Search is altering. Quick.
Search engine marketing (search engine optimization) helps your content material rank in Google’s search outcomes.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) helps your content material seem and get cited in AI solutions from instruments like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
By the tip of this information, you’ll perceive GEO vs. search engine optimization, the place they overlap and differ, and find out how to optimize for each.
Plus, you get this clear GEO optimization guidelines you’ll be able to apply instantly.
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
search engine optimization is the method of bettering your web site to assist it present larger in search outcomes and drive extra natural (unpaid) visitors.
search engine optimization strategies embody:
- Key phrase analysis
- Inside linking
- On-page optimization
- Schema markup
- Constructing backlinks (i.e., getting different websites to hyperlink to you)
What Is Generative Engine Optimization?
GEO is the method of bettering your web site to extend the prospect that AI-generated solutions in LLMs like Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT point out and/or hyperlink to you.
To optimize for GEO:
- Use factual, concise language
- Construction content material so LLMs can simply parse and summarize it
- Publish authoritative content material that different trusted sources point out
- Add schema markup and use formatting that AI methods can learn (e.g., keep away from JavaScript for key particulars)
Additional studying: Massive Language Mannequin (LLM) Optimization
Why Does GEO Matter?
Conventional search engine optimization will get your content material or choices listed. GEO will get your content material or choices advisable.
If a consumer searches Google for “finest cordless screwdriver underneath $100,” they’ll see a listing of merchandise they will purchase. And search engine optimization helps your product seem in that listing.
If a consumer asks a generative AI software the identical factor, it offers a advice—not only a listing of choices. And GEO helps your product change into a type of suggestions.
Within the above instance, ChatGPT recommends the Milwaukee M12 for skilled work and the DeWalt 8 V Max for gentle house use.
Plus, Google is rolling out AI solutions for an increasing number of queries.
In keeping with Semrush’s examine of 10 million+ key phrases, 13.14% of all queries triggered AI Overviews as of March 2025. That’s up from 6.49% in January 2025—doubling in solely three months.
In case your content material isn’t included in AI solutions, searchers are much less prone to see it.
search engine optimization vs. GEO: Similarities
search engine optimization and GEO overlap in that high-quality, well-structured, authoritative content material is rewarded.
Right here’s the place search engine optimization and GEO overlap extra particularly:
- High quality requirements are essential: Each Google and LLMs purpose to serve high-quality content material that meets consumer wants and preferences
- Structured content material is extra prone to be cited: Use headings, bullet factors, FAQs, and clear formatting to assist Google and AI parse your content material
- Topical authority contributes to visibility: Publishing clusters of associated, high-quality content material might help you acquire visibility in search engine outcomes pages (SERPs) and LLMs
- Authentic analysis is effective: Distinctive knowledge attracts backlinks for search engine optimization and improves quotation probability for GEO
- Clear solutions are finest: Direct, concise solutions carry out nicely in featured snippets and AI summaries
In case you already produce sturdy search engine optimization content material, you’re midway to GEO. To take full benefit of generative engines, you’ll want further optimization steps (we’ll go over these later on this article).
search engine optimization vs. GEO: Variations
search engine optimization and GEO primarily differ in how content material is proven and the way success is measured. Let’s break down the variations:
|
Class |
search engine optimization |
GEO |
|
Search output |
SERP with ranked hyperlinks |
AI-generated textual content solutions |
|
Search engine kind |
Conventional (Google, Bing) |
Generative (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) |
|
Question format |
Brief, keyword-based |
Longer, extra conversational prompts |
|
Optimization goal |
Larger rank in search outcomes |
Inclusion or quotation in AI-generated responses |
|
Content material supply |
Person clicks by way of to your web page |
AI summarizes or paraphrases your content material inside its reply |
|
Success metrics |
Clicks, visitors, rankings, bounce fee |
Citations, mentions, and share of voice |
|
Content material replace wants |
Evergreen content material can keep ranked for years |
Content material should keep recent and authoritative to stay cited |
What does this imply in follow?
Not like search engine optimization, GEO doesn’t usually drive direct visitors by way of rankings. In truth, a examine from Bain & Firm exhibits that 80% of customers reply 40% of their queries with out clicking a hyperlink.
So what’s the purpose of GEO?
GEO positions your model as a trusted supply that AI assistants use of their solutions. This presence builds model consciousness and may later drive branded searches and conversions.
GEO vs. search engine optimization: Enter Alerts, Rating Logic, & Measurement
Enter Alerts: Key phrases vs. Prompts
search engine optimization begins with key phrases: phrases individuals kind into search bars.
GEO begins with prompts: pure language questions customers ask AI instruments like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
search engine optimization success hinges partly on utilizing key phrases in:
- Headings
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Physique textual content
In GEO, key phrase placement is much less vital.
AI fashions choose content material that reads like a full, reliable reply to a selected query. To optimize for prompts:
- Write clear, direct solutions to seemingly questions
- Add FAQ sections with brief, factual responses
- Use subheadings that match how a consumer would phrase a immediate (for instance, “What Is GEO?”)
