Generative Engine Optimization: Use AI-Search Engines To Drive Traffic To Your Site

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is emerging as a crucial strategy for businesses looking to capitalize on the growing market of AI search engines. 

By optimizing for GEO now, you can significantly enhance your website’s visibility and drive substantial traffic — as AI-first search is expected to grow from 13 million in 2023 to an astounding 90 million by 2027. AI search’s explosive growth isn’t a secret. At RedTree, we’re already helping our clients leverage GEO to capture their market share early on — and we’re sharing our GEO insights with you!

To help you stay ahead of the curve, this guide will cover the key differences between AI search engines and traditional search engines, along with high-impact GEO strategies to increase visibility in AI search engines.

What Is Generative Engine Optimization?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the process of enhancing your website’s content to appear within AI search engine results by implementing strategies such as structured data, optimized readability, and clear content organization. (Did you catch that table of contents right above this paragraph?)

The goal of GEO is to ensure that your content is easily interpreted by AI, which prioritizes user-centric experiences and accuracy over keyword-focused approaches. As AI search technologies continue to evolve, mastering GEO is essential to maintaining and increasing web visibility.

Similarly to SEO, GEO can help your site gain traffic. In fact, the data shows AI traffic is only expected to increase in the coming years and recent statistics make that clear:

• Google announced that AI overviews get more clicks than results in traditional web searches.
• Garter predicts that AI search engines will snap up 25% of traditional search engine traffic by 2026.
• Marketers are already tracking AI traffic using Google Analytics. (We’ve also recorded AI search engines as a source of traffic for some of our clients.)

AI Search Engines VS. Traditional Search Engines

AI search engines, such as SearchGPT and Perplexity AI, use advanced machine learning (ML) and large language models (LLMs) to provide personalized, conversational, and contextually relevant responses to user queries, while traditional search engines, such as Google and Bing, rely on keyword matching and complex algorithms to generate a list of related webpage links.

AI Search Engine Optimization: What Works & Why?

While AI search engines haven’t explicitly released a set of guidelines to increase visibility in generative engine responses, some data demonstrates the effectiveness of GEO. We evaluated key findings from the GEO: Generative Engine Optimization study and analyzed AI bot crawling stats from CloudFlare to provide data-backed methods to improve visibility in generative engine results. Here are our findings on AI search engine ranking factors:

1. The Higher Your Site Ranks On Traditional Search Engines, The More Likely It Is To Be Crawled By AI Bots: An analysis of bot crawling activity conducted by CloudFlare clearly demonstrated the higher-ranked or more popular your site is, the more likely it is to be crawled or targeted by AI bots. 
2. These Bots Are Scraping Information To Train The LLMs That Power AI Search Engines: AI search engines scrape data from publicly available data on the internet. 
3. It’s Possible To Optimize A Site To Increase Visibility In AI Responses: The study that coined the term GEO found that it was possible to make changes to a site to increase its visibility in AI responses after the site was already crawled by AI bots. 
4. Cite Sources, Quotes, and Statistics: Adding credible citations, quotes, and relevant statistics improved visibility in AI search responses by up to 40%.
5. Content Presentation Matters: Improving fluency and readability led to a 15-30% visibility boost, highlighting generative engines’ preference for well-presented content.
6. Ineffectiveness of Keyword Stuffing: Much like SEO, GEO doesn’t reward tactics that aim to game the system, such as keyword stuffing, but keyword relevance remains important for ranking well in traditional search engines which can help boost visibility in generative search engines.

How To Perform Generative Engine Optimization

Adopting targeted optimization strategies will help your content stand out in AI search environments. AI search engines prioritize content that is relevant, authoritative, structured, and technically sound. Here’s an overview of effective GEO strategies designed to elevate your site’s visibility in generative AI search results:

• Help AI Understand Your Website Content
• Optimize For Technical SEO
• Implement EEAT-Focused Content Strategy

Help AI Understand Your Website Content

AI search engines and traditional search engines share the goal of accessing and understanding web content to deliver relevant results. However, AI engines leverage machine learning and natural language processing to interpret user queries in a more conversational and contextual way.

To optimize for AI, ensure your content is skimmable and well-structured. Further, implementing schema markup can help AI accurately parse and present your content, enhancing your visibility in AI-generated search results. 

Implement Schema Markup

Schema markup is a code that you add to your website’s HTML to improve the way search engines read and present your page in search results. By using schema markup, you help AI search engines interpret the context and meaning of your content, which can improve visibility and ranking in search results. 

