By Adrian Dipple
In part one of our new series, Get a Grasp on GEO, we break down:
- How to stay visible and trusted in this new era
- How discovery and influence are shifting
- Why traditional metrics and SEO are falling short
As we kick off 2026, the way people learn about organizations, issues and ideas looks very different than it did just a few years ago.
In 2024, nearly 60% of Google searches ended without a click to any website — a trend that continues to accelerate. Today, many people get what they need directly from AI-generated answers and summaries, including the AI-powered results now embedded into Google search. They get a quick summary and move on without ever visiting the source that informed the response.
If you have noticed a recent decline in web traffic, this shift is a likely culprit. Interest has not disappeared. Discovery has changed.
Where People are Learning About You Now
People are learning about organizations inside generative environments. Instead of skimming several articles, they’re consuming summaries that pull from multiple sources and present information in plain language.
A Hill staffer may scan an AI-generated overview of proposed Medicare policy changes. A patient may rely on a short explanation of their treatment options. A journalist could use an AI summary to understand a potential angle before deciding to write a story.
In each case, your organization may be part of that explanation, or it may be absent entirely. Either way, an impression is being formed.
This is where Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, comes into play.
What GEO Means in Practice
GEO is not about optimizing for a single platform or chasing the latest tool, it’s about recognizing that AI systems now sit between you and your audience and play a role in deciding which information is surfaced.
These systems depend on content. They evaluate what exists, how clearly it is written, how recent it is, and whether it appears trustworthy compared to other available sources. They look for patterns that signal credibility and expertise.
When content is clear, well-attributed, and grounded in authority, it’s more likely to be included and cited when answers are generated. When content is outdated or missing basic trust signals, it is more likely to be overlooked, even if the underlying expertise is strong.
This is why many organizations are surprised when their content doesn’t pull into generative AI environments. The challenge is not credibility. The challenge is making that credibility visible and usable in the places where people are now learning.
What’s Driving Your Content Strategy? The Role of Topic and Citation Gaps
One of the most useful ways to think about GEO is through the lens of gaps. Most organizations do not suffer from a lack of content, they suffer from gaps between what they publish and what people are actually asking.
Topic gap analysis helps identify where questions in your space are triggering AI-generated responses and whether your organization is included. Citation gap analysis goes a step further by showing which sources are being relied on instead. These gaps are actionable.
If your organization is not showing up for a topic you should reasonably own, it usually means one of three things:
- The content does not exist.
- The content exists but is not structured clearly.
- Or the content lacks the trust signals that make it usable.
Closing these gaps is one of the most direct ways to influence what people learn about you.
Adapting to the Moment We’re in: GEO Tips You Can Start Using Today
At CURA, we treat GEO as part of a broader communications discipline, not as a technical exercise in isolation. Here are a few best practices you can start implementing today:
- Start with the fundamentals: Clear authorship, visible credentials, publication dates and thoughtful attribution matter because they help establish legitimacy in environments where sources are constantly compared.
- Focus on structure and clarity: Content that leads with its main takeaway, uses straightforward language and supports claims with authoritative sources is easier to understand and more likely for AI platforms to cite as sources.
- Examine your omnichannel presence: Authority builds over time through earned media, speaking engagements, professional partnerships and digital presence. These signals compound, and generative systems recognize the patterns.
Most importantly, this is an ongoing process. Tracking where content appears, monitoring how narratives evolve, and identifying new topic gaps allows organizations to adapt as the environment continues to change.
Today, many organizations are still treating generative platforms as something to observe rather than actively engage with. That window is narrowing. Hoping to elevate your organization’s authority online? Contact us today.