What Is Generative Engine Optimization: A New Battleground for Local Search?

We’re at a turning point in how people find businesses and information online.

But, as we honor this shift, we need to establish how — if at all — this affects the ways in which SEOs optimize their website for online visibility.

Everyone’s talking about generative engine optimization, or “GEO” — and whether it will become the new battleground for businesses to compete for better online visibility, or even whether it means SEO is dead.

While data scientists and marketers debate what GEO should look like in practice, one thing is clear: We need a grounded, actionable understanding of what’s changing in AI search — and our clients need to know how to respond.

Let’s talk about how we, as marketers and agencies, can lead the way.

Search Is Changing, and So Are Consumers

Our teams are seeing firsthand how the rise of AI and new consumer habits are disrupting traditional marketing strategies.

We already know that Google regularly tweaks its algorithms, as it attempts to address user intent more effectively. Search engine results pages (SERPs) have evolved — they’re no longer just the starting point of a customer’s discovery journey, but often the final destination. As zero-click searches rise, more users are getting the answers they need without ever leaving the SERP.

We also know that local search is now about far more than just googling something nearby. Discovery has also moved to TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit — and through voice assistants like Siri or Alexa.

And now, AI tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity have entered the arena alongside all these platforms to disrupt the search status quo even more. These tools surface summarized query answers directly, pulled from multiple online sources, meaning consumers often get what they need without ever clicking a link.

Google has been busy since summer 2024 rolling out AI Overviews in various regions. These overviews are already showing in nearly 14% of all search results, whether general or local.

Marketers and agencies need to know how to continue to optimize for local search, to maximize leads and attract both existing and new customers. Especially, since consumers are now looking for personalized, relevant answers to their queries when they search. So, how are brands showing up in these AI-generated summaries or on the SERP?

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Many people are still asking “What is generative engine optimization?” — so, before taking you through our insights and practical steps, let’s cover this question.

GEO is about preparing your content for inclusion in AI-generated search results – not just blue links. This approach is deeply tied to user behavior and the transformative impact generative AI is having on search. GEO is how marketers adapt to this new search landscape, in which users often interact with AI-generated summaries and recommendations rather than clicking through to websites.

Conventional search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing crawl websites and index their content. Their algorithms then rank individual webpages in their SERPs, with pages assessed as most relevant to the user query appearing first.

Traditional search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo crawl and index websites, ranking individual pages in their SERPs based on relevance to a user’s query. But generative engines — such as Perplexity AI, SearchGPT, and Google’s AI Overviews — use large language models (LLMs) to synthesize content from multiple sources into a single conversational answer.

What Is Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO)?

You may have seen the term “large language model optimization” (LLMO) circulating on LinkedIn and online in general. GEO and LLMO aren’t too different; LLMO zooms in on optimizing content for underlying large language models (like GPT-4), which may or may not be used in search contexts.

GEO, on the other hand, focuses specifically on AI-powered search experiences and how content is surfaced in these environments from any generative AI machine.

But rather than understanding what these terms mean in an isolated context, let’s focus on understanding what GEO means for our clients’ local marketing strategy. This is the moment to coach clients on a new type of visibility — being answerable, not just rankable. As marketers, we need to help brands shift from just ranking content to creating answer-ready content.

What’s Actually Important in This New Battleground?

GEO goes beyond a website; it’s about a brand’s total digital footprint. That includes online across their website, social media, listings, directories, and so on.

Maybe it’s controversial to say nothing much will change with GEO (for now) — but we’re not the only ones saying it. What will change, though, is the urgency to get these following key elements right — or risk your brand becoming harder to find online.

1. Consistency and Structured Data

If their business information is mismatched across sources, businesses won’t be included in results. We can win quick trust by helping clients clean up listings, select smart categories, and unify their online presence everywhere.

Proper schema markup and NAP consistency make brands machine-readable and easily digestible by both traditional and generative engines. Multi-location businesses should also add markup tags to highlight products, local stores, or upcoming events.

Deploying a location marketing platform helps brands unify wide-ranging location data – including reviews, messages, and social media content – from a single, centralized platform.

2. Rich, Contextual Content

While SEO focuses more on keywords and ranking, GEO focuses on structure, clarity, and retrievability by AI. Generative engines especially use natural language processing (NLP) to evaluate the context of a phrase or statement more than conventional search engines.

So, it’s important for our clients to include any context that is easy for AI to understand — contextually named photos and videos, relevant and precise categories, and attributes. Attributes are especially powerful for providing greater business context, so businesses should turn them on and monitor them.

Additionally, it’s important that, when our clients collect reviews, they aren’t just collecting stars but collecting detailed stories from customers — customers should include more details about their experience when they leave a review. This is critical, since AI pulls insights from how people talk about a brand.

3. Brand Mentions for Social Proof

Trusted and consistent citations and backlinks matter more for GEO — especially, when an LLM tries to validate information. Backlinks to review platforms and integrating statistics that outline a brand’s online reputation will help catch the attention of generative engines.

Even unlinked brand mentions across the web act as authority signals. Think PR, blogs, Reddit, podcasts — they all count more than ever — as does citing sources. That’s because LLMs, unlike search engines, understand a brand’s authority based on the prevalence of particular words and how brand names appear in the context of these words.

4. Fresh, Unique Content

GEO is about being the answer to customer queries. And if a brand’s answer isn’t specific, relevant, or insightful enough, customers will struggle to discover them via LLMs. If their content only answers parts of key questions, or fails to provide enough detail, LLMs might look elsewhere when synthesizing a response.

How do you provide good answers? Think of including the following in any content:

• statistics
• photos and videos
• user-generated content
• testimonials and reviews
• promotions and live updates
• or blogs and forums

LLMs also pay attention to what’s current. That’s because fresh content signals that a business is active and trustworthy. They should post regularly about product updates, promotions, and customer stories — not just to Google Business Profiles, but also to Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms to keep their brand active and visible.

5. Semantic Keywords

Brands should also focus on integrating conversational queries, rather than short-tail keywords, for content that sounds like it was written by humans for better AI parsing.

While effective keyword management remains essential for successful GEO, we recommend deeper user research, as understanding nuanced user intent can significantly enhance the quality and accuracy of results generated by AI-powered engines.

Keywords impact generative search engines less dramatically. Although keywords influence which content LLMs select when synthesizing responses, these complex processes take many other factors into account. Brands should think beyond blog posts and toward answer content — things that feed the AI directly.

Will GEO Force Us to Depart from Traditional SEO?

You probably haven’t heard it here first (but I hope we’ve cut through some of the noise) — generative engine optimization will demand some new priorities in your local marketing strategy. We’ve listed these priorities above.

At present, there are almost no hard-and-fast answers on just how much GEO will change the way marketers inform their local marketing strategy.

What I will say is this: Investing time in exploring GEO is an opportunity for brands to stay ahead of the competition. For brands with multiple stores, this means ensuring that location data is consistently up to date across as many platforms as possible, from business directories and review platforms to local pages on your website.

Finally, as early adopters, brands can set the pace in their niche. By getting to grips with GEO at an early stage, they can secure a competitive edge in the crowded online marketplace.