A guide to GEO and showing up properly in AI search by Ella Delancey of Big Top PR
In all likelihood, AI is already telling people about your company. It’s important to know what it’s saying, and what you can do to make the story it tells more positive.
The way people search has changed. Instead of 10 links, they’re getting one answer – and that answer might mention your brand. Or, it might mention your competitor. Worse, it might describe you using outdated or inconsistent information. Fighting against this is what people are calling GEO.
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It means making your brand easier for AI-powered search tools to find, understand, trust and include in their answers.
AI search does not only look at your website. It looks for signals – press coverage. LinkedIn content, Reddit posts, articles, FAQs, bios, boilerplates, trade media, reviews, third-party mentions.
What is GEO?
Traditional search gives people a list of links and lets them decide where to go next. AI search gives people a direct answer, summary or recommendation.
- That means your brand needs to be easy to understand before someone lands on your website.
- It means your messages need to be consistent across different places.
- It means your content needs to answer questions people are asking.
- It means your reputation is being built from everything AI can find.
Good GEO is usually just good communication.
- Clear writing
- Useful answers
- Strong structure
- Consistent messages
- Credible proof
- A website that says what you actually do and mirrors your PR and marketing messages
- PR coverage that reinforces what you want to be known for
- Social content that supports your expertise
Owned content that answers the questions your audience is already asking. In short: GEO is about being clear enough that robots cannot misunderstand you.
Your boilerplate is doing more heavy lifting than you think
Boilerplates sit at the bottom of a press release. Everyone tends to ignore them until mistakes become apparent. But in AI search, your boilerplate is more relevant. So is your About page. So is your LinkedIn company description. So is your founder bio.
If those things all say something slightly different, you are creating confusion. And AI does not like confusion.
That doesn’t mean every sentence needs to be identical everywhere.
But your core story should be consistent:
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Who do you help?
- What are you known for?
- What makes you credible?
- What proof exists?
If a human can’t answer that quickly, AI probably can’t either.
What good GEO-friendly copy looks like
AI tools are trying to understand your content, extract the useful points and decide whether you are a credible source. That becomes much easier when your copy is well-structured and specific.
Use:
- Clear headings
- Question-led sections
- Short summaries
- Useful FAQs
- Direct answers
- Specific proof points
- Consistent language
- Fresh information
- Simple explanations
So instead of:
“We are delighted to announce the next phase of our ongoing journey to support brands as they navigate the increasingly complex and ever-evolving communications landscape.”
Try:
“Big Top has launched a new AI search audit to help brands understand how they appear in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other AI-powered search tools.”
Owned, earned and social content
Owned content
This is the stuff you control: your website, blog, press office, FAQs, resource hub, About page, case studies, guides, landing pages and service pages. Owned content gives AI something structured and verifiable to pull from, but only if it is useful.
Your owned content should answer the questions people actually ask.
What do you do? Who is it for? How are you different? Are you credible? What do you specialise in? Where do you operate?
Earned media
Earned media is hugely important. AI tools look for external validation. They want to see whether credible third-party sources are talking about you, quoting you, explaining your work or connecting your brand with a specific topic.
This is where trade media can be especially powerful. National coverage is great, obviously, but trade media often gives AI more specific context, linking your brand to a sector, niche, audience or area of expertise.
So, your media strategy should ask: what topics do we want to own, which journalists cover them, which trade titles matter in our sector – and are we making it easy for everyone to get the facts right?
Social content
LinkedIn, in particular, is becoming part of how brand authority is built. LinkedIn articles can also be useful here, especially when you want to go deeper than a standard post.
Share your coverage. Turn FAQs into posts. Comment on timely issues. Use your spokespeople. Repurpose good insight. Say something useful.
The GEO checklist
A short checklist of items you should look at.
Your website
- Is your About page up to date?
- Does it clearly explain what you do in the first few lines?
- Can someone understand your business without scrolling for five minutes?
- Do your service pages answer real questions?
- Do you have FAQs written in natural language?
- Are your press releases published on your website?
- Is your press office easy to find?
- Are your founder and spokesperson bios current?
- Do your case studies include specific proof points?
- Are your key facts consistent across the site?
Your messaging
- Can your team explain what you do in one or two sentences?
- Does your boilerplate match your About page?
- Does your LinkedIn company description match your website?
- Are your spokespeople using consistent language?
- Are your core messages repeated across channels?
- Are you clear on what you want to be known for?
- Are you avoiding vague claims you cannot prove?
Your PR
- Are you targeting credible media in your sector?
- Are you prioritising trade media as well as national media?
- Are your press releases clear, factual and easy to verify?
- Are you giving journalists enough assets, facts and context?
- Are your experts commenting on specific issues, not vague trends?
- Are you building authority around defined topics?
- Are you uploading press releases and major announcements to your own site?
- Are you sharing earned media after it lands?
Your social
- Are you using LinkedIn to reinforce your expertise?
- Are your senior people visible?
- Are you turning media coverage into content?
- Are you answering audience questions through posts?
- Are you repeating your key messages without sounding like a broken record?
- Are you joining relevant conversations?
- Are your social bios current and consistent?
Five things to fix this week
1. Ask AI what it thinks you do
Search your brand in the normal way, then ask AI tools:
What does [brand] do? Who is [brand] for? What is [brand] known for? How does [brand] compare with [competitor]?
2. Fix your About page
Make it clear, current and specific. Say what you do early, explain who you help, include proof and cut the fluff.
If your strongest point is hiding in paragraph four, move it up.
3. Sort your boilerplate
Gather every version of your company description you can find: website, press releases, LinkedIn, founder bios, speaker bios, award entries, pitch decks and media packs.
If they all describe the business differently, decide which version is right and update the rest.
4. Make earned media work harder
When coverage lands, do not let it quietly expire in a Slack channel. Share it on LinkedIn. Add it to your press page. Use it in newsletters. Quote it in sales materials. Build follow-up commentary around it. Ask your spokespeople to share it.