SEO vs. GEO: Navigating the Future of Search

Imagine you’re at the airport. Your plane has just landed, and you need to retrieve your luggage from baggage claim.  

The problem is you’re not sure which carousel your bag will come through. 

You have two options: Locate the baggage claim board and look through the list of flight numbers, or ask the help desk attendant to direct you to the right carousel. 

Both options will get you your carousel number, but the second will do it faster. 

The same can be said about SEO vs. GEO. 

Traditional search engines have long presented users with the information they need, but as generative engines have gained momentum, more and more users are utilizing AI for their search needs due to its ease and efficiency.

So, what does this mean for the future of search engine optimization?  

Consider this your comprehensive guide to GEO and SEO. You’ll learn everything you need to know about how these strategies differ, how to optimize for both, and how this will impact SEO in the coming years. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of boosting your website’s visibility by enhancing its web content to rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines like Google evaluate web content against specific ranking factors to determine what position each page should hold on the SERPs.

Here are the main elements that contribute to SEO rankings.

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing specific pages on your website to help them rank better on the SERPs while also providing a positive user experience. A successful on-page SEO strategy should encompass the following components: 

• Keywords: It’s vital to choose relevant keywords with high search volume and relatively low ranking difficulty to maximize your chances of ranking. Then, sprinkle these keywords and phrases throughout the page, including titles, subheads, body copy, URLs, and metadata. 
• Metadata: The more metadata you have filled in, the better search engines will be able to understand the context of your web pages. This includes fields like title tags, meta descriptions, alt attributes, and schema markup. 
• Content quality: Search engines evaluate how well content answers users’ search queries while achieving high marks for originality, authoritativeness, and accuracy. 
• Internal linking: Hyperlinking to other pages from your website throughout your content helps search engines continue to discover your website. 
• Images: Adding images to your web pages makes them more engaging to users. However, it’s necessary to optimize them with consideration for image size and alt text. 

Off-page SEO refers to external elements beyond your website that indicate to search engines that your website is credible and authoritative. The main aspect of off-page SEO is backlinks, which is when other websites hyperlink to your content. Think of every link to your site as a vote of confidence, as each one signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Plus, these links are great for bringing more traffic to your site.

Technical SEO focuses on the technical aspects of a website, including how the site is structured and how well it runs. Not only does having good technical SEO improve the overall user experience, but it also ensures search engines can easily crawl your site.

The main elements of technical SEO include:

• Load speed
• Sitemaps
• URL structure
• Page navigation
• Mobile-friendliness
• Structured data
• HTTPS
• Visual appeal

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is similar to SEO, but instead of enhancing your website to rank better in the SERPs, you’re aiming to increase visibility in generative AI search engines. That means you’re still optimizing your web content, just with different considerations in mind — in other words, rather than gearing your web pages to adhere to search engine ranking factors, you’re trying to satisfy generative AI model requirements.

GEO has emerged in recent years as the result of AI-driven tools changing the way users search for and interact with information. Generative AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overview on Google are designed to respond to user queries with complete, fully researched responses based on relevant information from across the web while taking searchers’ personal data and conversation history into consideration to further tailor responses.

Take the above Google search on matcha, for example. When you type in “what is matcha,” Google’s AI Overview provides a short yet comprehensive answer to the question, while also giving a more in-depth breakdown of practically everything a user would want to know about matcha, like how it’s made, how it tastes, and the benefits of consuming it.

Because AI-driven search engines deliver such concise, synthesized answers, users are less likely to scroll through the SERPs and click on web pages to dig further into the topic. As a result, zero-click searches are becoming more prominent.

Okay, so what’s the point of optimizing your content for generative engines if most AI searches won’t result in clicks?

First, if a user does decide to investigate a topic beyond the AI-generated response, they’re most likely going to click on one of the sources cited by the generative engine. These web pages are conveniently listed at the top of the AI response and cited within the detailed overview, so users can click on the source containing exactly what they want to know more about.

So, when you optimize your content for GEO, you increase your chances of your site being one of the lucky pages featured in this section.

Even if your content doesn’t earn a click, being featured in generative AI overviews signals to users that your brand is an authority on the topic in question, and therefore a trustworthy source of information. Not to mention when your content receives attribution in AI responses, you increase awareness for your brand. 

By now, you have a base-level understanding of SEO and GEO, including their definitions and what platforms they impact. But there’s more to know about these organic search strategies.

Perhaps the biggest difference between GEO and SEO is how ranking works. 

Here’s how search engines rank content according to SEO best practices: 

1. Crawling: The search engine uses crawlers, sometimes called spiders, to follow links from page to page across the web to discover content. This process is known as crawling. 
2. Indexing: All crawled content is indexed, meaning each page is analyzed and stored within the search engine’s database.  
3. Ranking: When a searcher enters a search query, the search engine serves them content on the SERPs based on relevance, quality, and user experience.  

GEO, on the other hand, utilizes a completely different process when providing searchers with results: 

1. Consumption: AI models constantly consume web content through various machine learning techniques and use this information to build a knowledge base.  
2. Understanding: With each piece of content the AI analyzes, it begins to better understand the context of that information. 
3. Synthesis: When a user submits a query, the AI engine synthesizes information from its database by assessing context and relevance. 
4. Response: The AI model delivers a clear, concise response backed up by sources and organized into short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and tables.  

