From traditional SEO to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): How AI is impacting search
For years, marketers have focused on improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to appear more frequently in search engine results. Showing up at the top of search results increases the likelihood of someone clicking through to your website.
In the world of AI, it’s all about trying to have your information appear when someone enters a relevant question into an AI tool (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.) or search engine, such as Google. Modifying your website and its content to appear in AI results is called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Difference between SEO and GEO
There are key differences between SEO and GEO. However, it’s important to note that the work you’ve done for SEO isn’t obsolete. Traditional SEO is still a solid foundation for GEO.
Feature | Traditional SEO | Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) |
|---|---|---|
Primary goal | Rank at the top of search results to drive clicks to your website | Earn citations in AI tools to build brand awareness |
Output | A list of links to external websites, so traffic often ends up on another website | A conversational answer that often keeps users engaging with the tool instead of going to an external website |
Query type | Short keywords (3-5 words, such as “best university for engineering”) | Conversational prompts (15-20+ words, such as “What is the best university in the Midwest to study electrical engineering while also having a fun campus culture?”) |
Key metric | Organic traffic and click-through rate to your website, rank/position on search engine results pages | How much traffic from AI is coming to your website, how often AI tools are citing your website |
Main tactic | Getting links to your website from external sites (backlinks), including keywords in the copy on your website, EEAT (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness), and website quality, such as site speed | Ensuring your content is fact-based and includes direct answers, FAQs, and structuring content so Large Language Models (LLMs) that feed AI tools can easily access it; all foundational SEO tactics still apply |
Resources
There is no shortage of information available about how AI is impacting search. If you want to learn more, here are some resources that are specific to higher education.
- How to optimize higher education websites for Google AI overviews and generative search engines (Carnegie Higher Ed)
- Search experience optimization is the future of higher education SEO (Carnegie Higher Ed)
- GEO for higher ed marketing: Why it’s transforming traditional SEO (Caylor Solutions)
- AI-enabled search for higher ed success (EducationDynamics)
- Unlocking generative engine optimization (GEO): What marketers must do to stay ahead (EducationDynamics)
- The AI search revolution in higher education: Are you ready for it? (IFACTORY)
- Redefining visibility: 6 ways colleges can prepare for the AI search shift (OHO)
Google Gemini helped write this article.
For questions, reach out to Justin Hammerschmidt ([email protected]) or Jane Flis ([email protected]).