What is GEO and Why is it Important?
What is GEO and why is it important? Generative Engine Optimization, GEO, is AI-driven Search. It’s the next iteration of SEO, Search Engine Optimization. GEO is important because all Large Language Models, LLMs, like ChatGPT, or Google’s Gemini, are employing some version of this technology to replace Search Engine Optimization, SEO. So if you don’t know what it is and you don’t understand it, your top organic search ranking could go away. The problem is that while the SEO window is closing, the GEO window isn’t finished yet. Just recently, the latest version ChatGPT, ChatGPT 5, has faced scrutiny for being worse than the previous version and complaints were “loud” enough that they have made the previous version available. So it’s not where Sam Altman’s team wants it. But all these LMM’s are employing GEO. So you either stay up to speed with GEO, hire a firm that will, or risk losing your organic ranking.
But there’s another way to answer the question, “What is GEO and why is it important?” GEO will be the new foundation for Search and it can put you on the map because it isn’t finished yet. Expert content is where GEO and SEO come together. To achieve top organic search results like these, your website needs to:
- Have the most compelling original content specific to that search query
- Be visited the most times
- Be revisited the most times
- Be shared the most times
In other words, your website and social channels need to publish original and compelling content as often as possible if not daily or as an influencer, multiple times daily. That content needs to be a certain number of words, published at certain times of day, shared across all your digital assets, linked to other larger authoritative websites in the space, and included in a weekly or monthly newsletter. One quantum shift in search is the movement away from overall traffic to largest authority. For instance, last year a post about cannabis from an influencer with millions of followers would likely rank higher than other posts. But with GEO, a post from a respected PHD with a much smaller following, and written and coded correctly, will likely rank higher. GEO is looking for better, more authoritative data rather than the old SEO model of whichever site is visited most often. It’s important to note that GEO and SEO are not designed to give you the truth. They are built to deliver the answer they think you want. If you agree with the results you’ll keep using their tool.
So what is GEO and why is it important? GEO is a window of opportunity for leaders in their space, internet publishing, emerging technologies, telehealth, government agencies, non profit agencies, and really every vertical, to use regularly published content optimized for search to establish your brand as the absolute authority in your space. It’s also important to know that if you don’t own your own position including your name and website online, someone else who sees value in it will. Remember, neither SEO nor GEO are about delivering the truth. You have to go out and own your name and your message or someone else will.
Because GEO is upon us it represents a huge opportunity for your brand not just to rank higher organically, but more importantly to be included in the answer of the snippet paragraph that Google delivers when you type in, “What are the health benefits of cannabis.” The answer could be, “According to Dr. So and So of the Mayo Clinic,” etc. And that answer, if you’re a cannabis publisher or in the industry, should be written by or for you and published all over the internet. GEO will weight that post higher than the one that’s connected to a bigger influencer because it’s a better answer. If you do that regularly then you own your position. That’s what GEO is and why it’s important.
Taft Moore is a veteran digital strategist and internet publisher trained by Google, Linked In, and Meta. Since 20017, Taft and his firm have helped six companies achieve top organic results and engagement leading to more than $750 million in funding and revenue.
