Search engine optimisation (SEO) is evolving (or is that mutating?) once more as generative AI answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity eat someone’s lunch.
Can’t something just stay still long enough so that we can get a hold of it? Trying to understand Google and other search channels feels like scrambling to pick up the soap in a prison shower teeming with business competitors.
On top of that we have the new-fangled “paradigm” (sorry!) of AI transforming SEO (search engine optimisation) into GEO (generative engine optimisation).
This is supposed to mean less scrolling up/down on Google with all the usual frowning/gurning/moaning, and more getting ourselves the quick answers we want.
Indeed there are better things to do in life than be slavishly addicted to computer screens… like running around naked in a sunny meadow, or shooting next door’s fouling cat up the bum with a Super Soaker 5000 pump action water cannon filled with vinegar.
First… What the Actual F*ck Has Google Been Doing?
The search engine buffet is vast, but Google no longer enjoys the total dominance of its glory days. Dunno if you heard, but the US Department of Justice brought an antitrust case against Google with a federal judge finding them to have operated as an illegal monopoly.
Google, basically, was stuffing money in the proverbial shirt pocket of Apple and Samsung (Google paid Apple $20 billion) to allow themselves to be the default search engine in Safari.
Social Platforms Surface Answers and Information
Meanwhile, platforms like TikTok and Meta have built their own ecosystems, with Facebook even acting as The Internet itself in some parts of the world.
Yes, Google is still powerful, but it hasn’t been alone at the top in how people discover and consume online content for some time. Although many people will stick with regular search engine usage out of habit, AI has fully arrived and fragmented search channels further.
This is where GEO enters the picture.
A Quick Word on Shitty AI Content
Where were you when ChatGPT launched to the mass market in late 2022? Its release had many a tech bro foaming at the mouth, futurists proclaiming the world was ending and others styling themselves as “AI experts” which as far as I can tell seems to mean just having an opinion on it.
Whatever your experience of AI was/is, it’s left many scratching their heads wondering if they just missed another goldrush. Some are playing catch-up and others are seizing the opportunity to make dirty, sexy money.
In 2023, a guy on LinkedIn was selling fully AI-generated articles (he used ChatGPT with his own custom prompts). He was rather proud of himself for brazenly selling the opportunity to pollute the internet with bottom-tier Wikipedia-style drivel, even as commenters lambasted him in the comments like he was Ty Cobb or something.
It was an SEO play, of course, and for a while, gangbanging your own website with thousands of AI-generated articles worked.
Google Bloodbath: Low Quality AI-Generated Content Punished
Months later, it started. The Google bloodbath. Reports of websites hosting AI-generated content getting hit by the March 2024 update targeting low quality content, AI spam and other manipulative practices were everywhere.
It’s more or less like every other Google algorithm update. It’s just that no one learns the lesson because TikTok ruined everyone’s ability to remember anything.
The SEO AI heist didn’t go as smoothly as people imagined.
Moving On Up: Where Did GEO Come From?
Now that the initial AI SEO content hype train has slowed, and with generative AI chatbots maturing, the practical uses for AI are more obvious.
Let’s forget about AI content generation and publishing for a moment. Let’s focus on how your original, human-made content can get found online through AI generative search engines.
When it comes to online research and information, not everyone wants to type keywords or questions into search engines to then gormlessly trawl pages of nonsense that shouldn’t be ranking in the first place.
Some people want the the answer served up directly. Some people prefer less typing, less clicking and less parsing of results.
Google’s AI Overviews Curate Classic SEO Results
In May 2024, we were gifted Google AI Overviews – originally billed as Google Search Generative Experience (SGE).
What the hell is that?
AI Overviews are a dedicated area at the top of Google search engine results pages (SERPs) where AI-generated abstracts from webpages are shown to users as large chunks of text.
The regular blue links results we’re all accustomed to are further down the Google results pages, so if you still want to do things the old-fashioned way that’s still an option.
The AI Overviews are pulling data from a few sources and writing an original answer. These go beyond the featured snippets, which are just zero-click summaries/abstracts of webpages.
A Google featured snippet
Generative Engines Takes Things Further
Generative search engines create nuanced content based on what can be found online.
The summaries are created on the fly, in real time and by the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity AI, Anthropic’s Claude and others.
