"Imagine a world where users no longer click search results but instead ask an AI assistant, in natural language: "What's the best CRM for a small-business startup?" The answer on customer relationship management appears instantly. No links, no pages, just a response. Brands that hope to matter must not only rank, but be mentioned, cited, trusted, and recommended before that user ever visits their site."
"But herein lies the danger. If SEO's past is any teacher, we're headed toward a new playground of snake oil and shortcuts. Soon you'll see "GEO specialists," "AI optimization gurus," and "zero-click quantum marketing " workshops popping up. Brands will chase algorithms that nobody fully understands, pay for tools that promise to "place you inside the answer box," and invest in techniques whose mechanics are opaque even to those selling them."
Search engine optimization became a major industry after 2002 as agencies and manipulators sought first-page placement. A new wave—generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO), or AI engine optimization (AIO)—aims to get brands represented inside AI-generated answers where users no longer click links. Brands must be mentioned, cited, trusted, and recommended by AI systems before users visit sites. The stakes are higher, the rules blurrier, and structural risks increase. A proliferation of specialists and opaque tools promising placement in answer boxes is likely. Decades of published content are sometimes licensed under Creative Commons attribution and open for AI use.
Read at Fast Company
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