The Next Frontier: Blending SEO and GEO for Enhanced Search Visibility

The evolution of online content marketing over the last several decades is phenomenal. It started as a simple alternative to print advertising and has transformed into an integral tool that allows businesses to engage with consumers. Throughout this evolution, one thing has remained constant––a good SEO content strategy is imperative.

Today, however, SEO is changing faster than ever. The rise of AI-driven search tools like ChatGPT has spawned generative engine optimization (GEO). It’s fresh, exciting, and something every content marketer and SEO professional needs to understand. 

So, without further ado, let’s get into the nuts and bolts of GEO and explore how you can gain more search visibility by adding it to your SEO strategy. 

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Generative search engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing AI serve up highly relevant and contextual search results. They use large language models (LLMs) to comprehend human text and provide informative answers to search queries in a conversational tone. Generative search engine users enjoy more in-depth and personalized results than traditional engines that only provide links based on keyword matches. 

Generative engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website or content to rank well in these AI-driven search engines. It combines the fundamentals of SEO with techniques that improve the chance of generative search engines finding and using your content in their responses. 

Like traditional search engine optimization, GEO is all about visibility. And while there’s plenty of overlap between a GEO and SEO content strategy, effective generative engine optimization requires a slightly different approach. To achieve maximum visibility across traditional and generative engines, you need to implement the principles of both strategies.

The Importance of GEO 

Generative AI burst onto the content marketing scene, and it looks like it’s here to stay. This isn’t a surprise––tools like ChatGPT make life easier for writers by streamlining the research and ideation process. But the value of AI-driven search engines goes much further. 

In 2023, approximately 13 million adults in the US reported using generative AI as their primary online search tool. This number is projected to reach 90 million by 2027. To connect with your target audience, you need to meet them in generative search engines. 

In addition to higher visibility, adapting GEO principles improves your content. Why? Because optimizing for generative search requires you to create highly relevant, conversational content that directly addresses user intent. 

Weaving features like statistics, quotations, and authoritative sources into your SEO content strategy helps you rank well in traditional search engines while attracting top generative AI engines. This makes GEO a must for your future campaigns. 

The Significance of Media Links in GEO

Obtaining credible backlinks to your website is nothing new in the SEO world. Doing so helps boost your domain authority and improve your rankings. Taking this tactic one step further is critical when performing GEO. 

Generative search engines place importance on links from reputable media sources to your content. These links signal that your content is accurate and trustworthy, increasing your chances of ranking well when a user asks a relevant question. 

Like in any SEO content strategy, it’s important to acquire backlinks from authoritative sources applicable to your industry. Examples include: 

• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or National Institutes of Health (NIH)  for health-related topics 
• The Harvard Business Review or Entrepreneur.com for finance content 
• The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) or the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for real estate or housing topics

Backlinks from highly credible sources like these boost your content’s credibility in traditional and generative search engines. The tricky part is obtaining these powerful media links. You’ll need to adrenalize your backlinking strategy. 

Start by forming new relationships with partners with a strong domain authority. Reach out to journalists working in your industry and begin engaging with them via social media. This puts you on their radar and increases the chances of getting a mention on their site. 

Writing high-quality guest posts for relevant industry publications or influencers is another smart tactic. This is a perfect opportunity for you to get more content out in the world and cash in on the valuable backlinks.  

The Role of Schema Markup in GEO

Another SEO and GEO crossover is technical optimization. Many content marketing professionals cringe at the thought, but to rank well in generative engines, you have to get techy. This starts with adding schema markup to your site. 

Schema is the structured data that allows AI-driven search engines to return highly informative results to user queries. It’s often referred to as “the language of search engines.” 

When you add schema markup to your website, you’re enhancing the discoverability of your content in generative search engines. Here’s how it works: 

• Schema markup provides data that’s readable by generative AI tools.
• This structured data labels components of your website. 
• Generative engines pick up clues about your content from the schema. 
• These clues allow search engines to deliver rich snippets from your content, enabling users to find relevant information more effectively. 

For example, if a webpage contains a product description, schema markup defines the location, reviews, ratings, product type, and industry. This improves your chances of ranking well when a user searches for the product in a generative search engine. 

Here’s the challenge––schema markup isn’t one-size-fits-all. You’ll need to align the schema with your SEO content strategy by using markup best suited for your topics. Visit Schema.org for information on the different codes and how to add them to your site. 

Regularly auditing and updating your schema ensures your markup is error-free and improves your visibility in generative search engines. 

Sitemaps and Their Impact on GEO

Creating and submitting an updated sitemap is another essential step in an effective GEO and SEO content strategy. A sitemap is a file that contains a list of all the pages on your website. 

There are two types of sitemaps––XML and HTML. An XML sitemap is primarily for search engines. It contains metadata about your web pages and helps bots understand your site’s content hierarchy. An HTML sitemap caters more to visitors to your site, providing a navigation structure that improves the user experience. 

A well-structured sitemap allows traditional and generative search engines like Google and Bing to effectively crawl and index your content. Both search engines index multimedia content, but Bing places more emphasis on media-rich pages. This is why including pages with video and images in your sitemap is so important. 

Creating and Maintaining Effective Sitemaps

It may sound super technical, but creating an effective sitemap is easy and automated. Plus, submitting one is relatively straightforward. There are plenty of online tools that generate sitemaps simply by entering your website URL. You can also use CMS plugins designed to create XML and HTML sitemaps. 

Once you’ve created your sitemap, you need to submit it to search engines. This ensures your content gets discovered and indexed. Let’s use Bing as an example of the sitemap submission process. 

• Start by creating a free Bing Webmaster Tools account. 
• Add your website to your account and verify that you’re the owner. 
• Once you’ve set up your site, use the “Submit sitemaps” function and upload your file. 
• The portal shows the status of your sitemap, including any errors you need to address. 

Keeping your sitemaps up-to-date ensures new content gets indexed and making regular updates should be part of your ongoing SEO content strategy. There are also ways of controlling how search engines index your website. Adding “priority” tags to web pages in your sitemap tells a search bot to place more importance on that page. A “frequency” tag indicates how often content on a page changes, causing search engines to crawl the page more frequently.   

Integrating GEO Into Your SEO Content Strategy for Maximum Impact

As generative AI continues to grow in popularity, content marketing professionals must pivot to capture as much search volume as they can. However, traditional search engines aren’t obsolete by any means. 

Combining GEO and SEO is the best way to maximize visibility. The good news is that if you have a reliable SEO content strategy, you’re well on your way to successful rankings in generative search engines. By focusing on high-quality content, authoritative media links, schema markup, and a thorough sitemap, you’ll get the nudge you need. 

But a content marketer’s job is never done. Industry trends come and go, and it’s up to you to stay on top of them. It’s also important to use analytics to refine and enhance your integrated strategies.

Lets GEO! 

Staying ahead of the competition keeps getting harder and harder. Ranking well in generative search engines will soon become a necessity, so getting ahead of the curve is your best bet. 

Reach out to the pros at Content Workshop and get expert guidance and support in propelling your content strategies.