GEO: How to Make Your Content Visible in AI Searches

A potential customer asks ChatGPT about the best CRM software for their team. The AI provides a detailed answer, but your company isn’t even mentioned?

Most content is practically invisible to the new “answer engines.” By 2028, 50% of global organic traffic is expected to migrate from Google to AI chats (source). Anyone who wants to appear in AI-generated answers today must therefore deliver content that machines can understand and cite.

GEO vs. SEO – What’s the difference?

In the past, people asked Google, “Best CRM software for startups.” Today, they ask ChatGPT, “Which CRM solution is right for our team of 15 with a small budget?”

The difference? Google displays a list of links. ChatGPT provides a direct answer – and mentions only a few sources.

SEO is about: rankings in search results and optimization for click-through rate (CTR), meta descriptions, and keywords.

GEO is all about: Relevance and authority in AI responses

The good news is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel – just ride it differently.

“Content no longer just needs to be found, it needs to be quoted directly – clarity, authority, and structured answers are the way to become visible in AI-generated responses.”

Miriam Schwellnus, expert at the PR agency Mashup Communications

What do you want to achieve with GEO?

Two things are important:

Citations: Your brand should be named as the source in AI responses. When ChatGPT responds, your content should be linked.

Visibility in the response window: Your brand should appear directly in the responses – with the right information.

AI systems are context-sensitive. They draw on a network of texts, sources, brands, and authors. Anything that is not linked, contextualized, or structured remains invisible – or worse: it is misrepresented.

How to give your content the GEO boost: The 4 most important factors

Write clearly (semantics), demonstrate your expertise (authority), organize your thoughts neatly (structure), and answer real questions (intention).

Semantics: Clear language instead of marketing jargon

AI systems like clear, simple language. Use the tried-and-tested formula: problem → conflict → solution. That’s how people ask questions, and that’s how AI tools respond.

Bad (even before the days of GEO): “Our innovative solution revolutionizes customer relationship management.” Better: “Many small businesses lose customers because they still manage their contacts in Excel. Without automatic reminders, they forget to follow up. That costs money. CRM software solves this problem by…”

• Write precise, clear sentences
• Use topic-relevant terms and synonyms naturally in the flow of speech.
• Include short contextual sentences (“Why is this important …”) so that the model can recognize the common thread.

Authority: Demonstrate your expertise

AI systems trust sources with recognizable expertise. Write about who you are, link to original sources, and show current data.

Author profiles should be specific: “Sarah Müller has been advising B2B companies on marketing for eight years. She has helped over 200 SaaS companies acquire customers.”

Structure: Keep things organized

A clear structure (H1, H2, H3), short paragraphs, and lists help AI systems understand the content. HTML code for lists and FAQs is important.

Schema.org is becoming increasingly important: structured data enables machines to recognize that your text is a blog post, who the author is, and which organization is behind it. This is becoming standard equipment.

User intention: Think like your readers

This is where storytelling comes into play, because the focus on questions is exactly what prompts often seek (“Why is X important?”). Narrative hooks and dialogue elements reflect user behavior in chats.

• Formulate subheadings as questions (“How do I maintain …?”)
• Write short answer paragraphs (2-3 sentences) directly below.
• Integrate a mini FAQ at the end with 3-5 common questions.

Everything we have always disliked about SEO is now a thing of the past:

❌ Flood of clickbait headlines

❌ Long paragraphs

❌ Over-optimized keyword staccato

“GEO means: Write for people, format for machines.”

Miriam Schwellnus, expert in PR in the AI age

Why PR is your GEO turbo

PR has always been a visibility booster – now it is becoming a signal source for AI systems.

Building trust that AI understands

Showcase your expertise: Articles in specialist media demonstrate to AI systems that you are an expert. A guest article in a specialist publication or a podcast interview provides the external validation that algorithms seek.

Links with meaning: Guest posts not only create backlinks – they increase your citability. Media mentions show: “This source is trustworthy.”

Use multiple channels: PR ensures that your content appears on various platforms. The more reputable sources link to your content, the more likely AI systems are to classify it as trustworthy.

Newsletters, specialist media, and communities are becoming training data for AI systems.

How to measure your GEO success

Measuring GEO is different from measuring SEO:

Regular tests: Ask ChatGPT, Claude & Co. the same technical questions every week. Make a note of the sources they cite.

Brand monitoring: Systematically check where your brand appears in AI responses.

Analyze traffic: Look at traffic patterns from AI links. These often differ from Google traffic.

AI is changing how people search for information. This also affects how companies are found. With targeted PR measures, Mashup Communications helps build trust as a brand and create visibility – offline, online, in Google searches, and AI responses.

The best time to start optimizing your GEO was a year ago. The second-best time is now.

The most important questions about GEO

What is GEO compared to SEO? GEO optimizes for AI responses rather than search rankings. Instead of collecting clicks, the focus is on mentions in the responses.

How do I make my content visible to chatbots? Through simple language, structured data, expertise, and content that answers real questions.

Does GEO replace normal SEO? No, GEO complements SEO. Both work together.

How quickly does GEO work? AI systems are faster than Google. You often see initial results after just a few days.

Does GEO work for B2B? Excellent! B2B customers often ask complex technical questions – perfect for GEO.

Do I have to rewrite all the content? No, but you should revise your best content.