Prompted: What Is Generative Engine Optimization?

Marketers, we have a new piece of jargon to add to our dictionaries: GEO, also known as generative engine optimization. As more and more users turn to AI tools for search — and as AI gets incorporated into traditional search tools — it’s less about adapting your SEO practices and more about learning a whole new form of content optimization. If you're an SEO professional or digital marketer looking to evolve your strategies for the AI era, understanding the nuances of GEO will help you stay up-to-date.

So how do you optimize your content for an entirely different search experience? We’ve got four tips to get you started.

Grade Yourself

As all marketers know, you can’t make any measurable improvements without a benchmark assessing where you are now. Understanding how your brand shows up in generative search is a necessary first step before making any changes or adopting new techniques. 

Do a quick search for your brand and the markets you play in across the top AI tools (think ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s Gemini) to get a general idea of how AI depicts your brand. But just as a tool like SEMRush can give you an accurate measurement of your traditional search performance, new tools are cropping up to measure your generative search results, too.

As a HubSpot Certified Partner, we use HubSpot’s AI Search Grader, a free AI-powered tool that scores your brand on AI search sentiment and share of voice. The results can help you determine what topics are associated with your brand, what searches you show up in, and where you have room for improvement.

Prove Your Expertise

SEO marketers all know the traditional standbys for content optimization — things like adding keywords, gaining backlinks, and optimizing meta descriptions. Now, new research has revealed the equivalent of these essentials in the world of GEO. Researchers highlight three key techniques that will catch the eye of an AI crawler and improve your search visibility:

1. Cite your sources: Anyone can write a blog post and make it sound authoritative. Instead, AI is looking for actual experts. Prove your content is from a reliable source by citing where your information comes from. For example, This advice is the result of an experiment conducted by researchers from Princeton University, Georgia Tech, and the Allen Institute for AI.
   
   
2. Add quotations: Direct quotes show authority and demonstrate that your information is sourced from an actual person, something that appeals to both human readers and AI models alike. 
   
   
3. Back up your facts with data: Adding relevant data and statistics to your content provides an extra layer of assurance that what you’re sharing is factually true and comes from an expert. 

By combining these three methods, the researchers found that “GEO can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses.” (See what we did there?)

Prioritize External Messaging

While optimizing your own content is an important piece of the puzzle, AI models search the whole internet for information about your brand, not just your own site. Because of this, much of what the AI knows about your brand comes from external sources. (This is especially true as AI tech companies are starting to integrate external sources more directly into their search results.)

A study conducted by SEO expert Neil Patel found that one of the most important factors determining whether your brand will show up in a relevant AI query is the number of related brand mentions on the web. For example, if you search on ChatGPT for the top companies in your industry, ChatGPT will look for internet sources that might include you in a top ten list, or cite you as an expert on an industry topic, or feature a positive review of your brand.

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As a bonus, focusing on general brand messaging will improve your traditional SEO rankings, too. Recently, Google’s entire search algorithm was leaked, revealing what really matters to its search rankings. Spoiler, it’s not keyword stuffing — it’s brand reputation. According to Rand Fishkin, marketing expert and original publisher of the algorithm leak, “If there was one universal piece of advice I had for marketers seeking to broadly improve their organic search rankings and traffic, it would be: ‘Build a notable, popular, well-recognized brand in your space, outside of Google search.’”

Answer the Who? What? Where? Questions

While GEO research reveals that keyword optimization is largely ineffective when it comes to optimizing for generative search, keywords still provide important context for your content and demonstrate to search engines what your content is about. But for generative search, you’ll need to think about keywords in a new way. 

When search engines were first introduced (remember Ask Jeeves?), users generally asked for things in the form of a question — “What is the best Korean take out spot in Chicago?” (The answer is Kim’s Home Cooking, in our opinion.) Then, as people got used to the way internet search worked, they changed their search methods, truncating queries and removing question words — “Korean food near me.” Now, with the rise of AI search, as well as the growing popularity of voice-powered search, natural language is making a comeback. When thinking about keyword optimization for AI, keep in mind how your audience is phrasing their searches and prioritize long-tail, question-focused keywords.

Welcome to the World of GEO

The rapidly evolving era of AI search is reshaping how marketers approach search engine visibility. Traditional SEO tactics don’t have the same effect on AI tools — success now hinges on embracing the unique demands of generative search. By demonstrating your expertise, amplifying external brand messaging, and adapting to more natural, question-based keywords, you can position your brand for success in the AI search landscape. Most importantly? Stay agile. Research has only just begun on GEO techniques and tactics, and we’ll be paying attention as new discoveries are made.

Want a hand ensuring your content stays aligned with modern search strategies? Our content team is ready to assist.

Prompted, our biweekly blog series, brings you relevant updates and insights on how to strategically add AI-driven solutions into your marketing toolkit.