Generative Engine Optimization: Finding Our Way in the New Wild West
For years, we’ve built websites with one main gatekeeper in mind — search engines. We’ve learned the rhythms of SEO, tuned our content for algorithms, and built entire strategies around being discoverable on Google. But a new kind of gatekeeper is taking shape, and it’s not one we can view or crawl in the same way.
It’s called Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, and it’s changing how information surfaces online.
The idea is simple enough: traditional SEO focuses on helping search engines find your content, while GEO is about helping AI-driven tools — like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity — understand and recommend it. These tools don’t return a list of links. They summarize, synthesize, and interpret. They don’t show your page — they speak about it.
So the question becomes: how do you make sure your story gets told accurately, consistently, and well in this new landscape?
From Search Results to Summaries
In the SEO world, visibility meant ranking high on a page of ten blue links. In GEO, visibility might mean showing up as a few sentences inside an AI-generated response. You’re no longer competing for position; you’re competing for inclusion and representation.
That’s a major shift.
Instead of optimizing for crawlers that index text, we’re now optimizing for models that interpret meaning. GEO focuses on context, clarity, and authority. If SEO is about signals, GEO is about understanding.
Think of it like this:
If SEO was writing for a very smart librarian, GEO is writing for a conversational tour guide. The librarian wants your sources organized and tagged. The tour guide wants to retell your story in a way people will actually remember.
Both matter — but they require different kinds of clarity.
Why It Matters for Websites
If AI models are going to pull answers from your site, your content has to be both technically structured and semantically clear. That means writing not just for humans, but for the systems that interpret meaning on behalf of humans.
A well-optimized GEO site might:
- Use structured data to make relationships clear.
- Communicate expertise, authority, and trust in plain language.
- Keep metadata and copy consistent across pages.
- Use natural, conversational phrasing that’s easier for generative engines to parse and summarize.
But here’s the catch — unlike SEO, there’s no playbook yet. GEO is still forming. What we know today will probably evolve in a few months. That’s why at Cascade, we’re learning right alongside our clients.
We’re not trying to “game” a system that doesn’t yet exist. We’re studying how models interpret websites, how they pull meaning from design and copy, and how we can structure projects now to stay adaptable later.
The Opportunity Hidden in the Unknown
Yes, it’s a little bit wild right now. But that’s also what makes it exciting.
Generative engines thrive on clarity and context — two things that great websites already strive for. If you’ve ever heard us talk about balancing design and development, form and function, aesthetics and usability, this is just another layer of that thinking.
GEO rewards content that’s authentic, helpful, and human. It values organized structure and well-written explanations. It pays attention to tone, consistency, and narrative. In other words, it favors the same principles that have always guided good design and storytelling online.
So while the tools are new, the foundation isn’t. It’s still about connection — about communicating ideas clearly and building trust through every detail of the experience.
That’s what makes this moment worth leaning into.
Our Take: Learn, Adapt, and Lead
At Cascade, we’re exploring GEO not as a buzzword, but as an evolution of what we already do best — design and build sites that are clear, intuitive, and meaningful.
We’ll be experimenting, sharing insights, and updating how we think about web content as the landscape changes. Because the truth is, the future of search isn’t a results page — it’s a conversation.
And if we can help shape how our clients are represented in those conversations, that’s worth the effort.