SEO is dead. Long live GEO?

""Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," Mark Twain famously wrote to a newspaper that had (rather prematurely) published his obituary. The same could be said of SEO. While some loudly decry its demise, the reality is more nuanced. SEO will remain a crucial tool, but its dominance is ending. A move towards Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is coming. It will be both a vital transition for established brands and a huge opportunity for newcomers and challengers."

"As WPP's chief AI officer, I see every day how AI is increasingly shaping shopper journeys. Customers are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity for purchase recommendations. Soon, personal AIs or agents will be empowered to make independent purchasing decisions on consumers' behalf. With Gartner predicting that 25% of searches will bypass traditional engines by next year, AI discovery is fast becoming survival-critical for brands."

"GEO optimizes content for visibility in AI-generated responses. Unlike SEO's keyword matching, Large Language Models (LLMs) infer information from patterns in training data. The fundamental shift: LLMs deliver direct answers with links, not links to answers. When asked "best skincare brand", AI draws from statistical patterns across millions of training materials. If your brand wasn't prominently featured within these sources, you effectively don't exist."

SEO will remain useful but its dominance is ending as AI-driven discovery changes how people find products. A shift toward Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) requires optimizing content for AI-generated responses rather than keyword matching alone. Large Language Models infer answers from training data patterns and provide direct answers with links; visibility depends on presence within those training sources. Customers increasingly ask chatbots and personal agents for purchase recommendations, and agents may soon make autonomous purchases. GEO-driven visitors typically show higher purchase intent, but brands must first assess and improve how AI models represent them to capture that qualified traffic.

Read at The Drum