Mastering GEO vs. SEO: A Content Writer’s Guide to Generative Engine Optimization and AI Search Strategy
When Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) hit, as a content writer, I felt lost. I was just getting a clearer view of and insight into Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but the incessant waves of GEO left me wandering the wilderness cluelessly. However, as I worked my way through developing content for various websites, I realized that GEO and SEO can — and must — be applied strategically.
Search Engine Land’s elaborate article on GEO gave me a starting point, and now, I’ve come up with my own regime to keep my content healthy and visible.
We cannot lose sight of the customer
Just like all marketing efforts, customer insight and perspective are the founding stones for any strong GEO and SEO strategy. The essential question we must ask ourselves is: where is the customer going to put up the query? Will it be directed at an LLM (Large Language Model) or a traditional search engine?
It’s about prioritizing customer intent in content. For something like a new, complex government rule, LLMs will often give clarity faster. However, when looking up something like rules related to renting properties out to tenants, the individual may want more depth and have several follow-up questions, which a primary AI search result might not fully address. The attention will then turn back to classic search results.
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Take another example: if yours is an e-commerce website, the priority will be to rank higher on SEO. But for specialty blog articles, the goal might be to become a trusted source that sneaks into the LLM’s references.
We must consider our competitor-linked strategy
Again, a very marketing-oriented approach, competitor analysis is equally important here. As mentioned by Niyati Mahale in her Writesonic Blog, we must understand what the competition is doing. Are their products being picked up by the LLM? What are they doing differently to be cited? This analysis should guide whether we want to aim for full GEO optimization for a specific topic, or if we’d rather fulfill a complex follow-up query about the same.
Remember GEO and SEO are like the crab and the lobster — both crustaceans, yet different.
GEO and SEO are the same species, as noted by Taylor Perry on Foundationinc and by Lornah Ngugi on SEO.com. A lot of the work that goes into them overlaps. If you’re optimizing well for one, you’re usually helping the other.
However, the key difference is this: GEO is more human.
Creating content for GEO requires the writer to think from the perspective of the customer and consider how they will frame their question. Yes, keywords are important, but so is the knowledge of natural, conversational language and how people actually use internet search styles.
Understanding the medium is important too.
Like all communication, the platform or medium used to communicate the message will dictate how the message is crafted. A wonderful cheat sheet is available in Taylor Perry’s article on how to create content for SEO and GEO. It gives us a clear understanding of how the LLM thinks and conducts research and how the search engines do it. Leveraging this knowledge, we can create content that may be suitable for GEO or SEO or both.
It is important to sound human
When creating this content, oftentimes these days we resort to the use of AI for content creation. Even I do it but there is something that we must remember. Using AI is great, makes the writing really engaging. However, it is also important to make the content we are creating sound human. It must answer the questions of a human in as natural language as possible. The reader must feel a connection. AI generated content does create that connection but introducing the human element to the writing is up to us writers. Considering the importance laid on EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) by both SEO and GEO, we are moving more and more towards journalistic style where we prove the authenticity of what we are writing. And this, is possible when we introduce that human element to our writing.
So these are the simple takeaways that I created for myself and I am going to see how these evolve over the days to come.
