How much does off-page content matter in AI-seaRch?
Authored by Simon Andrew for Saint Clair’s, Germany. Simon is director of strategy, copy and clarity at Saint Clair’s. His professional interests include brand strategy, messaging and storytelling - and how these interface with AI Visibility Strategy, GEO and generative content creation.
Off page content matters a lot, is the short answer.
Here’s why.
Your visibility on large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity depends on how AI search engines interpret, summarise, and cite your content - from multiple sources. Not just your website.
That’s where Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) comes in.
At its core, GEO builds on traditional SEO principles - visibility, authority, engagement - but evolves them for the new AI environment.
Which means brands must strengthen both on-page and off-page content - and track how AI engines reference their content, identify citation gaps, and turn data into practical next steps.
You need to close tabs on what to update, where to get mentioned, and how to earn visibility inside AI-generated answers.
And then you need to act accordingly. By updating existing content, creating new content and most important, making sure that content is distributed across locations AI crawlers reference to build answers.
Here is how we approach increasing brand and product mentions and citations in AI answers - in three parts - in order to properly contextualise off-page GEO:
Part 1
On-page GEO: make your content visible to AI, not just to people
On-page optimisation used to be about keywords and metadata. Now it’s about context, coherence, and comprehension - helping AI understand your content well enough to use it in its own answers.
Here’s how we help you get there.
1. Content audit and optimisation
We start by assessing your existing content’s effectiveness for AI search.
Which pages are performing well? Which lack depth or topical authority? Where could internal or external citations improve trust signals?
Our audit connects directly to an AI content engine so you can regenerate or enhance content directly from the recommendations - closing the gap between diagnosis and action.
2. Internal linking that teaches AI to navigate your site
A human reader uses menus; an AI crawler follows meaning. Our GEO tool (one you can easily use too) automatically adds internal links based on thematic relationships between pages.
The result: clearer semantic structure, easier crawlability, and users who stay longer because the navigation now mirrors their curiosity.
3. Identify top-crawled pages
Not all pages get equal attention. The tool dashboard shows which pages are being visited and referenced most often by AI crawlers.
This helps you double down on what already attracts attention - and adapt underperforming content to match those patterns.
Part 2
Off-page GEO: build the signals AI trusts
Even the most optimised content won’t earn visibility if no one references it.
AI engines learn trust the way humans do: by seeing your name in credible places. That’s why off-page GEO focuses on building your brand’s citation footprint.
1. Competitor analysis
We benchmark your brand’s AI visibility against key competitors.
If your rivals are being cited in AI-generated answers and you’re not, we show you where and why - revealing opportunities to regain lost ground.
2. Citation gap identification
We locate high-authority third-party sites where competitors are mentioned but your brand isn’t.
These are your citation gaps - the missed mentions that quietly shape AI’s understanding of industry authority.
3. Data-driven outreach workflow
We don’t just hand you a list of gaps; we give you a workflow to close them.
That includes identifying the right contacts, prioritising outreach targets, and even drafting email templates so your team can reach out with purpose rather than guesswork.
4. Brand-mention monitoring
Finally, we track how your brand is being mentioned across different AI search platforms - sentiment, share of voice, and frequency.
This ongoing feedback loop tells you whether your outreach is paying off and how your brand’s reputation is evolving inside AI systems.
Part 3
WORKING TOGETHER: Where on-page and off-page GEO meet
The power of GEO isn’t just in the individual tactics, it’s in how they connect.
When you integrate on-page and off-page data, you start to see the full picture - how your content changes visibility, how citations amplify authority, and how AI search engines are interpreting your digital presence.
1. Action identification
The platform we use surfaces specific, ranked actions - for instance:
“Get mentioned on [specific site],”
“Update this page for contextual depth,”
“Add a citation to reinforce expertise.”
Each action includes practical details - who to contact, suggested outreach copy, and even automated follow-up options.
2. AI traffic analytics
Unlike traditional analytics, we measure AI engagement.
By tracking which crawlers visit your site, how often, and what content they interact with, you can finally quantify the the impact of your GEO work on AI visibility.
3. Data-driven strategy
Everything comes back to evidence. Our GEO reports don’t just show numbers; they translate data into next steps - guiding content creation, outreach, and brand strategy in a way that keeps you discoverable in both human and AI search journeys.
The takeaway
The future of search is already happening - quietly, invisibly, inside the models people now trust most to answer their questions.
Brands that adapt early to AI search visibility will own the first moments of the buying journey.
Those that don’t will simply disappear from the conversation..
If you’d like chat about staying in the conversation, get in touch.
FAQ
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GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation, is the process of helping your brand appear in AI-generated answers across tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity. Unlike SEO, which optimises for pages, GEO optimises for answers. AI models select snippets of content that demonstrate clarity, authority and human engagement. The more structured, specific and trustworthy your content, the more likely it is to be cited or summarised by generative engines when users search.
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Very. Off-page GEO signals tell AI systems that your brand is credible and relevant. When trusted sites mention, quote, or link to your brand, that information reinforces your authority in the model’s training and retrieval layers. These citations don’t just affect rankings , they influence whether your content is selected when AI answers questions in your category. In other words, citations are the new backlinks , and they help your brand “exist” inside AI ecosystems.
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On-page GEO still values SEO fundamentals like crawlability, internal links and metadata, but adds a layer of structure and intent. Instead of writing long, keyword-stuffed pages, GEO-ready content is modular, semantically rich and “liftable.” It uses headings, FAQs, bullet points and schema markup to help AI systems understand and reuse your ideas as part of high-quality answers.
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GEO performance builds gradually as crawlers revisit your content, off-page mentions accumulate, and generative engines refresh their answer indexes. You might start seeing signals of improvement , such as better AI visibility in Perplexity or Bing Copilot , within weeks, but stronger inclusion in LLM answers typically takes a few months of consistent optimisation and citation building.
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Start by tracking AI-search visibility, not just web traffic. Use tools (e.g. Writesonic) that analyse brand mentions in AI responses and identify when your content is being cited or paraphrased. Combine this with engagement metrics like dwell time and share rates, because AI crawlers prioritise content people actually interact with. A GEO dashboard can help you see where your brand is appearing, what’s being cited, and where citation gaps exist that you can exploit.