Industry pros: three tips for the GEO success playbook

Chatbots have flipped the internet visibility script for brands.

Across industries, talk of search engine optimization (SEO) is being eclipsed by generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) strategies. It’s a lot of -EOs for businesses to keep tabs on.

From website best practices to building online credibility, industry pros told Revenue Brew their tips for boosting business exposure in the LLM era.

Anticipate questions, not keywords

With traditional internet traffic, brands had to game the search bar. Search engines like Google formulate results based on how relevant sites are to the keywords people look for. Kevin C. Roy, CEO of GreenBanana SEO, said AI takes a different approach.

Say you own a coffee shop in New York City. Your website should include more detailed information than a menu with keywords like “Manhattan,” “latte,” and “americano.” A website optimized for Claude or ChatGPT anticipates questions customers might have and answers them. Is there Wi-Fi? Are there tables available or is it takeout only? Is the shop close to a subway stop? Does it offer oat milk?

This strategy leans on the notion that the internet, in the AI age, has evolved from a question asking service to a question answering tool.

Bots need information to be logical and linear, according to Roy, something most humans prefer, too. He added that companies and professionals looking to boost their digital footprint need to anticipate queries and create content accordingly. The easier your website is for people to read—and AI to crawl—the better your business will rank. Best practices include having a detailed “about” section and FAQ tab on your site, he said.

While the terms GEO and AEO are often used interchangeably, Roy said that they have important differences: AEO looks at how the content is structured on a brand’s site, while GEO provides the cross-platform and third-party credibility element. Having an easy-to-navigate footprint is a golden rule for all search, especially in an era of constantly changing algorithms.

Michael King, CEO and founder of the search optimization firm iPullRank, sees this kind of brand transparency as reputation management. When a prospective customer finds your coffee shop through a chatbot search, for example, the tech is parsing the entire internet for the answers to their follow-up questions. If your website doesn’t include basic details about pricing, the bot might pull it from platforms like Yelp or Reddit. King said this leaves the brand with less control over their message because the bot might surface a relevant but critical review, like one that says the lattes are too expensive.

“Before, you controlled the narrative—there was no interpretation of the information,” he said. LLMs are the opposite. “It becomes a brand problem in certain cases because anything that’s bad for your reputation, it’s going to consider that.”

Build credibility across platforms

Beyond anticipating customer questions, experts said brands need to build multilayered online credibility.

Business leaders need to identify the top chatbot prompts that draw in customers, what follow-up questions those customers might have about their product, and what makes them stand out. King said this means being as transparent as possible—traditional search engines surface brand information as written, whereas chatbots pull it from various websites.

“These systems are programmed to provide a more neutral response, or at least a response that’s reflective of what’s out there,” King said. “It’s not just what the brand is saying; it’s what the world is saying about the brand.”

Brands should prioritize having content on many different platforms, telling a cohesive story across YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and others. He sees the AI search mechanism like raffle tickets: Buying more tickets means you have a better chance prospects will encounter your brand, and that the content will be authentic to your in-house material. As a business, King said “your whole goal is to have as many raffle tickets as possible.”

Roy added that, while having a social media presence is important, brands need to put energy into outside recognition. A chatbot will be more likely to recommend your business if it can find outside sources that show your business as legitimate.

Reputable original content also boosts brand trust, he said.

“AI is trying to get smarter on a consistent basis, and so it’s looking for new information,” Roy said. “Republishing a lot of the same thing or just saying it in a different way isn’t going to help you as much as if you did a groundbreaking study, or if you learned this one new thing that no one else knows.”

SEO isn’t dead yet

While business leaders may feel like GEO is the new frontier, industry pros aren’t forgetting about SEO.

A challenge with chatbots is that prospective customers may or may not click through to your brand’s actual website. Prioritizing keyword search is especially important for industries—like media, e-commerce, and lead generation—that rely on traffic for monetization. A 2026 Adobe report found that 25% of customers use AI platforms as their top research tool, but most still use traditional search.

“I will never say SEO is dead,” Roy said. “It’s the foundation of how the engines find all the information.”