Double the impact of your website’s search strategy with shared organic and generative search tactics
Folks are fixated on A.I. search these days. From C-suites to SME-tweets, everyone is wondering (and often worrying) about the effect of LLM platforms on bottom lines. It’s only logical, given that the A.I. sea change sometimes seems like a tsunami warning.
Fortunately, your brand benefits in both traditional organic search and the new generative search via essentially the same enhancements. Read on for your SEO-GEO twofer.
Pssst, SEO tactics are your GEO secret weapon
A.I. search is essentially organic search. It may not seem like it, but hear me out. In order to catch the attention of LLM platforms, as well as to build the kind of trust needed to be cited and mentioned in answer-engine answers, you need to be SEO seaworthy. Ride out that tsunami. Heck, surf its rising tide. Catch the wave ahead of your competitors. Do it all by doing search engine optimization as your foundational generative engine optimization (GEO) strategy. Yes, good old, unassuming organic search best practices are investments that return benefits in both Google organic search and A.I. search too.
How are generative search and organic search similar?
As an SEO expert with 20+ years of hands-on experience, I can answer this question. And I promise you that I’m grounded in having weathered plenty of past weather alerts and disaster warnings–all of which have prepared me to say that the current alarms over A.I. are justified while also being just a tad dramatic (more on that below).
Here are some key ways in which generative search is like and organic search:
- A.I. search is also unpaid placement.
- LLMs look at your website like Googlebot does.
- GEO, like SEO, improves site content, tech, UX, and branding.
- End-users regard these glorious computer programs as authoritative.
- LLM platforms are barometers of brand authority and awareness.
Of course, there are important differences between Google’s search experience and the ways in which humans interact with the ChatGPTs and Claudes of the search world. Users are becoming less focused on the familiar ten blue links of organic search and sticking to the generative search interfaces, where semantic results are created for each individual versus the static webpages that are the destinations of those blue-link clicks.
Clicks, you say? Yes, the clicks are different too. While LLM platforms include clickable citations, they drive far less traffic than organic search results do. However, that is the nature of the LLM beast, and the focus should actually be right exactly here: You need to adhere to SEO best practices to perform optimally in both the realm of the blue links and the new empire of the most-cited content.
How do GEO and SEO best practices double your ROI?
For every important SEO recommendation, there’s a GEO payoff. Your Organic Search Roadmap carries a great, bit bonus destination: improved generative engine results. Remember that tsunami metaphor from above? Well, your Search Roadmap now leads your business to higher ground, ensuring that the same investment of your team resources benefits your brand’s performance in organic search and generative search simultaneously.
The following pillars of search engine optimization are also equally substantial GEO supports:
- Keyword research: While it’s harder to get actual search-volume data for LLM prompts, the same principle applies: You need to appeal to real-world user searches throughout your website experience.
- Content development: Like Googlebot, LLM platforms seek trustworthy, helpful content that is focused on driving real value to real human beings. Your content needs to be better than ever in the A.I. age.
- Technical excellence: While some of the actual in-platform reasons might be somewhat different, the benefits of tech best practices like achieving Core Web Vitals KPIs, leveraging Schema data, and refining your XML Sitemap are shared between GEO and SEO.
- Brand authority: Building and emphasizing your brand awareness (including good brand sentiment) through off-site references, inbound links from authoritative websites, and proactive engagement with users is doubly important and impactful.
Is everything parallel between GEO and SEO?
To be clear, there are differences and fine distinctions among some of these points. But the important point is that doing the SEO work optimizes your generative search performance, and vice-versa.
Are you ready to win at both GEO and SEO?
It’s definitely time. The most competitive businesses are taking generative search very seriously, especially as organic searchers are adopting generative search in increasing numbers. While Google visits of approximately 400 billion in December 2025 dwarfed ChatGPTs visits of 5.8 billion, the world’s biggest LLM platform will keep growing, along with all of its own competitors. So let’s discuss how I can help you double your search ROI with a strategy that benefits both your SEO and GEO.
