TLDR: As AI chatbots gain widespread popularity for information retrieval, a new business trend, ‘Generative Engine Optimization’ (GEO), is rapidly emerging. This strategy helps brands ensure their content is cited or recommended by AI models, fundamentally reshaping traditional search engine optimization (SEO) and impacting advertising revenue models for publishers. Companies are now focusing on optimizing content for AI-powered search and generative AI models, with expectations of future monetization for visibility on these platforms.
The escalating popularity of AI chatbots is ushering in a transformative era for digital marketing and content discovery, giving rise to a new business paradigm: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This innovative approach is becoming crucial for brands aiming to secure visibility and recommendations within the curated responses of AI models.
Traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which historically focused on keywords for conventional search engines like Google, is now being re-evaluated. AI-powered search engines and large language models (LLMs) operate differently, responding to prompts and generating summarized, curated answers by querying multiple sources in real-time. This shift necessitates that brands adapt their strategies to ensure their content is not just found, but actively cited or recommended by AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
Startups like Asva AI and Siftly are at the forefront, offering specialized GEO and LLM optimization services. Chalam PVS, co-founder and CEO of Siftly, highlights that ‘Every LLM relies on some form of search engine under the hood.’ He notes that Siftly’s analysis of thousands of prompts reveals that ChatGPT’s results overlap only 61% with Google and 68% with Bing, underscoring the need for platform-specific strategies beyond traditional SEO to consistently appear on LLMs.
The impact on brand visibility is already evident. For instance, intimacy wellness brand MyMuse has reported a 10% increase in its monthly searches on ChatGPT since implementing GEO strategies. Industry data further suggests a significant shift, with LLM-based searches projected to outpace traditional Google searches by 2028. Google’s own AI Overview feature already boasts over 2 billion monthly users, signaling the rapid adoption of generative AI in information seeking.
However, this evolution presents a significant challenge for traditional media and publishers. Generative AI tools, by providing direct summaries, are reducing traffic to news websites, thereby impacting their crucial advertising revenue. A Pew Research Center study indicates that when AI-generated summaries are present in Google searches, users click on suggested links half as often compared to traditional searches, leading to a devastating loss of visitors for online media sites dependent on traffic for revenue and subscriptions.
Publishers face a dilemma: protect their content from AI crawlers or adapt through GEO to avoid obscurity. Data from OtterlyAI shows that media outlets account for only 29% of citations offered by ChatGPT, trailing corporate websites at 36%. Interestingly, Reddit has emerged as a dominant source for LLMs in 2025, with a Semrush report indicating that 40.1% of all references in AI-generated responses come from the discussion platform, surpassing Google and Wikipedia.
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- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Business Surges in China Amidst AI Chatbot Popularity
- Navigating the AI Frontier: SEO Strategies for the Generative Era
While brands are not currently charged for visibility on LLM platforms, industry experts anticipate that monetization for these citations and recommendations will commence soon, further solidifying GEO as a critical component of future digital marketing and advertising landscapes.
