Looking to boost your GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)? Read our five tried and true PR principles to bring your strategy back to basics.
As an OG PR gal, I’ll forever sing its praises as a strategy for building reputation, trust and connection. From earning credible, independent third-party coverage to creating original, useful content that informs audiences, a strong PR discipline can make an incredible impact on any organization.
But when it comes to getting advice and endorsements online, there’s a new sheriff in town: GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization.
GEO can sound intimidating. New acronym. New rules. A new fear that everything you’ve worked on for years to boost SEO is suddenly obsolete. Here’s the good news: boosting GEO doesn’t require a brand-new strategy, a shiny new platform or a team of AI whisperers.
In fact, some good old-school PR principles can make a big impact — they just require a little more intention.
Below are a few simple, highly practical things you can do right now to help your brand show up more effectively in AI-driven search results.
When your brand lands a media mention, interview or feature, that’s a win. But if that win lives only on someone else’s website, you’re leaving value on the table.
Reposting earned media on your own site — as a blog post, article mention or broadcast feature — helps in several important ways:
AI engines love authoritative sources. Media mentions are exactly that — but only if they can actually find them.
Bonus: This content often performs well with humans, too. Social proof still works. Always has.
I’ve never met a PR pro who doesn’t love a good FAQ — and it turns out AI feels the same way.
FAQs are one of the most effective tools for GEO when they’re done well, because they:
Instead of one giant FAQ page with 47 unrelated questions, consider building FAQ groups around specific topics, such as:
If someone might type (or say) the question into Google, an AI assistant or their phone while wandering the aisles at Costco, it’s probably worth answering.
Pro tip: Clarity beats cleverness every time. This is not the place for fluffy jargon or poetic prose.
Marketers are often too close to their own work. We assume everyone already understands:
Search engines and AI models do not share those assumptions.
You need to spell it out — repeatedly — in plain language. Clear, consistent explanations help:
Consistency builds understanding, trust and connection.
Traditional SEO often rewarded content that pulled people in. GEO rewards content that actually helps.
That means prioritizing:
Ask yourself: If an AI needed to explain this topic in two sentences, could it pull that answer directly from this page? If the answer is no, there’s room to improve.
Helpful, well-structured content doesn’t just rank better, it gets reused, referenced and recommended more often.
You don’t need to create everything from scratch.
Look at:
Small updates — like clearer introductions, stronger headers or a short summary at the top — can make existing content far more GEO-friendly.
Sometimes the smartest move isn’t more content. It’s better content.
GEO isn’t about chasing algorithms or trying to outsmart AI. It’s about making your expertise easy to understand, easy to find and easy to trust.
The same principles you learned in PR 101 are still relevant — and more importantly, still effective. So dust off those old pearl earrings and give your PR hat a fresh look.
