GEO Guide 2025
The New Battleground: AI Search Engines Beyond Google
- Facts verified: helpful content, FAQPage, AI Overviews, and RAG literature.
- HTML improved for accessibility, semantic clarity, and machine parsing.
- JSON-LD upgraded: complete TechArticle plus citation links.
- Inline citations added near claims for verifiability.
Historical context: from blue links to answer engines
Early SEO (late 1990s–2000s). The web’s first era revolved around directories, keyword density, and link-based authority. Modern SEO: publish helpful content, make sites crawlable, build sensible internal links, and earn trust. Over time, guidance shifted from what crawlers need to what people find helpful.
The rise of AEO (2010s–early 2020s). Featured snippets, knowledge panels, and voice assistants changed expectations: the best result often looked like a direct answer. AEO emerged with concise answers and schema mapping questions to answers (FAQPage), enabling enhanced displays when used appropriately.
GEO in the LLM era (2023–present). Engines surface AI Overviews that synthesize sources and show citations. Research on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) shows conditioning generation on retrieved evidence improves factuality and attribution. GEO is how publishers adapt: structure claims, add inline citations, keep pages fresh, and make verification easy for models and people.
Deep comparison: SEO vs AEO vs GEO (12 signals)
| Signal | SEO | AEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content intent | People-first depth; topical authority | Direct answers to specific questions | Atomic claims safe to reuse in AI answers |
| Structured data | Article/TechArticle, breadcrumbs | FAQPage, speakable where applicable | Complete Article + explicit dates, optional citation links |
| Q→A mapping | Helpful headings & copy | Explicit questions with concise answers | Answers with adjacent provenance and timestamps |
| Inline citations | Often centralized at bottom | Some inline, often list-based | Required near each claim that needs evidence |
| Facts tables | Nice-to-have | Helps scan | Machine-parsable with captions naming metric & date |
| Freshness signals | Updated content performs better | Matters for time-sensitive answers | Critical: visible “last updated”, truthful JSON-LD dates |
| Indexability | Robots/sitemap hygiene | Same | Same + ensure answerable routes are discoverable |
| Performance/UX | Core Web Vitals | Scannable blocks | Semantic HTML for extraction; accessible figures |
| Link strategy | Internal linking to pillars | Link to source docs for answers | Primary sources only (official docs, standards, research) |
| Telemetry | Rankings, CTR, conversions | Snippet visibility | Inclusion rate in AI answers, claim pickup, time-to-refresh |
| Workflow | CMS + dev + SEO | Editorial + schema hygiene | Editorial + schema + automated freshness & audits |
| LLM alignment | Indirect | Emergent | Direct: written for safe LLM reuse (RAG-friendly) |
Case studies: how GEO changes strategy
Healthcare (policy explainer). Publish an explainer like “Does the 2025 policy expand preventive care coverage?” GEO: place two atomic claims with inline citations to the official policy, include a small table labeled “Preventive services covered – effective 2025-07” with a caption, and show a visible “last updated” date. When a clause changes, update the claim, the table, and the date. Result: higher probability of being cited inside an AI Overview.
Finance (rates & thresholds). Track “2025 transfer limits.” GEO: a table labeled “Daily/Monthly Limits (USD) – updated quarterly”, short claims (“Daily cap is X USD”) with links to the issuer’s docs, and JSON-LD dates that reflect each update. When limits change, the page refreshes quickly; the AI answer cites you as the source of the up-to-date number.
Education (program requirements). Explain “Do online credits count toward residency?” GEO hardens it: the answer sentence cites the registrar, a table lists requirements with an “effective term” column, and the page shows “Last updated” at the top.
Measurement & analytics for GEO
- Inclusion rate in AI answers: percent of tracked prompts where your brand is a cited source.
- Claim-level pickup: which sentences get quoted; optimize for clarity and provenance.
- Time-to-refresh (TTR): hours or days from source change to published update.
- Citeable coverage: percent of priority pages with TLDR, atomic claims, tables with captions, inline citations, and JSON-LD completeness.
- Answer engagement: clicks from the answer module to your page; pair with on-page conversions.
External signals show a behavior shift toward answer modules, increasing the importance of inclusion and attribution inside AI summaries.
Governance & ethics: misinformation, accessibility, bias, sustainability
Misinformation & corrections. Treat verifiability as a product feature. Cite primary sources next to claims and keep an edit trail. When a fact changes, update the claim, the table, and the date—not just the date.
Accessibility. Use semantic HTML (tables with caption, figures with figcaption), descriptive alt text, and sufficient contrast.
Bias checks. Sensitive topics need balanced sources and a clear source policy (official standards, peer-reviewed research, recognized institutions).
Sustainability. Prefer HTML text over heavy images for key content; update only when facts change.
Where Wrodium fits in (the GEO engine)
Wrodium assumes your pages are read by people and by models. It scans content for claims, aligns each claim with a source of truth, and suggests edits that tighten language, add inline citations, and refresh dates. It validates JSON-LD completeness and sitemap/indexability. Drawing from RAG principles and aligned with Google guidance, it then tracks whether your brand appears as a cited source in AI answers and which sentences were surfaced.
FAQ
Do I need a special AI sitemap? No. Use a standard sitemap; focus on indexable routes, pre-rendered HTML, and correct structured data.
Should I cite AI Overviews directly? No. Cite the underlying sources (official docs, standards, research).
How do I measure progress? Track inclusion as a cited source, claim-level pickup, TTR, and pair with classic conversions.