You’re likely already familiar with SEO (search engine optimisation), which is about getting your brand noticed in Google search results. GEO (generative engine optimisation) works on a similar principle, except that you’re aiming to increase your brand’s visibility in AI-generated answers.
Generative AI (genAI) systems work very differently to Google’s standard search functionality. This has implications for how you ought to approach your GEO strategy, as the following tips illustrate.
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Put yourself in your target customers’ shoes
Queries made to AI chatbots tend to be longer and more conversational than those typed into Google. That’s because people are likely to turn to AI for especially complex, demanding requests.
You can therefore make such requests when ‘testing’ genAI platforms to see how they present products or services like those your own brand offers.
To help explain this point, let’s imagine that your business specialises in selling gluten-free fudge. Try asking an AI something like, “What flavours of gluten-free fudge could I buy online for delivery to Gibraltar?” Now, see if the answer aligns with what your business currently offers.
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Don’t neglect your SEO efforts
GEO might be the “new kid on the block”, but it hasn’t rendered SEO old-fashioned and irrelevant. Far from it. Multiple genAI platforms still fetch answers from Google. The search engine’s own AI Overviews feature mines top-ranking webpages for information.
So, keeping your brand’s SEO in tip-top shape will provide you with strong foundations for effective GEO, too. Content that ranks highly on Google is more likely to be picked up by AI systems.
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Make your website easy for AI crawlers to access
To optimise a website for SEO, you need to push the buttons of Google’s crawler bots. A similar situation applies when optimising for genAI. That’s because AI platforms use bots of their own to continually crawl websites.
One big difference, though, is that these bots are still somewhat more rudimentary than Google’s. So, you might need to take a few extra steps to make sure these bots can crawl your site with ease.
For example, have you disabled JavaScript on your webpages? Does your website’s robots.txt file allow access for AI bots? Have you implemented structured data markup?
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Make sure your web content gets straight to the point
It bears repeating that AI crawlers are far less sophisticated than Google’s search crawlers – at least for now, although this situation is liable to change as technologies evolve.
So, it important that your website is quick and direct in how it imparts information. Your site should make clear what kind of audience it is aimed at and what specific needs it addresses.
To this end, you should consider setting aside space on your site for FAQs. One good idea is to create a dedicated FAQs page. Another is to add FAQs to individual pages, especially product listings. This way, you can elaborate on specific products and how to use them.
With our specialist expertise here at Piranha Designs, we can provide such services as website design, graphics, SEO, and even CRM systems in Gibraltar, Spain, and the UK. To learn how we can also assist you with your GEO strategy, please get in touch with the Piranha Designs team.
