Imagine someone searching for the best digital marketing agency in Hyderabad. Instead of scrolling through Google’s results, they ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for a recommendation.
The AI responds with a shortlist of businesses, explains why they are relevant and sometimes links directly to their websites.
Now comes the interesting question: Is your brand part of that recommendation, or does it not appear at all?
For years, businesses have invested in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to improve their visibility on Google. But the way people discover information is expanding. AI-powered search experiences are changing how users research products, compare services and find businesses.
This shift has introduced a new area of focus for marketers: Generative Engine Optimisation, commonly known as GEO.
While traditional SEO helps your website become discoverable in search results, GEO focuses on making your brand and its information easier for AI-powered systems to find, understand and reference in generated answers.
The two are closely connected, and understanding how they work together can help businesses prepare for the next phase of online discovery.
What Is GEO and How Is It Different From Traditional SEO?
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) refers to the practice of improving a brand’s visibility in AI-generated search responses. These responses may appear in tools such as ChatGPT Search, Google’s AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Perplexity.
Traditional SEO primarily focuses on improving a website’s visibility in search engine results pages through relevant content, technical optimisation, backlinks and other ranking signals.
GEO takes the objective further. It considers how information about a brand is discovered, interpreted, connected with other sources and potentially included in an AI-generated response.
Consider a simple example.
A person searching for a reliable interior design company might type “interior designers in Hyderabad” into Google. Traditional SEO helps relevant websites compete for visibility in those results.
But when the same person asks an AI search engine, “Which interior design companies in Hyderabad specialise in contemporary apartment interiors?”, the system needs to understand more than just website rankings. It needs useful information about services, specialisations, locations, experience and credibility to construct its answer.
That is where GEO becomes relevant.
SEO vs GEO: Understanding the Difference
| Traditional SEO | Generative Engine Optimisation |
| Focuses on search engine rankings | Focuses on visibility in AI-generated answers |
| Targets relevant search queries | Targets conversational and contextual questions |
| Optimises pages for search discovery | Makes information easier for AI systems to interpret and reference |
| Measures rankings, clicks and organic traffic | Also considers AI mentions, citations and referral traffic |
| Builds authority through quality content and links | Builds discoverability through clear, credible and consistent information |
One important distinction: GEO is not a replacement for SEO. Google explicitly states that its existing SEO best practices remain relevant to AI features, with no separate technical requirements for appearing in AI Overviews or AI Mode. (Google)
The smarter approach is to build a strong SEO foundation while making your content useful and accessible across emerging AI search experiences.
Why Are Brands Paying Attention to AI Search Optimisation?
People are no longer using search engines only to find websites. Increasingly, they expect tools to interpret questions, summarise information and help them make decisions.
This is more than a theoretical shift.
A Pew Research Center study published in July 2025 analysed 68,879 Google searches conducted by 900 US adults during March 2025. It found that users clicked a traditional search result in just 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when no AI summary was present. Only 1% of visits resulted in a click on a link within the AI summary. (Pew)
This highlights an important consideration for businesses: visibility does not always translate into a website visit.
A brand might be mentioned in an AI-generated answer even when the user never visits its website. That makes brand visibility, credibility and the accuracy of publicly available information increasingly important.
Another Pew Research Center study from October 2025 found that 65% of US adults encountered AI summaries in search results at least sometimes. (Pew)
For businesses, the takeaway is not to abandon traditional search strategies. It is to understand that customers may discover and evaluate brands through more than one route.
5 Ways to Make Your Brand More Visible in AI Search Results
There is no guaranteed formula for getting an AI search engine to recommend your business. These systems use different models, search indexes and information sources, and their responses can change depending on the question.
However, businesses can take practical steps to make their information easier to discover, understand and trust.
Here are five areas worth focusing on.
Create Content That Answers Real Questions
One of the biggest opportunities in GEO is moving beyond content written purely around keywords.
Think about the questions customers actually ask before making a decision.
For example, a real estate company might traditionally create a blog targeting “luxury apartments in Hyderabad”. That is useful, but it could also create more specific content answering questions such as:
- What should buyers check before purchasing a luxury apartment?
- Which areas in Hyderabad are suitable for families looking to buy a home?
