The search world has always been changing. Just when we thought we had a handle on the intricacies of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), a new trend emerges to challenge the established order.
Or does it?
Let’s delve into a concept that’s been doing the rounds for a while: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
Now, before you start conjuring up images of pixelated arcade games in a nod to the “Neo Geo” of retro gaming fame, let’s be clear – We’re not talking about optimising your website for 1990s console experiences. Instead, we’re looking at the world of generative AI and those LLMs behind them, capable of creating text, images, and code etc. and how we might need to adapt our optimisation strategies to cater to them.
For years, decades even, the focus has been firmly on SEO. We’ve meticulously crafted comprehensive, quality content to appease the search engines. We’ve obsessed over keywords, backlinks, technical SEO, structure, information architecture, and user experience, all with the ultimate goal of ranking prominently in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and attracting organic traffic.
But the rise of sophisticated generative AI models, like those powering advanced chatbots and content creation tools, has created a huge shift in how information is discovered and consumed. Are these “Generative Engines” the new gatekeepers of search? And if so, how do we optimise for them?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): The Established Order
Let’s quickly recap what SEO entails. At its core, SEO is about making your website and its content more visible to search engines like Google, Bing, and others. This involves a multifaceted approach:
- Keyword Research: Understanding what terms people are using to search for information related to your business and their user intent.
- On-Page Optimisation: Ensuring your website content is relevant, high-quality, and structured in a way that search engines can easily understand. This includes optimising titles, headings, meta descriptions, and the body content itself.
- Off-Page Optimisation: Building authority and trust *Part of E-E-A-T) by acquiring backlinks from other reputable websites.
- Technical SEO: Ensuring that your website is technically sound, with a clear site structure, fast loading speeds, mobile-friendliness, and proper indexing.
- User Experience (UX): While not directly a ranking factor in the traditional sense, a positive user experience (engaging content, easy navigation, etc.) is crucial for long-term SEO success.
The ultimate aim of SEO is to rank higher in the SERPs for relevant keywords, driving organic traffic to your website, which can then be converted into leads, sales, or whatever your business goals may be.
Enter the Generative Engine: What is GEO?
Now, let’s consider this new field of supposed Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). What might this actually look like? While still in its experimental stages, we can speculate based on the current capabilities and future potential of generative AI:
- Data Structure and Accessibility: Generative AI models are trained on vast amounts of data. Optimising for them might involve ensuring your data is structured in a way that these models can easily access, understand, and incorporate into their outputs. This could involve leveraging schema mark-up and other forms of structured data.
- Prompt Engineering: The quality and relevance of the output from a generative AI model heavily depend on the input prompt, i.e. the question you ask it, the query. Understanding how these models interpret prompts and crafting your content in a way that aligns with potential user queries within these AI environments could be a key aspect of GEO. Think semantic SEO.
- Influence on Training Data (Potentially): While more speculative, as generative AI models evolve, there might be ways to influence the data they are trained on, ensuring that your brand and information are accurately represented. This is a complex and ethically sensitive area, but certainly worth considering.
- Optimising for AI Consumption: Unlike humans who appreciate nuance and storytelling, AI models might prioritise factual accuracy and concise information. Tailoring some of your content to be easily digestible and processed by AI could become an important factor.
- Brand Representation in AI Outputs: As generative AI becomes more integrated into search and other platforms, ensuring your brand is accurately and positively represented in the content these models generate could be a crucial aspect of GEO.
It’s important to note that GEO is not necessarily about ranking on a traditional results page. Instead, it’s about influencing the information that generative AI models use and output when responding to user queries. Think ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, the Chinese DeepSeek and numerous other AI tools. These are no longer just a webpage with a list of ten blue links, these are now apps on your phone or even the less visual voice search tools like Siri on your iPhone, Amazon’s Alexa, or sophisticated Voice AI tools like Flow from Speechmatics.
Neo GEO v SEO: The Comparison
So, how does “neo GEO” stack up against traditional SEO? Let’s draw some comparisons:
|
Feature |
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) |
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) |
|---|---|---|
| Target Audience | Human users via search engines | AI models (and indirectly, their human users) |
| Primary Goal | Rank high in SERPs | Influence AI outputs |
| Key Tactics | Keyword research, link building, technical optimisation | Data structuring, prompt engineering, influencing training data (potentially) |
| Metrics of Success | Organic traffic, rankings, conversions | Accuracy of AI outputs, brand mentions, influence on AI-generated summaries |
| Content Focus | Engaging, informative, keyword-rich | Structured, factual, easily digestible by AI |
| Algorithm Understanding | Reverse-engineering search engine algorithms | Understanding AI training data and prompting mechanisms |
Similarities and Potential Integration
Despite the apparent differences, there are likely to be overlaps and potential integration between SEO and GEO. For instance:
- High-Quality Content Remains King: Whether you’re targeting search engines or generative AI, the need for accurate, valuable, and well-structured content is likely to remain paramount.
- Understanding User Intent: Both SEO and GEO require an understanding of what users are trying to achieve when they seek information, whether through a search query or an interaction with a generative AI.
- Technical Foundations: A well-structured and technically sound website will likely be beneficial for both search engine crawlers and AI models.
It’s conceivable that in the future SEO might evolve to encompass GEO, becoming a more holistic approach to optimising for information discovery, regardless of the intermediary (human-powered search engine or AI model). In fact, whilst Google’s AI Overviews are still in beta and taking the SERPs’ featured snippet or “position zero”, this may become the new normal. Maybe GEO isn’t a fork of SEO, it’s still Search Engine Optimisation but just the new evolution, the neo SEO?
The Implications for the Future
The emergence of generative AI presents both challenges and opportunities for digital marketers. We’re already starting to see a shift in how users seek and consume information, potentially impacting the reliance on traditional search engine results.
However, it does also open up new avenues for brands to connect with their audience through these intelligent systems.
As neo SEO (GEO, GSO?) takes shape, we’ll likely need to develop new skills and strategies. In fact, if you haven’t already pivoted to long-form semantic SEO, then maybe it’s time you did so. Understanding how different generative AI models work, how to structure data for optimal AI consumption, and how to craft effective prompts will become increasingly important. So the sooner you get your head around the way LLMs and search currently work, the better.
Final Thoughts
While “Generative Engine Optimisation” is still a relatively new and evolving concept, it’s crucial for digital marketers to stay informed and consider its potential impact. Whether it becomes a distinct discipline, or is just a distractionary acronym because it’s simply a new but rather big feature of “traditional” SEO, the underlying principle remains the same: you need to ensure that your valuable website content is discoverable and influential in a changing world of search.
If you’d like me to help you with your digital marketing, I’m your SEO expert. Call me on 01252 692 765 or leave a message via my contact form.