SEO Gets the Page Found. GEO Makes It Usable
Traditional SEO focuses on crawlability, indexing, relevance, internal links, authority, and search intent.
GEO adds one more question: if an AI system finds the page, is there a passage worth using?
A page about “B2B SEO pricing,” for example, should not only target that phrase. It should also answer specific questions such as: “What determines the monthly cost of SEO for a SaaS company?”
That is where SEO and GEO overlap.
Optimise Around User Decisions
AI-driven search often turns a short query into a detailed problem. Instead of creating several thin pages around “technical SEO audit,” cover the decisions behind the query:
- what the audit should include;
- which issues should be fixed first;
- what can be automated;
- which problems need developer input.
This creates stronger topical coverage without producing near-duplicate pages.
Add Information Worth Citing
Generic advice is easy to replace. Specific evidence is not.
Instead of writing:
“Internal linking can improve crawlability.”
use real project evidence where available:
“During our Q2 audit, orphaned category pages fell from X to Y after the internal linking structure was rebuilt.”
The actual figures should come from your own data. The important difference is that the second version gives the reader a method, context, and measurable evidence.
Useful source material can include:
- first-party benchmarks;
- original case studies;
- expert observations;
- attributed statistics;
- comparison tables with defined criteria.
Write Self-Contained Answers
An AI system may use one paragraph rather than the entire page. Important sections should therefore work independently.
A useful structure is:
Question → direct answer → explanation → evidence
For example:
Is schema markup required for GEO? No. Structured data can help machines interpret content, but it does not guarantee inclusion or citation in an AI-generated answer.
This format also helps human readers scan a page faster.
Keep One Technical Foundation
There is no need to create a separate “AI version” of a website. Google states that established SEO practices remain relevant to its generative AI search features.
The technical baseline is largely shared:
- keep important content accessible in HTML;
- avoid blocking key pages;
- use consistent canonical URLs;
- build logical internal links;
- ensure scripts do not hide essential information.
For ChatGPT search, OpenAI also recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot when publishers want public pages to be discoverable, surfaced, and cited.
Measure SEO and GEO Separately
For SEO, monitor rankings, impressions, organic sessions, and conversions.
For GEO, track AI referral traffic, cited URLs, brand mentions, and the prompts or topics where your content appears.
The objective is not to maximise AI mentions. The more useful question is whether generative visibility sends relevant visitors or creates additional brand discovery.
A Combined Workflow
A practical process is:
- Choose one primary search intent.
- Map the related questions users ask.
- Build one comprehensive page.
- Add original evidence or first-hand expertise.
- Place direct answers close to relevant headings.
- Check crawler access.
- Measure SEO and AI visibility separately.
SEO and GEO are therefore not competing strategies. SEO builds the discovery layer; GEO improves how easily the information can be understood and reused in an answer.
