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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Creating Content For AI-Search
Arlis Mongold#Industry Insights, #SEO, #Digital Strategy, #Content Strategy, #GEO, #AI
This has been a super eventful year for the worlds of internet search, artificial intelligence tools, and the blending of the two.
From the official verdict that the Google search engine empire is an illegal monopoly to Bing partnering with ChatGPT, and exciting new AI-search players like Perplexity and the upcoming SearchGPT entering the arena, there has been a lot of change, a lot of change to come, and a bit of drama.
In today’s blog post, I will break down 5 essential ways to optimize your content for the developing world of AI–driven search and throw a new marketing acronym at you – GEO, which stands for Generative Engine Optimization.
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
GEO is the process of optimizing web content to increase its visibility in AI-driven search engines.
Yes, it sounds identical to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) except GEO is specific to AI search engines. And in terms of content creation, there are five distinct ways to stage your content to compete in this developing search landscape.
How Do you Optimize Content for AI Search Engines?
The first step is always to keep your eye on creating high-quality content that doesn’t suck, but aside from that the principles for showing up in AI-driven search engine results are the same, regardless of platform (Gemini, Perplexity, etc.).
Focus on Segmented Content Depth
When people search for answers, they are not seeking partial answers. They want their queries fully satisfied regardless of the topic. One of the growing frustrations with Google search users over the past few years is the multitudes of irrelevant pages that are served to them, sometimes influenced by ads, that get in the way of them reaching the answers they seek.
Focus on creating content that exhaustively covers your topics but with the caveat of practicing segmentation by sticking to one topic per web page. And then, if needed, branch into subpages for related topics.
Pillar Page example:
The Complete Guide to Sustainable Living:
An overview of the concept of sustainable living and its goals. This page links out to subpages that cover subtopics that fall under the umbrella of sustainable living.
Subpage examples:
- Eco-Friendly Home Design
- Zero-Waste Living
- Sustainable Transportation
Take note that even the subpages could have their own subpages as well. The idea is to stick to one idea per page and cover it in-depth and drill down into subtopics and subpages as much as necessary.
Tip: Be aware that writing for AI search engines is different from writing for SEO. With SEO, longer content has always been the desired output. AI search engines, however, are looking for succinct answers to serve to users. This means that short content satisfying focused, segmented topics, has the best chance of ranking well.
Write in a Conversational Tone
AI-driven search engines prioritize natural language processing and user-friendly content that closely mimics human conversation. This fact combined with the fact that voice searches account for 50% of daily search queries globally (and rising), indicates that there is a growing need for people to provide and consume information in new, more streamlined ways.
When creating content designed to be more conversational, follow these guidelines:
- Address questions people ask.
- Focus on long-tail keywords. For example - “How do I optimize my website for AI-search?” rather than “website SEO.”
- Include robust FAQ sections.
- Provide an executive summary at the top of the page.
- Include succinct and accurate definitions of uncommon terms in your copy when necessary.
As AI tools begin to sound more human and become more like personal assistants, today’s traditional search engine query will soon feel very formal compared to a time when we will informally ask anything we want and be fed answers in any format we choose.
Develop Multimodal Content
When researching, different people like different types of results. Some people would rather watch a video than read an article or vice versa. Some people want to see infographics while others would rather find an audio answer. Creating content for all types of people will only help you reach wider and wider audiences overall.
The AI search engines will feed results to people based on past behaviors. For example, did they click on and engage with a video last time, or a news article? The AI tool with learn user behavior and how to serve the best results accordingly. It will even learn to adjust search results based on the user’s current device or environment. For example – a video is more useful when on desktop or audio if they are in a hands-free setting.
The more varied your content offerings, the more likely you are to show up in AI search results.
Keep Your Content Fresh
Like old-timey search engines, these new-fangled AI search engines will prioritize the content of active websites. Not only with the pumping out of all new material but the refreshing of older, still useful and relevant content as well.
The more active your website, the more well-kept it appears to the web crawlers. And the more likely your content is to show up in people’s results.
Utilize Schema Markup
Another characteristic GEO shares with SEO is the continued helpfulness of schema markup. Schema markup is structured code that you can add to your website’s HTML to help search engines understand your content more clearly. Other reasons it is important:
- Improves search visibility: Provides search engines with a greater degree of details, resulting in richer results and increased click-through rates.
- Enhances user experience: Helps to display more information thereby driving more engagement.
- Aids in Voice Search Optimization: Helps voice assistants better understand and provide concise answers.
- Provides local SEO Benefits: Allows for quick access to details such as location, hours, and reviews.
Start Optimizing for AI Search Engines Now
While the highly-anticipated AI-driven SearchGPT has not had a public launch yet, keep in mind – they are not the only player in this arena. Increasingly, AI search tools are being introduced at an alarming rate. And the faster you optimize your website’s content to rank better across the board, the more your expanded digital transformation strategy will pay off.
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