As consumers increasingly turn to ChatGPT and other AI agents for recommendations, brands must rethink visibility beyond the physical and digital shelves – shifting their strategy from ranking on a page to winning a place in a single, AI-generated answer, or this new third shelf.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is quickly emerging as a new frontier for marketers, particularly as consumers increasingly turn to AI-powered tools to research and choose products. While search engine optimization (SEO) has long dominated digital strategy, GEO introduces a fundamentally different way for brands to show up in front of consumers.
“Typically for many years everyone’s been focused on SEO, which has been ensuring that brands rank when someone searches for something in Google, whereas GEO is appearing in answers in the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude,” Joseph Levi, CEO and cofounder of UK-based digital marketing agency Noise Media, explains.
The distinction between the two search methods is critical. While traditional search delivers pages of ranked links, generative platforms collapse those searches into a single output or response.
“When it comes to search, the way search is structured is you put in keywords, and then you have a page one, a page two… whereas generative engine optimization is all about appearing in one answer as opposed to kind of being one of several links, and it’s very contextual,” he said.
The stakes for brands are higher because visibility is narrower. Instead of competing for a top-three click, brands are competing to be the answer.
“It’s not necessarily about tricks or hacks. It genuinely is about writing high-quality content… being featured in publications… and building up user reviews."
Joseph Levi, CEO, co-founder, Noise Media
And the opportunity is only growing. Levi notes that “there’s a billion people who use ChatGPT weekly, and we’re only at the start of this,” signaling how quickly consumer discovery is shifting toward agentic AI.
How can brands win in GEO?
For brands, showing up in AI-generated answers requires a dual approach: ensuring accuracy when consumers search directly, and building authority to be recommended more broadly.
Levi breaks GEO into two core behaviors.
First, direct brand queries. It’s increasingly common for consumers to ask an agentic AI, like ChatGPT or Claude, about a specific brand. “
“’I’ve seen this really awesome cereal bar, this is the brand, tell me about it,’” Levi said in an example.
To win here, brands need to make sure AI systems understand them clearly.
“It’s actually very common to have brands which are misinterpreted or even confused with another brand,” he explained.
To avoid confusion with other brands or inaccurate information, brands must provide accurate information about themselves, beginning with their website.
“The most important thing is ensuring that your website is set up in the most structured way possible… you can have structured data and schema… frequently answered questions are very important,” he explained.
The second behavior is category-based discovery, which is far more competitive. When a consumer asks for recommendations, say, the best paleo snack, brands need to already be recognized as credible options, according to Levi.
For category-based discovery, authority increasingly holds weight. Brands should build up their expertise across multiple media formats to stretch their presence in the category so their chances of visibility increase from agentic AI searches, according to Levi.
This includes publishing credible content, appearing in well-respected publications, issuing press releases, writing on guest blogs and being featured on podcasts, among others, Levi suggests.
Notably, third-party validation, like reviews, carries more weight than self-promotion.
“AI agents will trust what others say about you more than what you say about yourself,” he emphasized.
In practice, this looks familiar to most marketers: press coverage, thought leadership, social media and consumer reviews. The difference is that AI systems are aggregating all of it at speed.
As Levi puts it, “They’re essentially analyzing a bunch of data to give you the best answer… the types of things that AI agents are looking at make sense.”
Can smaller brands compete?
Despite the dominance of large, established brands which are already using agentic AI to streamline operations, GEO may create an opening for smaller players – at least for now.
“Because GEO is early… the majority of brands either haven’t started thinking about it, or at least aren’t doing that much about it yet,” Levi said. “So, I think there’s definitely a big opportunity for smaller brands to compete with larger brands.”
For smaller brands, niche positioning can be a major advantage in standing out among other players.
“If a smaller brand were to really home in on one specific niche area, it will give them a much better chance of appearing in recommended answers,” he added.
That said, larger brands still benefit from built-in authority signals like press coverage and review volume. But Levi advises that if smaller brands can “put the work in” optimizing their content, they can compete with their larger competitors.
Ultimately, GEO rewards consistency over shortcuts.
“It’s not necessarily about tricks or hacks. It genuinely is about writing high-quality content… being featured in publications… and building up user reviews,” he said.
Measuring visibility in AI
Unlike traditional SEO, where rankings and traffic provide clear benchmarks, GEO requires brands to rethink how they measure success.
The most important metric is visibility within answers.
“It’s about seeing your visibility of how often are you appearing in answers,” Levi said.
Noise Media’s free tool, vudo.ai, is one way to track that performance. The tool provides a snapshot of a brand’s visibility within certain questions and shows how competitors rank.
But Levi says brands don’t need sophisticated tools to get started. A simple test is often revealing.
“The first step for every brand is to think about what happens when someone asks about your brand. ... Go on to ChatGPT ... ask questions about your brand, and see what answers appear,” he advised.
This baseline check can uncover misinformation, gaps in content or missed opportunities – and inform how a brand adjusts its strategy.
The future: From answers to actions
As agentic AI evolves, its role will extend far beyond answering questions. While still in its early stages, agentic AI will begin acting on behalf of consumers by purchasing the product, rather than asking about it, according to Levi.
What does automated purchase mean for brands? Levi points out how agentic AI will concentrate decision-making power into a single recommendation, raising the stakes for brands even more.
At the same time, the underlying logic behind the increasingly intuitive capabilities of agentic AI remains grounded in familiar behavior.
“It’s accelerating the human research process” by consolidating manual searches for product reviews, social media, website and editorial features, into one answer, he explained.
For brands, the implication is clear: success in GEO isn’t about reinventing marketing – it’s about executing it consistently, transparently and at scale.
Companies that already invest in content, PR, and brand storytelling are well positioned, Levi notes.
The difference now is that all of that work is being distilled into a single answer. And increasingly, that answer is the only one that matters to brands fine tuning their content.