SEO vs GEO – What are they and how do they differ?
What is SEO? SEO—short for Search Engine Optimisation—is the practice of optimising your website and its content to improve visibility in search engine results. It’s been around for many years now and most people will have heard of it, even if they don’t understand it. SEO is mainly about two main things: helping search engines like Google understand what your content is about, and making it easier for users to find your site and decide whether to click on it from the search results. At its core, SEO is about alignment; making sure that what you’re offering matches what people are searching for. It involves both technical elements (like site structure, page speed, and mobile-friendliness) as well as content elements (such as keywords, headings, and internal linking). SEO also includes off-page factors, such as backlinks from other trusted websites, which signal authority and relevance to search engines. From the user’s perspective, SEO helps ensure that the right information appears in search results when they type in a query. This includes optimising page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs to clearly communicate what the page offers, with the aim of increasing the likelihood that a user will click through to your site. Once they arrive, well-optimised content helps them quickly find the answers they’re looking for, whether that’s making a purchase, reading a blog post, or finding contact details. Ultimately, good SEO bridges the gap between what people are searching for and what your site provides, driving organic traffic and supporting your broader business or content goals. The exponential growth in the use of AI has, however, introduced a new search kid to the optimisation block. Welcome GEO! What is GEO? Somewhat confusingly, there are two types of GEO, Geographic Engine Optimisation, which has been around for a while and refers to maximising the benefits of local search tools such as Google Business Profile, and the new kid on the block, Generative Engine Optimisation. This is the one we’re discussing in this article. Generative Engine Optimisation is an emerging content strategy designed to optimise digital content for AI-powered search engines and platforms. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on optimising content to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs), GEO is specifically tailored for generative AI systems, like those used in large language models and AI assistants. As these systems increasingly shape how users access and consume information, businesses and content creators must adapt their strategies to ensure their content remains visible and influential in this new environment. At its core, GEO is about making content easily discoverable, understandable, and usable by generative AI models. These models don’t just crawl web pages and return links; they collect information from across the web to generate summaries, answers and recommendations in response to user queries. For it to be included in these AI-generated outputs, it must cover the 4 following content pillars: This means, if you want your content to be found in AI searches, it’s important to craft content that aligns with the way AI interprets language and prioritises information. Emphasise clarity, factual accuracy, contextual relevance, and structured data that can be dissected and reused effectively. GEO represents a shift in digital strategy, where content is no longer just optimised for human readers and traditional search engines, but also for machine interpretation and synthesis. This includes using precise language, incorporating well-labeled metadata, and addressing topics comprehensively to increase the chances of content being surfaced in AI-generated answers or overviews. As AI becomes the interface through which more users interact with the web (whether via search engines, digital assistants, or chatbots) the visibility of content will increasingly depend on how well it is positioned for these systems. In this sense, GEO complements traditional SEO rather than replacing it. While SEO ensures your content ranks well on search platforms like Google and Bing, GEO ensures your content is considered and referenced by AI models generating natural language responses. The goal is to maintain and expand your digital presence across both traditional and generative interfaces. As AI-driven search continues to evolve, understanding and implementing GEO principles will be essential for anyone looking to stay relevant and visible in the digital landscape. What can they both achieve? 1. Visibility and Discoverability Both SEO and GEO aim to increase the visibility of content. In both cases, the ultimate goal is to help users find your content when they’re searching for information. 2. Content Quality Matters High-quality content is essential in both strategies. 3. Keyword and Topic Optimisation Both SEO and GEO rely on understanding user intent and optimising content accordingly. 4. Structured Data and Clarity Clear, structured content benefits both SEO and GEO. 5. Focus on User Intent Understanding and meeting user intent is central to both. 6. Performance Over Time SEO and GEO are both long-term strategies. 7. Content Freshness and Relevance Both strategies value up-to-date and relevant information. 