Marieke van de Rakt
Today, I gave a talk at the career day of Fontys in Venlo. I will be doing a similar talk at WordCamp the Netherlands in november. . The topic: GEO, or how to stay visible now that more and more people search with AI.
I have worked on getting websites found for more than fifteen years. But that was in Google, so what is different nowadays?While preparing the talk, I noticed that my story became quite clear. So I decided to write it down.
Search is not dying. But it is changing.
Let me start with the good news. People still search. A lot. Google still handles billions of searches every day.
But more and more searches start somewhere else. In the Netherlands, 40% of people now use AI at least once a week. One year earlier, that was 19%. ChatGPT alone has more than a billion weekly users.
And Google itself changed too. Above the search results, there is now often an AI summary. That summary answers the question right away. Research by Pew showed what that does: with an AI summary, only 8% of people click through to a website. Without one, 15%. Almost half as many clicks.
Ranked or cited?
This is the core of my talk. A search engine gives you a list of links. The game was: be at the top of that list.
An AI tool gives you one answer. That answer is built from a few sources. The game now is: be one of those sources. There is no page two. You are in the answer, or you are not.
Search engines rank pages. AI cites sources. That is a different game. And most websites are not playing it yet.
Informational content brings fewer visitors
One thing changes fast. Blog posts like “what is cross-docking” or “10 tips to train your guinea pig” used to bring in a lot of traffic. Those are exactly the questions AI now answers itself.
People still ask these questions. They just do not need your website for the answer anymore. So do not count on this kind of content for traffic. What still works is content only you can make. Your experience. Your cases. Your prices. Your local knowledge.
An AI answer is the average of what is said about you
What happens when someone asks an AI tool about your company? The AI does not just copy your homepage. It combines everything it has read about you. Your website, reviews, news, LinkedIn, old articles.
So your brand in AI is the average of everything that has been published about you online. That makes GEO more than a website task. It is about reputation, PR and customer experience too.
Is SEO finally dead?
No. And this is the part I like to explain most.
When you ask an AI tool a question, it does not answer from memory alone. It splits your question into many smaller search queries. It runs those in a search engine. And it reads dozens of pages in a few seconds. This is called a fan-out.
So AI agents search in search engines too. Gemini and Google’s AI summaries use Google. ChatGPT leans more on Bing. If you are not findable in a search engine, the AI will not find you either. Everything that matters for SEO still matters for GEO.
A side effect: you might see more visits in your hosting statistics. That is often not people. Those are AI bots reading your pages. More visits are not the same as more visitors.
From clicks to citations
Traffic from AI chatbots is still small. On average, it is about 1% of website traffic. But it grows every month. And those visitors stay longer than visitors from Google.
But not every visit comes from a click. People see your name in an answer. Later, they search for your brand. Or they type in your website. Or they just call you. That value never shows up as a click from AI. But it is real.
Five things you can start on Monday
The good news: most of this is just good SEO and good marketing. These are the five tips I give in my talk.
1. Build a really good website. Exactly what you would do for SEO. Can a stranger tell in ten seconds what you do, for whom and where? Does your site load fast on a phone? Is your text in the page, and not hidden in images or PDFs?
2. Update your FAQ pages. Use the real questions your customers ask. Start with the answer, then explain. “Do you deliver to Germany?” deserves “Yes, anywhere in Germany within 48 hours.” Not “We serve customers all over Europe.”
3. Get mentioned on other websites. AI trusts what others say about you more than what you say about yourself. Ask happy customers for a review. Keep your Google Business Profile up to date. Make sure you are listed at your trade association and in directories in your sector.
4. Keep your information the same everywhere. Your website, Google, LinkedIn, the Chamber of Commerce. Same name, same address, same phone number, same story. If these differ, an AI gets confused. And when an AI is not sure, it leaves you out.
5. Let AI read your website. Some websites block AI bots without knowing it. Ask your web builder three questions. Do we block AI bots? Is our text readable without JavaScript? Are we in Bing Webmaster Tools?
How do you know if it is working?
Measuring is harder than it used to be. A lot of the value never shows up as a click. But there are some simple things you can do. Ask ChatGPT and Gemini the questions your customers ask, and see if you are named. Look in your analytics for visitors from AI tools. Follow how often people search for your company name. And just ask new customers how they found you.
What will GEO look like in 2027?
Nobody knows for sure. But AI models keep getting better. And they get cheaper fast. That means AI will be everywhere. I expect three things.
From answers to action. Today, AI gives an answer. Soon, AI agents will do the work. Compare suppliers. Request a quote. Book an appointment. Your website then needs to be usable for a machine, not only readable.
Organic gets scarcer. Ads are arriving in AI answers. Just like Google went from only organic results to more and more paid spots. Whoever is cited organically now has a head start.
GEO becomes marketing. In a year, I do not think we will talk about GEO as a separate thing. It will just be how you get found. A good website, a good reputation and one story everywhere.
Ranked, cited, chosen
My talk is called “Ranked or cited?” But I think the real answer has three words.
First, it was about ranking in Google. Now, it is about being cited in an answer. Soon, it will be about being chosen by an agent that decides on behalf of your customer.
An AI answer is the average of everything that has been published about you. So start making that average better. Start today!
