GEO – What do you think it is?

[Box Phone Farm]

Lately, I’ve been seeing people mention GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) in different places. Some say it’s the “next big thing,” others just call it another buzzword.
From what I understand, it’s about using AI/LLMs to create or optimize content, but I’m not sure how effective it really is in the long run.

---

So I wanted to throw this out here and see what the community thinks:

• Have you tested GEO yourself?
• Did it bring real ranking/traffic results, or was it just hype?
• Do you see it as the future of SEO, or just a short-term trend?

---

Curious to hear honest feedback from people who are actually trying it.

 

[Steptoe]

Although I've seen several inconclusive and contradictory studies, my personal experience with the results showing up in AI searches is there's quite a substantial overlap with Google's top 20. So personally I think GEO is just more of the same general things we do, but instead of ABC (anchors, body (content), clicks) it's more a case of A (branding) and B (factual content).

 

[rodrimar]

This is another way to sell courses and services!

 

[vickysan]

Definitely interested in learning about it, but i don't think anyone really has solid grasp on what definitely works for GEO, yet - there are obviously tactics that work for a bit but ai companies change so fast that any method is short lived. I do think it's gonna eat a sizable pie of digital marketing budgets because even today around 1B people use ai bots and that's a lot of possible traffic

 

[Accflip]

geo just means feeding ai to ai. it can flood pages fast, rank for low comp longtails, but g already training models to sniff patterns. works now if u mix human edits, strong interlinking, and backlinks. don’t bet on it lasting raw, but as a layer in stack it’s useful.

 

[Box Phone Farm]

Although I've seen several inconclusive and contradictory studies, my personal experience with the results showing up in AI searches is there's quite a substantial overlap with Google's top 20. So personally I think GEO is just more of the same general things we do, but instead of ABC (anchors, body (content), clicks) it's more a case of A (branding) and B (factual content).

View attachment 472550

Yeah, I get your point. At the end of the day GEO still walks and talks like SEO – just with a shiny new label on it. Maybe it’s more about how we adapt SEO tactics to fit AI-driven search results, rather than inventing a whole new playbook. The real question is: does slapping 'G' in front of SEO actually change the game, or are we just rebranding the same old moves?

This is another way to sell courses and services!

Fair point lol. To be clear, I’m not trying to sell anything here. Just curious how people actually see GEO in practice, since I’ve seen both hype and hate around it. If it turns out to be just another marketing buzzword, then at least the thread gave us a laugh.

Definitely interested in learning about it, but i don't think anyone really has solid grasp on what definitely works for GEO, yet - there are obviously tactics that work for a bit but ai companies change so fast that any method is short lived. I do think it's gonna eat a sizable pie of digital marketing budgets because even today around 1B people use ai bots and that's a lot of possible traffic

Yeah, that’s kinda how I see it too. Nobody’s really cracked the “definitive” playbook for GEO yet — feels like as soon as you find a loophole, OpenAI or Google patches it up.
But I agree on the budget shift part. If even a fraction of that AI bot usage turns into search traffic, marketers aren’t gonna just ignore it. It’s more like “adapt or get left behind.”
Curious though — do you think GEO will end up being more about technical tricks, or more about feeding AI the right data/training?

geo just means feeding ai to ai. it can flood pages fast, rank for low comp longtails, but g already training models to sniff patterns. works now if u mix human edits, strong interlinking, and backlinks. don’t bet on it lasting raw, but as a layer in stack it’s useful.

Makes sense. I kinda see GEO like a turbo button — it pushes content out fast, but if you just leave it raw, Google catches on quick.
Adding some human touch and linking backbone probably keeps it alive longer. Not a silver bullet, but handy as part of the mix.

 

[vickysan]

Curious though — do you think GEO will end up being more about technical tricks, or more about feeding AI the right data/training?

It definitely won't be just technical tricks, ai search usage has become too big and there are so many companies competing that there's gonna be a baseline quality people will expect and they will definitely adopt proven systems rather than everyone making new ones, that means there will be some basic signals that all of them will have to build like backlinks are basic signals all traditional search engines gotta start with and then build some other signals in their algos. So all of this does hint towards that there will be strategies for GEO as well. Now all of this is just my ramblings so don't know if it will turnout like this irl lol

 

[Box Phone Farm]

It definitely won't be just technical tricks, ai search usage has become too big and there are so many companies competing that there's gonna be a baseline quality people will expect and they will definitely adopt proven systems rather than everyone making new ones, that means there will be some basic signals that all of them will have to build like backlinks are basic signals all traditional search engines gotta start with and then build some other signals in their algos. So all of this does hint towards that there will be strategies for GEO as well. Now all of this is just my ramblings so don't know if it will turnout like this irl lol

Haha, not ramblings at all — makes sense. Every system eventually falls back on some kind of baseline signals, otherwise it’s chaos. Backlinks for Google, engagement signals for social, etc.

I guess with GEO it might be the same story: first everyone experiments with hacks, but over time it’ll settle into a few “must-have” signals that stick around.

The fun (Or ) part will probably be figuring out what those signals are before everyone else does. Feels like SEO déjà vu, just with AI on steroids.

 

[Box Phone Farm]

Since I'm planning to do a feature on this GEO, I really think it will affect all of us in the future, so I want to discuss it in depth, I've published the second post here after the beta period, you guys can check it out and let me know what you guys think about this thing called Generative Engine Optimization. Link here

 

[noyolacomm]

Different names but the same result. SEO have been given many names so GEO is not the first.

 

[Box Phone Farm]

Different names but the same result. SEO have been given many names so GEO is not the first.

Really? SEO has been through a lot of “rebrandings” over the years. I guess the only difference with GEO is that people are trying to tie it directly to AI/LLMs instead of just content spinning or automation. Whether it’s just another fancy name or an actual shift… I’m still curious to see if anyone’s testing it in real campaigns.