GEO Optimization: How to Get Your Brand Recommended by AI in 2025
In the past, when people wanted to search for something online, they turned to Google. But in 2025, that’s no longer the whole story. Now, people are increasingly asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity for recommendations on everything from skincare products to law firms. These AI chat tools aren’t just giving search results—they’re making decisions and recommendations.
So, how do you get these tools to recommend your business? That’s where GEO comes in.
GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing your brand, website, and content to be recommended by generative AI tools.
Learn more here: What Is GEO and Why It Matters in 2025
Let’s break down the three major ways you can get into AI-generated recommendations—and what makes GEO different from traditional SEO.
1. If AI Is Using a Web Search, You Still Need SEO
Let’s say you ask ChatGPT:
“Who are the best custom kitchen installers in London?”
Some AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity will perform a background web search—usually via Bing—and use that data to generate their answer. That means if you want to appear in these answers, you need to rank well in Bing for queries like “best bespoke kitchen installers London 2025.”
So yes, classic SEO still matters. To compete in these search-driven AI recommendations, you’ll need to:
Optimize your on-page SEO (titles, content, schema, etc.)
Build a strong link profile (backlinks, mentions)
Improve your site’s technical performance (page speed, mobile usability)
This is the first layer of GEO: optimizing for the search engines that power AI.
Not sure how SEO and GEO work together? Read: GEO vs SEO: What You Need to Know About the New AI Search Era
2. If AI Is Reading the Web, You Need Digital Authority
But not all AI tools perform real-time web searches. Many rely on the vast training data they’ve already read to generate answers. This is where your content presence becomes crucial.
For example, when asked “What are the best health and safety accreditations for construction companies?”, AI tools like Gemini may not search the web. Instead, they pull from the information they’ve already “learned.”
That means the more your brand appears across reputable sites—news, blogs, forums, product directories—the more likely AI is to remember you. This is where digital PR, content marketing, and entity linking play a role.
To win here, you’ll need to:
Publish high-quality topical authority content
Gain mentions across third-party websites
Make sure your brand is consistently associated with your niche keywords
The goal: feed the AI’s understanding of your brand so it gets embedded into its neural knowledge graph.
3. If AI Is Summarizing a SERP, You Need to Be Chosen
Google’s AI Overviews—now live for many U.S. and international users—are summaries that appear above traditional search results. These aren’t links you can pay for. They’re selected from high-quality, authoritative sources based on Google’s own AI algorithm.
And the frustrating part? Even if you rank #1 on Google, you might not get picked for the AI Overview.
Case in point: a top-ranked site with a featured snippet may still be missing from the AI summary box. Why? Because its content wasn’t optimized for AI summarization.
This means we now need to structure and format content differently:
Use semantic headers and clear paragraph structures
Add FAQs and schema markup
Write in a tone that’s informational and AI-friendly
Provide clear, concise answers in your content
Curious if your site is ready for AI Overviews? Read: Google’s AI Search Is Here—Is Your Website Ready?
Why GEO Is a Game-Changer
GEO is more than just the next evolution of SEO. It’s a whole new paradigm where:
AI tools recommend your product instead of listing a search result.
Your brand memory in AI models matters as much as your rankings.
Structured, AI-friendly content beats keyword-stuffed pages.
If you’re not showing up in these tools, you’re missing out on where user attention is going. This isn’t just about future trends—it’s already happening.
Want to understand the full shift from SEO to GEO? Read:
From SEO to GEO: Why Generative Engine Optimization Matters in 2025
What Should Businesses Do Now?
The good news: you don’t have to rebuild your entire marketing strategy overnight. But to start seeing results, you should:
Audit your current rankings on Google and Bing.
Analyze your presence in AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
Start publishing AI-friendly, informational content regularly.
Build authority through digital PR, citations, and third-party mentions.
Structure your content for AI overviews and semantic search.
Partner with Experts in GEO
HornTech is New Zealand’s leading digital strategy team focused on the future of search.
We’re not just doing SEO—we’re helping brands get recommended in the age of AI.
Whether you want to understand your current GEO visibility or build a content roadmap for 2025, our team is ready to help.
👉 Visit HornTech to learn more
