Navigating SEO and Generative Optimization: A New Era

Search engine optimization (SEO) improves a website’s ranking on search engines. The higher the ranking, the more likely people find the website.

The main aim of SEO is to improve a website’s visibility so that it appears higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, SEO is not just about improving visibility; it is also about improving the quality of the website so that it is more relevant to users. Website owners often forget, yet as we brave the new era of AI in search (AI Overviews), quality content is still the number one consideration.

Search engine optimization has come under scrutiny in recent years, with critics suggesting that it is being used to game the system. These high-stakes circumstances led some businesses to develop “black hat” SEO tactics.

In this article we cover:

• Black Hat SEO
• White Hat SEO
• Improving Organic Search Rank
• AI overviews
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

Black Hat Tactics

Black-hat tactics go against the guidelines that significant search engines have set down. For example, most search engines scan pages for specific keywords and index them for their relevance to a certain topic. If a user searches for “chicken masala recipe,” the search engine will scrape the page for that string of text and return pages where that string frequently appears.

So, one black hat technique, known as keyword stuffing, involves littering a page with strings to boost its appearance in the search results. Consider how damaging this tactic is now with Google’s algorithm update that focuses on helpful content.

Keyword stuffing

Sometimes website owners add the relevant string to their website thousands of times in a hidden text box, and sometimes they add pages and pages of irrelevant text to their website (as in the example linked above).

Either way, keyword stuffing attempts to draw traffic by misrepresenting the site’s contents. Though this practice may induce a sort of SEO sugar rush, where your page jumps up several pages in the search results for a short time, search engines tend to get wise to this kind of activity, and a keyword-stuffed site has a high likelihood of getting banned from search results.

So how do you get your site noticed while ensuring that everything you do is above board? It’s easy, focus on content for your audience and worry less about how to win over or outsmart search algorithms.

White Hat SEO

The growth of AI-enabled web crawlers or search algorithms is off the charts. When you drill down in your Google tools like Analytics, you’ll find a steady growth in bots searching your site.

Many webmasters are accustomed to search crawlers needing HTML to index their pages, but many pages today are developed with JavaScript, or with front-end JavaScript frameworks such as ReactJS.

Webmasters and digital marketers must now contend with more rules than before. There’s not much you can do to stop bots from searching your site, but what you can focus on is growing organic traffic. Most organic traffic comes from keyword searches.

Improving Your Organic Search Rank

To get the best recommendation on getting found and ranking higher in organic searches consider organic SEO techniques.

Optimizing Your Content

All your content needs revision and updating – significantly our blog posts and articles. We update our existing articles all the time. Why? We want all our business blog posts to remain relevant for our website visitors, including this article. Plus, we aim to get one new article online every day. But if we don’t have something to say one day, so be it. We don’t just write for the sake of it.

What’s important with your content is that it remains true to your focus of being people-first. Write for your readers, not for search bots. You will need discipline and hungry for research. When disciplined, your content will include source links, statistics and evidence supporting your point of view. Research is necessary. Otherwise, your content is limited to what you know and your experiences.

Content Tools

Use a grammar tool; there’s also no harm in getting some assistance with sentence structure and content ideas, but write for your people. Avoid filling your site with AI-written content. We have researched a few AI writing tools and have yet to find one that doesn’t get a lot of the content wrong.

AI writing tools focus on word count, not on the quality of the words. Use the AI writers to generate paragraphs, then revise them, so they are in your style and relevant to your audience.

Ethical Link Building

You may be wondering what we mean by ethical link building. When you build your reputation as a trusted advisor of high-quality content on niche topics, other respected sites will find you and want to link to your content.

High DA (domain authority sites) will improve your ranking by earning high-quality backlinks. There is no quick way to do this ethically, so be prepared to put in the work and let time do its magic. White hat SEO takes time, but it’s worth it.

Many other SEO tasks are ethical and recommended to improve your site’s performance, including improving core web vitals. Use Google Search Engine Console to get a rundown on what you need to work on to improve site speed, security, and on-page experience.

AI Overviews

Did you know Google’s AI Overviews (which appear above everything else – Ads and organic search results is powered by its Gemini model, and you’ll find them in over 25% of search queries?

The scary thing is, for website owners reliant on organic search visits, their effectiveness has dropped significantly.

The AI Overviews, which are concise summaries of information extracted from websites, are providing direct answers so there is no need for users to visit the websites to get the information. These Overviews, powered by Google’s Gemini model, appear above everything else-Ads and organic search results-in over 25% of search queries, significantly altering the search landscape.

This change is not just a game changer, it’s a wake-up call. Traditional links are now less relevant, and this shift demands immediate attention from website owners, digital marketers, and SEO professionals. It’s time to ensure visitors are coming to websites from various channels, not just organic search.

As AI continues to reshape search behaviors, websites have to adapt too. Today it’s crucial to focus on content quality, brand authority, and technical optimization.

By embracing these strategies, websites cannot only maintain but also significantly enhance their visibility in an increasingly AI-driven search environment.

GEO

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a strategy that focuses on improving the visibility of content within AI-generated search results. It involves optimizing your content to align with the preferences and algorithms of AI-driven search engines, thereby increasing the likelihood of your content being featured in AI Overviews and other prominent positions in search results.

Additionally track how your site is performing in AI results with Peec AI. We are not recommending nor promoting this business. According to their Wikipedia page, Peec AI, is a Berlin-based startup, specializing in AI search analytics, It is designed to help site owners improve their brand visibility across AI-driven search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. If you can afford their service, you’ll feel like you’re getting somewhere.

Last Words

SEO and now GEO is relevant and continuous. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) focuses on improving the visibility of content within AI-generated search results.

While there is a lot to do to get found online avoid quick-fix solutions that may get your site penalized. Instead, focus on long-term strategies that use ethical SEO and GEO techniques. Above all, remember why you have your site and always be people-first.