When someone searches for your brand or CEOโs name online, do you know what appears first?
You may already have an idea of what comes up in Google, but have you wondered what appears when they ask tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, when theyโre trying to find out about your companyโs leadership, structure, or services? Believe it or not, more and more people (including your prospective customers) are turning to AI chatbots for information, so the answer may not be as clear cut as you think.
The search world has shifted exponentially in the last few months. While EAs and companies have spent year after year mastering Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to ensure they appear in the coveted top positions on Googleโs results page for their target keywords, AI is fundamentally changing the game. SEO is still an important marketing strategy, and thatโs not changing anytime soon, but Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is a discipline thatโs fundamentally reshaping how companies and their leadership teams are perceived online.ย
Shifting from Google to ChatGPT for search
Google continues to be the go-to information resource for most people, but now, tools like ChatGPT are taking that a step further, providing personalised and tailored answers to more complex search queries.
In the seemingly never-ending quest for information, questions like, โWhat are the best financial services companies to work for in London, and who are their CEOs?โ are posed to these AI tools. Whatโs then delivered is a synthesised, itemised, and carefully compiled list of companies, their locations, their CEOs, website links and further discussion points. But it doesnโt stop there; these answers can be highly personalised depending on the complexity of the query. The salient point is that this effectively removes the need to click through to various listed websites or LinkedIn profiles if they were to appear on Google, with the user query satisfied in a fraction of the time.
The presence of your companyโs CEO and its wider brand doesnโt solely depend on website rankings anymore. Instead, AI systems interpret and present information from across the web, intricately linking and referencing information from multiple sources. A narrative is created about your brand or CEO, based on the sourcesโ relevancy to the query. While AI accuracy and legitimacy is often questioned, recent data suggests that ChatGPTโs traffic will surpass Googleโs by October 2030 if current trends continue, so capitalising on GEO is smart business from a marketing and visibility standpoint, regardless of your stance.
What exactly is GEO?
GEO is the practice of structuring information so AI systems accurately understand and represent your brand or people when generating responses.ย
Unlike traditional SEO which focuses on rankings and traffic from clicks, GEO ensures AI tools select your content when synthesising answers. GEO is effectively disrupting SEO because, where AI tools and built-in features like Googleโs AI Overviews have become more widely used, click-through rates are dramatically dropping (by 32% according to Search Engine Journal.) If users can obtain the information they need in one detailed AI-generated answer, why would they need to then trawl through website link after website link without any guarantee theyโd find the correct information?
Another challenge of GEO is the risk of perpetuating misinformation via AI, which is again a widely discussed topic. If negative press or incorrect information about your CEO or brand exists across the web, AI narratives can be skewed. If youโre an EA and responsible for heading up a business or executiveโs personal marketing strategy, understanding the fundamentals of succeeding with GEO (in the interests of preserving valuable SEO etiquette you may have already built up) is important.
How to be successful at GEO
Managing what AI says about your brand requires a structured approach built on three foundations.
1. Content authority and clarity
Sources demonstrating clear expertise, authority and trustworthiness are valued by both search engines and AI tools. Ensure your brandโs or executiveโs LinkedIn profile, website and content use consistent language. Check that these don’t contradict each other, contain accurate details, and easy-to-digest formatting to make them passable. Luckily,ย SEO and GEO overlap, because Google has, stemming from its Helpful Content Update, prioritised content relevancy and quality over keyword density and frequency. As AI systems also rely on quality, accurate, digestible content, the presentation of this content is vital. If you deliver content that satisfies E-E-A-T criteria (highly recommended reading) youโre ticking both SEO and GEO boxes.ย
2. Technical optimisation and structured data
AI engines rely on structured data to understand content and context. Schema markup provides helpful signals about your website pages, reducing ambiguity and helping AI digest data quickly and accurately. Consider how information is organised; clear headings, bullet points, and FAQ sections all improve AI (and human) comprehension. The easier you make information extraction, the more likely it appears in generated responses. Donโt forget your brandโs Google Business Profile, either. For instance, Artemis Marketing‘s comprehensive guide on the three pillars to a successful Google Business Profile details how proximity, relevance and trustworthiness form the foundation of local digital presence, principles equally applicable to GEO.
3. Building trust through consistency
AI systems rapidly cross-reference information, but it may misinterpret, exclude or hallucinate it entirely, hence why discussions about authenticity are rampant. Conducting regular audits of your content and wider digital footprint is vital, so that you can verify information as valid and trustworthy. For example, if your CEOโs title and function differs on LinkedIn versus the companyโs website, or achievements or milestones conflict across different platforms, this may affect AI answer integrity. The same due diligence should be exercised across all touchpoints and channels, with the aim of building a collective source of truth, incorporating professional brand integrity solutions where necessary, to ensure AIย delivers factual and relevant answers.Ultimately, every review, mention, and link serves as an authority signal that tells AI your brand is the definitive source to trust.ย ย
Effects of GEO for brand reputation
GEO fundamentally changes how brand reputations are built and maintained in an era where information-gathering is so fast and personalised. When AI generates a response that mentions your company or executive, this becomes valuable to users who may well be actively looking for the types of services they provide, or who may perhaps be considering a partnership or supplier arrangement.
While opportunities exist, there is an underlying sense of vulnerability for some. AI can amplify certain misconceptions or narratives out of context. However, proactive, thoughtful GEO positions your executive as a trustworthy source, that AI references credibly and authoritatively. Recent data from Exploding Topics suggests that 42.1% of users report inaccurate or misleading information in AI Overviews, and only 18.6% will click through to the sources, so factual accuracy remains a priority, whatever your stance.
Your EA role largely revolves around preserving a professional image and integrity for your executive(s). With AI answers very much the norm nowadays, ensuring accuracy and legitimacy at every touchpoint becomes even more important. By engaging early with proper GEO hygiene, you can ensure your companyโs reputation remains strong as technology continues to evolve and influence how people discover, learn about, and evaluate business leaders and trendsetters.
