The rise of AI-powered search is fundamentally changing how users find information, necessitating a new content optimization strategy called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to ensure content visibility beyond traditional search engine rankings.
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Did you know that right now 60% of
Google searches end without anyone ever
clicking a link? That means your old SEO
strategies might need an update. The
good news is there's a simple way to
adapt your content so that you still get
views even with AI searches taking over
Google's top slot. Not long ago, getting
to the top of Google search page was
everything. But that's changing fast.
More and more users are turning to
ChatGBT, Perplexity, even Google's AI
overviews for direct answers to their
questions. And if your content isn't
optimized for AI, you could start
missing out on a potentially great new
audience. As AI search changes the game,
new optimization tactics are being
developed to help your content stay
visible, no matter the platform. In
today's video, we'll introduce you to
GEO so you can get familiar with a few
key steps you can take to make sure AI
platforms are ready to reference your
content. GEO stands for generative
engine optimization. Think of it as
SEO's evolution for the AI age. SEO gets
you ranked while GEO gets you quoted.
The term is starting to gain traction
with SEO experts and marketers to
differentiate between making your
content more visible to AI and making
your links rank high on a search page.
You still need SEO, but now it's going
to be complemented by GEO, which can
open up your content to a whole new
audience. So, what exactly makes GEO
different from SEO? We'll start off with
similarities since there are plenty. At
their core, both SEO and GEO are
optimization tactics to make your
website and content more visible and
have it appear in online searches. They
both need highquality, relevant content
and both capitalize on user intent to
increase traffic to your website. It's
important to quickly mention that the
most commonly used AI platforms, even
those that aren't being developed by
Google or Microsoft, are still using
established search engines to help with
their general queries. This means that
regardless of how you ask the question,
whether it's on Google, Perplexity,
Bing, or ChatGpt, the pool of
information isn't widely different. Your
content has just as much potential to
appear in an answer on Perplexity or
ChatgPT. But you need to optimize your
content so that it is understandable and
interesting to the AI models. It won't
happen by default. In order for your
content to be considered, it needs to be
clear, credible, useful, and
trustworthy. It's not just about
matching the question a user is asking
or using the right combination of
keywords to get to the top. AI searches
want you to be a reliable source that
answers the user's questions from within
their responses. There are four key
differences that are going to shape how
you approach content creation moving
forward in order to blend the two
optimization strategies. SEO targets
traditional SERs, search engine results
pages, while GEO targets AI generated
responses, whether they're in Google's
AI overviews or on dedicated apps like
ChachiPT. GEO is focused on getting your
content referenced in the AI response
rather than having your link appear on a
search page. SEO builds your ranking
factor by using keywords, back links,
and technical SEO elements to make sure
search crawlers can find your content.
Quality is still a major factor, but
since your content isn't going to appear
on the results page, it doesn't
necessarily have to be narrative. This
is why elements like alt tags or
hashtags work well for SEO, as they help
the search engine recognize and
recommend your content. GEO, on the
other hand, leverages content structure,
authority, and citations in order to
make your content more attractive to AI
platforms. AI needs to be able to
understand your information in order to
site it as a source, but ultimately
it'll give the user a complete answer to
their question. Your content is a
resource rather than a recommendation.
So for it to appear, it needs to have
expertise. Now, this one's pretty
interesting. SEO has always been
clickdriven. Its purpose was always to
make sure users were clicking through a
link on your search page to reach your
content. AI platforms and overviews are
designed to give users a summary of
information without having to click
through to a new page. Because of this,
GEO focuses on exposurdriven traffic,
meaning you would increase brand
visibility online through mentions in AI
responses, which can lead to indirect
traffic. Since the ranking factors,
traffic, and targets are different for
AI searches, your content strategy needs
to change as well. SEO targeted your
whole website or web page using elements
like technical SEO, keywords, and back
links to help search rankings for the
whole page. GEO prioritizes the actual
content of your page with the goal of
making sure that that content can be
retrieved by AI systems without needing
full page context. For good GEO, you
should be writing contextrich pieces
that can be understood independently and
are easier for AI to understand and
quote. Writing in a clear question and
answer format, for example, is a solid
structure for AI to understand since it
can relate the question to its query and
use your answer as an explanation.
Here's a blog that really nailed their
GEO strategy. Story Chief is a content
management platform that also runs a
blog about all the latest innovations in
marketing strategy, including SEO. Their
blog post on GEO is well structured with
many of the headings phrases questions
that are then answered in the paragraphs
below. They use quotations from
trustworthy sources, in this case, the
original research paper that proposes
GEO as an optimization method, and even
have screenshot examples helping them
build authority. Again, the paragraphs
are clear and easy to read for both
humans and AI and often have
self-contained responses to the topics
posed in the heading. You can see on
Hostinger tutorials, we have a similar
article on GEO that tackles some of the
more technical elements behind the
optimization method. So that you don't
forget about them once the video is
over, we've made a short checklist for
the most important elements of GEO. You
can find it down in the description
below along with a code for 10% off
Hostinger or Horizons. If you can
believe it, Perplexity has grown to 15
million monthly users in just a short
period of time. And every Google search
you make is headed up by their AI
overviews providing a summary of
relevant information. That tells us
there's a huge shift happening in how
people find information online. And this
trend is accelerating. As more people
discover AI search tools, the websites
that understand how to work with these
platforms are going to see new
opportunities for visibility and growth.
This shift isn't about rushing to change
everything overnight. Rather, it's about
understanding how to evolve your content
strategy thoughtfully to keep up with
the times. Thinking about this now means
positioning your business to be a leader
in the future. And honestly, most of the
skills you've learned for SEO translate
directly to GEO. You just need to
understand the difference. The old SEO
game was all about being number one,
ranking as high as you can, and
measuring success by clickthroughs. As
AI becomes more prominent, number one is
changing. Now, it's all about being a
source AI can trust and site in its
responses. GEO isn't widely adopted yet,
but just like LLM.ext text and other
emerging standards. It's becoming an
important consideration for content
creators who want to stay visible across
all search platforms. So, have you been
using AI for your online searches or are
you still loyal to the old Google search
bar? Let us know down below and keep an
eye out for our next video. We'll
actually be chatting with the organic
marketing specialists here at Hostinger
answering some of the most common
questions about GEO. So, make sure
you're subscribed so you know exactly
when that video goes up. Thanks so much
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