What are the Best Practices for Generative Engine Optimization?
1. Create Clear, Authoritative Content that Answers Questions Directly: At the heart of GEO is content quality. Your content should thoroughly answer the kinds of questions your target audience is asking. This means doing deep user intent research and expanding beyond just keywords to understand what information people truly seek. Aim to create comprehensive “answer-ready” content: if you’re covering a topic, cover it in full and in a way a novice can understand. Include definitions of terms, answer closely related questions, and provide context. For example, a travel site’s article on “Visiting Paris” should also answer follow-up questions like “What’s the best time to go?” or “How do I get around Paris?” within the content. The goal is to become the one-stop authoritative answer that an AI would feel confident summarizing. This also ties to demonstrating E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trust) – cite reliable sources for facts, include expert insights, and show your credentials or experience where relevant. Authoritative, well-researched content is far more likely to be pulled by AI engines.
2. Optimize for Conversational Language and Natural Queries: Generative AI interacts in a conversational way, so your content should, too. Embrace a more natural writing style and consider phrasing your titles or headings as questions that users ask (e.g., “How does X work?” “What are the benefits of Y?”). Using an FAQ format on your pages is extremely helpful – many GEO strategies explicitly recommend adding FAQ sections that mirror the way users ask questions. If you have an e-commerce site, for instance, include Q&As like “Will this fit me?” or “How long does shipping take?” on product pages. Long-tail, specific queries are key; people might type a Google query like “sprained ankle treatment” but will ask ChatGPT, “What’s the best way to treat a sprained ankle at home?” So incorporate those natural-language questions and answers into your content. A side benefit is that this often helps traditional SEO as well, by capturing featured snippets.
3. Structure Content for Easy AI Digestion: Structure is everything for GEO. Use descriptive headings and subheadings (organized logically) so the AI can quickly identify relevant sections. Break information into bullet points or numbered lists wherever it makes sense (steps in a process, top recommendations, etc.). Keep paragraphs concise (much like we’re doing in this case study) – think 2-3 sentences on average. This makes it easier for an AI to pull a self-contained nugget of information without needing an entire essay. Include summaries or key takeaway boxes for long articles: a short intro that nutshells the main points can be very beneficial (Google’s AI, for example, often grabs the first few sentences of a page). Also, embed FAQs or a “People also ask” style section if you can, as this explicitly gives Q&A pairs for AI to use. Remember Chris Long’s insight: content that’s extremely structured (bullets, lists, clear sections) tends to get pulled into AI answers more often. Essentially, you want to format your content like a cheat sheet for the AI.
4. Implement Structured Data (Schema Markup): Schema is a GEO power tool. Adding appropriate schema markup to your HTML helps AI (and search engines) understand the meaning and context of your content. At minimum, use FAQ schema for Q&A content, HowTo schema for instructional content, Organization/LocalBusiness schema for your business details, Product schema for product info, and Review schema if applicable. For local businesses, schema like LocalBusiness or events can put you on the AI’s radar for local queries. Structured data is how you speak to the AI in its own “language.” For instance, marking up your address and opening hours with schema can help an AI correctly mention your business for “What time does [Your Store] close today?” queries. Similarly, marking up a recipe page with Recipe schema can make it much more likely that a cooking chatbot will cite your recipe when a user asks for, say, “How to bake chocolate chip cookies.”
5. Focus on Entities and Contextual Keywords: AI models understand content through entities (people, places, things, concepts) and their relationships. Ensure your content clearly identifies key entities related to your business and topic. For example, if you run a hotel, make sure the city, neighborhood, nearby attractions, and your brand name are all mentioned in context. Link them to authoritative sources when appropriate (linking “Paris” to its Wikipedia page, for example, or mentioning that your hotel is near “Eiffel Tower”). This helps solidify the relevance of your content in the AI’s knowledge network. Also use semantic keywords – not just the exact keywords but related terms and synonyms that indicate you’re covering a topic comprehensively. Instead of repeating “running shoes” 20 times, mention related concepts like “marathon training, arch support, treadmills” if relevant. This casts a wider net for AI queries that might be phrased differently. In short, think less about single keywords and more about the topic space you’re covering.
6. Keep Content Fresh and Accurate: AI models train on vast data and tend to prioritize information that remains correct and current. They also may have cut-off dates for training data (like earlier versions of ChatGPT only knew info up to 2021). Thus, regularly updating your content can boost your chances of being included in answers, especially for time-sensitive queries. If you have stats or references, keep them up-to-date (nothing worse than an AI quoting an outdated 2017 statistic when your competitor has a 2023 stat on the same topic). Freshness is particularly crucial for newsy topics or fast-changing fields (tech, finance, COVID guidelines, etc.), where users and AIs seek the latest info. Some AI search experiments even have “Latest Update” indicators. A practical tip is to audit your high-value pages every few months and refresh any stale sections – not only does this help SEO, but it signals to AI crawlers that your info is current.
7. Leverage AI Tools (Carefully) in Your Workflow: It’s a bit meta, but you can use AI to help with GEO. Tools like ChatGPT can assist in generating drafts or brainstorming questions users might ask. You can even prompt AI: “What follow-up questions might someone ask after reading about X?” to build out your FAQs. Additionally, specialized SEO AI tools can analyze how your content might be seen by AI (for example, HubSpot’s AI Search Grader tool grades your brand’s visibility in AI). Some tools can monitor AI results for mentions of your brand. However, use AI assistance carefully: always review and edit AI-generated content to ensure accuracy and originality. AI can help you scale content creation and identify opportunities, but a human should refine the content to add that unique expertise and voice. Also, using AI for analysis (like identifying semantic entities on your page or checking how an AI summarizes your content) can provide insight into how to improve for GEO.
8. Build Off-page Signals and Reputation: Just as classic SEO values backlinks and mentions, GEO benefits from your brand having a strong digital footprint. Brand mentions across the web (even unlinked) act as trust signals for AI. If people on forums or social media often talk about your brand in a positive light, AI models will “read” that in their training data. Encourage reviews and discussions, and create buzz in your industry. Backlinks from authoritative sites are doubly valuable now – not only do they help SEO, but an AI might treat a fact as more credible if it’s referenced by multiple trusted sources (some AIs fact-check by cross-verifying info). For local businesses, ensure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) is consistent across all directories and your Google Business Profile is well-maintained. Generative engines pulling info for local queries will compare sources, so consistency and volume of positive mentions can determine if you get recommended. Essentially, the more the AI sees your brand in relevant, trustworthy contexts around the web, the more likely it will include you in answers.
By implementing these best practices, you make your content machine-friendly without losing human appeal. The overarching theme is: If your content is genuinely useful, well-organized, and clearly presented, it stands a great chance in both SEO and GEO. In fact, research into GEO strategies has shown that steps like including relevant statistics, quotes, and references within your content can boost your visibility in generative answers significantly (one benchmark study found up to a 40% increase in AI answer visibility by adding such elements). So don’t shy away from enriching your content with concrete details – AI models love specifics and evidence.
Sources:
What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
GEO vs Traditional SEO: What’s the Difference?
SEO vs. GEO vs. AEO: Navigating the New Search Landscape for 2025 & Beyond