Keeping your brand visible inside AI answers

Search habits are changing fast. A few years ago, most people started their research the same way: open Google, type a question, and click through a few results until something made sense.

Today, a growing share of those questions go straight into AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI integrations. Instead of a long list of links, users see a single, confident answer on the screen. That answer is stitched together from a small group of websites the model decides to trust at that moment.

If your brand is not part of those sources, you may never appear in the research process, even if your SEO dashboard looks healthy.

That is where GEO comes in. Generative Engine Optimization is about helping your brand show up inside AI answers, not only underneath them as one more link.

Why GEO Matters

SEO is still the foundation, you still need a technically sound site, relevant pages and content that speaks to real customer needs. What has shifted is where people start their research and how few sources AI tools rely on when they respond.

One large analysis of roughly 680 million links cited by major AI engines found clear patterns in how each platform sees the web.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT behaves a lot like a reference librarian. In the study, about 7.8% of everything it cited came from Wikipedia. After that, the numbers drop fast. Reddit is around 1.8%, and sites like Forbes and G2 are about 1.1% each.

If you only look at its favorite sites, Wikipedia becomes much more dominant. Roughly 47.9% of those citations go to Wikipedia, and about 11.3% go to Reddit. The rest is spread across a small group of big publishers and review sites.

There is also a clear pattern in the domains it likes. Around 80.41% of citations go to .com sites and 11.29% to .org, while everything else like .io, .ai or country domains stays very small.

In simple terms, ChatGPT leans heavily on encyclopedias and large, established .com and .org sites when it needs context.

Google AI Overviews

Google’s AI Overviews use a more mixed set of sources. In the overall numbers, Reddit appears in about 2.2% of citations, YouTube in roughly 1.9%, with Quora around 1.5% and LinkedIn about 1.3%. That means community threads, videos and professional posts all sit next to traditional articles.

When you zoom in on its favorite sites, that pattern gets stronger. Inside its top group of sources, about 21.0% of citations go to Reddit, 18.8% to YouTube, 14.3% to Quora and 13.0% to LinkedIn. The rest is spread across analyst firms, finance sites and well known publishers.

So Google’s AI layer is very comfortable mixing social proof, explainer videos and B2B content in a single answer.

Perplexity

Perplexity is the most community and reviews oriented of the three. Across all of its citations, Reddit accounts for about 6.6%, and YouTube is around 2.0%. After that you see a long list of review and analyst sites. Platforms like Gartner, Yelp, LinkedIn, Forbes, NerdWallet, TripAdvisor, G2 and PCMag each sit under one percent on their own.

If you only look at Perplexity’s favorite sites, the picture is even clearer. Around 46.7% of those citations go to Reddit, and about 13.9% to YouTube. The rest is split across those review and comparison platforms.

For categories like consumer products, travel, SaaS and local services, this basically means that if you are not present on Reddit, review sites or comparison pages, Perplexity does not have many reasons to bring your brand into its answers.

The exact percentages matter less than the pattern, one engine is anchored in encyclopedic and high-authority sites. Another blends social platforms, videos and professional content. A third is dominated by forums and reviews.

For marketers, the takeaway is simple: there is no single switch called “AI visibility” because any GEO strategy has to respect how each engine builds its answers.

How GEO Changes The Way We Think About Content

Traditional SEO focuses on ranking and clicks while GEO adds another layer and focuses on reference.

For the questions that really matter to your business, you want to know: Do AI engines bring us into the answer at all? When they do, are we described accurately? When they do not, which competitors or third parties are shaping the story instead?

That shifts the conversation from “are we on page one” to “are we part of the evidence this model is using to explain our category”.

Content that performs well in this environment is clear, specific and easy to reuse. It answers a real question directly, uses straightforward language and backs up claims with simple details such as numbers, examples or common use cases. Short sections, descriptive headings and the occasional comparison table make it easy for both people and models to understand what each part of the page is about and to lift the right information when needed.

The goal is not to sound technical or robotic. The goal is to make sure that when an AI system goes looking for a way to explain your space, your content is one of the most useful sources it can find.

Practical GEO Steps For Marketers

You do not need a massive transformation project to start thinking about GEO, but a simple, repeatable process is usually enough to make real progress.

Start with real questions

Begin by listing ten to fifteen questions your buyers actually ask when they are close to a decision, for example: Will this really solve my problem? Is this the right option for my situation or company? How does this compare to other solutions I am considering? Is the price justified by the value it offers?

Search those kinds of questions in ChatGPT, in Google with AI Overviews enabled, and in Perplexity. Pay attention to whether your brand appears, which sites are cited and how the category is described. Within a short time you will have a clear view of where you already show up and where you are missing entirely.

Strengthen the pages that should answer those questions

Next, focus on the pages that should logically be used to answer those queries: product overviews, pricing or comparison pages, and one or two cornerstone blog posts.

Make them easy to understand and easy to quote. You can do that by opening with a short summary that clearly answers the main question, using headings that mirror how people phrase the problem, adding a simple comparison or table when it helps break down options, and including specific outcomes or examples rather than only marketing claims.

These adjustments keep the content natural and readable for human visitors while giving AI engines clean, trustworthy material to work with when they build answers.

Show up where your engines actually look

Once you understand how the major engines behave, you can be more deliberate about where you invest time outside your own site.

For engines that behave like ChatGPT, it is worth investing in strong explainers on your own .com and, when appropriate, contributing to reputable third-party sites in your industry.

For engines that behave more like Google AI Overviews, you will want genuine conversations, videos and posts about you on Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn. That might mean answering questions in relevant subreddits, publishing short product walkthroughs or educational clips on YouTube, and sharing clear, practical posts from members of your team on LinkedIn.

For engines that behave like Perplexity, review platforms and key forums should be treated as part of your core presence rather than side channels. Detailed, honest reviews on the sites your buyers trust, plus active participation where people compare options, send strong signals these engines are already primed to use.

Check your progress regularly

Finally, put GEO on a regular cadence. Once a month, run your list of key questions again across the same engines and capture what you see. Over time, you should be able to see whether more answers mention your brand, whether the way you are described is improving and which external sites are becoming especially influential for your category.

Final Thoughts

Search has not disappeared, but it now has an extra layer that sits in front of traditional results. More and more buyers are starting their research inside AI experiences that rely on a very small number of sources, which makes the gap between being visible and being invisible much sharper than it used to be.

GEO is about responding to that shift. It asks brands to look beyond rankings and focus on becoming one of the reliable sources that AI systems reach for when they explain a problem, a category or a set of options.

Teams that know what their audience is asking, invest in clear and specific content, and show up in the ecosystems their customers already use will be better positioned as AI powered discovery continues to grow.

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