Think back five years: the B2B buyer’s journey started with a Google search and a list of blue links. Fast forward to 2025, and the first stop is often ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI Overview, or Perplexity. The search bar has been replaced by a question box.
This change means one thing: if AI tools don’t recognise and cite your business, you risk being invisible in the earliest, and most important, stages of the buying journey.
That’s where Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) comes in. GEO is about preparing your digital presence so AI engines consistently describe, reference, and recommend your business when prospects ask the questions that matter.
What Is GEO & Why It Matters for B2B
Here’s where GEO steps in. It’s not about chasing rankings anymore, it’s about teaching AI to talk about you the right way. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making your brand AI-ready. It ensures that generative tools can:
- Understand your business clearly.
- Pull accurate information from your site and media mentions.
- Cite you in AI summaries and overviews.
At TMP, we’ve already seen B2B clients land (or lose) visibility in AI summaries depending on how well their content is structured.
How GEO differs from traditional SEO
While GEO builds on the foundations of SEO, its focus is distinct.
- SEO focuses on rankings in Google SERPs using keywords, backlinks, and technical optimisation.
- GEO focuses on being cited in AI responses and summaries—essential in a world where many users never click beyond the AI-generated answer.
Why it matters now
AI has already started reshaping how B2B buyers research and make decisions. If your brand isn’t appearing in AI answers, you risk being invisible at the very moment prospects are forming their shortlist of potential partners.
- AI is part of the buyer journey. If your brand isn’t cited in AI answers, you may not even make the shortlist.
- Zero-click searches are growing. AI responses often satisfy queries without a click. Your presence in summaries is where visibility comes from.
- Brand perception is at stake. If AI misrepresents your offering, fixing it becomes harder later in the buying process.
These shifts make GEO a priority, not a “nice to have.” B2B marketers who adapt early will control the narrative, while laggards risk being written out of the conversation altogether.
At The Marketing Project, our SEO Stream services already integrate GEO best practices into B2B SEO strategies—ensuring your business shows up where buyers are searching today.
Key Drivers of GEO Success for B2B
Ranking organically in AI search requires more than publishing content—it’s about building credibility, visibility, and authority signals that generative tools can recognise and trust. The levers below are the core drivers shaping how your brand shows up in AI-powered results:
1. Clear, Structured Core Content
- Keep About, Services, and Solutions pages concise and current.
- Highlight differentiators clearly.
- Use FAQs, headings, bullet lists, and summary boxes to create “AI-friendly” snippets.
2. Owned & Earned Media Mentions
- Maintain accurate listings in directories.
- Publish press releases and news updates.
- Pursue media coverage, awards, or analyst reports—these become trusted sources for AI.
3. Content Formats AI Prefers
- FAQs, glossaries, and comparison pages work especially well for educational queries.
- Avoid hiding all content behind gates. If you gate, provide enough summary text for AI to crawl.
4. Domain & Brand Authority Signals
- Earn backlinks from credible industry sites.
- Keep your messaging consistent: who you are, who you serve, what makes you different.
5. Monitoring & Auditing
- Benchmark competitors’ visibility in AI results.
- Test prompts in AI tools: “Who are the best providers of [service]?”
- Track how your brand is cited (or ignored).
Here’s a practical roadmap to integrate GEO into your existing marketing and SEO efforts.
| Phase | Activities | KPIs / Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| Audit & Benchmark | Ask AI tools about your brand, competitors, and category. Review which of your pages are cited. Check directory listings and media mentions. | Baseline citations in AI responses. Visibility gaps. |
| Content Optimisation | Refresh About, Product, and Solution pages. Add FAQs, glossaries, comparisons. Ensure public access to key info. | More citations. AI engines describe your offering correctly. |
| Media & External Signals | Publish press releases, secure analyst mentions, update directories. | Stronger third-party validation. Broader category presence. |
| Technical Health | Improve crawlability, structured data, speed, mobile optimisation. | Fewer crawl errors. Better schema recognition. |
| Measurement & Iteration | Track citations, brand mentions, demo requests, competitor share of AI summaries. | Pipeline influenced by GEO. Better alignment of external perception. |
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Shaping your visibility in AI search isn’t always straightforward. Many B2B marketers run into similar hurdles when rolling out a GEO strategy. Here are some of the most common issues—and practical ways to address them:
- AI misrepresents your offering → Regularly update About pages and press releases.
