How to Get Cited by AI: 6 GEO Tactics for the Generative Search Era

You may need heard that web optimization is dead and that the only thing you’ve to care about now could be GEO. Well, in point of fact, this is way from the truth. In fact, the whole web optimization vs. GEO battle shouldn’t be a battle in any respect. Because GEO can only work when it’s built on top of strong web optimization.

Still, after all, generative search has introduced quite a few changes. And understanding them is a must to get cited by AI and stay visible in the LLM era. These are exactly the things we’ll address in today’s guide to assist you to learn the way the AI search works and the way you’ll be able to optimize for it.

What Is Generative web optimization, and How Does It Work?

Generative web optimization (often called GEO or Generative Engine Optimization) is largely the means of optimizing for AI search. This includes Google’s AI Overviews and LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.

If you’ve been doing web optimization before, you understand how Google ranks its pages. But that’s not how AI models select their sources. In fact, most of the AI citations don’t overlap with the top 10 leads to the traditional Google/Bing search.

Source: Ahrefs

Why does this occur? To answer this query, we’d like to understand how AI answers work in the first place. Of course, it’s quite a technical process, but when we simplify it, it comes down to the following 3 steps:

1. Query evaluation. First, AI tries to understand what a user actually needs (i.e., the search intent). Based on this, it’s going to start looking for the needed information each online and inside its internal knowledge.
2. Retrieval and extraction. This is the process where AI starts to collect all the potential sources and extract a few of the passages and other information to form a solution.
3. Answer delivery and citation. Here, AI takes all the information it got and creates the actual response (often by writing its own answer as a substitute of copy-pasting another person’s). Then, it cites a few of the major sources it used.

web optimization vs. GEO: Similarities and Differences

While AI adoption is large lately, and we regularly hear that AI can replace humans in lots of areas, GEO isn’t here to replace traditional web optimization. At least, not yet. Instead, you would like to use each for your visibility.

So, how are generative web optimization and organic SEO different? 

There are several distinctions in the primary goals, tactics, user interactions, and metrics you measure. Here is a fast visual comparison:

Still, web optimization and GEO even have several things in common, as each:

• Require quality content and good structure.
• Need backlinks from relevant web sites.
• Rely on topical authority and the overall credibility.
• Are long-term metrics that take time to deliver tangible results.

Now, the most vital query: do you would like each web optimization and GEO? Absolutely!

6 Proven GEO Tactics to Get Cited by AI

Many web sites aren’t ready for AI search results. That’s true. But it’s also quite easy to fix when you realize what you’re doing. So, how do you optimize for generative web optimization? These are our tested strategies that can improve your AI citation.

1. Make Your Brand More Visible Online

Today, the mentions your enterprise gets matter greater than ever. Of course, strategies for constructing quality backlinks have existed for a protracted time. But with the current GEO era, you’ve to pay special attention to your visibility. 

AI models depend on your brand references as one in every of the major trust signals. And often, your enterprise will appear in AI Overviews or ChatGPT thanks to a mention on Reddit, Quora, G2, YouTube, etc. What’s more, to get cited, even an unlinked name drop can work.

Source: SurferSEO

That’s exactly why it is best to prioritize the following:

• Creating company profiles on review platforms. Whether it’s G2, Trustradius, Capterra, or Clutch, all of those can assist you to get more reviews and, due to this fact, visibility.
• Building more backlinks from relevant web sites. You can gain these by writing guest posts, doing PR, getting area of interest edits, partnering with other businesses in your area of interest, etc. 
• Having lively social media accounts. This gives you more exposure and more opportunities to get your content shared further.
• Being present on forums. Managing your communities on Reddit, Quora, and other forums will assist you to get cited in generative search. It works because these are popular AI sources to get more realistic reviews and suggestions.
• Try getting on “X best/top…” lists. ChatGPT and other LLMs often depend on these lists to select the best options to recommend. So, work on getting mentioned in these.

