GEO: Search marketers must think like brand managers

Why marketers need to go beyond the backlink

Both Google AI Overviews and AI assistants such as ChatGPT use a range of sources to compile their summarised answers. As such, marketers should be aiming to sustain a well-rounded, authoritative brand perception. This includes an enhanced presence across social and video, with YouTube unsurprisingly being a major source of citations within Google AIOs.

A brand-centric approach to SEO will require a mindset shift from some marketers. Though mentions in AI search can be drawn from your own website content, they are also likely to come from third-party sources such as social media or publisher websites.

Defining your products and brand as entities

AI seeks to understand your brand as an entity by cross-referencing information across the web. If these signals are consistent – the way your brand, products and people are talked about and in what context – then LLMs gain confidence in these identities.

This puts the onus on search marketers to better understand how their brand is being talked about and where. SEOs are no strangers to collaboration with the PR department when it comes to earning favourable coverage or backlinks from the media. But this remit will arguably expand, given that AI search draws on sources such as affiliate sites, product reviews, Reddit forums, LinkedIn posts, YouTube, and anywhere that your brand community is active online.

Of course, your website domain authority is still crucial to its visibility, and this has historically involved building backlinks. But those lines of blue text lose some of their pre-eminence in the GEO world, given how AI search builds identity and then surfaces it within position zero.

This is the time for SEOs to ensure they aren’t fixated on owned content, and for marketers to assess whether their brand building efforts are translating into AIO inclusion.

Share of search

Share of search has been used in recent years as a rough proxy for market share. Early analysis has shown there are some brands now punching above their weight in AI search; and for categories that transact online, this could lead to well talked-about challenger brands eating into the visibility of their larger competitors.

Simple first steps that marketers should take (if they aren't already):

1. Audit how your brand is being discussed in AI results.

Does it match up to what you’re aiming for? If not, which sources may be responsible?

2. Research frequently cited publications and sites.

Can you create a hit list for your brand to target?

3. Strategise for third party mentions.

Are people talking about your brand on forums and in online communities? Can you build links with industry publications?

This is an excerpt from CTI Digital's report, The GEO Mindset Shift: an introduction to AI search for marketers.