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Published in Web 101 on Oct 03, 2025 by Blue Coast
21.4% perform another search but, 37.1% do not continue 1. This indicates that a majority of Google searches in the U.S. and EU are now resolved on the search page itself resulting in fewer click throughs.
So if you've been experiencing a consistent decline in your organic click through rate over the past two years, you're not alone.
This "zero-click" phenomenon is driven mostly by Google's AI Overviews and featured snippets, which provide answers directly on the search results page. With the right approach, citations of your content and brand mentions in generated results is achievable.
Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of optimizing your content and website to increase the likelihood of citation by large language models like Gemini, Chat GPT, and Claude.
1) Content Structure
A hub‑and‑spoke content architecture where a pillar page covers a core topic end‑to‑end, and cluster pages dive into tightly scoped subtopics, all interlinked. This works because generative systems build topic maps from internal links and headings. Pillar/cluster structures make your expertise legible to models and surface highly citable passages.
This approach to content should be extended to creating a purposeful URL structure for your website. Use short, descriptive URL slugs that mirror the intent and topic hierarchy (e.g., /how-to/connect-zapier/). Keep one main intent per URL and avoid non-specific terms in your slugs.
2) Content Creation
A sound way to approach content creation for GEO is by allowing hypothetical user questions to drive your content. After creating a list of topics to cover on your site, use SEO tools like MOZ to help identify common questions related to these topics. Create content that answers these question directly at the top of the pages and then list details below with short statements, bullet lists and tables.
3) Authority
Websites that demonstrate expertise and trust help reduce model uncertainty. LLMs favor sources that look reliable at a glance when crawled and contain clear authorship, references, and have a history of being cited (domain authority).
Add bylines with bios and links to credentials. Include citations, show updated timestamps, and earn references from other reputable pages (backlinks).
4) Schema Usage
Structured data is machine-readable code that clarifies meaning and relationships. This, when combined with well-formed metadata, improve extractability, confidence, and attribution.
Identify and lean into content that is supported by Schema. Notable examples are FAQs, articles, breadcrumbs, video object and organization.
SEO is still the basis for GEO. The keywords we're all used to are the building blocks for the larger context that's needed for GEO.
There’s also a strong correlation between organic rankings and GEO citations. Most frequently, AI citations come from pages that are ranking in the top 10. Citations can come from pages that rank outside the top‑10 when those pages contain the most precise, citable passage. This can give an upstart an advantage over well established websites.
It's important for SEO and GEO to work together for a balanced SERP strategy.
Click here to see our SEO GEO case study
