7 Common Misconceptions about Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

I've now been at XFunnel for a grand total of three and a half weeks. With a warm welcome that made me feel at home right away, I stopped feeling like "the new person" about three days in. And now, with everything we're working on moving so fast, it feels like I've been here for an eternity – but in the best way possible.

One of the things I love most about my job is that I learn so much every day. We're exploring one of the newest and most fascinating fields out there, experimenting all the time, seeing what works and what doesn't, and watching our clients get actual, tangible results, which is incredibly satisfying.

And then, I go on LinkedIn at the end of the day and read a whole bunch of nonsense. So, I thought I'd try to clear up a few common misconceptions about GEO.

👻 Misconception 1: "GEO isn't real."

Like... okay, I'll be sure to tell that to the client who was able to increase their number of AI citations from double digits to triple digits in a few weeks, just by targeting the right topics and following the right guidelines.

But seriously, if your SEO person is telling you GEO isn't real, you should probably consider getting a new one.

🔮 Misconception 2: "Nobody really knows anything about GEO. It's all just guesses."

It's a new field, sure, and we're still learning all the time – but we actually do already know quite a bit, and there's a lot of good information out there if you're looking for it. For instance, our recent analysis of what sources AI search engines cite examined 40,000 AI responses and 250,000 sources to understand citation patterns. If you generally like learning about the relationships between content, SEO, and AI, you'll probably find it really interesting.

If you've read some conflicting information and that's what's leading you to think "nobody really knows anything," well – are you telling me you've never read any conflicting SEO guidelines?

🔎 Misconception 3: "All you really need is good SEO."

Well, not exactly. You should definitely have good SEO, and you should absolutely not start ignoring SEO best practices. SEO will even boost your GEO in some cases: Google's AI Overviews rely heavily on SERP rankings when determining which pages to cite and link to, while ChatGPT relies on Bing to some extent. (You know, Bing, the godforsaken search engine you're probably not currently optimizing for, but you should.)

But GEO isn't just "good SEO." Yes, there's a lot of overlap, but GEO comes with its own set of best practices and nuances, since LLMs are after meaning and context, not exact-match keywords. Google themselves have published GEO vs. AI Overviews best-practices that highlight these differences. More on that below.

💣 Misconception 4: "GEO will cause irreparable damage to your search engine rankings (and then you'll go running back in tears to your traditional SEO person)."

No, GEO will absolutely not destroy your search engine rankings. If anything, it'll probably help you rank better. GEO is NOT anti-SEO – I cannot stress this enough – and the two actually work together in tandem.

A lot of clients do worry about this, and I always make a point of reassuring them that I'd never recommend they do anything that might damage their SEO. If you already have good SEO, GEO will probably just be a matter of making some small – but important – tweaks.

❓ Misconception 5: "It's not possible to optimize content for LLMs because we can't know the prompts people are using."

I understand where this one is coming from. It makes perfect sense if you're in a traditional SEO state of mind: you couldn't possibly optimize a piece of content for search engines if you don't know the exact-match keywords.

But here's where things get interesting. An average AI prompt is 23 words, while your average search term is 3-4 words. If you were going to attempt to include multiple 23-word prompts about the same topic in a piece of content, it would probably end up looking pretty weird.

In other words, GEO isn't about "exact-match prompts." That's not really a thing, and it doesn't need to be – because LLMs don't work in the same way traditional search engines do. They're large language models after all, and they understand language, and search intent.

If you understand your users' search intent, you should be able to include the answers to their biggest questions in your content. From there, what you need to do is signal to LLMs that the answers are there. How? By using a logical heading structure with descriptive headings (absolutely no vagueness please – save your creativity for something else). By including structured (note that "structure" is a recurring theme here) data elements LLMs love, like "key takeaways" sections and comparison tables. By always, always, always, including an FAQ section, which is now more important than ever. And by educating yourself on other principles and nuances of GEO. I'll probably share more tips here as we go along.

🤡 Misconception 6: "There's no point in GEO since hardly any traffic comes from AI platforms anyway."

Here's where things can be confusing, since the world of website analytics hasn't quite caught up with AI yet, and it can be difficult to measure direct traffic from AI platforms.

Here's what we do know. One of our clients saw that less than 1% of their traffic was coming from ChatGPT, and, like you, was wondering: What's the point? But then, they tried a little experiment, and added a "Where did you hear about us?" drop-down to their signup form. They were shocked to see that 15% of their actual conversions were coming from people who had heard about them on ChatGPT. You can only imagine what that means in terms of traffic, even if indirect.

While the results of traditional SEO can be easily measured in traffic, GEO is trickier. Still think that makes it pointless?

🪦 Misconception 7: "Traditional SEO is dying/dead."

If you've read this far, I hope you don't still think that. I personally do not think traditional SEO is dying. Cliché as it may sound, SEO is evolving. It's going to be a wild ride, and I'm so there for it.

How about you?

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