8. User Experience (UX) Matters The three UX pillars of good content presentation, page speed, and mobile friendliness all support SEO rankings and therefore they indirectly support GEO as well. AI models can sometimes detect signals of usability and credibility based on how content is written and structured. As AI develops, these detection powers will most likely increase to improve its generative outputs As SEO and GEO both aim to connect users with the right content, albeit through different delivery mechanisms, they should be seen as complementary strategies. What’s more, as AI-driven tools grow in influence, integrating both will become essential for digital success. So what are the differences? Summary SEO and GEO serve the same overarching goal, making your content more visible to users, but they operate in different arenas. While SEO drives traffic by encouraging users to click on links from traditional search engine results, GEO focuses on securing mentions within AI-generated answers, where users may consume information without ever visiting your site. By combining both strategies, optimising for traditional ranking signals and ensuring your content is structured and AI-ready, you could maximise your visibility across
5 Practical Marketing Tips For Time-Poor Trades
You’re a builder, carpenter, decorator, roofer, plumber, electrician, heating engineer, landscaper and you’re trying to grow your business. How can you do that when you’re busy on-site though? We know that you might run your business on your phone but also that you’re not glued to a screen, so we’ll keep it simple and practical. Build your brand using these simple pointers You are an expert at what you do and your customers love you. You can spot a dodgy roof tile or a leaky pipe from a mile away but when it comes to marketing, things can get a bit… well, confusing. Don’t worry though, you don’t need a marketing degree to get your name out there. We’ve put together this list of our top five things you can do to get your marketing working harder for your business: 1. Don’t Tell Them, Show Them: Visual Content is King Forget long, wordy adverts. People want to see what you can do. That means snapping photos and videos of your projects. Before-and-after shots are gold! A quick video showing you fixing a tricky plumbing issue? That’s going to grab attention. Think about it, if you needed a new bathroom fitted, wouldn’t you want to see examples of a company’s past work? 2. Get Local, Get Found: Google Business Profile is Your Best Friend When someone searches for “plumber near me” or “builder in [your town],” you want to be at the top of the list. That’s where your Google Business Profile comes in. It’s a free tool that lets you list your business on Google Maps and search results. 3. Social Media: More Than Just Cat Videos And Holiday Snaps Pick a few key social media platforms and do them well, understand which ones your potential clients are using and use them too. Facebook and Instagram are great for visual content. LinkedIn is fantastic for connecting with other professionals and potential commercial clients. 4. Ask for Reviews and Recommendations We all know a good recommendation goes a long way. But these days, people look online for reviews. Platforms like Google, Facebook, and Checkatrade are vital. 5. Keep it Mobile-Friendly: Everyone’s on Their Phone Most people will find you on their phone. If your website is hard to navigate on a mobile device, you’ll lose potential customers. The Bottom Line: You don’t need a huge marketing budget. Focus on showcasing your work, getting found online, and building trust with potential customers. By keeping it simple and focusing on what matters, you can grow your business and keep those projects coming in. And if you need any more help then why not contact your friendly specialist marketing agency!
Is Marketing Really The Most Stressful Job In The World?
And if it is, what are some easy ways to give your online presence a boost? April is Stress Awareness Month and according to careercast.com research, when asked to rate their job stress out of ten 78% of marketers rated it at seven or higher. So it’s no wonder business owners find it extremely difficult to run their marketing alongside their day-to-day job. One of the main things business owners are always trying to do is use their marketing to improve their search engine rankings. So what are some easy wins that small to medium business owners can do to maximise their SEO efforts with the least amount of stress? Here are our top three: 1. Replace images on your website One of the easiest ways to give your SEO a boost is to do some small updates on your website and replacing images is a good place to start. We recommend doing this every six months to make sure your images are up to date and to give Google a nudge to rearrange your site’s ranking. Although stock imagery is okay to use, adding authentic images of your own work or staff is best. If you don’t have any photos of your own, give us a call on 01903 686858 to speak to our team about how we can help. Top tip: On top of replacing the images on your site, make sure that the new images you add have ALT text. Search engines can’t see images so using ALT text describing the image is the only way to get that image ranked. Adding new images without ALT text will flag up as an update, but adding ALT text will also allow the search engines to understand what your image is and show it in relevant search results. 