By Brittany Lieu, Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing
Marketers have spent decades learning how to write for humans and for Google. But now, there’s a new audience we have to think about: AI models.
When people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini a question, those tools often go searching across the web, pulling from websites, citations, and structured data, to build their answers. That means the way your content is structured determines whether it shows up in that process.
That’s where Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, comes in.
The Difference between SEO and GEO
EO and GEO are not rivals, they are teammates. Good SEO practices, like clean structure, relevant metadata, and descriptive tags, feed directly into better GEO performance.
Here’s a simple way to think about it:
If SEO is about being found, GEO is about being understood.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps your pages get noticed. It ensures that when someone searches for a topic, your page appears in search results. The focus is on visibility and clicks.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) helps AI models actually comprehend your content. LLMs don’t just scan for keywords, they try to understand the meaning and context so they can summarize it, answer questions, or cite it in AI-generated responses. GEO is about structuring your content, like headings, metadata, structured data, so it can be interpreted accurately by AI.
In even simpler terms:
- SEO = “Hey Google, here’s my page. Let people find it.”
- GEO = “Hey AI, here’s what my page actually means. Now you can use it correctly.”
SEO helps your content get noticed, and GEO ensures it gets understood. Now that we know the difference, you might be wondering if this requires a technical background or coding skills.
The good news is you don’t need to be a developer to start optimizing for generative engines. Even small adjustments to how you structure your content can make it much easier for AI to read and interpret.
Why GEO Matters Even If You’re Not Technical
Here’s the truth: you don’t need to be a developer to start optimizing for generative engines. You just need to make your content easier for AI to read like a human would.
When a large language model (LLM) reads your content, it does not see visuals, buttons, or layouts. It sees text and structure. So, while beautiful web design helps people navigate your site, clear structure helps AI comprehend what your content means.
Think of it this way:
- Headings tell LLMs what’s most important.
- Lists and summaries help them identify relationships and steps.
- Structured data gives them context, like this is a person, this is an event, or this is a product.
In short, formatting for humans makes it readable. Structuring for LLMs makes it retrievable.
Start Small: Structure Your Most Valuable Content
You don’t need to restructure your entire site at once.
The key is to start with one content type and make it easy for AI to read and understand. High-impact pages like blog posts, product pages, FAQs, how-to guides, or case studies are great starting points because they already contain the information people are searching for.
Here’s a simple approach:
- Add hierarchy. Use clear headings (H1 > H2 > H3) so both humans and AI can understand the structure.
- Break up text. Short paragraphs, bullet points, and numbered lists make your content easier to parse.
- Include key details. Author names, publish dates, and topics give AI context and help with discoverability.
- Add basic schema markup. Simple schemas like Article, Product, or FAQ tell AI and search engines what your content represents.
- Reuse and modularize. Break large pages into sections or components that can be repurposed across your site. This helps AI understand your content and makes updates easier.
Focus on a few well-structured pages first. You can gradually expand to other content types as you learn what works. The goal is clarity over volume.
AI will understand and cite your content more effectively when each page is organized and structured.
Final Thoughts
GEO doesn’t have to be scary or technical. Start small, pick a page, make it clear, add a little structure, and let AI actually get what you’re saying. Over time, these small steps add up, making your content easier to find, easier to understand, and more likely to be used by both humans and AI.
Curious about how we help B2B brands create effective content? Connect with one of our experts today.
The post Optimizing Content for LLMs: The Basics of GEO appeared first on Heinz Marketing.
