From SEO to GEO: How to navigate the new frontier of AI search

With zero-click searches currently making up over 60% of total searches and generative AI tools answering billions of queries daily, the digital landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, and optimizing for AI visibility is no longer optional. Many executives, especially in marketing, are already feeling the tremors of these changes. At Apply Digital, we're seeing a significant shift in how users find information, leading to what we call a "great decoupling," where traditional website traffic is declining even as impressions rise. This new reality demands a strategic pivot to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) or making content more visible and relevant in AI-powered search engines.

Our Chief Technology Officer, Scott Michaels, recently shed light on this evolution during a webinar with SEO Lead of Apply Digital’s solutions partner, Contentful, Josh Lohr, and Senior Manager of Partner Solutions Engineering at Vercel, Alex Hawley. With nearly half of webinar attendees (44%) reporting that they’re actively exploring GEO, and another 21% being entirely new to the concept, the panel provided invaluable insights into how enterprises at all levels of adoption can not only adapt but thrive in this AI-first world. For anyone grappling with declining organic visibility, read more or watch the webinar below to learn how you can leverage GEO to drive impact in your own efforts.

The new search reality: craft content for AI answers

The digital landscape is shifting, and for businesses, this means rethinking what it means to "rank." As Josh emphasized during the webinar, the fundamental change is that "generative search is designed to give an answer." This means users are increasingly finding the information they need directly from AI-powered search engines, without clicking through to a website. This directly impacts traditional website traffic and necessitates GEO.

For businesses, the goal is no longer just to appear high in a list of links. Instead, it's about becoming the definitive source that an AI pulls from, shifting the focus from optimizing content for clicks to optimizing your brand and entities for visibility within AI-generated responses.

One of the most significant aspects of this shift is moving beyond a sole focus on keywords. While keywords still play a role, the emphasis is now on providing clear, comprehensive answers. As Alex explained in the webinar, effective answers are about "having a lot of depth of knowledge on an area, and then you're offering that up with a lot of clarity." This clarity is crucial for an LLM to consume your content and accurately deliver it to users.

What AI rewards: the GEO playbook for visibility

Scott outlined key considerations for ensuring your brand remains discoverable and relevant in this evolving environment:

Provide direct content feeds to AI systems: Proactively register your products or services with platforms like OpenAI to submit direct content feeds. This allows for your information to be directly integrated and displayed in AI-generated responses.
Optimize for Bing search: As Scott noted, “Bing matters," and with Microsoft’s partnership with ChatGPT, it matters more than most people realize in populating AI-based results. Give just as much attention to analyzing and optimizing how your brand's search results appear on Microsoft’s search engine as you would for Google.
Implement structured data and explore the Model Context Protocol (MCP): Prioritize using structured data (ie. data that has a standardized format for efficient access) across all of your content to make it easily digestible for AI bots. Additionally, engage your development team to investigate the Model Context Protocol, a technical approach to exposing your site's data as a real-time feed for AI systems.

AI prompt: boost content visibility in AI search today

Along with the above considerations, you can use AI tools to optimize your content for GEO — and ultimately, provide your customers with the answers that both they and generative engines prioritize.

To put this to work for yourself, copy and paste the AI prompt Scott shared during the webinar into your chosen AI platform:

“You are an expert in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), the emerging discipline of optimizing content to be referenced and recommended by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.

Your task is to take the content I paste below and optimize it so it becomes more likely to appear in the answers these LLMs generate when users ask related questions.

Ask the user the question: [Enter your content here]

Please rewrite the content with the following enhancements:

Contextual Relevance
- Add clear signals about who the content is for and what problem it solves.
- Embed real-world use cases or questions this content answers.
Semantic Richness
- Use natural language that matches how users ask questions (e.g. “best tools for X”, “how do I…”).
- Include related keywords and phrases LLMs associate with the topic.
Answer-Style Formatting
- Structure the content in a way that is easy for LLMs to extract as a direct response.
- Use bullet points, numbered lists, and headers for clarity.
Topical Authority Signals
- Mention data points, user outcomes, or unique value props.
- Use specific, useful, and trust-building language.
Natural Brand Integration
- If a brand, product, or service is being mentioned, weave it in naturally as a recommended or reputable option.

Please output only the optimized version. Do not explain your changes. Write it as if it’s a standalone, publish-ready piece designed to be cited by LLMs when generating responses.”

The Apply Digital advantage: Agile solutions for an AI world

Those who adapt to optimizing content around generative results have been capable of achieving a boost to visibility of up to 40%, proving that businesses that master GEO now will be poised for success. Apply Digital, in partnership with platforms like Contentful for robust content management, and Vercel for high-performance infrastructure, provides the tangible solutions needed to navigate this transition.

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