2. Make sure you’re using the right title tags While websites need to be created to be helpful to your target consumer, it’s also important to make sure search engines can read your website too. We’re certainly not saying to ‘keyword stuff’ or use other black hat SEO tactics, but what we are saying is to make sure your website is formatted correctly. The main thing to do is use Headings properly (known as H1’s, H2’s and H3’s) in the right way. These are the three main types of title tags. Although there are more, generally speaking, you’ll only ever need the first three: H1 – A title and the biggest of the title tagsH2 – A smaller heading used to title subsectionsH3 – An even smaller heading usually used for subheadings Why are title tags important for SEO? Title tags are crucial for SEO as they allow search engines to understand what content is the most important. Which, in turn, enables it to understand what the webpage is about. Since Google’s new algorithm update, it is focusing more on producing helpful results to users. Making sure that your website uses title tags correctly will help Google place your website in relevant search results. So setting aside some time to go through your website and making sure that all the right headings have the right tags could really boost your website up the search rankings. Top tip: Where you can, make sure that your H1’s include a focus keyword. 3. Update and republish old blog posts There’s a lot of pressure now to always be creating new and unique content but when it comes to SEO, this isn’t essential. In fact, re-using old content can be just as effective if you spend just a small amount of time ‘top and tailing’ it. What is top and tailing? Top and tailing simply means to write (or re-write) the start and end of a piece of written content. In this context, it means to give it a refresh and potentially make it more current. In other circumstances, you may ‘top and tail’ a piece of writing to make it more effective: Top and tailing an old piece of content will take less time than writing a whole new piece of content and it can still be used as if it’s new. So, by all means, republish it as a new blog post and talk about it through your marketing channels. If you feel it’s appropriate, you can explicitly say that the ‘new’ article is an updated version of a previous article. Just like we did with our networking blog post. If you’re finding that you just don’t have the time to try these quick wins, it might be time to ask for some help with your marketing. Which is where we come in! Give our marketing experts a call on 01903 686858 or email us at info@constructivemarketing.co.uk to find out how we can help.
Improving Your Digital Marketing
As we’re sure you’ll know, technology is constantly changing and there’s no exception for digital marketing channels. So it’s no surprise that, in order to be successful at digital marketing in 2023, you need to continually evolve your digital marketing strategy. The beginning of 2023 is a good time to make some changes. Here’s what we suggest: Streamline the social platforms you’re on A lot of businesses make the mistake of being on every social media platform in fear of not reaching everyone. Unless you’re a government or global consumer brand, this is the wrong approach to take – you don’t want to reach everyone you want to reach your target audience. So ask yourself – what platforms are they on? Think of social media platforms as news channels. There are lots of different ones out there; Sky News, BBC News, Channel 4 News, ITV News etc. Each of them is essentially telling the same stories, they’re just doing it in a slightly different way. As a result, people have their preferences – some always watch Sky News and don’t like BBC News. While others prefer BBC News over everything else. So what social media platform does your target audience prefer? Once you know that, you can start removing your business from other social channels and focusing on the audience’s favourite/s. Top Tip: Make sure that you don’t leave your social media accounts to become dormant. It’ll reflect badly on your business and may make potential customers turn away thinking your business is not operating anymore. Instead, either delete the social account completely or – if there’s an option to – make the account invisible to the public. Build relationships with your customers One of the main goals of any marketing efforts that you do should be to build relationships with your customers. Very few consumers are going to decide to buy from you simply because you asked them to. What many will do is shop around, look at alternatives and ultimately choose the business that resonates with them the most. Making sure that your business has a good relationship with the consumer will give it a good chance of being the one that consumers choose. Make sure you’re consistent Whatever digital marketing efforts you’re doing, making sure you’re consistent is a constant rule. While changing things up is important, it’s equally as important to make sure that you’re giving things ‘a good go’ before deciding that they’re not effective for your business. Here at Constructive Marketing, we’ve got years of experience managing a diverse range of businesses digital marketing strategies. Whether you’re not sure where to start, or you already have goals in place, we can help. Give us a call on 01903 686858 or email us at info@constructivemarketing.co.uk to arrange a meeting with us and get your digital marketing back on track for 2023.