PR is GEO’s best friend

By Pat Southwell:

The chances are you know what GEO is by now. But for anyone who doesn’t, it stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It’s the emerging practice of structuring and creating content so it’s easily understood, cited and used by AI-driven search engines and chatbots.

Let me explain…

Once upon a time, we used to just Google things. We might type, “What was the best horror film of 2025?” Or at least I would. I love horror. And we’d get a long list of results to trawl through. The results depended on how good the film company’s SEO was.

Today, we just ask ChatGPT or don’t get past the AI overview at the top of Google. We get instant personalised recommendations. The results depend on how good the film company’s GEO is.

And having good GEO is hugely important because 83 per cent of people now prefer AI search over merely Googling something.

How do I boost my GEO? 

Good question. It’s one lots of people have been asking. The answer is simple: get more editorial coverage. This is because 61 per cent of the time AI relies on journalistic sources to provide its answers. In fact, I even heard a conference speaker say it was an eyewatering 90 to 95 per cent*.

Which is why PR is one of the single most important tools for communicators in the AI-driven world we now live in. Simply put, to reach people via AI, you often need to go through a journalist.

But that’s just the start of improving GEO. Because AI not only looks for editorial coverage about a brand, it also looks for how recent it is. This means there needs to be a constant flow of new pieces appearing.

AI also looks at how relevant the articles are. Which means it’s more important for brands to be mentioned in well-respected niche titles rather than the occasional big splash in a national. Even better if those articles are freely available instead of behind a paywall.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t aim for standout coverage in the big media outlets. It can reach audiences directly, in a compelling way. But when it comes to AI, drumbeat coverage in sector-specific media is the holy grail. 

What else influences AI?

There are, of course, other things AI draws on to make decisions. Perhaps the most important of which is Wikipedia. Why? Because humans use it and trust it. It’s a huge, crowdsourced data set that comes in a structured format with verifiable sources. Another source that has similar traits is Reddit. They say there’s a subreddit for everything and it’s always being updated, making it perfect for AI. YouTube transcripts are important too.

Then we come to things like brand websites, which need content that AI prefers. This means lots of FAQs that give specific responses to questions people are likely to be asking of AI. For example, this blog is set out in a loose Q&A format.

There is also a long tail of other factors influencing AI, such as meta descriptions and URLs that make sense to the average reader. For an AI to understand what a webpage holds, it needs to be presented in a way a human might read it.

The more we consider all these factors, the more it all sounds obvious. To stand out in AI, you need to treat everything as if a human is reading and get yourself mentioned in the places humans look – albeit with a few nuances. It’s less about gaming the system, which SEO often does, and more about acting uniquely human in the way we communicate. Ironic, really.

What should B2B tech brands do?

In short, there are four things we would recommend to boost AI visibility:

1. Create great content. It needs to be specific, simply written and instantly understandable. It also needs to be well-referenced and have a named author. A great example would be a bloody brilliant opinion article

2. Trade media relations. Place your awesome content in well-regarded specialist titles on an ongoing basis so the AI can draw from recent sources

3. Blog differently. Create articles and listicles that give information in a structured and simple way, answering specific questions. Also, make sure press releases are always available on websites to amplify the message for AI. People might not read them, but the machines will

4. Consider the long tail: make sure Wikipedia is up-to-date, become a contributor on Reddit and publish on social platforms. Think about your web strategy and how the data across every part of your site can be readable and understandable by AI. And make sure it’s all consistent. If you start to contradict yourself, the AI will lose trust. Just like a human

Suddenly, investing in “traditional” PR looks far from traditional. It’s a revolution. Perhaps the most important thing a brand can do in the AI era.

Oh, and while you’re here, the best horror of 2025 film was Weapons. You’re welcome.

*I don’t have a reference for this stat. By using it so casually, I’ve just reduced my GEO. Don’t do that.