Schema markup can help generate rich snippets, which are detailed information blocks that appear in search engine results, providing users with more context and potentially increasing click-through rates. 

Here’s a table explaining various types of schema markup and how they assist AI:

Schema Markup Type	Description	How It Helps AI Understand Content
FAQ	Defines structured question and answer content	Helps AI identify and present common questions and answers directly in search results, providing clearer, more relevant answers to user queries.
HowTo	Outlines step-by-step instructions	Assists AI in understanding procedural content, enabling it to display concise how-to guides in search results.
Q&A (Question & Answer)	Represents community-driven Q&A content	Allows AI to efficiently parse questions and varied answers, increasing engagement by offering rich responses.
ImageObject	Provides metadata about images	Enhances AI’s ability to index images correctly, potentially improving search ranking and visibility through image search.
VideoObject	Offers metadata about video content	Aids AI in indexing and displaying video snippets, ensuring videos are more discoverable across search engines.
Review	Details user reviews of products or services	Helps AI understand user sentiment and feedback, enhancing the display of ratings and reviews in search results.
AggregateRating	Summarizes overall ratings scores	Allows AI to compile and display composite ratings, adding valuable information for users in search results.
Speakable	Highlights sections of content suitable for audio playback	Improves how AI technology delivers spoken results for queries, particularly useful for voice-activated searches.

How To Generate & Validate Schema Markup

Many SEO plugins, like Rank Math and Yoast, can be used to automatically add schema markup on your website, making it easier to enhance your content with structured data. Additionally, Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper is a tool that guides you through adding schema markup to your web pages to improve search visibility and enable rich snippets.

Once you’ve implemented schema markup, you can use Google’s Rich Results Test to verify that your structured data is correctly integrated and qualifies for Google’s enhanced search features. Alternatively, the Schema Validator Tool provides a comprehensive assessment of your markup without Google-specific errors called out.

Implement Clear Content Structure & Organization

A well-structured article enhances reader engagement and search visibility by enabling AI to accurately categorize and display your content in response to relevant queries. Here are some tips to help improve your content’s structure and organization: 

• Organize with Headings & Subheadings: Use a logical structure with clear headings and subheadings to guide readers and AI through your content. (Notice how we use subheaders to make content easier to skim?)
• Summarize Key Takeaways: Conclude sections with concise summaries to reinforce major points, ensuring they are easily identifiable to AI.
• Keep Sections Concise: Break information into manageable parts, aiding in comprehension and making content more digestible for both readers and AI.

Optimize For Short Attention Spans

In an era of information overload, optimizing content for short attention spans is critical. This involves distilling your message into both detailed and easily digestible formats. Here are our tips for ensuring that your content caters to the modern audience with ever-shrinking attention spans: 

• Summarize Content & Include Key Takeaways: Provide summaries and highlight key takeaways to ensure essential information is immediately accessible.
• Balance In-Depth Information & Quick Overviews: Offer both comprehensive insights and succinct summary sections to cater to diverse reader preferences.
• Answer Questions Early: Address the primary question early in the content, allowing readers to find answers quickly and decide if they want to explore further.
• Add Infographics & Videos: Visual aids such as infographics and videos are easily referenced, shareable, and provide a quickly summarized version of your points. Adding your brand logo or name within the visual aid can help increase your brand’s visibility.

Optimize For Technical SEO

Optimizing your website for technical SEO is essential to improving search visibility, especially in AI-driven environments. Technical SEO ensures your site operates efficiently, is accessible to search engines, and provides a seamless user experience. This is vital in today’s landscape where AI search engines prioritize sites that are fast, mobile-friendly, and technically sound, aligning with both SEO and GEO principles.

Page Speed

Page speed is a key factor in both SEO and GEO as it directly impacts the user experience. Users expect pages to load quickly, so slow load times may lead to higher bounce rates and reduced engagement. By optimizing page speed, you can easily avoid these pitfalls.

Prioritizing efficient loading times improves your site’s visibility and ranking in AI search engine results, as AI algorithms favor delivering fast, smooth user experiences.

How To Improve Your Site’s Page Speed

• Enable browser caching to store static files locally and reduce load times for returning visitors.
• Optimize and compress images to maintain quality while minimizing file size.
• Minimize CSS and JavaScript files by removing unnecessary code and whitespace.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute your content globally and decrease server response times.
• Prioritize asynchronous loading for CSS and JavaScript to prevent rendering delays.

