Why Clear Explanations Matter More Than Keywords in a GEO Web

Pretty much everyone I know has strong opinions on AI — and I’m no exception. However, regardless of your views, it’s important to know how current AI models are reshaping the information being dispersed on the internet.

When most people think about search visibility, the first thing that comes to mind is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For decades, SEO has been a crucial part of marketing a brand effectively online, requiring deliberate and strategic decisions when it comes to keywords, metadata, links, images and page performance. All with the purpose of having your page appear at the top of Google’s search results page (SERP).

But in just the last year or two, something fundamentally shifted on the internet with the rise of generative search engines. These searches are powered by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and some of the other most ridiculous names. I came across a company that developed its own AI agent, named either Kevin or Travis. These programs — with varying success — try to give you a tidbit of information to answer your question. And, if you’re lucky, the answer you get won’t be hallucinated. But I digress.

As you likely guessed, where SEO stands for search engine optimization, generative engine optimization is referred to as GEO. It’s built around the idea of getting your content on the LLMs. The good part about this is that, at least for the time being, it encourages online content to be helpful and thorough rather than trying whatever tactic/hack is currently working with SEO. On the dark side, besides the impact on the environment, LLMs frequently share patently wrong information.

What is GEO?

At its core, GEO is a change in content strategy based on the reality of AI influence on how internet users surf the web. While the goal of SEO is to appear at the top of the SERP, the goal of GEO is for LLMs to recommend it.

GEO emphasizes context, clarity, and structure that answer specific questions and signal that your content is reliable.

No, this does not mean you should stop implementing SEO techniques; it just means even more that you should create content that’s actually helpful to your audience.

What Does This All Mean?

Internet searchers are moving away from typing in keywords to find information and instead are favoring phrase queries in natural language. Think longer conversational questions like a person would ask their friend. And instead of just getting a list of possible sites, AI presents the information to the person within that chat box. 

For you, this means the first touchpoint in someone’s research may be from asking an LLM, not via a search engine results page. It also means that the user may never make it to your site and may never even know where the information came from.

If I had to make a bet, people will also start searching SERPs in similar language to how they use AI, so even if you have no interest in showing up in an LLM, you’ll want to keep an eye on this GEO trend because there’s no way it doesn’t impact SEO practices moving forward.

What GEO Looks Like in Practice

So what does this mean you should do? A lot of it is honestly just good general writing advice: anticipate what questions your audiences may have and what terms they’ll be using to search. And you should be aware of your audience and anticipate their needs, regardless of whether you’re trying to have ChatGPT recommend you.

It also means you should write with a clear structure and convey your ideas clearly and concisely. You don’t want to make it difficult for people to find the information they’re looking for.

And create structured and scannable content. This has been a general rule of thumb in marketing copy for as long as I’ve been in the industry. Your audience’s attention span is shrinking, so whether you’re writing an email, blog, or landing page, stay on topic and make your content easy to follow.

GEO and Its Broader Impact

GEO is not a replacement for SEO. It’s a different type of optimization. SEO still drives traffic and remains vital to your website's health. Understanding GEO means recognizing how online search is evolving: not just toward visibility on a search page but platforms across the internet.

As I mentioned at the beginning, it’s important to understand that generative search has significant drawbacks. From a business perspective, AI systems often pull answers from your site and display them within their chat, so users likely won’t click through to your brand website, reducing opportunities for engagement and first-party data collection (think email and SMS information that users consent to give you). 

There’s also a risk of LLMs showing you incorrect or misleading information, and copyright concerns are increasingly prevalent as generative systems consume and reproduce material from countless online sources, usually without clear attribution. This includes art, academic articles, music — anything it can get a hold of.

Most concerningly, though, training and operating LLMs is energy-intensive and highly polluting, contributing to environmental impact at scale. 

One increasingly popular option to mitigate many of these challenges is to use a small language model (SLM)/personal language model (PLM). These are smaller, specialized models focused on a single person or organization’s content and data. These can provide greater control over accuracy, sourcing, and user experience while limiting exposure to some of the broader systemic risks.

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If you want content that’s effective and written by a human, I’d be glad to help. Schedule a meeting to discuss your project.