- Content is hidden behind gates → Publish public summaries or ungated versions.
- Competitors dominate citations → Analyse their external signals (awards, PR, backlinks) and build similar authority.
- Balancing GEO with SEO → Don’t drop SEO fundamentals. GEO complements, not replaces, SEO.
- Measuring success feels vague → Use GA4, AI-mention trackers, and attribution models to map AI visibility to leads.
Best Practices for Writing GEO-Friendly Content
When optimising for Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), your content needs to be clear, structured, and AI-friendly. Here are the best practices B2B businesses should follow:
- Write in natural language: Use the same phrasing your target audience would use when asking AI tools. Include question-and-answer formats and conversational headings.
- Use quotable data points: Add statistics, product names, dates, and industry terms—AI models are more likely to cite this type of content directly.
- Structure your pages clearly: Break down content with H2/H3 headings, bullet lists, and short paragraphs so it’s easier for both users and AI systems to scan.
- Add schema markup: Implement structured data (FAQ, How-To, Product, Organisation) to help search engines and AI models understand your content’s context.
- Maintain brand consistency: Ensure your company description, services, and messaging are the same across your website, press releases, and directories.
- Test your visibility in AI: Regularly query tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini with your target keywords to see if your business appears. If not, update your content to align with those queries.
E-E-A-T: Writing with Authority and Trust
One of the most important elements of GEO in 2025 is E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). AI search engines prioritise content from sources they see as credible and trustworthy.
Here’s how to apply E-E-A-T in your B2B content strategy:
- Expertise: Attribute content to subject-matter experts. Include bylines, bios, qualifications, and LinkedIn links where possible.
- Experience: Demonstrate first-hand knowledge with client stories, project outcomes, and case studies.
- Authoritativeness: Cite credible third-party data from government bodies, industry associations, or analyst reports to back your claims.
- Trustworthiness: Reinforce trust with testimonials, customer reviews, certifications, and transparent contact details.
By embedding E-E-A-T signals into your content, you make it more valuable to both human readers and AI systems. This improves your chances of being referenced in AI-generated answers and strengthens your B2B SEO performance.
Scaling Best Practices: The Five Pillars of GEO Content Strategy
Beyond the fundamentals, B2B businesses should also apply these five advanced strategies to ensure their content ranks in AI-driven search:
- Content Clustering Strategies – Build topical authority with hub-and-spoke content models (pillar pages supported by cluster articles) to signal expertise across categories.
- Semantic Keyword Mapping – Move beyond exact-match keywords by covering related intents and phrasing variations to capture a wider range of AI queries.
- Question-Answer Content Frameworks – Expand FAQs with structured Q&A sections and FAQ schema to make snippets easier for AI tools to extract.
- Multi-Format Content Strategies – Repurpose content across text, video, images, and audio so AI engines can surface your expertise in multiple formats.
- Content Freshness & AI Algorithms – Update cornerstone pages and refresh older blogs regularly. AI engines reward recent, relevant information, especially in fast-moving industries.
Measuring GEO: KPIs to Track
To know if your Generative Engine Optimisation efforts are working, you’ll need to move beyond traditional keyword rankings. The metrics below give you a clearer picture of how your brand is performing in AI-driven search environments.
- Number of AI citations / mentions.
- Presence in AI overviews and summaries.
- Growth in branded search volume.
- Conversion metrics tied to cited pages.
- Organic and referral traffic trends.