Want to boost your site speed but not sure where to start? Our team is here to help with expert technical SEO services, including making the optimizations that will keep your site zippy and user-friendly. Get in touch!

Mobile Optimization For GEO

As Google has switched to mobile-first indexing, mobile site optimization is more important than ever. As the vast majority of searches now occur on mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly site promotes better visibility and performance in search results. AI search engines emphasize mobile optimization, as they strive to provide users with relevant content accessible on any device.

How to Optimize Your Site For Mobile

• Use responsive design to ensure your site adapts to various screen sizes.
• Minimize page elements that may slow down mobile loading times.
• Implement accelerated mobile pages (AMP) to enhance performance on mobile devices.
• Optimize images and media for mobile loading and display.

Need a hand keeping your site healthy? RedTree’s BLOSSOM service combines ongoing site maintenance, website audits, and SEO strategy to keep your site running smoothly. If you need a hand, we’re here to help. Reach out!

Perform Regular Website Audits

Regular website audits are vital for maintaining your site’s health and ensuring it remains competitive in both traditional and AI-powered search engines. Audits can identify issues that might hinder indexing and visibility, allowing you to correct them swiftly and maintain optimal performance.

Key Technical SEO Issues To Look For & Fix

• Resolve broken links and fix redirect errors.
• Identify and correct indexing issues that may be preventing pages from appearing in search results.
• Optimize for crawl efficiency by ensuring proper site structure and sitemap configuration.
• Enhance security protocols, such as SSL, to secure your site and improve trustworthiness.

Implement EEAT-Focused Content Strategy

Both SEO and GEO reward credible, factual, and informative content from reputable sources. Fortunately, Google has defined the factors that are used to evaluate whether content meets those standards: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT). 

Effective EEAT strategies consider who authors or creates content. It’s essential to leverage subject matter experts (SMEs) who have the qualifications and credibility to lend authority to your site’s content. Linking an author’s personal about pages or LinkedIn profiles can also provide a boost by clearly showcasing their expertise and professional background.

EEAT is the foundation of Google’s push to promote people-first content, but it can also be used as guidelines used to create the type of content that generative engine responses seem to favor.

Here’s a look at how EEAT principles can help boost a site’s visibility in AI search engine responses: 

EEAT Element	Strategies	Benefits for AI Search Visibility
Experience	Fill content gaps with firsthand experience and unique insights.	Unique content can feature in AI overviews, increasing visibility.
Expertise	Showcase accreditations and awards.	Establishes credibility, leading to higher trust by AI algorithms.
Authority	Build quality backlinks and diversify content.	Signals authority, enhancing ranking potential in AI results.
Trustworthiness	Ensure site security and factual information; display credentials.	Increases trust, encouraging AI systems to favor your content.

Experience: Fill Content Gaps

Research indicates that content filling informational gaps and presenting novel data often gains visibility in AI search results. These models prioritize content covering topics that traditional rankings may overlook. As many content gaps often represent experience gaps, they tend to be low-hanging fruit for the savvy marketer. 

Identifying content gaps can be done with SEO tools, such as Ahrefs, via competitor research, and by auditing your own website content. Regardless of the method you choose, here are two effective strategies for increasing your content’s experience signals: 

• Tried-and-Tested Advice: Offer guidance rooted in practical applications by including specific case studies or real-world examples that effectively demonstrate your methods. This adds credibility and authority, which AI models recognize when determining content relevance.

• Authentic Insights and Opinions: Differentiate your content by sharing personal experiences or unique industry-specific insights. This uniqueness makes your content a valuable addition to AI-generated summaries, which prioritize fresh perspectives and comprehensive data to enhance user engagement.

Expertise: Build Your Brand

When content consistently demonstrates expertise, it benefits by generating citations and response visibility in AI-generated outputs. Additionally, brand expertise goes a long way to ward bolstering other elements of EEAT principles, including authoritativeness and trustworthiness. 

Here are some ways to showcase your brand’s authority by emphasizing proven expertise:

• Accreditations and Awards: Clearly display industry-specific accreditations, awards, or recognitions. These provide tangible proof of your expertise, which AI algorithms consider when evaluating the credibility of content sources.
• Data-Driven Insights: Support your claims with factual data, research, and statistics. Well-researched content bolstered by credible citations improves your integration into AI systems’ search responses by up to 40%, according to GEO findings.

