Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)

Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of strategically optimising a website’s content to improve its chance of being presented to users as an answer citation in response to a specific search query. GEO is the art-slash-science of structuring and optimising content to increase its visibility in generative systems, including AI overviews and LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.

The goal of generative engine optimisation services is to position your website as the trusted source AI systems will pick to cite, quote or directly include. Search visibility has metamorphosised, and it’s no longer enough to simply rank highly. We’ve got your back. 

Generative engine optimisation is all about enhancing your website’s SERPs visibility, giving your competitors a hard shove down the rankings along the way. The key benefits of GEO services include:

• Future-proofed strategy: shore up your SEO strategy and lay the foundations to boldly go where few have gone before. Lead the way in the AI-first search landscape of the future
• Establish brand authority: cement your brand as a trusted, authoritative source for inclusion in AI citations with content that’s actually helpful to users
• Drive targeted traffic: target qualified traffic by capturing top-of-the-funnel, long-tail, conversational search queries
• Crush your competition: gain a competitive advantage by investing in GEO now. Dark Horse is always one step ahead. We’ll show you the way

GEO, SEO, AEO – one letter makes a world of difference. Take Santa and Fanta. Very different beasts. Strong SEO foundations underpin good GEO, but they each have distinct characteristics:

• SEO (search engine optimisation): SEO is about optimising your website to rank in SERPs – specifically in the list of blue links traditional search engines like Google generate in response to a query. SEO targets keywords and backlinks in the pursuit of lead-generating or revenue-driving clicks
• GEO (generative engine optimisation): GEO influences citations and features in AI search and LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Our GEO services focus on optimising your content for citation in the synthesised answers these AI models generate by providing clear, quality, authoritative information
• AEO (answer engine optimisation): AEO is a branch of GEO that focuses on optimising content to directly answer user search queries. AEO targets zero-click SERPs features such as Featured Snippets and Voice Search

AI overviews dominate SERPs; our generative AI SEO service helps you dominate AIOs. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. There are multiple factors influencing which sources AI overviews choose to cite, including:

• E-E-A-T: AI prioritises sources that demonstrate experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), often by linking back to the author’s credentials
• Factual consistency: AI overviews crawl a range of sources featuring verifiable data to check factual accuracy and consistency. If your content falls short, it won’t make the cut 
• Clarity: clarity is king. AI overviews favour content that clearly and directly answers a query with a well-structured response. Use a declarative structure with schema markup and optimised headings to reduce the AI’s processing work. AI needs a helping hand, and we’re here to serve
• Recency: AI loves fresh, timely content and stuff that’s recently been updated or optimised. We analyse the landscape to identify the new content you need, and look at what you’ve already got that we can upgrade
• Ranking: page 1 keyword rankings are still important for GEO, but sometimes you’ll see results outside the top 10 creeping into the overview if they’re credible and authoritative. Everybody loves an underdog

AI overviews serve anywhere from 3 to 20 results to synthesise an answer to individual search queries. At first glance, they might seem no different to the featured snippet – you’ve asked a question, you’ve got an answer. But look closer and you’ll see the AI overview has created its own cohesive answer, drawing on multiple sources. 

The AI overview values:

• Credibility scoring: it’s programmed to find the most credible, comprehensive, definitive answer, which often means looking beyond the first link
• Topical authority: AI overviews dig further than domain authority, scouring the web for sources demonstrating topical relevance and authority, even if they feel niche and unexpected
• Clarity over rank: ranking is still a factor for AI overview visibility, but clarity stomps all over rank. Content that’s clear, well-structured and gets to the blimming point fast is more likely to find its way into AIOs

No. Absolutely not. GEO is built on the foundation of solid SEO. AI overviews and LLMs still rely on the technical structure, quality and authority signals established by classic SEO. If your site isn’t technically sound or doesn’t display strong E-E-A-T, the AI won’t touch it with a bargepole. Develop a unified, hybrid strategy that combines SEO and GEO, and the AI is more likely to open up the Castlefield locks and let you through.

Our GEO services are designed to be foundational, part of a long-term strategy that also needs to encompass SEO. Cars, working, website optimisation strategies; we’re living in a hybrid world. Initial technical SEO fixes like implementing schema markup can be crawled quickly by AI overviews and LLMs. But achieving high citation share and entity authority will require 6 to 12 months of consistent strategy and content publication to build the level of trust AI models demand.

Tracking traditional metrics like impressions and click-through-rate (CTR) won’t cut the mustard in the AI era. The metrics that matter most for measuring the success of GEO services include:

• AI answer inclusion rate: this measures your brand’s overall AI visibility, by tracking how often your website’s content appears in AI overviews 
• Citation share: the citation share of voice shows how frequently your brand is cited by AI compared to your competitors
• Attribution frequency: this tracks how many times your brand or a URL from your website is explicitly credited by AI
• Branded search uplift: an increase in direct traffic to your site or a surge in branded search volume means users trust the AI when it mentions you, and they’ve then searched for you directly. Back of the net

It’s clear there’s a particular style of content AI models prefer to ingest and reuse. We all have a type. AI’s preferred characteristics include:

• Answer-first content: AI loves clarity. Answer questions at the start of each section with no ambiguity to improve AI visibility
• Fact density: fact-dense content demonstrates E-E-A-T. Fact. Show off your authority with expert quotes, verifiable data and proven stats 
• Conversational tone: AI favours natural-sounding, conversational content that’s free from jargon – so do your customers
• Structured format: structured formatting is a key pillar of GEO. This includes proper use of technical schema markup for FAQs, lists, tables, and ‘how to’ sections. Make it easy for the AIO or LLM to lift and repurpose your helpful content