SEO vs GEO: Why Getting Cited Will Matter More Than Ranking

“If your product isn't discovered or cited in ChatGPT, you're ngmi.” - Arnav Sahu, partner at Peak XV Partners

Introduction

For years, SEO meant a simple deal. Rank on Google, earn the click, win the customer.

That deal is breaking because discovery is moving into AI answers.

This holiday season is a clean example. WIRED reported that more Americans are expected to use large language models to find gifts, deals, and sales instead of traditional search, and that retailers could see up to a 520% increase in traffic from chatbots and AI search engines in 2025 compared to 2024, citing an Adobe shopping report. When customers ask an AI “what should I buy,” the answer is not a list of 10 links. It is a short set of recommendations. If you are not inside that recommendation set, you do not exist in the moment that matters.

That is why GEO is suddenly everywhere.

What is the difference between SEO vs GEO?

SEO is still the foundation. You optimize pages so search engines can crawl, understand, and rank them. But user behavior is shifting toward “answer first” experiences, which means even strong rankings can produce fewer clicks.

GEO, generative engine optimization, is the next layer. It is the work of making your product and content easy for AI systems to trust, extract, and cite in generated answers. In practice, GEO is about becoming the source that the model pulls from, not just a result that sits on page 1.

The data supports that clicks are already being squeezed. SparkToro found that in 2024, 58.5% of US Google searches and 59.7% of EU Google searches resulted in zero clicks. Pew Research found that when an AI summary appears, users click a traditional search result in 8% of visits, versus 15% when no AI summary appears. And when AI Overviews show up, citation becomes the new advantage. Seer reported that when you are cited in an AI Overview, you get 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than when you are not cited.

So the game is no longer “rank or disappear.” It is “rank, then get cited.”

Why GEO matters now?

The data supports that clicks are already being squeezed. SparkToro reported that in 2024, 58.5% of US Google searches and 59.7% of EU Google searches resulted in zero clicks. Pew Research found that when an AI summary appears, users click a traditional search result in 8% of visits, versus 15% when no AI summary appears. And when AI Overviews show up, citation becomes the new advantage. Seer reported that when you are cited in an AI Overview, you can see 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than when you are not cited.

So the game is no longer rank or disappear. It is rank, then get cited.

Why the market is moving fast?

Gartner predicted traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 as search marketing loses share to AI chatbots and virtual agents. When a distribution channel shifts, capital follows the shift.

TechCrunch captured this with The Prompting Company, a YC backed startup built specifically for GEO. The company raised $6.5M in seed funding and already counted customers like Rippling, Rho, Motion, Vapi, Fondo, Kernel, and Traceloop. The most important line is the behavioral shift: “Over the past year, most of the growth on websites has come from AI bots, not people,” cofounder and CEO Kevin Chandra told TechCrunch. If that is directionally true, your “user” is no longer only a human. It is also an agent.

That is why Chandra argues brands will need an AI facing website, a version designed for agents without navigation bars, pop ups, or marketing fluff. Their platform identifies the questions agents ask, creates structured content that answers purchase intent queries, and routes agents to AI optimized pages. TechCrunch also reported the platform was hosting about 500,000 pages for customers, with traffic driven to client sites in the double digit millions per month.

Why this gets even bigger when agents can buy

Right now, most AI discovery ends with a human still clicking and purchasing. But the plumbing for agent commerce is being built quickly.

OpenAI has launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT and describes building an Agentic Commerce Protocol with Stripe and merchants so AI agents and businesses can complete purchases. Reuters and AP also reported on ChatGPT checkout with partners like Etsy and Shopify, powered by Stripe, positioning ChatGPT as more of a shopping assistant.

Google is pushing agent interoperability too. Google announced the Agent2Agent protocol in April 2025 to let AI agents communicate and coordinate actions, and later introduced an Agent Payments Protocol as an extension designed to support agent led payments.

When agents can discover and transact, the discovery layer becomes even more valuable. If an agent is picking the product, it will pick what it can understand, verify, and execute against. That is GEO.

What this means for local service businesses

If you run a plumbing, electrical, dental, cleaning, landscaping, or any local trade business, this shift hits you earlier than you think. When someone needs help, they are not browsing for fun. They want a decision. Who is available, what it costs, whether you are trustworthy, and how fast you can get there. AI answers are built to do exactly that decision making.

In an AI answer world, the winners are the businesses whose websites make those answers obvious and citeable. That means clear pricing ranges, clear service areas, clear proof like licenses and insurance, real reviews, and simple next steps. Not fluff. If your site forces everyone to call just to get basic info, you are making it harder for a customer to choose you and harder for an AI to recommend you.

What to do this week?

Start by creating 1 pricing and cost page for your top service. Put a real range, explain what is included, and explain the 3 variables that change the price. This single page is often the difference between being recommended and being ignored, because it gives both humans and AI something concrete to act on.

Then add a short FAQ section written in the exact language people use when they are trying to decide. Keep the answers direct and specific. Do not say “we service Brisbane.” Name the suburbs or regions. Do not say “we offer a warranty.” State the warranty length and what it covers. Do not say “fast response.” State typical response times for standard and after hours.

Next, make trust impossible to miss. Add your license number, insurance details, years in business, service area list, and real reviews on the page. Add a short paragraph about the owner or team that explains who you are and why you do the work. Humans trust it, and AI systems can cite it.

After that, publish 1 comparison page that helps a customer choose between 2 options. Comparison pages are naturally structured and easy to summarize, which is why they perform well in AI answers. Think repair vs replacement, emergency vs standard booking, or option A vs option B for your service.

Finally, add 1 simple case study with numbers. Local buyers want proof you show up and solve problems. Mention the suburb, the situation, what you did, and a measurable result like response time, time to complete, money saved, or preventing a repeat issue.

None of this replaces SEO. It upgrades it. You are building pages that rank and pages that AI can confidently cite.

How Crevo Partners can help and the CTA

If you want to see how your business shows up in ChatGPT and Google AI results today, I can run a free SEO plus GEO visibility audit and send you a 1 page plan to win more calls. It will show what AI recommends right now for your main service in your suburb, which pages you are missing that stop you getting cited, and the simplest fixes to convert more enquiries into booked jobs, including missed call text back and quote follow up automations.