Forget SEO. Welcome to the World of Generative Engine Optimization

This During the holiday season, rather than searching on Google, more Americans will likely turn to large language models to find gifts, deals and sales. Retailers could see up to a 520% ​​increase in traffic from chatbots and AI search engines this year compared to 2024, according to a recent Adobe procurement report. OpenAI is already preparing to capitalize on this trend: last week, the maker of ChatGPT announced a major partnership with Walmart that will allow users to purchase products directly in the chat window.

As people begin to rely on chatbots to discover new products, retailers need to rethink their approach to online marketing. For decades, businesses have attempted to outsmart Google’s search results using strategies known collectively as search engine optimization, or SEO. Now, in order to get noticed by AI robots, more and more brands are turning to “generative engine optimization” or GEO. The cottage industry is expected to bring in nearly $850 million this year, according to market research.

GEO, in many ways, is less of a new invention than the next phase of SEO. Many GEO consultants actually come from the world of SEO. At least some of their old strategies probably still apply since the main goal remains the same: anticipate the questions people will ask and make sure your content shows up in the answers. But there is also growing evidence that chatbots surface different types of information than search engines.

Imri Marcus, managing director of the company GEO Brandlight, estimates that there was once about 70% overlap between top Google links and sources cited by AI tools. Today, he says, that correlation has fallen below 20 percent.

Search engines often favor verbosity – think of the long blog posts that appear above recipes on cooking websites. But Marcus says chatbots tend to favor information presented in simple, structured formats, like bulleted lists and FAQ pages. “An FAQ can answer a hundred different questions instead of a single article that just says how great your brand as a whole is,” he says. “You basically give the AI ​​engines a hundred different options to choose from.”

The questions people ask chatbots are often very specific. It is therefore useful for companies to publish extremely accurate information. “No one goes to ChatGPT and asks, ‘Is General Motors a good company?’ “, explains Marcus. Instead, they ask if the Chevrolet Silverado or Chevy Blazer has a longer range. “Writing more specific content will actually yield much better results because the questions are much more specific.”