Ready to Improve Your GEO? Follow These Actionable AI Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
If AI is making you feel tense about your marketing, take a deep breath.
At Webspec, we hear each week from Iowa small businesses who are concerned about getting their websites ready for AI search. As ChatGPT nears 1 billion users and AI summaries appear on about 30% of Google searches, many businesses feel a growing sense of urgency. But they’re also confused about best practices or guidelines.
In a time of so much change, what should you be doing now to stay ahead?
The good news: The basics still matter. A lot. What we’ve found is that good, traditional SEO is always the foundation for good AI optimization.
That said, there are certain ways that you can hone your online presence to show up more often in AI search. Let’s discuss more about what small business owners should know about how AI looks at websites and how to optimize their brands for it.
How AI Is Changing Search Engine Optimization
How Does AI Search Work?
AI bots crawl the web similarly to how Google does. That means many of the technical basics of optimizing a website for ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity remain the same as optimizing it for Google search.
However, AI search is more complex than Google. One of the ways it differs is that it uses a technique called “query fan-out,” which means it breaks each prompt into smaller questions and subtopics in order to cover the topic more fully. AI assembles its response based on what it finds from these multiple lines of questioning, leading to the answer that pops up on your Gemini or ChatGPT screen.
While this is a very basic explanation, one of the difficulties with knowing how to optimize for AI search can come from the fact that different AI platforms have different underlying algorithms and preferences for content. Even the same AI platform may deliver a slightly different answer each time you search it.
What’s the Difference Between SEO, GEO & AEO?
If you’ve spent any amount of time looking into how to optimize your website for AI, you’ve probably heard people use a variety of terms. If all of these terms run together, don’t worry – you don’t need to be an expert. Still, it’s helpful to know some of the key distinctions.
First, let’s define SEO (Search Engine Optimization): This is the traditional term for making sure your website matches up with the “ranking factors” for online search engines like Google or Bing.
When you add AI into the mix, you get a variety of other abbreviations. Here are three of them:
- AIO (AI Optimization): A broad term for optimizing a brand’s presence across AI-powered search and discovery platforms.
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): A more specific term referring to optimization for direct answers from generated-by-AI systems and search engines (like Google’s AI overviews)
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): A rapidly growing term that refers to optimizing for all types of AI results (not just direct answers).
Do all three of these definitions seem to run together? Don’t worry, because they are very similar. Many people simply use them interchangeably to mean optimizing for AI.
The Starting Point: Good SEO Is Also Good GEO (AEO, AIO, etc.)
As you look at how to optimize for AI search, the fundamentals don’t change. That means that good SEO is already much of what you need to optimize for AI overviews, AI chatbots, and more.
We’ve seen clients who perform well in AI results without a drastic change in strategy. That’s thanks to a balanced approach that’s based on the fundamentals of strong SEO and branding.
Here are some of the key basics that work for both SEO and GEO:
- Technical stability. If your website is fast, stable, and user-friendly, this is helpful for both search engines and AI. A site that’s difficult to navigate or has broken internal links sends negative quality signals and could even prevent AI engines from accessing your content entirely.
- Quality, unique content. Both AI and search engines prioritize high-quality content that is useful, offers unique value, and is well-structured for humans. (In other words, fully AI-written content is not what AI is looking for.)
- Answer-driven content. This is part of quality content, but specifically catered toward bite-sized answers that are easier for both search engines and AI to read and cite.
- Expertise & authority. Google guidelines show that the search engine wants to prioritize content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (often abbreviated E-E-A-T). This is also true for AI. Off-page indications that your website is well-regarded in your niche, such as reviews on your Google Business Profile or Yelp, or mentions on other trustworthy websites’ “best of” lists, are very helpful here.
Practical GEO Tips for Iowa Small Businesses
1. Worry About Your SEO Before Worrying About Your GEO
Any AI tactic you want to try is likely going to be ineffective if your website is not already well-structured and technically sound. Good SEO is the starting point for any AI optimization strategy. Since most traffic still comes from traditional search, this will also bring you a much stronger ROI at the start.
2. Ask AI to Recommend the Best Companies in Your Service Niche
One of the things you can start to get a handle on is AI sentiment. This refers to how these AI platforms think about your standing in your service area. Your strengths, your weaknesses, and those of your competitors.
One of the best ways to measure this is simply to ask AI yourself. If you’re a barber, ask for the “best barbers in Des Moines.” If you’re a plumber, ask it to recommend local plumbing services in your area. See if you’re mentioned and who it may recommend you to.
If you’re not mentioned the first time, don’t panic. Unlike search results, which often show similar ranked results each time for similar searches, AI answers can vary widely from search to search and user to user. The four “best” Des Moines attorneys in one search could look completely different the next time you search. This is part of the baffling unpredictability of AI.
With that in mind, it’s helpful to search multiple times for the same prompt, even using some different wording over the course of a few days. There will be trends, and this will help you get a fuller picture of who AI views as the leader in your industry and why.
3. Ask AI What It Knows About Your Business
As you begin to get a sense of AI’s sentiment for your business, write down the aspects of a business that are important. What does it say you do well? Why does it recommend others over you? Does AI say you have a good website but are lacking in reviews on third-party sources? This can help you pinpoint areas to strengthen.
It also helps you make sure that AI has accurate and up-to-date information about your business. If it doesn’t, that may mean you need to correct some information in one or more of your online profiles.
4. Write Helpful Content That Only You Can Produce
One of the keys to both ranking well in Google and earning citations in AI is originality. If your website resembles everyone else’s and has generic AI-written copy, it’s likely to be lost in the growing sea of mediocre content.
Think about what unique perspectives, data, or expertise that only you bring to the table. And, as you structure your content, using a format that directly answers your users’ questions. This is one of the most effective ways we know right now to structure your writing for AI. Wondering what questions users are asking in your niche? Use a website like AlsoAsked to see common questions people are asking in search.
5. Brag About Yourself Online. Ask Others to Do It, Too.
As we mentioned before, AI wants to know what your expertise is and what others are saying about you. Make sure specific examples of your experience and expertise are prominently featured on your website, as well as any online profiles you control.
Then, ask your customers to leave you reviews on your online profiles. AI pulls in review profiles from multiple sources like Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, and more, so it’s good to have a strong rating across more than just one site.
6. Track the Data That You Can
At this stage, exact numbers will be difficult. Google Analytics is able to attribute some website visits to AI traffic, but it can’t provide the complete picture due to inconsistent reporting. But keep monitoring your presence and standing in results – and traditional SEO – to get a good idea of your health. This is where working with a trusted marketing firm, like Webspec, who provides regular, transparent reports, will be helpful to track progress.
If you take a peek in Google Analytics and the number of visits from AI looks low to you, know that this number is low for everyone. AI search only drives about 0.15% of website visits, according to data from SE Ranking. Organic search, organic social, and/or paid channels are likely going to be your bread and butter for some time.
Are You Ready for a Website SEO & GEO Audit? Work With Iowa’s Trusted AI Marketing Agency
If you’re looking for an Iowa company that can help you walk through the uncertainty of AI, talk with the digital marketing experts at Webspec. We can help audit your website for SEO and GEO, helping you know what you need to do to stay competitive as the customer journey evolves.