Authority: Build Your Backlink Profile

Authority is tied to your site’s reputation and how well you signal to readers and search engines that you’re a source of truth. Generally, sites with a high authority rating will have a strong backlink profile with multiple backlinks from top-performing or high-authority sites, such as major newspapers and .gov sites. 

High-quality backlinks are challenging to earn and therefore, serve as a sort of status signifier across both traditional search results and generative engine responses. Here are some proven ways to increase your site’s authority:

• High-Quality Backlinks: Prioritize earning links from authoritative and respected sources within your industry. These backlinks signal trustworthiness to AI systems, as they usually track the quality and relevance of peer endorsements.

• Diversified Content Formats: Include various content types such as videos, infographics, and interactive elements to appeal to broader audience preferences. Diversification engages users, extends audience reach, and increases the chances of AI systems incorporating your content due to its higher engagement metrics.

RedTree’s Tips To Maximize Your Backlinking

• Guest blog on reputable niche sites to gain authoritative backlinks.
• Publish unique research or surveys to attract backlink references.
• Collaborate with industry influencers to access their backlink networks.
• Use broken link building by replacing broken links with your content.
• Analyze competitors’ backlinks with tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs for opportunities.
• Design infographics and promote sharing with credit back to your site.
• Create comprehensive evergreen content to encourage continuous linking.

Trustworthiness: Build Your User Experience

As the most important component of EEAT, Trustworthiness considers whether a site and its content is safe, accurate, and reliable. A site that is untrustworthy is unlikely to perform well on any of the other EEAT areas. Conversely, a site’s trustworthiness is likely to be enhanced by positive performance in the other areas of EEAT.

High trust signals encourage generative search engines to elevate your content, especially in industries where reliability is crucial, such as medicine or science.

As trustworthiness can enhance EEAT, it’s imperative to focus on these elements to bolster user confidence and AI recognition:

• Secure and Transparent Website: Ensure your site is secure with SSL certificates and provide a clear pathway for user communication via contact information. Security signals and transparency drive user trust, which AI algorithms consider when ranking content.

• Factual Data and Certifications: Clearly display verifiable data and any relevant certifications or credentials. This transparency builds user trust and improves your site’s reliability signal to AI systems.

Measure & Track Your Success

To effectively leverage the strategies outlined, it’s essential to measure and track your success consistently. Start by monitoring your site’s performance in AI-generated overviews and track the traffic coming from AI search engines using tools like Google Analytics (GA). (more on that below!)

Always keep an eye on engagement metrics to understand user interactions with your content. Revamp or revise any content that doesn’t perform well to keep it aligned with evolving AI technologies and user expectations.

Additionally, consider incorporating advanced analytics tools for measuring non-traditional metrics, such as sentiment analysis, which can further influence your AI search rankings. Setting clear benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you identify and quantify success over time, allowing for strategic adjustments as needed.

How To Track AI Traffic In Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

In the evolving landscape of digital analytics, accurately tracking AI traffic is becoming increasingly important for optimizing your generative engine strategies. To help you track the effectiveness of your GEO efforts, we’ve put together a quick, step-by-step guide to tracking AI traffic in GA4. 

Use A GA4 Filter To Track AI Traffic

1. From your GA4 Reports dashboard, select the “Traffic acquisition” detail report.
2. Select the pencil icon located at the top right-hand side of the screen to begin customizing the report.
3. Under “Report Filter” select “Add filter.”
4. Select “Session source” as the dimension.
5. Select “Matches regex” from the dropdown under “Match Type.”
6. In the value box, enter the following regex expression: (?i).(.ai$|copilot|gpt|chatgpt|openai|neeva|writesonic|nimble|outrider|perplexity|google.bard|bard|edgeservices|gemini.google).
7. Select “Session source” as the session source scope. This option is immediately underneath the “Plot rows” entry box on the bottom left of the screen.

Key Takeaways On AI & SEO

The integration of AI into SEO strategies is not just a trend; it’s a fundamental shift toward how digital visibility is achieved and maintained in a rapidly evolving online landscape. By adopting a GEO approach and focusing on EEAT principles, schema markup, and technical optimizations, your site is well-positioned to capture traffic from this burgeoning AI search user base.

Stay informed about advancements in AI technology to keep your strategies relevant and effective. The key to long-term success lies in the continuous adaptation to these technologies and fostering a forward-thinking mindset.