January Update: 5 Keys To Balancing SEO & GEO

Marketing has always been evolving, but with the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022 and other large language models (LLM’s) since then, the evolution has sped up significantly.

One of the current hot topics in the marketing world is how search is shifting from traditional search engines and SEO (search engine optimization) to AI search and GEO (generative engine optimization).

The LifeX team has been following the trends carefully and regularly attend trainings around these topics, and we wanted to share some of the current key takeaways. 

Following are several opening comments and 5 things LifeX Marketing is focusing on as we begin 2025. 

Quick note: the exact “marketing recipe” for each client varies depending on your industry, services, goals, etc. This is part of the reason we do a quarterly strategy map instead of an annual strategy map - because things change throughout the year! If you are a LifeX client and want to know more about your strategy map, please schedule a meeting with your account manager (if you haven’t already!).

Opening Comments:

1. ChatGPT and its search feature continue making headlines, there are other major players including Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Perplexity, and more.
2. While Google’s market share has slowly decreased over the past several years with AI competition, the overall number of organic clicks from Google continues to rise. This is due to an increase in the total number of searches and more people being online.
3. As Google’s market share decreases, good marketing companies are working to help websites be optimized for both traditional search engines and AI search.
4. No one can predict the future! Like any industry, marketing continues to change, and no one knows where it will be a few years from now.
5. AI search is still young and not as established as traditional search engines like Google or Bing. This means there is less documentation and experimentation, so regular training remains critical.

Alright, let's get to it!

1 - Create Regular Quality Content

Since ChatGPT was introduced several years ago, the number of blog posts, spam, and low-quality content has skyrocketed.

However, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and say it's all bad💦!

Google, ChatGPT, and other search engines still place a premium on good quality content, especially when it isn’t being mass-produced by AI.

And it’s not just publishing regular blog posts. Other forms of quality content include:

• FAQs on key pages 
• Good content on landing pages
• Helpful product descriptions
• Unique customer reviews
• Concise meta titles and descriptions    

2 - Increase Brand Awareness and Authority

While Google always emphasized brand and website authority, AI models place a premium on this.

One of the challenges is how search engines continue being vague on what they mean by the terms “brand awareness” or “website authority,” but common factors include:

• Getting quality backlinks (spammy backlink farms are still a thing 😞)
• Having a solid social media presence; complete with original photos and video
• Being listed on national and local platforms (also called citations or aggregators)
• Using paid ads, geo-fencing, and other platforms to raise brand awareness

3 - Schema Markup

If this is a new term to you, don't worry, you're not alone🙂. Schema is essentially code that tells bots the context of a page’s content.

For example, if you have a product page on your website, you need proper schema to tell bots you are selling a product which includes a title, image, description, price, supporting photos, etc. Without this schema, bots would read the product as a “normal” page with some nice photos and text.

Common schema markup includes:

• Products with e-commerce
• Blog posts
• FAQs
• Local business listings
• Page & product breadcrumbs
• Events

Having the correct schema is critical when it comes to search intent.

For example, if you sell sheds, you want your sheds to show up in the product listings when someone local searches “sheds for sale.” But without proper schema, bots won’t view your sheds as actual products and therefore won’t display them in the results.

4 - User Experience & Engagement

Over the past 5+ years, Google has been shifting traditional ranking factors towards User Experience (UX) and page interactions, and once again AI models take this to the next level.

Having engaging content on your website that follows a logical flow is critical, and some of the most important factors include:

• An easy-to-navigate website
• Having a clear menu structure 
• Pages and website structure following a logical flow
• Content displaying well on mobile
• Using original photos and videos (not stock)
• Obtaining customer reviews

5 - Technical SEO

This is probably the least appreciated one of the group (I see the devs reading this nodding in agreement😀).

As humans, we see the front-facing parts of the website, but bots are looking at the backend code. Bots don’t just see different font sizes, nice designs, and pretty pictures - they see heading structure, broken links, content order, schema markup, and much more.

For clients whom LifeX serves, we have a program running a weekly scan focused on technical SEO. If a site sees a sudden significant drop, there is usually a root cause, and we work to fix the issue immediately. We also allocate time each quarter to continue improving the site based on these scans.   

Technical SEO covers a wiiiiide range of items, but some of the most common are:

• Good on-page SEO with proper heading structure
• Reducing errors on the site (particularly 404)
• Having proper redirects in place as necessary
• Making sure proper indexing is in place
• Having a good internal linking structure
• Improving overall site speed
• And many, many more!

Conclusion: Good SEO Translates To Good GEO

While the future of traditional search (SEO) and AI search (GEO) is unclear, the current trajectory shows having good SEO in place translates to good GEO.

One of the main differences with AI search is how it typically shows fewer results and makes more summarizing statements. This causes challenges as marketers work hard to help their clients be part of those key results, but it also presents opportunities to make better content, increase overall user experience, and utilize technical SEO and other best practices!