The same goes for other AI prompts that are more specific to products, such as 3D software. As you can see below, 4,200 people a month in the US ask AI to help them compare different 3D modeling software. 56 different brands are mentioned within these results, from sources at 113 different domains.

With a successful GEO strategy, you’ll maximize your chances of being mentioned in these types of AI prompts. This will improve:

• Credibility — By appearing in answers related to your industry, your company instantly becomes more credible, and credibility breeds trust.

• Organic visibility — Appearing in AI-generated answers gets your company in front of the right people without needing to spend anything on ads or marketing.

• Website traffic — Platforms like Google and ChatGPT link to company websites and sources. That means if your company forms part of an answer, plenty of people could click through to find out more about what you offer.

What’s the Difference Between GEO and SEO?

If you’ve read this far, you might be wondering if GEO is yet another separate strategy you need to implement or if it can tie into your existing SEO efforts, and what the difference is between the two.

For starters, here’s a brief primer on each:

• GEO — Optimizing your content so that your company is mentioned in AI-generated search results.

• SEO — Optimizing your content to increase visibility and ranking on traditional search engine results.

Similarities between GEO and SEO

The good news is that many of the strategies that improve your search engine rankings will also get you mentioned in AI-generated answers. These include:

• High-quality content — Producing relevant, high-quality content that meets the needs of your audiences is essential to GEO and SEO.

• Keywords — GEO and SEO both involve the strategic use of keywords to demonstrate relevance to a particular topic. When it comes to GEO, you need to identify keywords and phrases relevant to AI search queries, and thread them through your content.

• Technical performance — If your website has trouble loading or doesn’t display correctly on mobile devices, it can negatively affect your SEO. With GEO, you also need to bear these technical aspects in mind. If AI can’t quickly crawl and interpret your content, it won’t incorporate you into its answers.

Differences between GEO and SEO

If you want to use SEO to make sure your website is on the front page of Google’s search results, you need to optimize your content by creating blogs and web pages using the strategies listed above. These include drafting high-quality content, using good keywords and improving your site’s technical performance.

For GEO, however, optimizing your website is just one piece of the puzzle. Unlike SEO, AI platforms will scour the internet for consistent evidence of your company’s authority on a particular subject. That means other websites that you don’t own need to acknowledge you as an authority, too.

In fact, according to a new report by Muck Rack that analyzed 1,000,000+ links from AI responses, 89% of the links cited by AI are earned media. That means that to rank in AI overviews, your company and products need to be mentioned by other corporate blogs and journalistic sources.

Where Does PR Fit Into All This?

This new Muck Rack research shows that there’s no such thing as a GEO strategy separate from brand building. While SEO principles are important to make sure people find your website from a traditional Google search, for GEO, you need PR to form the lion’s share of your strategy, so you can be mentioned in external sources.

Luckily, whether you’re a start-up tech company or an established industry voice, there’s never been a better time to coordinate your PR efforts and invest in consistent brand building across all the channels that make sense for your business. Consider hiring an agency or bringing on skilled professionals in-house to devise campaigns that can form the bulk of your GEO efforts.

How to Implement a GEO Strategy

It’s important to remember that GEO is a cutting-edge practice, and generative AI platforms are evolving constantly. There’s an element of learning as we go when it comes to best practices. However, some fundamental steps for GEO success have already become clear.

Here is the seven-step process that we guide our clients through:

Step 1: Learn what AI likes

Researching AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google will offer essential insights into how to structure your content, keywords to include, and what’s working for everyone else. Start by identifying the phrases that trigger AI overviews. Study the answers, including their structure and sources, and take note of any trends and preferred formats. If AI platforms favor bullet point lists or graphs, be sure to include them in your content.

Step 2: See where you stand

Once you’ve gathered insights, it will be useful to have a baseline to learn where your company currently stands. Try to use AI platforms to search for your company and products, or ask questions tailored to industry trends that you want to be a brand leader in to see if you are cited in any answers.

You can also use different marketing tools to get an overview of where you are currently cited by various LLMs. If we plug Pixar’s website into SEMRush’s AI Visibility tool, for instance, we can see that 53.4K prompts are currently triggering AI responses mentioning Pixar’s brand in the US. These prompts revolve around 18.2K topics below:

Step 3: Conduct competitor research

Once you know where you stand, you can conduct competitor research on other companies that feature in AI responses related to your business. Identify what they are doing right, wrong, and what they’re not doing at all. Emulate their strengths, avoid their weaknesses, and fill the gaps in what they’re offering.

If we go back to Pixar as an example, for instance, we can research competing animation studios like DreamWorks and Illumination to see where they rank and what kinds of opportunities are available based on this. One opportunity for Pixar, for instance, is to rank in current LLM searches around children’s Christmas movie recommendations, where DreamWorks appears to be mentioned more than Pixar:

Remember, AI platforms are continually evolving, so make sure to regularly revisit your research so that your content remains effective.

Step 4: Strategically Distribute Your Content

For GEO to work, you need to place your content in places that AI algorithms can find it. We’ve known for some time that LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude don’t just crawl your own company blogs; they pull information from external company blogs, journalistic sources and from communities like Reddit and Quora, too. That means you need to have a solid marketing message and great PR that is able to ensure that message is transmitted to the top sources that AI will cite from for your current prompts.

AI will even comb through user-generated content (UGC) on your company to determine authenticity and rank your content. If possible, incorporate UGC like customer art projects and testimonials into your content to boost its relatability. The 3D art and VFX communities are passionate, so it’s a great idea to have artists who are passionate about your company talk about their experiences and results.

Step 5: Make Sure Relevant Content is Published Regularly

AI algorithms determine your content’s relevance to a user’s query through several criteria. These are:

• Contextual accuracy — Your content needs to address the user’s query directly by sticking to relevant and helpful information. Avoid any tangents and make your answers as comprehensive as possible. AI is likely to favor the expertise demonstrated by in-depth content.

• Semantic relevance — Use keywords and phrases linked to the user’s intent so that AI algorithms can determine your content’s relevance. If you’re on top of your SEO, you’re likely already doing this.

• Freshness — AI is likely to prioritize content that appears to be current and in line with industry trends. Be sure to update your content regularly to maintain relevance and visibility.

• Credibility — Like search engines, AI wants to know it’s presenting users with real expertise. Establish yourself as a trusted voice by citing reliable sources and incorporating quotes from your in-house experts.

If you regularly post and refresh content that adheres to these rules, both by using PR or cross-posting for external websites and by optimising your own website, you stand a much better chance of being included in AI answers.

Step 6: Experiment With Your GEO

Like SEO before it, GEO will continue to evolve. You’ll need to stay creative and flexible if you’re going to keep up. It’s a good idea to A/B test different formats and structures to see what gives you the most visibility. At the very least, this will constantly refine your approach and provide updates that help AI prioritize your content.

Most importantly of all, stay up to date with the latest trends and technological developments. There are blogs, forums, webinars, and more that can give expert analysis and opinions on AI news. We recommend:

• The Rundown AI newsletter — A helpful and, more importantly, quick daily rundown of the latest AI news.

• NVIDIA AI Podcast — Expert perspectives on the various ways AI is changing how we work and live. A great source of inspiration if you’re beginning to think about how AI affects your business.

• TechCrunch’s AI section — Great journalism on AI business and technology stories.

Of course, you can also keep an eye on the Liaison website and our email newsletter, as we’ll be sharing plenty of advice for navigating the world of AI in your marketing and PR.

Need help devising and executing a successful GEO strategy? It’s all in a day’s work for us, so get in touch to see how we can help.