ONE MORE THING AI HAS CHANGED FOREVER: search
If you or your your team has been obsessing over SEO rankings like it’s still 2019, we’ve got news for you (deep sigh!) the game has changed. In fact, it’s already mid-match, and most of us didn’t even hear the whistle blow.
Profound – a New York-based company specializing in AI search optimization – dropped a bombshell study at the end of May 2025. They analyzed over 10 million AI search results from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s new AI Overviews. The findings are jaw dropping, to say the least.
Let’s start with a stat that would stop any search geek mid-scroll: only 52% of sources cited in Google’s AI Overviews appear in its traditional top 10 search results.
Translation for the rest of us: you can rank high in traditional… and still be invisible to AI.
Let that sink in.
GEO is the new god-tier OF SEARCH (GEO/AEO/ SEO EXPLAINED BELOW)
For years, marketers have been plugging away at SEO to build keyword density, back links, schema markups and alt tags in the hope of getting another precious step up the Google ladder.
But does GEO (generative engine optimization) for AI care? No.
The new art (and science) is to get your brand - or yourself - cited by the LLMs now performing ever more “searching” on behalf of customers.
And here’s what the Profound study makes crystal clear:
What AI sees – and what it chooses to include – is not what you think.
You’re no longer competing for clicks. You’re competing for inclusion.
In the AI-powered SERP, there’s no Page 1, Page 2, Page 6,394.
There’s just… the answer.
And you’re either part of it, or you’re not.
Here’s what Profound found when it lifted the lid on 10 million search results:
AI engines select sources based on clarity, authority, and usefulness - not ranking
Brand mentions often outperform brand-owned domains in visibility
Diverse citation patterns: AI doesn’t stick to top sites – it pulls from Reddit, Substack, niche blogs and industry PDFs
Which means your beautiful blog post, sitting pretty at SEO rank #3, might never make it into the AI-generated summary your customer actually reads.
That’s not just bad news for visibility.
That’s reputation risk.
So what does GEO-friendly content look like?
Let’s get something straight: this isn’t about tricking the system.
It’s about serving it better.
Think of AI as your best-informed-but-still-a-bit-anxious intern.
It needs help. It needs structure. And above all, it needs understandable, genuinely useful information.
Here’s what wins in the world of GEO:
Clarity tumps cleverness. AI doesn’t appreciate 14-line poetic metaphors. It wants crisp definitions, clear explanations, and language that doesn’t make its circuits sweat.
Depth over dazzle. Write like you know your stuff. Reference other smart people. Layer in stats, citations and examples.
Structured substance. Use H1s, H2s and proper semantic hierarchy. AI loves this. It’s Braille for bots.
Brand storytelling. Weirdly, AI loves human stories, so do include them. Make your copy feel lived-in. Personal. Textured. Not just keyword soup.
Authoritative signals. Use real names. Real companies. Real facts. No fluff. No faking.
If only it were that simple
To complicate matters, Profound’s study also revealed that every AI Engine has its own peculiar taste in content - and they’re picky..
ChatGPT wants credentials, not charm. On could say it’s hooked on authority. Think Wikipedia, Forbes, Amazon, G2. If you want citations from ChatGPT, don’t write like a friend, write like a trusted institution with a PhD in “I told you so.”
Perplexity? It’s got total street food energy. It lives for the messy, human stuff and frequents Reddit threads, YouTube comments and random wisdom in a LinkedIn post or a Yelp review. If real people said it, especially with evidence of cred, Perplexity’s in.
Google AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is platform-agnostic — but neurotically technical. It blends the whole internet stew: blog posts, big brands, social scrolls — as long as your schema is tight and your code plays nice. Think: good hygiene over good pedigree.
Microsoft Copilot is pure B2B energy. It devours corporate case studies, Gartner reports and enterprise-grade everything. If it wears a suit and ends with a PDF, Copilot want to be more than just friends with it.
This isn’t just an SEO pivot. It’s a content revolution.
Here’s the kicker.
Optimizing for generative engines isn’t just about being found. It’s about being trusted .
And building trust is, of course, central to branding.
So it’s worth bearing in mind that, when ChatGPT or Google AI includes your insight in its summary answer, it’s not just referencing you. It’s vouching for you.
It’s saying: “This is the person you can believe."
And for any brand playing the long game, that’s the kind of visibility you can’t buy. But you can earn.
So what does this mean for your content strategy?
Well, for a start, you can’t just “optimize for AI” anymore. That’s like trying to win over every editor at a fashion magazine with the same outfit.
You have to know who you’re dressing for. Pick your AI. Learn its taste. Serve it what it likes.
That’s how you get quoted, cited, surfaced — and seen.
If you’re serious about future-proofing your brand, the answer is simple:
Stop optimizing for search engines. Start optimizing for answers.
And create more comparative listicles - sounds trivial, but AI absolutely loves them.
And for those who want a little refresher on AI-era search acronyms:
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
What it is: SEO is the old-skool process of optimizing your website and content to rank higher in traditional search engine results (like Google). It involves keyword research, content structure, backlinks, page speed, and user experience.
Goal: Help your content appear prominently in search results when people type in relevant queries.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
What it is: GEO is the emerging practice of optimizing content for generative AI platforms (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude) that generate original responses rather than just listing links. This means ensuring your brand or content is present, well-referenced, and contextually useful in AI-generated answers.
Goal: Get your brand mentioned, cited, or used by AI tools that synthesize information from across the web.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
What it is: AEO is the practice of optimizing content specifically for answer engines like ChatGPT, Google’s featured snippets, or voice assistants (e.g., Siri, Alexa). It focuses on providing clear, concise, and structured answers that AI can easily extract and present.
Goal: Make your content the go-to answer when an AI or voice bot is responding to a user query.
AIO (AI Overviews)
What it is:
A product, that is, it’s the name of Google’s new AI-generated answer summaries, now appearing at the top of most search results. These overviews pull together information from across the web into a synthesized, AI-written summary. So AIO is a result of AEO, to be clear 😂
You’re welcome!