From SEO To GEO
07 Sep 2025 » Opinion
Almost 20 years ago, I started learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I even attended a conference on the topic, where one of the most reputable SEO agencies was presenting. I soon realized that it was not easy and it required a lot of effort. I just scratched the surface, although I understood it well enough. A classmate from my primary school is a real expert in this area. Well, there is a new kid on the block: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Recap of SEO
Before I talk about the main topic, I want to make sure we are all on the same page. If you have never heard of SEO or Search Engine Optimization, Wikipedia defines it as:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.
When you type something into a search engine, its algorithm selects, from all the web pages it has indexed, those that are most likely to provide the information you are looking for. For example, if you type “apple”, what should the results show?
- The tech company
- The record label
- The fruit
- A combination of the above
Google claims that it uses more than 200 ranking factors to decide what results to show.
The goal of SEO is to make sure that the combination of those 200 factors scores the highest number possible for your website, so that pages in your website show up in the first few places of the search engine results page for searches that are relevant to your company. I am sure that you can now see why it is complex and expensive.
Generative AI
Using search engines requires that you click on a few links on the results page until you find what you were looking for. Most of the time, the first three to five results will get you exactly what you want. However, sometimes none of the results gets you the information that you are looking for. This often happens to me when my search phrase is long and very specific.
With the advent of generative AI and, more specifically, conversational AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini, you can now ask complex questions, and the engine will reason and provide you with a full response, all of it without having to leave the same UI. It will also provide the most important references it has used to provide the response, but there is no need to visit those references. No wonder that people are switching from search engines to these new tools. The first consequence, which can already be seen by many companies, is that traffic from search engines has started to decline.
I highly recommend this Forbes article if you want to dig deeper.
As a side note, I agree with Yuval Noah Harari that this new set of tools can be very dangerous for our freedom. With search engines, you got ten results per page and you had to process the results. With generative AI tools, you get only one response with everything you asked for. Whoever controls that response controls the narrative.
The Birth of GEO
I am sure you are now seeing where I am going. If SEO was needed to keep your website at the top of search engine results pages, now that generative AI is with us, you need to make sure that your information is what these tools use to compose the response. This is what we call GEO.
I have tried to find a clear definition, and the one that I like the most states:
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a developing discipline focused on increasing the likelihood that individuals, brands, services, or resources are cited organically in responses generated by large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot.
To me, the most important word in the previous definition is developing. It is very early on and there is not enough research and information about it. However, it starts to be clear that a new discipline and area of expertise will emerge. Everybody will want to have their website as a reference in a generative AI response. Since these responses often include links to the references, visitors can go to the website for more details or to transact. Otherwise, if your website is not picked up by generative AI tools, your website will become invisible.
Part of Marketing Strategies
I usually start my posts with the why. In this post, I will end with it because I thought it was more important that I first provided the context.
The reason why I wrote this post is to make you all aware of this emerging trend and the impact it will have on digital marketing.
First, companies will likely have to allocate marketing budget to GEO, just like they have been investing in SEO. I am not saying that SEO will go away, at least not in the short term. Investment in SEO will still be needed; it is not free. What I am saying is that digital marketing budgets will now have to include a part for GEO. Companies may need to purchase tools like Adobe LLM Optimizer and pay GEO experts.
Second, companies will want to track the results of their GEO efforts, just like we have been tracking the results of traditional marketing activities (paid media, social, SEO, email, etc.) for the past 20 years. Adobe Analytics excels at it thanks to the Marketing Channels reports. In case you did not make the connection, the “Natural Search” value in the reports is the most approximate way to track SEO efforts. Very soon we will all have to reconfigure these reports to start tracking GEO results.
I know it is still too early to see where GEO will go, but I recommend that you keep an eye on it.