AI Search Didn’t Kill SEO. It Raised the Bar.

Picture a prospective student comparing graduate programs with an AI assistant, or a donor asking which organizations work on an issue they care about. Your website may not be the first place they encounter you.

For a communications team, the question is straightforward: what are those answers saying about you?

The work of reviewing and improving your presence in AI-generated answers is often called generative engine optimization, or GEO. It’s another part of website planning, not a reason to throw out your SEO work.

Start with the website you have. Check the information, the structure, and the questions your pages answer before adding another set of tactics.

Search results and AI answers

I’ve worked on websites since before AI search was part of the conversation. The tools have changed, but the questions I ask when reviewing content are familiar: is the information accurate, can people find it, and does the page help them do what they came to do? I use those same questions when reviewing AI answers.

Search engine optimization helps people find your content through search results. Rankings and website visits are among the measures teams use to assess that work.

Generative engine optimization focuses on how your content and organization appear in AI-generated answers. Teams may look at mentions, citations, and the accuracy of the information presented. Some people will read an answer without clicking through to your site.

Many improvements are useful across both: descriptive headings, straightforward navigation, current information, and pages that work well on a phone. Mentions may introduce people to your organization even when they don’t visit immediately, so track them alongside website traffic rather than treating clicks as the whole picture.

Give someone responsibility for the review

Who on your team checks how your organization appears in AI answers? If nobody owns that task, assign it a place in your existing search, website, or analytics review.

Website reporting won’t show everything someone reads about your organization before visiting. Use it alongside occasional checks of how your programs and services are described in AI answers.

Start with the foundation you already have

Before you budget for something new, check the basics on your current site:

• Page titles and meta descriptions that say what the page is
• One clear H1 and a logical heading order
• Pages that load fast on a phone
• Appropriate text alternatives for images
• Credible sites that link to you

Answer the question near the top

If a visitor wants to know which environmental science programs your college offers, don’t make them read through a broad introduction to the institution first. Put the program information near the top.

That person is comparing options. Give them something they can use.

Ask the people who talk with your audience regularly. Admissions staff, development teams, and program coordinators can tell you which questions keep coming up.

Make pages easy to scan

Read a page’s headings without reading the paragraphs. Can you tell what the page covers? Replace vague labels with headings that describe the information underneath them.

Useful changes include:

• Headers that describe what follows (“Tuition and financial aid for 2026-27” instead of “Learn More”)
• Short paragraphs, plus bullet lists and tables for facts like deadlines, costs, and requirements
• A short FAQ section with direct, plain answers
• Plain definitions of terms your audience might not know

Add structured data where it fits

Schema markup labels information on a page, such as an event, an article, or an organization. If you’re reviewing structured data, begin with content that is already accurate and up to date.

Talk with your web team or CMS vendor about the structured data your site already uses and whether it fits your content. Implementation should follow the relevant search platform’s current guidance.

To see what’s already there, run your homepage through Google’s free Rich Results Test.

Review older pages before adding new ones

Older pages are easy to overlook when a team is focused on new content. Check for outdated tuition figures, expired deadlines, and programs that are no longer offered. Someone can still find those pages and mistake the information for current guidance.

If people are still landing on an outdated page, updating it may matter more than publishing another one.

Use your audience’s words

Use the terms your audience uses. Explain anything unfamiliar and tell people what they need to know before they apply, register, donate, or contact you.

Read the page aloud when you’re done. If a sentence sounds awkward or takes too long to get to the point, revise it.

Check your progress

Use a few measures together, and keep the review small enough to repeat. Website visits, branded searches, and checks of AI answers each show a different part of the picture.

What these checks can tell you

These checks can help you spot inaccurate information and identify pages that need work. They won’t explain every citation or omission, and repeated questions can return different answers.

Choose one important page and one question your audience asks regularly. Review the answer, update what needs attention, and use that work to plan the next page.