An AI Guide for Growing Enterprises
The Academy Award for most-cited understatement goes to – “AI is going to really change online search.” While we are tempted to echo this well-worn phrase again, what we’d like to do instead is the digital equivalent of rolling up our sleeves and getting to work: we’d like to tell you HOW to work with the new world of search that artificial intelligence (AI) has created – and public relations’ role in driving new opportunities for success.
First, Some Foundational References
Before we dive into this, it’s helpful to refer to Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks pioneering description of the ways in which the various marketing disciplines work together: the P.E.S.O. Model (™). In a nutshell, all enterprises (and the professionals charged with marketing them) work with (P) Paid, (E) Earned, (S) Shared and (O) Owned media. Understanding how media works through messaging that you pay to publish, media coverage that you earn through journalist coverage, the shared content of social channels or the owned messaging through company blogs or other branded platforms is very important.
Adjacent to this is the understanding of Google’s framework for evaluating content trustworthiness: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
Understanding how media is produced and shared – and how Google interprets the media content available digitally across the web, is the first step in understanding search indexing, and the powerful changes artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing to this landscape.
PR & Media: Meet Artificial Intelligence and Generative Engine Optimization
But we are in a new marketing landscape thanks to the advent of AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and its close companion generative engine optimization (GEO) have arrived—and they have not only reshaped how the idea of P.E.S.O fits into the marketing tool kit, but how the digital world sees your company through the digital lens. As a result, it’s vital to understand how content reaches audiences, and how it’s perceived and indexed by AI.
This new landscape has elevated the role of public relations – and its ability to generate the objective media coverage that AI prizes in search indexing. Authentic media coverage is the high-value search indexing gold that generative engine optimization highlights in its quest for quality and authenticity in AI-powered search rankings.
And where does the acronym GEO fit into this new marketing discussion? GEO is the discipline of optimizing your content so that it is found through AI search. In brief, your new online SEO strategy has now morphed into GEO.
So – what is it about authentic media coverage – and related content – that GEO values?
Also, we’ll look at some real-world examples of how AI and GEO are reshaping the world of digital search and trusted, authentic content to drive small business (SMB), entrepreneur, and enterprise success.
SMBs and Entrepreneurs: AI Powered Search and GEO Strategies Tailor-Made for You
SMBs are very much like large, global companies – competition in their marketing sphere is intense.
For SMBs, this is a double-bind, as not only are they competing among their similarly-equipt peers, oftentimes in a global marketplace they are also going up against large global enterprises – a tough job even when money is not an issue.
For companies used to the “clicks and links” strategies of early SEO, a welcome respite from the “spend to get to the end” competitive nature of search has arrived in the world of AI-powered search. Why is that? Because the race for links – and often expensive backlinking strategies has ended. AI search prizes quality information – and informative, trustworthy answers to questions over an endless landscape of links.
GEO emphasizes content AI can digest and pull into answers. Meanwhile E-E-A-T (remember? Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) provides the impetus for AI-driven search as it reformulates how content, companies and queries are newly-prioritized in the digital world.
The good news is that public relations connects authentic innovation and thought leadership with the media – and media coverage is the great equalizer in the world of AI-powered search. If you, your company and your insights are news-worthy, you have extraordinary leverage in securing the quality, trusted media coverage that will educate and attract your market audience – and attract the search engine power of AI indexing.
The Post-SEO Digital World: Media, Public Relations and Authority
- Paid media is not an AI priority for search.
- Earned media, the published work of journalists often driven by public relations outreach, is now one of AI’s most preferred resources.
- Shared media—your social channels and community platforms—is about conversation and engagement, not about continuous posting.
- Owned media (e.g., blogs) – in addition to valuable, informative content, it needs a certain structure in order to be “seen” by AI search.
Let’s Take a Deeper Look: GEO
Generative Engine Optimization is the art and science of structuring content so artificial intelligence—not just traditional search—can understand, extract, and surface it in generated answers. This is a dramatic change from the old, search engine-dominated approach to digital visibility, which relied on do-follow links and domain authority.
Here are the core GEO principles:
- What the user intended: Go beyond keywords to answer why and how users ask questions.
- Go beyond the printed word with adaptive content: AI consumes all content, so leverage text, video, audio, and interactive formats.
- AI loves quality, not quantity: Stop the endless posting. One deeply-researched piece is more powerful than many surface-level posts.
- Tech is involved, so don’t be shy about getting help: Schema markup, metadata, and clear tagging help AI parse content.
- You’re in a continuous feedback/learning experience with AI: AI learns how users engage, so adapt content with this in mind.
You may be wondering what this means and how you can incorporate these principles into your business. Here are some best practices for SMBs, entrepreneurs, and writers:
Use contextual file names for images (e.g., swedish-deli-stockholm-macaroons.jpg). Ensure you have alt text because it’s increasingly read by AI.
- Add captions and transcripts. Your multimedia content, such as videos, becomes more accessible to AI and it’s easier for the viewers to follow along.
- Design content in small, digestible “bits” of text with headings like “What’s the average return on PR investment for startups?”
- Conclude sections with wrap-up writing that summarizes what you’ve just shared because they’re often lifted for AI summaries.
Why Understanding GEO versus SEO Matters
For years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focused on blue link rankings, which meant the goal for companies was to use it to get listed on the first Google search page. This could be accomplished by the strategic use of clicks, keywords, and backlinks from domains with high authority.
On the other hand, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is focused on AI answers, so now companies must concentrate on having models read, interpret, and synthesize their content. Instead of keywords and links, GEO favors structured data, citable facts, and credible authorship.
This has changed what users see when they search for information. With SEO, if someone searched “the best CRM for small business,” they saw blue links and they would click on your article to read your recommendations.
With GEO, when someone asks a model like ChatGPT or Claude “What is the best CRM for small business?” they will see an AI-generated summary with three citations that include your article. Users may never see your website at all, but your brand has been presented as a trusted resource.
DOES SEO Still Matter
Short Answer: Yes.
While GEO has changed the landscape, SEO is still an important part of the equation.
SEO is about discoverability. GEO is about authority.
You need both to get your brand’s story in front of eyeballs on the Internet.
SEO invites you to the party, but GEO tells other guests that what you say is worth listening to because it’s quoting you. And AI will only quote you if it deems you credible enough and trusted enough to be considered an expert.
So, while paying attention to traditional SEO has its place for ensuring your content is indexed, GEO is the key to not only ensuring your place in the world of AI search, but ensuring you are considered a trusted and expert authority and resource.
