The world is changing rapidly around us. There’s a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool launching seemingly every day, and far too many businesses are scrambling to keep pace with new buyer demands and search habits.
No matter how things evolve, however, showing up in search will always be important. After all, whether you're a software company in the healthcare, cybersecurity, finance, or legal space, the market is only getting more crowded, and customers have increasingly more options available to them. Search optimization is — and likely always will be — king.
But the way people search is shifting, making it difficult for businesses to know exactly how to reach customers via AI search tools. What is AEO? What is GEO? What exactly is a large language model (LLM), and how do you optimize your content so LLMs find and surface your brand? Understanding the nuances of these AI-based search optimization approaches is the ticket to staying on top of search trends and staying ahead of the competition.
Here’s a breakdown that can help marketing teams keep pace in a rapidly shifting landscape.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has been part and parcel of brand marketing for decades, and as digital marketing has evolved, it’s become a must-have strategy for any modern business.
The approach involves several core pillars:
SEO has evolved throughout the past decades, but the recent AI boom has put that evolution in overdrive. Still, the core elements above are still highly relevant today, and keeping up with AI search optimization doesn’t mean getting rid of SEO practices altogether.
Instead, it means adapting to the new intelligent technologies search engines are using, and the new AI answering tools — like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity AI, and Microsoft Copilot — that customers are using to do their research.
While the SEO of old still applies, here’s a quick look at the new frontier of search optimization:
| Search Optimization Strategy | Goal |
|---|---|
| Generative engine optimization (GEO) | Rank highly within search engines powered by AI solutions. |
| Answer engine optimization (AEO) | Get chosen as the direct answer to a user’s question within a highly saturated search landscape. |
| Large language model optimization (LLMO) | Show up in answers from AI search technologies like ChatGPT or Gemini. |
Generative engine optimization is an umbrella strategy that accounts for the fact that nearly all major search engines are using AI to power their search results. Google’s AI Mode, for example, uses Gemini’s AI technology to serve up intelligent answers to users’ queries, image searches, or “Deep Searches.”
Generative engines review large amounts of data and synthesize responses quickly. They prioritize clear, informative details that directly answer specific questions.
In short, GEO is all about feeding AI engines the right information to enable them to generate full responses, rather than a list of web pages, which is what SEO achieves.
The goal with GEO is to optimize your digital content to ensure AI search engines can effectively crawl and rank your page highly in search results — a strategy that can increase your content’s search visibility by up to 40%, according to a 2024 study.
That same study identified the following tactics as supportive of a strong GEO search optimization approach:
In today’s search landscape, GEO is vital for any business of any size. It’s an essential strategy that should combine with SEO to form the backbone of more advanced search optimization efforts. If you aren’t sure where to start, begin with the AEO tactics below.
The more people use AI-powered search engines, the more they trust those tools to give them relevant answers to their questions. In fact, Search Engine Land reports that 79% of people in the U.S. trust AI search engines and 77% trust AI chatbots.
What is AEO? It’s the process of reaching these trusting users by optimizing content to answer the conversational questions users typically ask AI search engines.
While SEO accounts for specific terms or phrases that users enter into search engines, AEO focuses more on having a conversation with a user. Keywords are important, of course, but it’s even more critical to provide highly specific, relevant, and informative details that connect directly with users’ needs.
The goal with AEO strategies is to show up in search as a direct answer to a user’s question, be it in voice search, featured snippets, AI overviews, or “People Also Ask” boxes.
Follow these AEO tactics:
Businesses with customers who tend to use conversational queries should make AEO a marketing priority. Healthcare companies, for example, should infuse AEO strategies into their marketing playbooks, as many buyers or patients frequently ask in-depth questions about healthcare technology, conditions, or billing processes.
After establishing the GEO building blocks, adding AEO tactics can help connect your business to your target audience. Start by doing a deep dive on your audience: What are they asking? What do they need from your company? In what ways are they searching for answers?
Traditional search engines like Google are still running the search game today. But Gartner research notes that volume for traditional search will drop 25% by 2026 as AI chatbots like ChatGPT become increasingly popular. Even today, more than 400 million people use OpenAI tools every week, TechCrunch reports.
LLMO is the process through which businesses optimize content specifically for solutions like ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity AI, and Gemini — which are often used independently of traditional search engines like Google.
SEO is geared toward making your content rank highly in search, while LLMO accounts for a more expansive understanding of the way users find information. The goal is to ensure your content shows up and ranks not only in traditional search engine results, but also in large language models and other AI-powered chatbots and search tools.
The best way to build an LLMO search optimization approach is to think of your content strategy as a multifaceted and multipronged entity. Rather than simply answering a user’s question, you’re building a full-scale brand relationship with users by engaging authentically with them across all marketing channels. AI search engines will use social platforms, website content, backend tech, crosslinking, and more to serve up the right answers — so your brand needs to optimize content for all these channels.
Consider these strategies:
Businesses and brands of any size can amp up their search optimization strategy by employing LLMO tactics. While this might require a significant time and resource investment now, it will soon become essential as users increasingly turn to AI solutions for answers.
SEO, GEO, AEO, and LLMO are all intertwined in today’s search environment — so much so that it’s difficult to use one strategy without the others. A strong marketing strategy, therefore, does three things:
At Spot On, we stay ahead of the search game so that our clients don’t fall behind. If you’re looking for support keeping pace with new trends and tech, we’ve got you covered. Reach out today to learn how we can help you reach your search optimization goals in the era of AI.
