What is GEO?

Is GEO Just Good SEO?

Search is changing. Faster than most businesses realize. As artificial intelligence weaves its way deeper into how users find information, the way companies need to think about search optimization is shifting right under their feet. That is why we have launched GEO at Direct Online Marketing.

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. Not a gimmick – GEO is essentially an expansion of SEO into parts of the web that may not be as valuable to traditional Google results, but impact the training data that influences AI results and tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and even Google’s AI Overviews.
It is SEO adapted for how AI systems ingest, interpret, and present your content to users. GEO is a critical strategy for companies that want to stay visible as AI transforms the search experience.

Why GEO Exists

At DOM, we have always focused on what delivers results. Not vanity metrics. Not what worked five years ago. GEO came out of the same client-first mindset that drives everything we do.
We started noticing over the last two years that generative search tools were pulling in information from content that was not always ranking on the first page of Google. Some of that content wasn’t even ranking within the first four pages of Google. At the same time some of the best-optimized and most traditional SEO content was completely missing from those AI-generated responses.

The implications are pretty clear: search engines are no longer the only gateway to your target audience. AI tools have become their own layer of discovery, curation, and recommendation. And they often prioritize different signals than Google’s core algorithm.

So we built a new framework for an advanced service offering. GEO focuses on making your content clear, credible, and easily digestible for AI. It emphasizes structure, trust, expertise, and intent. It helps your site become the source AI tools prefer to cite and summarize. And it does it all in ways that impact you positively for both AI and traditional search results.

“Generative Engine Optimization is not just a trend—it’s a necessity for staying visible in the age of AI. If your content isn’t optimized for how tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity process and present information, you’re already behind.”
— Billy Wright, Lead SEO Strategist, Direct Online Marketing

How GEO Differs from Traditional SEO

GEO does not replace SEO. It builds on it. But the key difference is the audience, the sources, the methods. Traditional SEO optimizes for search engines. GEO optimizes for the engines and also the AI models interpreting your content.

Here are a few of the core differences:

Content Framing

Traditional SEO aims for keyword-rich, long-form content with structured headers, showing that you are an expert.

GEO prioritizes this same clarity, direct answers, and formats like Q&A, listicles, and clean data that AI tools can easily parse. But – and this is a big one – it really relies on you to make claims about your brand and business that Google may traditionally overlook. Talking about how YOU are THE BEST is great for AI, it simplifies it having to understand who is the best. Give it what it wants.

Source Credibility

In SEO, domain authority and backlink profiles help rankings and show your reputation.

In GEO, being cited by reputable sources and presenting clear authorship, expertise, and transparent sourcing matter. However, being cited by many non-conventional sources, or those you wouldn’t consider major players in SEO, also helps significantly. By reverse engineering which sites the AI uses to pull its data you can create lists of potential link sources that Google may not put value in, but due to their crawlability or niche, ChatGPT may see them as the gospel truth.  Claims made about your business within Employment and Career sites may have more of an impact than reviews on G2 or Clutch. Showing up as a recommendation in Reddit can be extremely impactful for being recommended in AI results.

Indexing vs. Training Data

SEO content gets indexed in search engine databases.

GEO-optimized content is typically scraped from both traditional search results as well as the training data that it was fed. For instance, content from The New York Times and BBC gets referenced in AI tools due to its historical authority and consistent formatting.

Intent Mapping

Traditional SEO organizes around search intent and buyer journeys.

GEO looks at the kinds of questions AI tools are trained to answer and how your content can be the best result for that AI, not just the end user. It relies much heavier on your own claims in order to generate responses than Google may, allowing you to influence the results in a different way.

Technical Accessibility

Site speed, mobile usability, and readability matter to both. Google needs to be able to read your site, and LLMs need to be able to crawl the actual content that shows to a user to properly scrape answers. If your website is heavy with JavaScript it can be a death sentence for showing up in AI, unless you fix the technical issues underneath.

“The beauty of GEO is that it strengthens your position with AI tools and traditional search engines at the same time. Clear, structured, credible content is exactly what both Google and generative models are looking to surface.”
— Billy Wright, Lead SEO Strategist, Direct Online Marketing

Why GEO Matters Now

Generative engines are already influencing search decisions. Tools like Perplexity.ai, Microsoft Copilot, and Google’s AI Overviews present summarized answers, not just a list of links. That means your opportunity to win clicks may depend more on being the source that fuels the answer than being a link in a top-10 list.

This shift is already reshaping the competitive landscape. Businesses that adapt early have a massive advantage. GEO helps:

• Position your brand as a trusted authority that AI wants to quote
• Keep you relevant in AI-powered answers even as organic traffic patterns change
• Future-proof your content strategy for emerging interfaces like voice search and multimodal AI queries
• We are at an inflection point. Just like the rise of mobile required a rethink in SEO strategy a decade+ ago, AI now requires its own strategic layer.

What GEO Includes at DOM

Our GEO service is designed to integrate seamlessly with our traditional SEO work. Here is what we include:

GEO Audits: We review your existing content and structure to assess how AI-friendly your site currently is.

Content Strategy: We create content outlines specifically designed for AI tools to interpret, cite, and summarize.

AI Visibility Optimization: We look at your mentions across AI platforms and optimize for answer boxes, zero-click responses, and generative snippets.

Citation Mapping: We build your content’s credibility by earning references from reliable sources that AI tools prioritize.

Technical GEO: Schema, structured data, crawl paths, and content formatting tailored for LLM parsing.
And because AI tools are evolving fast, our GEO strategy is too. We test. We monitor responses in tools like ChatGPT and Bing Copilot. We optimize based on how these models actually surface content today, not what they used to do six months ago.

Who Needs GEO?

Not every business is ready for GEO. But if you:

• Compete in a high-value, information-driven industry like legal, B2B SaaS, finance, or healthcare
• Already have a content-rich website but see declining traffic despite quality
• Want to be positioned as a thought leader in your space
• Rely on organic traffic to fill your sales pipeline

Then GEO should be on your radar now.

For companies doing international business or trying to reach global audiences, GEO can be even more valuable. AI tools aggregate content across languages and regions, and optimizing for that visibility means stronger global performance.

The Future of Search Is Generative

Organic visibility is no longer limited to a list of 10 blue links. It is answers. It is citations. It is being the voice behind the AI tools your customers trust.

We are not walking away from SEO. We are building on it. GEO is our next evolution of helping clients win in search. Because as AI continues to change how users discover information, we are not waiting to catch up. We are helping businesses lead.

If you want to stay ahead, you need to think about search differently. GEO is not optional. It is essential.

Let’s discuss how we can incorporate Generative Engine Optimization Services into your digital strategy.