tools.

JavaScript

Websites should not rely heavily or only on JavaScript as LLMs may have some limitations as to how much and if it can render, parse and execute all content. According to Google,” Google is able to process content within JavaScript as long as it isn’t blocked”.

• Ensure that Google and other LLMs can access your content, if you want to be cited within AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and the SERP.
• Ensure content is available in the initial HTML (fallback HTML).

Understanding optimising for AI search helps clarify these technical requirements and geo ranking factors.

The importance of measuring your GEO performance

Tracking geo ranking data requires a different approach than traditional SEO monitoring. Several emerging tools are beginning to offer GEO tracking capabilities, though the space is still evolving.

Key metrics to monitor include:

• Citation frequency
• How often your brand or content is referenced in AI responses and source attribution, which tracks when AI engines explicitly name your brand as a source.
• Manual monitoring remains valuable.
• Regularly test queries relevant to your industry across various AI platforms. Search for topics you cover and see which sources the AI cites.
• Track competitor visibility in these same queries to understand your relative position in AI search. This hands-on approach provides qualitative insights that complement quantitative metrics.

The GEO discoverability framework ROAST has created includes all GEO checks a website must consider when wanting to optimise for both AI and users.

Hear from our Head of Organic Performance on how ROAST implements both GEO and SEO for brands