If your organic strategy is still “publish blogs, build links, climb Google,” you’re playing last season’s game.
Search hasn’t disappeared. It’s just grown a second mouth.
In 2026, people don’t only search, they ask. AI systems answer by pulling from sources they trust, then summarising, citing, and recommending. That’s where GEO comes in.
SEO vs GEO: what’s changed?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the discipline of improving your visibility in traditional search results. It’s built around crawling, indexing, relevance, and ranking.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the discipline of improving your visibility in AI-generated answers on LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI-driven experiences. The aim isn’t just to rank a page, but to become a source those systems confidently reuse.
The difference is subtle but significant:
SEO rewards relevance and performance.
GEO rewards trust and extractability. If your content isn’t credible, consistent, and easy to interpret, it won’t be surfaced, even if it technically “ranks.”
This is why the shift isn’t from SEO to GEO. It’s from SEO-as-the-whole-plan to SEO-as-the-foundation.
How SEO builds domain authority (and why that now matters for GEO)
SEO impacts DA indirectly by creating the conditions for authority to accumulate:
- Helpful, people-first content attracts links, citations, and repeat visits (the stuff that builds reputation over time). Google explicitly prioritises helpful, reliable content designed for people, not manipulation.
- Technical health ensures your content is actually accessible, indexable, and usable, forming the baseline for discovery. Google’s technical requirements start with “Googlebot isn’t blocked,” pages returning success codes, and indexable content.
- Clean link practices protect you from building authority that gets ignored or penalised. Google’s spam policies are clear; links and tactics designed to manipulate systems don’t last.
Now here’s the 2026 twist, the same trust signals that strengthen SEO also increase your chances of being referenced in LLMs. Generative engines don’t want “the best-optimised page.” They want the safest source to repeat.
Earned media: the bridge between being found and being cited
In the world of generative AI, earned media does three high-impact things at once:
- Enhances credibility and authority: Generative engines value content authority and trustworthiness. Credible news outlets that reference your content sends a signal of authority, improving your ranking and chances of being cited by LLMs.
- Improves content relevance and personalisation: Earned media helps personalise content recommendations by showing that your brand or content is worth recommending to a broader audience
- Builds long-term SEO value through backlinks, brand mentions and press coverage.
If you want LLMs to trust you, stop relying solely on what you say about yourself. Put your brand in places where others validate it.
Actions to improve SEO and GEO (and why each matters)
- Publish genuinely helpful, linkable content
Create assets people need to reference; original data, expert commentary, frameworks or definitive guides. - Tighten technical SEO fundamentals
Make sure Google (and other crawlers) can access and index your pages reliably: crawlability, clean status codes, fast load times, and mobile performance. If you’re not indexable, you’re not a candidate. - Get on-page SEO right (without over-optimising) Clear page intent, logical headings, descriptive titles, internal linking, and schema where relevant. This makes content easier to understand and easier to extract into summaries.
- Invest in off-page SEO that looks like real authority
Prioritise relevant backlinks from trusted sites in your category. Avoid shortcuts and schemes – the cost of “fake authority” is higher than ever. - Earn high-trust media coverage (digital PR)
Thought leadership, product expertise, category insights and POVs backed by proof. Earned media is reputation at scale and a compounding trust asset. - Turn unlinked brand mentions into linked ones
If a credible outlet mentions you, ask for the link. It’s one of the cleanest ways to strengthen authority without creating more content. - Write for extractability (machine-readable clarity)
Use definitions, bullets, short summaries, and explicit claims backed by evidence. Generative engines are more likely to reuse what they can parse cleanly. - Audit your backlink profile regularly
Remove or disavow genuinely spammy links and keep your authority signals clean. Higher authority signals = higher likelihood an LLM treats your site as a reliable source to cite/summarise.
The necessary disclaimer
There is no official blueprint for optimising for LLMs and GEO. The systems are evolving, and the rules aren’t published. But based on strategic experiments and the direction of search, the actions above materially improve your chances of being referenced in generative results because they increase the underlying signals of credibility, clarity, and independent validation.
What to take away
What to take away
- GEO is not a replacement for SEO. It’s the layer built on top of it.
- Domain authority is no longer just a ranking signal. It is a trust signal for AI systems.
- Earned media is becoming more important in a generative search world.
If your strategy still treats PR, SEO, and content as separate lanes, this is your nudge: merge them. The brands that win in 2026 won’t just be easy to find, they’ll be safe to quote.
About the author
Simarin Tandon | Senior Digital Marketing Manager
Having worked with brands across the Beauty &Wellness, FMCG, FinTech, and Home & Lifestyle sectors, Simarin focuses on driving acquisition and growth, whilst managing the performance team at brandnation.
A curious marketer, Simarin is always on the pulse when it comes to performance and digital updates across both paid and organic platforms.
