Adapting Content Strategies for an AI-Driven Search Landscape
As we continue exploring the ever-evolving world of digital content, it’s clear the rules of engagement are shifting. In our recent blog, we discussed how quality website content is the cornerstone of your online presence. It helps your business rank in Google search and connects with your audience.
However, in 2025, ranking in traditional search results is no longer the only game in town.
The rise of AI-powered search tools and chatbots, such as Google’s AI Overviews and generative AI chatbots, has introduced new dimensions to content strategy. To stay ahead, businesses must adapt to these innovations, ensuring their content remains visible, authoritative and relevant.
In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into how you can optimise your content for AI-driven platforms and explore the emerging practice of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). Let’s get started.
Rank your content in AI
SEO has undergone a dramatic evolution over the years and continues to adapt at an unprecedented pace. Today, Google is no longer the only gateway for finding information. Unless you’ve been living on a remote Pacific island, you’ve likely noticed the rise of AI transforming how we search and interact with content.
Search habits are shifting and so is the way information is presented. Let’s dive into the world of AI, focusing on AI Overviews and AI chatbots, to explore how these tools are redefining content strategies.
AI Overviews
Google introduced AI Overviews to enhance search results using generative AI.
You may have noticed AI Overviews at the top of SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). It provides AI-generated summaries of search queries, aiming to give users quick, relevant information without visiting multiple websites.
This sounds scary but we’ve been preparing for this at Pod Digital for over a year.
It appears at the top of search results as short paragraphs, bulleted lists and images, summarising information from various sources. We have been writing content optimised to appear as a source in AI Overviews (formerly Google SGE – Search Generative Experience). When it was released in the spring of 2024, many of our clients were immediately referenced in AI Overviews.
We had content that appeared only hours after being uploaded.
But it doesn’t stop there. SEO and content are moving quickly and let me introduce you to the new kid in the block: GEO.
What is GEO?
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is a method to make websites more visible and relevant in AI results. It focuses on two key areas:
- Optimising content to appear prominently in AI Overviews
- Tailoring website content to increase the chance of being cited or recommended by AI-powered chatbots and search tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google Gemini.
We focus on GEO techniques to improve clients’ digital presence and authority in an increasingly AI-influenced online landscape. We ensure your content is not only discoverable but also prioritised by advanced AI search and chatbots.
Integrating GEO and SEO for Maximum Impact
While GEO is a game-changer, it doesn’t replace traditional SEO: it enhances it. GEO and SEO should work hand-in-hand. We combine their strengths to increase visibility across both traditional search engines and AI-driven platforms. SEO provides the foundational strategies, while GEO adapts them for AI algorithms.
How does your business rank in GEO?
We want your business to be recommended in generative AI. We’ve spent a lot of time researching how to make content visible. Here is how we have been making it happen for our clients so far:
Unified content strategy: Align your content with both SEO and GEO best practices. Ensure high-quality, relevant content tailored for traditional search and AI-driven platforms.
Optimise for traditional web search: SEO is still very much alive and well! Many AI tools conduct behind-the-scenes Internet searches to gather up-to-date information to generate their responses. This means you need to rank in Google search results to be picked up by generative models.
Keyword and semantic research: Expand your keyword research to include long-tail phrases, conversational queries and contextually relevant terms that AI engines prioritise.
Create content that follows best practices:
- Get to the point and give the user the information they need very quickly.
- Write high-quality content. Be detailed and factual by covering topics comprehensively. Include statistics and data points to reinforce credibility.
- Write easy-to-read content: the better the AI can understand it, the more likely it is to use it.
- Skimmable content
- Write a good author bio and include it in the blog post.
- A consistent brand voice ensures AI recognises your authority and credibility.
Make your content easy to understand. Generative AI chatbots and AI Overviews value fluency and readability. Aim to simplify content while keeping key information intact.
Structure content for AI: Make the content skimmable – use headers, bullet points and visuals to make your content easy to scan. Structured content is more likely to be featured in AI-generated responses.
Future Trends in GEO
GEO is not static: it’s constantly evolving. Here are some trends to watch:
- Hyper-Personalisation: AI engines will deliver increasingly tailored responses based on user preferences and behaviours.
- Voice and Visual Search: The rise of these formats requires content creators to optimise for non-textual inputs.
Multimodal Search Evolution: AI integrating text, video and audio will require flexible content strategies.
The Future of GEO Generative Engine Optimisation
Although we are still in the early stages of GEO and AI chatbots, and Google continues to dominate the search market, its share has declined from 86% to 83%. Meanwhile, AI-driven search queries have surged, increasing tenfold between January and September 2024. This signals a significant shift in user behaviour and opportunities to stay ahead of the competition.
Many have not yet realised what’s happening.
At Pod, we are always researching and staying ahead of the game. We don’t know for sure what is going to happen but we can guarantee we will be at the forefront of these developments. We will continue to adapt our strategies to leverage new AI-driven search technologies.
Practical Metrics for GEO Success
To measure GEO’s impact:
- Monitor referral traffic from AI engines.
- Track content citations in AI-generated responses.
Use engagement insights to refine your strategies further.
Are you Ready to Future-proof Your Website Content?
At Pod, we specialise in creating strategies that make your business stand out, both on Google and in the AI. Get in touch today to discover how we can help your website dominate Google search and AI results and thrive in the age of generative AI.