Rating: SERPs vs. Generative Solutions
search engine optimization content material is constructed to rank in search outcomes. GEO content material is constructed to offer a direct reply.
Conventional serps like Google rank pages utilizing complicated algorithms that consider components like:
- Your content material’s relevance to a searcher’s key phrase
- What number of backlinks your web site has and the way respected these hyperlinks are
- How authoritative your area is
- How briskly and user-friendly your web site is
- Your content material’s high quality
These components decide the place a web page seems on the SERP.
LLMs generate synthesized solutions in actual time. The mannequin selects, summarizes, and generally cites trusted sources.
Elements like high quality and relevance are nonetheless vital in GEO. However for inclusion in AI-generated solutions, your content material should even be:
- Talked about throughout the online
- Correct and context-independent, which suggests excerpts out of your content material make sense even when quoted with out thorough clarification
- Usually up to date (updates are vital for search engine optimization, however LLMs appear to prioritize recency much more)
KPIs & Measurement: Conventional Metrics vs. AI Visibility Metrics
search engine optimization is measured with conventional metrics entrepreneurs have used for years. GEO is measured with rising metrics related to AI.
Conventional search engine optimization makes use of these key efficiency indicators (KPIs):
- Natural visitors
- Key phrase rankings
- Click on-through fee (CTR)
- Bounce fee
- Conversions from search
GEO success appears completely different given customers not often click on the hyperlinks. Key GEO metrics embody:
- Quotation frequency in AI instruments
- Model or product mentions in AI solutions
- Share of voice in AI instruments
You possibly can measure your efficiency in LLMs utilizing Semrush’s AI search engine optimization Toolkit.
GEO Optimization Guidelines
Use this guidelines to optimize your content material for generative engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews:
Content material High quality
When writing web site content material, guarantee it:
- Solutions a number of particular, natural-language prompts
- Is written clearly and concisely
- Contains factual, reliable, and up-to-date data
- Displays deep topical authority—not simply surface-level protection
Run your draft by way of Semrush’s search engine optimization Writing Assistant to enhance readability which will translate to raised GEO.
Construction & Formatting
To make sure AI (and people) can simply learn your content material, embody:
- Bullet factors, lists, or tables to simplify how ideas are introduced
- FAQ sections with brief, direct solutions
- A abstract or definition on the prime of classes when related
Additional studying: The right way to Write an Article Audiences Need to Learn (7 Steps)
Belief & Citability
LLMs consider your model primarily based not solely in your web site, but in addition on data from sources equivalent to Wikidata, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn.
These sources assist LLMs perceive who you’re and whether or not you are credible.
Meaning off-site presence and consistency throughout the online is simply as vital as on-page optimization.
Monitoring
Lastly, right here’s find out how to observe the success of GEO efforts:
- Monitor quotation frequency in AI instruments
- Monitor model point out incessantly in AI instruments
- Monitor the place your opponents are talked about or cited however you aren’t
Use Semrush’s AI search engine optimization Toolkit to research how LLMs like ChatGPT and AI Mode characteristic your model and get actionable suggestions to enhance your corporation technique.
Audit: Evaluating search engine optimization and GEO Outcomes
This audit exhibits how AI-generated solutions differ from Google SERPs, how AI solutions fluctuate throughout instruments, and why GEO issues.
We examined the question “finest CRM instruments.”
First, the SERPs:
Google’s AI Overview recommends Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, and Pipedrive. Beneath the AI field, Google exhibits a product carousel and a Zapier listicle.
Perplexity surfaces listicles (together with Zapier’s), a Reddit submit, and its personal abstract of CRM instruments, which additionally recommends Zoho as the highest possibility.
ChatGPT exhibits tables evaluating CRM instruments by class (e.g., “finest total,” “finest for small groups”), but it surely doesn’t cite sources.
Its prime instruments are HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho.
Gemini provides a considerably obscure, citation-free reply with no structured comparisons.
It’s the one engine to exclude HubSpot from the highest three, but it surely’s the one engine to say Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Key Takeaway: GEO is Platform-Particular
Every AI engine has its personal technique, coaching knowledge, and output type:
- ChatGPT synthesized solutions with out displaying sources
- Perplexity was clear and citation-driven, and highlighted incessantly linked pages
- Google AI Overviews most popular Google-indexed content material and was much like a featured snippet
- Gemini adopted Google rating patterns however gave much less structured outcomes
To succeed with GEO, take into account how one can adapt content material for every engine.
Begin Optimizing for GEO
The way forward for search isn’t nearly being discovered. It’s about being trusted, referenced, and advisable by AI instruments.
Generative engines are altering how individuals obtain solutions. Manufacturers that succeed will mix search engine optimization fundamentals with GEO-specific methods.
Use Semrush’s AI search engine optimization Toolkit to:
- Examine how completely different AI platforms current your services or products
- Monitor model mentions and sentiment over time
- Determine alternatives to extend visibility in AI-generated solutions