2. Build Your Trustworthiness

Since your predominant goal for generative engine optimization is to change into a source for AI, you’ve to make sure that that LLMs can trust you. While trust sounds too broad and is mostly hard to measure, there are some very particular things you’ll be able to do to improve it:

• Make it clear what you do throughout the web. If you’re an web optimization agency, that’s what try to be in every single place. You can’t be a link-building company on one website, a technical optimization service on one other, and a content marketing platform someplace else.
• Work in your industry leadership. You have to make sure that that your name means something in your area of interest. For this, write expert content, attend industry conferences, collaborate with others, do quality content marketing, etc.
• Only gain and mention trusted links. When getting backlinks, you’ve to make sure that the referring domains may be trusted. The same goes for the outbound links you add to your website. So, when it comes to backlink constructing and your write for us strategy, be selective and, if needed, use AI web optimization tools to assess potential web pages.
• Write trustworthy content. It is likely to be tough for AI models to understand whether your blog posts are credible. So, it’s vital you reference well-known sources, add creator bio (preferably with links to socials), use research and data to prove your points, add real-life examples, etc.

3. Structure Your Content for AI

In order for AI models to use your content, it needs to have a correct structure. Otherwise, it’s going to be unimaginable for them to retrieve the data. What does “proper structure” mean, though? Overall, it comes down to the following:

• Use subheadings (H2, H3, H4). These are vital to help each readers and LLMs navigate through your content and understand its scope faster.
• Add bullet points and numbered lists. It’s a quite simple touch that makes your copy far more digestible. 
• Write briefly, clear sentences. The more fluffy your copy gets, the harder it’s to get cited by AI. So, at all times check your readability with Hemingway or every other similar tool.
• Give direct answers. If your H2 is “What is keto weight-reduction plan?” Your answer needs to be very direct: “Keto weight-reduction plan is…” And only after are you able to add any additional details you wish.
• Add small summaries throughout the content. A extremely good practice is to add TL;DR, key insights, etc., in your articles (especially once they’re long).
• Use FAQs. Direct and easy-to-follow FAQ sections help LLMs get the needed information out of your website. But only add these once they actually offer more context.

4. Use Schema Markup

Schema markup is structured data that helps AI models (and traditional search bots, for that matter) understand your content. 

Besides, it will probably also assist you to get wealthy results, which regularly improve CTR thanks to the additional information displayed in SERPs (like reviews, prices, address, images, etc.). While it’s optional, it will probably be really helpful to add context and clarity to your content.

Source: Ahrefs

5. Write Deeper Content

You can’t possibly expect to create some low-quality articles that haven’t any real value and get cited with that content. If you wish your generative web optimization to work, you would like to work on the depth of what you publish. Why does this matter?

You see, to give higher answers, LLMs typically use a question fan-out approach. This means analyzing several related searches as a substitute of only one. By doing this, they may give users a more detailed response.

Source: Semrush

That’s exactly why when your articles address several questions related to your topic, you get more possibilities of getting cited. The simplest way to start is by:

• Addressing your topic from different angles.
• Aiming for longer pieces (500 words can’t be enough to cover any topic well).
• Adding your personal experience and latest perspectives.
• Supporting your copy with relevant visuals.
• Trying to write fuller and deeper articles than what’s already on the market.

6. Make Sure Your Traditional web optimization Is on Point

Even if you happen to hire a specialized GEO agency, they’ll likely let you know to fix your web optimization first. And this may be quite surprising to many. But you already know the real difference between the two, so it shouldn’t be that shocking for you. 

Reality is that this: you’ll be able to optimize for AI search as much as you would like, but when these web optimization basics are off, your results can be removed from perfect:

• Clear website structure (yes, AI loves structure)
• Indexability and crawlability (your content has to be available to rank or be cited)
• On-page optimization (all the meta tags still matter)
• Page speed and Core Web Vitals (your website can’t take endlessly to load)

Source: PageSpeed Insights

FAQ

What is the difference between GEO and traditional web optimization?

The predominant difference is that GEO is concentrated on optimizing for AI citations while web optimization is all about getting ranked in the top 10 search results.

Will GEO replace web optimization?

No, no less than not in the near future. While GEO tactics are different from the usual web optimization, traditional optimization remains to be a foundation of GEO.

Why is GEO vital in web optimization?

Doing web optimization today without accounting for GEO is not sensible because generative search is getting increasingly more popular. So, to remain visible online, you’ve to get your brand and content cited in AI.

Conclusion

Now, you realize that web optimization vs. GEO “combat” isn’t about who wins. It’s about using each to get the best results and rank in each traditional and generative serps. Simply start by ensuring your good old web optimization is doing well, after which regularly layer in all the GEO tactics we’ve seen today.