SEO is losing its dominance (Welcome to GEO)

I’ve been spending less time obsessing over keyword density and exact-match anchor text, and more time thinking about how people actually find things now. Funny thing happened on the way to the top of the search results.

People generally ask for things, not search.

“How do I do X?” “Can I eat Y?” “Give me 10 tips to Z!”

They’re now talking to their LLMs in the shower. The paradigm has flipped. It seems to me that we are now optimizing for a generative engine, not for a search engine’s algo. This is the era of what they now call GEO: Generative Engine Optimization.

Here’s the core difference:

• Traditional SEO was about winning a zero-sum game for a single #1 ranking. It was a battle for a link in a list of ten blue links.
• GEO is about being chosen as the best, most authoritative source. It’s about earning a citation _within_a single, generative answer.

The generative AI now synthesizes one option from a list of the “top 10 choices.” It must obtain that synthesis from somewhere, and your goal is to become that trusted source.

What does this mean for your strategy?

1. Authority is Everything (E-E-A-T on steroids): You can’t trick an LLM. It’s trained on the entire internet. It knows what great, expert content looks like. Depth, accuracy, and unique expertise are your only currencies now.
2. The “Answer Engine” Mindset: Stop targeting just “keywords.” Start targeting questions, contexts, and conversational queries. What would someone genuinely ask to find this?
3. It’s a Feedback Loop: These models learn from engagement. If users find the AI’s answer (sourced from you) helpful and engaging, it reinforces your authority. Create content that doesn’t just rank, but satisfies.

This isn’t the end of SEO. It’s an evolution. The fundamentals of great, user-centric content and technical hygiene are more important than ever. But the game has changed. We’re no longer just playing for the SERPs. We’re playing to become the source of truth for the next generation of how people discover information.

Are you building for the old world, or the new one?