What Is Generative Engine Optimisation? And Should Small Brands Care?
If you've spent the last few years getting your head around SEO, here's some news you probably weren't expecting:
there's a new version of it, and it plays by slightly different rules.
Generative Engine Optimisation [or GEO] is the practice of making your content more likely to be cited by AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude when they answer questions. It's what happens when the question shifts from "how do I rank on page one of Google?" to "how do I get included in the answer AI gives instead of a list of results?"
For most small businesses, this is still early days. But it's moving fast, and the brands that start building for it now will have a significant advantage in twelve months.
What’s actually changed
Until recently, if someone searched for "ethical marketing consultant Brighton", Google showed them a list of ten websites and they picked one. The search engine was a directory.
AI tools work differently. When someone asks ChatGPT "who should I hire for brand strategy in Brighton?", it doesn't return a directory. It synthesises information from sources it considers authoritative and generates a recommendation. If your name and expertise aren't in the sources it considers authoritative, you simply don't exist in that answer.
This matters for small brands because AI search is growing fast, particularly for service-based searches, "who should I hire for X" queries, and any question that starts with "what is" or "how do".
How GEO differs from traditional SEO
Traditional SEO is largely about signals: keywords, backlinks, page speed, technical structure. You're optimising for an algorithm that ranks pages.
GEO is about authority and clarity. You're optimising for a system that reads your content and decides whether it's worth citing.
The question it's realllllyyyy asking is: does this source give a clear, trustworthy, specific answer to this question?
That means:
Clarity beats cleverness (always)
AI tools don't reward stylish evasion. If your about page says you "create transformative brand experiences for visionary founders," an AI tool has no idea what you actually do. If it says "I'm a brand strategist based in Brighton, working with independent and purpose-led businesses on positioning, messaging and website strategy," that's citeable and as an FYI thats me!
Specificity beats volume
One post that comprehensively answers a specific question, "what is ethical marketing?" is worth more to an AI than ten posts that vaguely gesture towards a topic.
Niching down is important here, the more specific you can be, the better it’ll be for your results, especially if you can precisely answer the question with credible answers.
Structure matters
The clearer and more coherent the content, the better the AI will be able to interpret and redistribute your content, so we’re essentially writing for the AIs, no matter whether you agree with it or not, unfortunately that’s the best way to get cited and continue to evolve with the modern world and how search is moving.
What small brands should actually do
You don't need a complete GEO strategy document. You need a few practical habits:
Answer real questions directly: For every page on your site, ask: what question does this page answer? Make sure the answer is in the first two paragraphs, clearly stated. Not implied. Not alluded to. Stated.
Maintain consistent entity signals: AI tools build a picture of who you are based on everything they can find. Your name, location, services and expertise should say the same thing across your website, Google Business Profile, social media and any press mentions. Inconsistency creates noise. Clarity creates authority.
Be mentioned somewhere other than your own site: Being cited by other sources, press, directories, industry blogs, collaborators, tells AI tools that real people in the world consider you a legitimate voice. One good external mention carries significant weight.
Add FAQ sections to your service pages: AI Overviews are particularly likely to pull from clearly formatted Q&A content.
A short FAQ block on each of your landing pages gives AI tools something easy to cite, and it’s also super useful for your customers to be able to see all of the useful information relating to your services in one place.
Write with depth: Surface-level content written for reach doesn't perform well in AI search. Content that genuinely explains something, takes a position, or answers a question better than anyone else does, that's what gets cited.
The good news for independent brands
GEO actually levels the playing field somewhat. Authority comes from clarity and expertise, not ad budget. A single strategist who writes with genuine knowledge will outperform a large agency that publishes generic content, if the writing is specific enough.
