Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Briefing - Jason Wade, Founder, NinjaAI - AI SEO Marketing Agency
NinjaAI.comThis briefing summarizes key strategies for "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO), a method to ensure digital content is visible and cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Unlike traditional SEO focused on Google-style rankings, GEO emphasizes structuring content to be readily consumed and quoted by AI tools.Main Themes and Important Ideas:1. The Rise of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)AI search engines are changing how users find information. Instead of providing a list of sources like traditional search engines, AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini "are scanning the web to quote and recommend sources." This new landscape necessitates a different approach to content visibility, which the source calls "Generative Engine Optimization." Without proper GEO, "if your site isn't structured for visibility in these new tools, you’ll get skipped."2. Prioritizing Clear, Conversational LanguageAI tools are designed to interact and generate human-like text. Therefore, "AI tools prefer content that mimics how humans talk." This means avoiding jargon and ensuring that core pages (homepage, about, product/service) contain "at least 300 words of conversational copy."3. Ensuring Site Crawlability and AccessibilityFor AI tools to cite content, they must first be able to access and process it. The document stresses the importance of making a site "crawlable," which benefits both traditional SEO and GEO. Users should "check if your homepage is being crawled" and utilize tools like https://www.xml-sitemaps.com or their CMS's built-in features to verify AI accessibility. A bonus tip is to "submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools, it feeds ChatGPT results."4. Building Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T)AI favors credible sources. To build "Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust" (E-E-A-T), content creators should "add author bios, credentials, testimonials, and press mentions." This signals to AI that the information is from a knowledgeable and trustworthy source.5. Clearly Articulating Your Offer on the HomepageThe homepage is critical for AI citation. It "should clearly state who you help, what you offer, and how it helps." This concise explanation is "the content most often pulled into AI answers." An example provided is: “At CMO Growth Guide, we help early-stage founders grow with simple, scalable marketing systems, without hiring a marketing team.”6. Creating Evergreen Explainer ContentAI tools are particularly keen on citing content that answers fundamental questions. The checklist advises writing blog posts that address "what is" or "how to" questions related to your offer. "AI tools love citing evergreen explainers," especially when they are "formatted cleanly with headings and bullet points."7. Establishing Strong Internal LinkingAI scrapers track the connections between pages to understand context. To aid this, the homepage should be linked to key sections like "About, Services, Blog, and Contact pages to help build context."8. Cultivating Third-Party Validation (Citations)Beyond on-site factors, external validation is crucial. Even "AI scrapers need third-party validation." This can be achieved by getting mentioned on "podcasts, blogs, guest posts, directories, or industry sites."9. Incorporating Quotable SnippetsAI is designed to generate concise answers, often by extracting "snippets." To be highly quotable, content should "sprinkle in original stats, short quotables, or bold statements across your site that make you quotable." The example given is: “AI search is the new front page of the internet—and most sites are invisible to it.”
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