- What is the difference between a gated community and a standalone apartment?
- What amenities should buyers expect in a premium residential project?
These questions provide context that helps readers understand the subject and gives search systems useful information to retrieve.
What brands can do:
- Build content around customer questions and search intent.
- Use descriptive headings that clearly communicate what each section covers.
- Answer the main question directly before expanding into supporting details.
- Include practical examples, comparisons and explanations.
- Update older content when information becomes outdated.
The objective is to create content that genuinely resolves a query, rather than simply repeating a keyword throughout a page.
Build Authority Through Original and Credible Information
AI search engines need reliable information to generate useful answers. Content that simply repeats what dozens of other websites already say has limited differentiation.
This is where original insights become valuable.
Consider a healthcare brand publishing an article about preventive health check-ups. A generic article might explain why annual health screenings matter. A more useful one could include expert commentary from doctors, explanations of common diagnostic tests, relevant research and practical guidance on choosing a health package.
The second article gives readers something more substantial to learn from.
Research supports the importance of content visibility in generative search. A 2024 study titled GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, published in the proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD conference, found that specific optimisation methods improved content visibility by up to 40% in the generative engines evaluated. The researchers also noted that effectiveness varied across domains. This was a controlled research finding, not a guaranteed increase in business visibility. (ACM)
What brands can do:
- Publish original research, surveys and industry observations.
- Include expert opinions and verified information.
- Use relevant statistics with links to their original sources.
- Showcase actual projects, case studies and customer experiences.
- Keep author information and business credentials transparent.
A brand that consistently contributes useful information has a stronger opportunity to establish topical credibility than one publishing generic articles simply to maintain a content calendar.
Make Your Website Easy for AI Systems to Access and Understand
Your website might contain excellent information, but that information needs to be accessible to search systems in the first place.
Technical SEO continues to play an important role in AI search optimisation. If important pages cannot be crawled, indexed or understood properly, their chances of being discovered can be affected.
Start with the basics:
Check website accessibility: Ensure that important pages are publicly accessible and that search engine crawlers are not accidentally blocked.
Improve website structure: Organise information into clear service pages, category pages, blogs and supporting resources. Use descriptive page titles and headings.
Implement relevant structured data: Schema markup can help search engines interpret information about your organisation, products, services, articles and other entities. However, structured data does not guarantee AI citations or recommendations.
Maintain consistent business information: Your business name, address, contact details, services and location should be accurate across your website and relevant online listings.
There is also a specific consideration for brands that want to appear in ChatGPT Search. OpenAI identifies OAI-SearchBot as the crawler used to discover websites for ChatGPT search features. Website owners can manage its access through their robots.txt configuration. Blocking this crawler can prevent a website from appearing in ChatGPT search answers. (OpenAI)
A useful starting point is to review your robots.txt file, check your website’s indexation status and ensure important content is accessible without requiring a login.
Build a Consistent Brand Presence Beyond Your Website
Your website is important, but it is not the only place where information about your business exists.
AI search systems may draw on information from multiple sources. This makes your brand’s broader digital presence an important consideration.
Imagine someone asking an AI assistant to recommend a digital marketing agency in Hyderabad.
Your website might describe your services, but other useful signals could include industry publications mentioning your business, detailed client case studies, business listings, relevant reviews and professional discussions about your work.
The more consistent and verifiable your brand information is across relevant sources, the easier it becomes for people and search systems to understand what your business does.
For businesses, this means paying attention to:
- Business listings: Keep your Google Business Profile and other relevant directories accurate.
- Industry mentions: Build relationships with credible publications and relevant industry platforms.
- Customer reviews: Encourage genuine customer feedback and respond professionally.
- Case studies: Publish specific examples of projects, challenges and outcomes.
- Social media: Maintain consistent brand descriptions, services and expertise across platforms.
For example, a Hyderabad-based interior design studio should not describe itself as a luxury residential specialist on its website while presenting itself primarily as a commercial contractor across every other platform.
Consistent positioning helps people understand the brand without having to piece together conflicting information.
Measure AI Visibility Alongside Traditional SEO Performance
One challenge with GEO is that traditional SEO metrics do not capture the entire picture.
