What To Do if Your GEO Isn’t Driving Results

What to do if your GEO isn’t driving results

1. Improve the structure of your content
2. Build topical authority
3. Target high-value queries
4. Increase brand signals on your site
5. Combine GEO with traditional SEO
6. Keep your content fresh and up to date
7. Give it more time

If your generative engine optimization (GEO) strategy isn’t driving results, the problem may be related to weak authority signals, poor topic coverage, limited AI visibility, or content that isn’t optimized for platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Perplexity.

Below, we’ll explain the most common GEO performance issues and how to improve your visibility, citations, and results across AI-driven search experiences.

What to do if your GEO isn’t driving results

There are a number of reasons your GEO might not be driving results. Before we dive into those reasons, though, a quick disclaimer: When we say “results,” we’re talking primarily about AI citations, mentions, and overall visibility.

If the results you’re looking for are clicks, you may be focusing on the wrong thing. GEO can drive some clicks, but it’s better for visibility. If clicks are your priority, you should be focusing more heavily on SEO.

With that out of the way, here are seven answers to what to do if your GEO isn’t driving results:

1. Improve the structure of your content
2. Build topical authority
3. Target high-value queries
4. Increase brand signals on your site
5. Combine GEO with traditional SEO
6. Keep your content fresh and up to date
7. Give it more time

Read on to learn more about each of these approaches to fixing your GEO strategy!

1. Improve the structure of your content

AI is a lot more likely to cite your content if it has a clear structure that makes it easy for it to extract specific answers. That means if your page is disorganized and doesn’t answer questions directly, your GEO likely won’t perform well.

To avoid that issue, be sure to:

• Use clear headings
• Answer questions directly after they’re asked
• Use structured formatting
• Improve clarity

Each of those optimizations will contribute to fixing your GEO strategy.

2. Build topical authority

Topical authority is also important for appearing in AI responses. Currently, AI Overviews appear in 39.4% of informational searches (65.9% for longer keywords), the largest percentage of any content category. That shows how highly AI values topical information.

To take full advantage of that opportunity, aim to create content clusters around key topics in your industry, and address those topics in depth. The more broadly and deeply your site covers a topic, the more AI will perceive you as an expert on it, and the more likely you are to get cited.

3. Target high-value queries

Targeting the right queries is also important for finding success with GEO. If you’re only targeting short-tail keywords, you won’t get very far — AI responses usually appear in connection with longer queries, particularly those with a highly specific search intent.

For that reason, try optimizing your content for long-tail, conversational queries. Those queries better reflect the types of questions people go to AI to get answers to, and it gives you a better shot at being included in those answers.

4. Increase brand signals on your site

Weak brand signals on your site are another possible reason your GEO isn’t working. If you’re providing good content but failing to adequately tie that content to your brand, you may not be building up the brand authority and reputation that you want. 

That could make AI prone to cite your content in isolated instances, but not consistently. And when it does cite you, it might not be growing users’ trust in your business. To more strongly associate your content quality and expertise with your brand name, be sure to increase references to your brand throughout your content (without being overly promotional).

5. Combine GEO with traditional SEO

GEO is a strong strategy, but it won’t work in a vacuum. For it to be effective, you need to pair it with other strategies, particularly traditional SEO. When you’re showing up in organic rankings and AI responses, you’ll get a strong blend of search-driven clicks and AI visibility.

Using GEO alongside SEO is also a good idea because 54.5% of AI Overview citations come from pages that are already ranking in organic search results. That means optimizing for SEO is a GEO tactic in and of itself. SEO boosts your brand authority, which makes AI more likely to cite you.

6. Keep your content fresh and up to date

AI citations don’t typically favor outdated content. If all your content is several years old and you’re still expecting to get cited, it might be time for a reality check. To make your content more appealing to AI responses, you should make a point to freshen up that content.

Go back and update old pages to breathe new life into it. Improve the structure, update old stats, and add FAQs to make your content more extractable by AI tools. When you’re constantly freshening your website content, you’re a lot more likely to achieve the AI visibility you want.

7. Give it more time

Finally, sometimes the reason your GEO isn’t working is because you just haven’t given it long enough. GEO relies on a lot of compounding signals to work correctly, so if you’re expecting to dominate AI responses within a week of launching your strategy, your expectations are pretty unrealistic.

Like SEO, GEO can take time to get rolling. Although you might see some early wins in as little time as four to eight weeks, more substantial results typically take three to six months.

So, if you’re still in the early stages of your GEO strategy, take a breath and just give it more time.

Start fixing your GEO strategy with help from the WebFX team

If you’re still experiencing GEO performance issues despite your best efforts, it may be time to call in the experts. If that’s what you choose to do, WebFX is at the ready. Our team of 750+ digital marketing experts will get right to work crafting a custom approach to fixing your GEO strategy.

Interested in partnering with us for our GEO services? If so, call us at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!