Top takes: Mastering GEO to maintain visibility
Last week we joined Cision PR Newswire’s talk, Winning Visibility in the Age of AI Search, to find out more about how the ever-evolving beast that is AI is changing the way brands show up and how PRs/marketeers should strategise (aka adapt for GEO).
The panel brought together some of the very best in the industry and we’ve summarised a few key takeaways from the morning’s discussions.
How to increase brand visibility in an age of AI summaries and no-click searches
Jonny Bentwood, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Golin Ketchum
Right now, 75% of google searches are zero-click, and it won’t be much longer before it's at zero, making brand visibility harder than ever if you’re not showing up in Google’s AI Overview.
Translation: people are using search engines and getting their answers without even needing to click through to another webpage, AI overview is providing results straight away.
This stat that might send shudders down a PR’s spine; how will consumers end up clicking through to their own brand sites? But PR still has the power to be visible, as 94% of AI generated results are driven by earned media citations. But how to increase the chances of your brand showing up is the real question. The key is to remember we’re not just marketing to people, but to machines, so consider the below…
Key takeouts:
Content by topics - Visibility should be assessed by relevant topics, occasions, competitors. AI prioritises results by topic (that’s how people search, by topic not brand), it loves listicles and recommendations, that’s how it presents its results to searches, à la ‘what’s the best X for Y’ or ‘best recommended X in Y’
Think of the answer first - leading on from the first, what is the question for which you want your brand to be the answer? Work backwards, answer the consumer's question with your content. Blog content, how-to guides, FAQ pages, these are all optimised for AI. Recommendations are key.
Optimise your press releases - a press release will be scanned and analysed by AI once on the wire. Say that wire hits hundreds of websites, even if they’re not your top targets, that provides way more sources for AI to pick up on. If you want your content to stand a good chance, put key information upfront, AI will take what it needs and move on quite quickly. Keep the structure tight: headline, summary bullet points (listicle strikes again) and a spokesperson quote (also helpful for journalists who don’t want AI generated content but will always be looking for real voices).
Reddit - a platform that often shows up in AI summaries but showing up here requires playing the long game and embedding yourself in the community early doors, not just when you need it. For meaningful engagement your spokesperson needs to act as a meaningful member, engaging and using the platform as a contributor for even a year.
Youtube content - if YT is one of your platforms, add transcripts to descriptions as it’s easy for AI to pick up. AI can’t read video content or moving images, but text in the description works just as well. Adopt for social and influencer partnerships.
To summarise, if there’s anything you take away from this, according to Jonny it should be the below…
The four F’s of visibility:
Found - can your brand’s site be found and read by AI? Keep your URLs simple and descriptive, avoid paywalls (AI can’t penetrate) and ensure the format is readable to AI (JavaScript? No. HTML and simple text? Yes.)
Feel - does the language match how customers search? Remember, answer-first needs to consider how users search (semantic similarity)
Format - is the content structured in a way that’s easy for AI to copy and paste the answer? How-do guides, FAQs and expert quotes are best for clear answers
Fresh - is the content new? Keep the content coming to regularly feed research results and give AI more sources to produce results from.