Generative engines pull from public data across websites, social media, and forums to generate real-time content tailored to users’ queries.
Generative answers are (at least for the end user looking for info) less about indexing, sorting and ranking and more like having conversations.
Ask and you shall receive.
It seems to have matured enough where it knows that sarcasm (like on Reddit) can be misleading or, as has been widely reported on, the cause of AI “hallucinations”. AI hallucinations, in the context of YMYL (your money and your life) topics can be downright dangerous. Bad financial or health advice, for example.
How Generative Search Engines Are Returning Results
An example of top of funnel SEO content is firms of lawyers providing analysis on prosecution guidance.
Go to Perplexity.ai and ask “what are the drug laws in the UK right now?” and you’ll get a comprehensive answer that pulls its facts from multiple high-ranking websites including the Crown Prosecution Service, Drug Wise, UK Gov and other organisations.
What’s happened here?
Well, the AI has done the googling for you and generated a single answer based on all the stuff it went through.
Will I Lose Out to Generative Search Engines?
With Google and the regular search channels not what they once were, and with generative search lurking in the lagoon… what’s gonna happen?
The future of search is uncertain, but it seems these answer engines will eat up more users’ attention long term.
AI Overviews, for example, could be stealing as much as 64% of website traffic.
Commercial Degeneration: Decline of the Top of the Funnel?
SEOs and content writers you’ve hired/managed previously may have spent time producing website content that fits broadly in the top of the funnel.
Generative engines may well end up snatching that traffic and not sending as many people to websites, full stop.
On the other hand, you might want to optimise your webpage and get it into those generative results. If you can do this, it’s possible people will click through to your site because the sources (as in links) for those generative answers are shown.
There’s a decision to be made.
Do you get on board with the changes we’ve witnessed and the likely trajectory (as in, having to make your content more “generative friendly” for AI Overviews and the AI chatbots) or just watch and wait and hope you still get clicks via regular blue links search engine results?
Increase Your Chances for Generative Search Inclusion
We can see which way the wind is blowing, so you might want to set sail accordingly.
- Can you get your business listed as a source when someone enters a query or asks a question of one of these generative search engines?
- Will your webpage be up there as a link someone can click through to?
- Will people actually click through and visit your website?
Part of the issue here is that if you’re not ranking in classic, old-fashioned Google search to begin with, you might not be a good candidate for the generated answers.
Without a strong baseline of content quality, website speed, backlinks and good experience for people on the site, you’re more likely to miss out.
On the subject of content quality, the Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder at Perplexity discussed the underlying factors helping websites get picked as sources for answers on the Generative Now podcast.
Different Answer Engine Criteria for Different AI?
The only thing that bothers me about all these answer engine things is knowing that these AI chatbots are all different.
Google Gemini and AI Overviews is tied to Google, but ChatGPT (which is now citing its sources, making it proper generative search engine) is tied to Bing. Yes! Bing powers SearchGPT!
And on and on we go, with all the different chat bots with all their own rules. Hmm.
Formatting and Markup Tactics
One way to increase the chances of generative inclusion is to markup webpages with both metadata (SEO Schema too, if you can be bothered to implement it) as well as visible text with certain formatting.
- Brief single sentence summaries or lists of bullets at the top of the page can help your content get picked up as a candidate for forming a generative answer
- Clear, well-defined informational takeaways are perfect for the generative engines to parse, digest, understand and show as an answer
What else increases the likelihood of getting your website listed as one of these “expert sources”?
- Good heading structure
- Data/statistics
- Indicators of experience and relevant expertise
These things help readers (and the engines, of course) perceive your business as a trusted source.
Anyone who already understands and routinely implements good on-page, off-page and technical SEO practices for your business is barking up the right tree.
The Differences Between SEO and GEO
Earlier, I mentioned how generative answers are more like having conversations as opposed to searching. Let’s expand on that.
Traditional SEO could be thought of as walking into a library and asking for a suitable book on a niche subject that interests you.
If the library system is well optimised with, titles, descriptions, dates, ISBN etc, you might find what you’re looking for.
GEO is more like meeting and asking a well-read expert a question, who instantly provides a personalised answer off the top of his or her head and recommends further reading from several quality sources.
This is – broadly speaking – what generative AI platforms are doing.
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