By Michele Landry
We’ve entered the era of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and it’s changing how people find content, engage with brands, and make decisions. For PR and marketing professionals, this means rethinking everything from media strategies to restructuring content.
I recently attended the GEO Conference in Austin, where leading practitioners shared strategies for this new landscape. Two insights stood out: the need to structure content for greater discoverability, and the growing importance of earned media.
Here are some guidelines to make your brand discoverable in an AI-first world:
- How to Restructure Web Content for AI Discoverability?
Backlinks, title tags, and keyword density are no longer the top priorities. Large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, CoPilot and Perplexity don’t crawl index pages the way search engines do. Instead, they prioritize clear, credible, question-oriented content from trusted sources.
Structure your content to be easy to scan, jargon-free, and directly answer common user questions.
AI rewards content with:
- Natural language (not keyword-stuffed)
- Reliable citations and original data (AI models like authoritative sources, such as earned media)
- Information above the scroll (anything buried deep may not make it into AI summaries)
- Questions and answers (phrase content like answers)
Draft your content to be simple and skimmable, include statistics and quotes, and link to reputable sources. Blogs and landing pages should anticipate user queries and answer them directly.
Start by conducting a content audit to evaluate the following:
- What is your existing topical authority?
- Which content assets are being overtaken by AI overviews?
- Which content topics have been declining over the past 12 months?
- Can you turn existing content into AI-friendly content that is geared toward specific personas and more Q&A-driven?
- Build a GEO-Driven Media Strategy
LLMs rely on trusted, authoritative publications to populate their responses. MuckRack recently found that 95% of links cited by AI are from non-paid media.
When we tested search prompts for one of our clients on Otterly AI, asking which tech companies are leading in low-power edge AI solutions, sources such as Bloomberg, Reuters, and TechRadar appeared consistently across different AI platforms. Each LLM has its own content partnerships and preferences, so it’s important to align your media strategy to the outlets LLMs trust. You’re not just pitching reporters anymore. You’re also influencing the responses of AI models.
- Leverage High-Impact Platforms: Wikipedia and Reddit
Wikipedia is treated as a gold-standard citation source across all major LLMs. If your company or industry has a Wikipedia presence, keep it updated with recent developments, partnerships, and factual achievements. Focus on contributing to relevant industry or technology pages without being too marketing-oriented.
Reddit appears frequently in AI-generated summaries, particularly for product recommendations and industry discussions. Engage authentically in relevant subreddits by offering helpful insights and advise within your expertise.
- Use GEO Tools to Guide Your Strategy
Platforms like Otterly AI, Profound, and Conductor are helping marketers understand how content performs in AI search and which sources influence results.
Start by auditing what AI already says about your brand. Search for your company, keywords and search prompts in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, and Perplexity. Then you can tailor your GEO strategy to the LLMs your audience relies on most. Otterly AI has a number of helpful blogs, such as how to find real prompts in Google Search console.
- Measure What You Can
AI search results change frequently as models update. What shows up today may disappear tomorrow, so the key is tracking patterns and staying agile.
While there’s no single dashboard for AI performance yet, it’s important to:
- Monitor major AI platforms monthly for brand mentions
- Track which content gets referenced in AI responses
- Note changes in how your industry topics are summarized
- Talk to your sales team to learn what customers are asking to identify the most relevant AI search queries
- Set up regular monthly check-ins with your team to track experiments and performance
The Strategic Shift
GEO is a fundamental shift that PR, content, and marketing teams need to own together. The future of brand visibility isn’t just about getting press coverage. It’s about being the source AI cites when people ask questions in your industry.
When your content is clear, authoritative and credible, and built around persona needs, your brand will not just show up in AI searches, but your company and products can become the solution your audiences seek.
