The next SEO: Why generative engine optimisation will make or break your brand

Marketers once obsessed over keywords. Then came the battle for featured snippets. Today, the game has changed again: the new imperative is to optimise for AI-generated answers.

Search has evolved fast from matching queries to understanding intent and now to generating content on the fly. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), and Microsoft Copilot are fast becoming the first port of call for consumers and B2B buyers alike. This shift has given rise to an urgent new discipline: generative engine optimisation, or GEO.

Unlike traditional SEO, where the goal was to appear in a list of blue links, GEO is about ensuring your brand is featured in the answers AI engines provide. The implications for marketers and agencies are immediate and profound.

What is GEO, and why does it matter?

GEO is the practice of optimising your brand’s visibility in AI-powered search and conversational interfaces that summarise information and recommend actions, products, and sources—sometimes without even linking to your site. These AI engines, from ChatGPT with web browsing to Google SGE and Perplexity AI, are fundamentally changing how information is surfaced. Instead of competing for a page-one ranking, brands now compete to be cited or mentioned in AI-generated summaries.

This matters because search results are morphing from lists into concise, authoritative overviews. A traditional search for “best CRM for small business” might return ten blue links; an AI-powered engine will simply say, “For small businesses, HubSpot and Zoho CRM are popular due to ease of use and affordability. Salesforce offers advanced capabilities for scaling.” If your brand isn’t named in that summary, you are invisible, even if you top Google’s rankings.

The move towards zero-click search is accelerating. According to SimilarWeb, some niches are already seeing 30–40% drops in organic traffic due to AI summarisation. In this new reality, being linked is less important than being mentioned. A legal SaaS provider like Clio, for example, might be described by ChatGPT as “a popular platform among small law firms for case management.” The link may not matter; what counts is whether your brand is “in the conversation.”

How does the AI decide which brands to include? Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on vast public datasets, articles, forums, FAQs, and reviews. If your brand lacks presence in credible discussions, or your content isn’t structured for machines to recognise, you’ll be overlooked. An emerging skincare brand, for example, won’t appear in AI-generated recommendations unless it’s surfaced in expert content, credible reviews, or structured databases like Wikidata.

How to adapt for the AI search era

Google’s SGE is already rolling out to millions of users, delivering AI-powered summaries before organic links and citing only select sources. The new algorithm rewards structured content—FAQs, how-tos, real-world reviews, and original media, while favouring expertise, authority, and trust. Marketers should now approach blog posts and product pages as “AI fodder”: well-structured, deeply informative, and meticulously referenced.

Perplexity and ChatGPT’s browsing functions cite real-time data, so being among the top sources has never been more competitive. Freshness, quality, and schema matter. If your competitor publishes a more clearly marked-up guide, they’ll be surfaced over you—even if your content is better.

Structured databases are also increasingly important. Generative models crawl sources like Wikidata, Google’s Knowledge Graph, and Schema.org. For B2B brands, failing to appear in trusted directories like Crunchbase, G2, or Wikipedia means missing out on procurement shortlists surfaced by AI assistants.

So, what should marketers and agencies do now? First, ensure your brand and products are accurately represented in structured data sources. Update your Wikidata, Google Business Profile, Schema.org markup, and listings on G2, Capterra, and similar platforms. Next, create content that’s both valuable for humans and easy for AI to parse: use clear headings, FAQs, guides, and numbered lists. Instead of generic posts, publish comparative guides and deep dives with well-labelled sections—formats AI engines love to summarise. Depth matters, too: build topical authority with research-backed articles, expert interviews, and real-world case studies.

Finally, start monitoring your GEO presence. Ask yourself: What do AI tools say about my brand? Where am I being cited or not? Who else is being surfaced in my category, and why? Tools like ChatGPT with browsing, Perplexity, and MarketMuse can help you see how your brand appears in AI-generated content.

The business impact and looking ahead

For CMOs and marketing leaders, this means weaving GEO into content, PR, and influencer strategies and measuring success by mentions, not just clicks. PR teams need to pitch stories that LLMs can ingest and target platforms likely to be cited by AI engines, such as Reddit, Quora, and influential newsletters. Agencies and content studios have a new client opportunity: offering “AI content audits” and GEO health checks.

The future of GEO is coming fast. Expect dashboards to measure how often LLMs include your brand, how deep your citations run, and how long you remain in AI-generated answers. Paid generative placement bidding to be the recommended product in AI answers may soon become a reality. And marketers will increasingly experiment with prompt engineering to train AI agents to favour their brands.

GEO is the new foundation of digital visibility. As generative engines become the main interface between your customers and your content, marketing leaders must rethink how they approach discovery, attribution, and authority. The question is no longer “How do I rank on Google?” but “What does the AI say about us?”

Now is the time to audit your generative visibility, invest in structured, original content, and adapt your marketing playbook to this new AI-powered search layer. The brands that master GEO early will shape the AI conversation and define the future of digital influence.

Lionel Sim is founder of AI agency Capitol. He was formerly global CCO for Livewire and head of commercial for Bondee.