Despite GEO and SEO differing fairly drastically in their ranking structures, there’s actually quite a bit of overlap between the two when it comes to optimization.

As mentioned earlier, when optimizing for SEO, you should focus on technical, on-page, and off-page SEO, which include elements like keyword research, linking, content quality, and user experience. Optimizing your content for GEO includes many of the same best practices.

However, the main goal of generative engine optimization is to ensure that your content is as structured, scannable, and authoritative as possible. The clearer and more skimmable your content is, the more likely AI engines are to feature it in their answers.

Because AI search engines and traditional search engines present information differently, user behavior often differs for GEO vs. SEO. In both cases, the user will enter a search query — but in an SEO journey, they typically end up clicking on one of the search results to access the full page.  

In GEO, the user will get their answer directly from the AI-generated summary. In some cases, the searcher may click on one of the source links in the AI response to go to the webpage, but this user action is rare.  

For SEO, the obvious goal is to get your content to rank in the top 10 positions (the first page) of the SERPs to bring in site traffic and drive clicks. These outcomes will also help you drum up more backlinks for your site. 

Given that most AI searches are zero-click, getting users to visit your website is a pretty lofty goal when it comes to generative engine optimization. That’s why the main objective of GEO is to have information from your content included in AI responses, resulting in greater credibility and brand awareness.  

Like we said, getting clicks isn’t unheard of in GEO — it’s just not likely. That’s why you should measure impact based on whether your content is cited in AI responses — not whether it’s clicked on. 

When optimizing for SEO, you’re combating an algorithm that changes hundreds to thousands of times per year. However, when it comes to major algorithm changes, these core updates only occur a few times annually. 

Generative AI engines differ from search engines in that they’re programmed for machine learning. Machine learning frameworks are constantly identifying patterns and processing data, which means AI models update continuously. 

So, what’s the best way to get your content to rank for GEO? There are various things you can do to boost your chances of appearing in generative engine responses — and these tactics will help you with SEO, too! 

Here’s how to set up your AI search engine optimization strategy for success: 

• Implement keywords: Like SEO, keywords are a crucial element of generative engine optimization and should be selected based on relevancy and user intent. But because users tend to use more conversational language when inputting AI queries, it’s a good rule of thumb to choose keywords and phrases that are worded similarly. 
• Ensure content quality: GEO-optimized content should provide value to searchers by presenting information that’s accurate, current, engaging, and comprehensive. 
• Structure content wisely: An effective content structure should quickly and clearly provide answers to queries within the first few sentences and organize information in a scannable manner using bulleted lists, headings, and tables. Structured data and schema markup also make your content easier for AI to understand. 
• Demonstrate EAT: Brand expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EAT) are vital for GEO. That means building credibility by exhibiting content thoroughness and accuracy. 
• Technical SEO: Believe it or not, technical SEO will help you rank with AI search engines, too! Technical elements like good load speed, mobile-friendliness, and HTTPS will help your content gain priority with AI models. 

So, does this mean you should kick your SEO strategy to the curb and focus on generative engine optimization from here on out?  

Not in the slightest.  

The reality is that GEO is emerging as a powerful organic search strategy — but SEO isn’t going anywhere any time soon. That’s why it’s crucial to implement both SEO and GEO into your content strategy.  

When you combine traditional and AI search optimization, you give your brand the extra boost it needs to get noticed. Complementing your SEO with GEO future-proofs your strategy to better adapt to digital advancements, solidifying your brand’s presence and establishing it as a leader. 

SEO is always changing — and with the rapid emergence of AI, that statement is truer now than ever before.

Here are the changes in SEO you can expect to see within the next five years.

Within the next five years, you can expect generative AI to dominate in organic search. As AI models become smarter and more accurate, more and more people will rely on them for information over digging into the SERPs.

With the popularity of smart speakers and virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa growing in recent years, it’s no surprise that more and more users have been using voice search to interact with search engines. As AI becomes more skilled at processing spoken queries and more users rely on voice search, brands will need to adjust their SEO strategies to fall in line with voice search algorithms.

Multimodal search will increase in prevalence, enabling AI models to offer more comprehensive results by incorporating a combination of text, audio, video, and images into their responses. By presenting information in a variety of ways, search engines will create a more engaging experience for users by catering to various content consumption preferences.

Of course, this means brands will need to optimize their content across all of these formats to ensure they maintain visibility in generative engine results.

Though AI search engine optimization is changing a lot about organic search, one thing will remain the same: quality will always be essential to any piece of content. Content quality and user experience are important factors for SEO, and they’ll be just as important for GEO — especially as AI search engines become more accurate.

So, as you’re adjusting your content strategy to adhere to AI models and emerging capabilities, don’t forget that quality and user experience should remain at the forefront.

It’s no longer enough to just optimize your content for SEO. As AI continues to change the organic search game, generative engine optimization will become a vital part of every brand’s strategy — and the time to start implementing it is now. With the combined power of GEO and SEO, you can help your content reach new heights and become a leader in your industry. 

Get in touch with the experts at Ansira to learn more about how you can equip your brand and your partner network for organic search success.