A website might maintain its Google rankings while its visibility across AI-generated answers changes. Equally, a brand might receive mentions in AI responses without seeing a corresponding increase in website traffic.
This means businesses need to expand how they evaluate their online presence.
Some useful indicators include:
| Metric | What it tells you |
| AI brand mentions | Whether AI platforms mention your business in relevant answers |
| AI citations | Whether your website is referenced as a supporting source |
| Referral traffic | How many visitors arrive from AI platforms |
| Branded searches | Whether more people are searching for your business by name |
| Organic traffic | Whether traditional search visibility remains healthy |
| Conversions | Whether visitors are taking meaningful actions |
A practical way to begin is to identify 10 to 15 questions your potential customers might ask AI tools.
For a digital marketing agency, these could include:
- Which digital marketing agencies in Hyderabad offer SEO services?
- How much does social media marketing cost for a small business?
- What should a business look for when hiring a marketing agency?
- Which marketing channels work best for a new brand?
Test these questions periodically across relevant AI platforms. Record whether your brand appears, which competitors are mentioned, which websites are cited and whether the information about your business is accurate.
This is not a definitive ranking report because AI responses can vary. However, it can help identify gaps in your content, brand information and online presence.
Also, don’t abandon your existing analytics setup. Google Search Console includes traffic from AI features within its overall Web search reporting, while referral traffic and conversions can be examined through analytics platforms.
GEO Is Not About Replacing SEO: It’s About Building on It
With all the discussion around AI search, businesses might be tempted to treat GEO as an entirely separate marketing discipline. But that could lead to an unnecessary shift in priorities.
A strong SEO strategy remains the foundation of good AI search visibility.
Think of it this way:
- SEO helps search engines discover and understand your website.
- Content marketing gives your audience useful information and reasons to trust your brand.
- Digital PR and brand-building strengthen your reputation across relevant platforms.
- GEO brings these efforts together with a focus on how AI systems discover and reference information.
At RedCrabs Creative Works, this is why we believe research, content strategy, technical optimisation and brand communication should work together. A brand needs more than keyword-rich blogs to build a meaningful digital presence.
Our approach to digital marketing brings together SEO, content creation, social media and performance-focused campaigns to help businesses strengthen their online presence.
You can also explore our work and projects to see how different aspects of brand communication and digital execution come together.
5 GEO Mistakes Brands Should Avoid
As businesses explore generative engine optimisation, a few misconceptions can lead to wasted time and resources.
- Treating GEO as a keyword replacement exercise
Simply adding terms such as “best brand recommended by AI” to website content will not make a business more visible. Relevance, accuracy and useful information matter more.
- Publishing large volumes of AI-generated content
More content does not automatically mean more visibility. Google’s guidance emphasises originality, accuracy and value for readers. Producing large numbers of unoriginal pages simply to manipulate rankings can violate its scaled content abuse policies.
- Ignoring traditional SEO
A poorly structured website with indexing issues and outdated content is unlikely to benefit from adding a few GEO-focused articles. Fix the fundamentals first.
- Chasing AI mentions without checking accuracy
A brand being mentioned by an AI tool is not necessarily a positive outcome if its services, location or business details are represented incorrectly. Monitor the information being associated with your brand.
- Expecting immediate results
AI search visibility is not something businesses can switch on overnight. It requires consistent content improvements, technical maintenance, credible brand information and ongoing evaluation.
The Future of Search Belongs to Brands That Are Easy to Find, Understand and Trust
The shift from SEO to GEO does not mean that everything businesses have invested in search marketing is becoming irrelevant. It means the way people discover and evaluate information is expanding.
A brand needs to be visible in traditional search results, but it should also make its expertise, services and information accessible to the systems that increasingly help people make decisions.
The most effective approach is not to chase every new AI search trend. It is to build a strong digital foundation, publish genuinely useful content, establish credibility and ensure your brand communicates consistently across platforms.
At RedCrabs Creative Works, we bring together research, creativity and digital marketing to help businesses build a stronger online presence. If you’re looking to strengthen your SEO strategy and prepare your brand for AI-powered search, get in touch with RedCrabs Creative Works. Let’s make your brand easier to discover and remember.
