From Search to AI: The Rise of SEO, AEO & GEO
In today’s digital landscape, achieving visibility is paramount for businesses. Simply posting content is no longer sufficient; businesses need to implement specific strategies that will enable them to reach their target market at the right time. For this reason, it is essential for you to become familiar with and understand the three key methods of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). Using these three methods will impact how search engines, AI assistant technologies, and generative tools rank the content of your website, how users will find your content, and how ready your business is for the future world of AI-based content generation. Your ability to effectively utilise all three forms of optimisation will help create a significant competitive advantage in creating a strong digital presence.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a site on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! Search and Bing. SEO helps business websites to achieve high rankings when potential customers search for information on topics related to their business, and it does this through the use of keyword analysis, content-related improvement, and the establishment of good technical practices to create a high-performing website.
SEO also creates a strong credibility base for a site. Establishing credibility for a site is accomplished through the use of high-quality content, gaining a wealth of backlinks to a site from reputable websites, and providing excellent user experiences to give search engines confidence that users are enjoying the site and using it to accomplish something. A strong emphasis placed on creating quality content, establishing backlinks and providing high-quality experiences for users will result in an increase in the domain authority of a site and help it achieve and maintain higher rankings for better, longer times.
SEO is also closely related to user experience. A positive experience provided through fast load times, mobile-friendly layouts, navigational capabilities and well-structured websites tells search engines that a site provides a positive user experience and that people enjoy using the site and will likely create more engagement with the site, ultimately leading to increased conversions and ongoing growth.
AEO – Answer Engine Optimization
AEO: A Direct and Accurate Response
AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is a method for producing content that will be extracted from Google and other search engines in order to be included as ‘featured snippets’ or as answers when users perform a voice search or respond to a quick-answer box. With the growing number of people using their smartphones (and voice assistants) to conduct online searches, it is crucial that businesses create content that is easy to read, organized, and understandable.
Creating Structured Content to Support AI and Voice Search
The primary difference between AEO and traditional SEO is that AEO pays greater attention to the Format of the content. Content structured with bullet points, FAQ (frequently asked questions), short paragraphs, defined Terms, and marked up with Schema, increases the ability of an AI assistant to parse through the content.
Increasing Your Chances of Being Found Through Voice and AI
With the increasing number of people using voice assistants, AEO has never been more essential. When a user searches via voice search, they will receive only one ‘answer.’ Therefore, the business with content optimised for AEO will be recognised as the authority for that answer. When optimising content for voice and AEO, businesses can dominate the voice response and AI-generated answers category.
GEO – Generative Engine Optimization
The development of an AI Model requires a different recreation process than the authors usually use. Geo is an area of digital marketing that is entirely focused on how to provide a digital presence for your content. The way that digital media has been created over time has allowed for many new ways that consumers can find information. When it comes to providing digitally accessible content to consumers via an AI model, the following will need to be included:
Clarity, Credibility, and Context – The clarity, credibility, and context of the blog post or articles will impact how an AI engine identifies and pulls content from your website. The layout of your blog, how your branding is visually represented through logos or images, the accuracy of the facts contained within it, and how well you give explanations for the concept(s) you discuss in the blog will all be factors that impact the selection of your content by AI engines. As well, GEO provides avenues for creating unique or expert insight into the subject of the blog to create a quality post. This combination of content will allow the AI engines to place higher value on your content; this will allow your content to stand out among its many competitors.
Future-Proofing Your Digital Presence – In today’s marketplace, the use of GEO will position your brand to benefit from AI becoming a more prominent search engine. As more AI-driven search engines become available, early adopters of GEO will see increased visibility among their competitors due to more branded citations and greater authority in comparison to other competitors. In other words, GEO allows your brand to remain ahead of the trend of using AI tools for gathering information.