- Engagement metrics on GEO-optimised content.
GEO Checklist: B2B Edition
Turning GEO into action means breaking it down into clear, repeatable steps. Use this checklist to make sure your business is covering all the essentials that influence how AI engines recognise and cite your brand:
1. Website & Core Content
- Review your About, Product, and Service pages to make sure they clearly explain who you are, what you do, and why you’re different.
- Add FAQs, glossaries, and comparison pages written in a natural Q&A style to answer common buyer questions.
- Use structured headings and bullet points so AI engines can easily extract key information.
- Provide ungated summaries of major resources (even if the full report or guide is behind a form) so AI tools can still capture the essentials.
2. Authority & Mentions
- Audit your directory listings (Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, industry associations) for accuracy and consistency.
- Publish press releases and thought-leadership content that use clear company descriptors.
- Actively seek third-party validation through industry blogs, analyst reports, or award features—these signals help AI engines trust and cite your brand.
3. Technical Setup
- Run a site crawl to confirm AI tools can access your content (watch for hidden text in scripts).
- Implement schema markup (FAQ, How-To, Product, Organisation) to give AI structured context.
- Optimise for mobile performance and page speed—core technical signals that both search engines and AI engines use.
4. Content Signals for AI
- Include numbers, stats, and named entities in your content—AI often pulls factual data directly into summaries.
- Add expert bylines, bios, and credentials to build E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
- Structure case studies and use cases around challenge → solution → results so AI can easily reference outcomes.
5. Monitoring & Measurement
- Regularly test prompts in tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to see if your business is cited in answers.
- Track branded search volume, mentions, and citations over time.
- Measure the pipeline impact of GEO-optimised content—demo requests, form fills, and inbound enquiries linked to cited pages.
Pro tip: Fold GEO into your quarterly SEO audits so it becomes part of your core marketing workflow—not just a side project.
The Future of GEO for B2B
Generative AI search is moving quickly, and while much is still uncertain, a few trends are already shaping how B2B businesses should prepare:
- Broader crawling: Expect AI to process more file types—PDFs, videos, audio.
- New formats: Voice and AI agents may prioritise different types of content.
- Trust and transparency: Authoritative, accurate content will matter more as AI outputs face scrutiny.
The real question is: when buyers ask AI tools about your industry, will your brand be part of the answer—or absent from the conversation?
Final Thoughts
Generative Engine Optimisation is not a fad. It’s the next step in how B2B visibility, credibility, and lead generation evolve. Traditional SEO still matters, but GEO shifts the emphasis: from ranking to being part of the answer.
If you adapt your content, structure, and authority signals now, you’ll position your business to be recognised by both people and AI—long before your competitors catch up.
Want to future-proof your visibility?
Our SEO Stream services integrate GEO into a broader B2B SEO strategy, helping brands appear in AI results and traditional search.
FAQs on GEO and B2B SEO
Q. What is GEO vs SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the practice of ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs) through keywords, backlinks, and technical optimisation. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is about ensuring your brand is cited and included in AI-generated responses and summaries. In short: SEO gets you clicks, GEO gets you mentioned.
Q. Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. GEO complements SEO—it doesn’t replace it. SEO fundamentals such as site health, backlinks, and content depth are still essential. GEO builds on top by focusing on how AI tools read, interpret, and summarise your brand.
Q. Does SEO still matter in 2025?
Yes, SEO remains critical. Traditional search engines like Google continue to drive large volumes of traffic, especially for transactional and high-intent queries. What’s changing is that B2B businesses now need to optimise for both search results and AI-driven answers to stay visible.
Q. What is AIO and GEO in SEO?
AIO refers to AI Optimisation, which means tailoring your content and digital presence for AI-driven tools and assistants. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is a subset of this, focusing specifically on how generative AI engines (like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity) cite and summarise your content. Together, AIO and GEO help ensure your brand stays competitive as search behaviour shifts.
