With the rapid emergence and relevance of AI in the way that we source our information, this blog looks at the role of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) to understand how businesses can maximise their exposure online. According to a 2024 poll by Forbes, approximately 79% of Brits use generative AI to help them at work and a more recent poll by financial technology platform, Adyen, revealed that around a third of UK customers now use AI to shop. Ultimately, it’s about future-proofing your business, learning how the power of AI, SEO and GEO can help your SME stand out and grow.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO is the practice of improving your website so it appears higher in traditional search engine results (Google, Bing, Yahoo!). It focuses on signals that help crawlers index and rank your content, such as:

• Keywords and on-page structure (H1s and meta descriptions)
• Backlinks and authority
• Technical performance (speed, mobile, security)

Why it matters:

• Search engines are still the main way people discover websites.
• Ranking highly drives sustainable, long-term organic traffic.
• Without SEO, your site risks being invisible in competitive searches.

(GEO) Generative Engine Optimisation

GEO is about optimising your content so that AI-driven search tools and assistants (e.g. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot) can find, interpret, and surface your business in responses. Generative engines:

• Read and summarise information.
• Attribute or cite sources (sometimes selectively).
• Provide conversational answers where your business may or may not appear.

Why it matters:

• More and more users are bypassing traditional search results in favour of AI-generated answers.
• If your content isn’t structured for generative AI, you risk being left out of future discovery.
• GEO will become a major factor in lead generation and brand visibility.

Best Practices for a Marketing-led Website

SEO best practices have been consistent for a long time. To maximise SEO you should:

• Perform keyword research, to understand what your audience is searching for.
• Publish authoritative pages such as blogs and in-depth guides.
• Optimise metadata, headings and alt text.
• Ensure that your site is fast, mobile responsive, secured with an SSL certificate and is easy to navigate.
• Harness high quality backlinks from other authoritative websites to strengthen your own authority.

Meanwhile, generative search engines are much more focused on the structure and credibility of content. To maximise GEO you should:

• Create content with Q&A formatting, offer concise definitions and use headings that are easy to draw context from.
• Utilise citations, reviews and author bios to provide credibility.
• Use Schema markup to effectively label your content so that search engines and AI can understand the context and the meaning of its content.

Conclusion

SEO and GEO work together to ensure that your site is discoverable by traditional search engines and included and cited in AI-driven answers. Together, they future proof your marketing led website, helping to attract traffic from both Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and generative AI platforms.