AI was a challenge when it first emerged for the communications and public relations sector. Now that we have started to embrace it, along comes the next big challenge, which is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). Traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) showed us how visible our client’s websites were, but searches online have evolved due to AI tools offering quicker responses. So now, brands must adapt to the GEO world of zero-click searches and AI-driven recommendations.
Many PR teams are wondering how to add GEO to their toolkits, but at Vitis PR, we see GEO not as a challenge, but as an opportunity for public relations to truly shine. By capitalising on earned media, supporting PR strategies can position brands as a trusted authority in AI-generated results, further increasing visibility and influence.
Earned media fuels AI recommendations
SEO used to have one job; to get you to the top of search results so people would click through to your website. But the new reality is that AI tools are answering questions directly, so searchers can find what they are looking for without ever having to visit an external website. Whenever anyone asks AI-enabled search a question, the AI reviews trusted sources, rather than trawling through company websites. If your brand shows up consistently and positively in earned media, such as news coverage, product reviews, industry publications, and third-party endorsements, then the chances of an AI noting your “expertise” and giving you get a mention increased. If you don’t appear in earned media all that often then you’re invisible to AI. Essentially, GEO is reputation-building at scale.
In additional to optimising your own content to rank for SEO, the brands that win in GEO search aren’t the ones with the slickest websites or the most keywords. They’re the brands that have earned a presence in the media, and those media are the input sources that AI actually relies on. When an AI is deciding which brand to recommend, it’s not looking at your ad spend or how well-designed your website is. It’s looking at what others are saying about you, because AI models are built to trust the same sources humans trust.
Having your brand written about in national, trade and regional media, and your spokespeople talked to by journalists then quoted, carries more weight regarding reputation than appearing in a paid-for advert or a sponsored, branded blog post. The more often your brand appears in such third-party, non-paid-for places, the more likely it is that an AI will start to recognise you as a credible, recommendable option.
PR’s winning role in the GEO game
PR has always been about telling compelling stories, building relationships, and creating the kind of third-party endorsement that advertising can’t buy. Increasingly, these same signals align with how AI language models identify authoritative information. When AI systems determine what sources to reference or summarise, they tend to rely on consistent expert commentary, coverage in reputable publications, and clearly attributable viewpoints…and these outcomes are what strong PR programs naturally generate. By investing in earned media, organisations can strengthen their digital authority footprint, increasing the likelihood that their expertise surfaces in AI-generated answers through spokesperson quotes, commentary pieces, and sustained topic association over time.
Brands that have invested in this kind of presence don’t just rank better in traditional search, they also show up in AI answers, and a great example of this in action is Korn Ferry’s “job hugging” campaign. By spotting an emerging workplace trend where rather than the mass exodus seen previously, people were holding onto their jobs and staying put. By recognising this, and getting ahead of it with the right media outreach and a simple yet positive phrase, they ended up owning the narrative with multiple media outlets covering the story, including The Fast Company, The New York Times, The Week and The Wall Street Journal.
It didn’t require a huge budget, but being a smart story told thanks to the right relationships, the coverage fed directly into Google’s AI Overviews and their quotes, framing, and brand saw an immediate uptick.
This is also where PR starts to close the gap with broader marketing strategy. Earned media doesn’t sit in isolation anymore. It feeds into and enhances everything else, from paid campaigns to owned content. And as AI becomes more embedded in how people make decisions (including things like supplier selection and vendor comparisons), having a strong earned media profile will increasingly turn former reputational gaps into a real commercial advantage.
How to put this into practice
At Vitis PR, we focus on a few core principles when it comes to GEO:
Quality over quantity increases AI selection. A regular presence in even a small selection of genuinely authoritative media outlets, like trade publications for your sector of expertise, works positively and will increase AI visibility. While many may think that a scattergun approach where their brand has some coverage across dozens of lower-tier media would have the same impact, it does not. So, rather than targeting lots of media that aren’t really relevant to your trade, instead focus on securing coverage in business and trade media, where it counts more.
Write for humans, not algorithms. AI models are trained on clear and simple language, without jargon and abbreviations, which means they all process, retrieve and prioritise information that is the same. If you write content that is a waffle, salesy or is stuffed to the brim with keywords only, you will fail. Focus on ensuring your content is clear, simple, quotable, and, most importantly, answers real questions to showcase your knowledge base and thought leadership position.
Monitor your appearance in AI outputs. Once you make a start on raising AI’s awareness of your brand, it is important to keep an eye on what the AI models are saying about you. Tracking and reviewing and managing how AI represents your brand, products, spokespeople etc is critical to ensure success. Tools for tracking this are improving quickly, and understanding where and how your brand is being cited, or not, is essential to proving the value of your overall PR activity.
Don’t neglect reputation management. Should any negative or misleading information about your brand start appearing in AI searches, you must create proactive content immediately to negate it. AI has a long memory, and negative coverage doesn’t disappear, so getting ahead of issues quickly matters more than ever. You can do this by using real-time sentiment and strategic human-verified responses to combat AI-generated misinformation. Having an accompanying consistently positive presence in trusted media makes a tangible difference to how AI models perceive and present your brand, so that’s rule one for any PR activity plan.
Embrace GEO with Vitis PR
GEO is still an emerging discipline, but the brands building their earned media foundations now will have a significant head start as AI search continues to evolve. At Vitis PR, it’s something we’re actively helping clients navigate, whether that’s identifying the right media targets, developing campaigns designed to generate AI-visible coverage, or simply making sure your brand is part of the conversations that matter.
As AI continues to dominate search, GEO isn’t just a buzzword. You need to realise that it’s not going anywhere and is, in fact, the future roadmap for all brand discovery. Whether you’re looking to boost your brand’s authority or optimise for generative engines, our tailored PR strategies deliver results.
Ready to win in the AI era? Contact us today to discuss how we can elevate your GEO game.
