A guide for B2B brands navigating AI search
Follow-on to: How to get your brand mentioned in AI answers
TL;DR
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the new industry buzzword. It means optimising for AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. But it’s not a whole new discipline. It’s SEO evolving again.
- Your existing PR and content investment still counts. Earned media, backlinks, expert-led content. None of that has stopped mattering. If anything, it matters more.
- What’s changed: AI citations don’t follow rankings the way they used to. Different AI platforms trust different sources. And brand mentions now matter as much as links.
- For B2B brands specifically: the shift is from ranking signals to trust signals. From one search engine to many. From clicks to citations.
- The brands winning AI citations aren’t necessarily the biggest or best-ranking. They’re the most consistent, credible and clearly positioned across the sources AI trusts.
Your board is asking about AI search. Here’s what’s actually happening
If you’ve sat in a recent exec meeting, someone’s probably asked a version of this question: “Where do we show up in ChatGPT?” Or maybe your web traffic has dipped and someone’s pointed the finger at AI. Either way, if AI search is now on your radar, you’re not alone.
Here’s the term you’ll keep hearing: GEO. Generative Engine Optimisation.
It was first coined by Princeton researchers in 2023. The idea is simple: just as SEO optimises for traditional search engines, GEO optimises for generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews.
Fair enough. But here’s my take.
We don’t need another acronym. SEO has always evolved with technology and user behaviour. It survived mobile, voice search, featured snippets, and now AI. The fundamentals haven’t changed. The playing field has just expanded.
I prefer the term Search Everywhere Optimisation (credit to Ashley Liddell for coining that one). Because that’s what’s actually happening. People aren’t just searching on Google anymore. They’re asking ChatGPT, searching Perplexity, watching YouTube and scrolling Reddit to find answers and recommendations. SEO just needs to keep up, not rebrand.
So while I’ll use “GEO” in this article because it’s the term everyone’s asking ChatGPT about, let me be clear: this is SEO doing what SEO has always done. Evolving.
Now. What does this actually mean for your brand?
What hasn’t changed (your existing investment still works)
Before we get into the new stuff, let’s put one thing to rest. The work your PR and content teams are already doing still absolutely applies.
In my previous article for Midnight, I outlined the 4 As of AI Visibility: Ask, Answer, Amplify, Assess. That framework still holds. And at its core, it’s built on the same principles that have driven effective PR and content strategy for years:
- Earned media coverage from trusted publications still builds authority
- Quality backlinks still signal credibility to both search engines and AI
- Consistent brand narrative still helps machines (and humans) understand who you are
- Expert positioning still makes your spokespeople quotable and cite-worthy
- Original research and data still gets referenced more than generic claims
As Ahrefs put it in their recent SEO guide: SEO is more important than ever, because content creation, link building, and technical health are all crucial to appearing in AI search results.
If your business is already investing in good PR and content, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re building from a position of strength.
What has changed (and what the research shows)
That said, the picture has genuinely shifted. Here’s what’s different and why it matters.
1. AI citations don’t follow rankings
This is the big one. For years, the logic was simple: rank higher, get more visibility. AI doesn’t work that way.
An Ahrefs study of 863,000 keywords found that only 38% of Google AI Overview citations came from pages in the top 10 search results. That’s down from 76% in their previous study. Nearly a third of AI citations come from pages that don’t even rank in the top 100 for that query.
Let that sink in. A well-placed article in a trusted publication can get cited by AI even if it doesn’t rank on page one of Google. The quality and credibility of the content matters more than its ranking position.
For B2B brands, this is actually good news. If you’ve been doing solid PR work. placing your experts in respected trade publications, contributing to industry research, earning genuine media coverage, that content can now earn you visibility in AI answers too.
2. Different AI platforms trust different sources
Research from Profound analysed citation patterns across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity from August 2024 to June 2025. Each platform has dramatically different citation patterns.
They don’t all read the same sources. They don’t all weight the same signals. A publication that gets cited heavily in Perplexity might barely show up in ChatGPT’s responses.
This means your PR strategy needs to think beyond “get coverage in a high-authority publication” and start considering which publications actually show up in AI answers for the queries your buyers are asking.
3. Google is still massive, but it’s no longer the only game
According to Pew Research, around one in five Google searches now produce an AI summary, with 88% of those citing three or more sources.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT has grown to 800 million weekly active users. But here’s what I think gets overlooked: Google search hasn’t declined. It actually grew 22% in 2024 at the height of AI hype. Google still drives around 42% of all website traffic, compared to just 0.29% for all AI assistants combined.
So this isn’t about abandoning Google. It’s about recognising that AI search is additive, not a replacement. Your buyers are using both. Your strategy needs to work across both.
4. Brand mentions matter as much as links
Traditional SEO has always been obsessed with backlinks. Links still matter. But AI assistants also pay attention to mentions: how often your brand is referenced across the web, in what context, and alongside what topics.
Google’s VP of Product confirmed that PR activities may help with ranking in certain contexts, particularly in AI search.
Every contextual mention of your brand in a trusted publication isn’t just an SEO signal. It’s a citation signal that AI can pick up on.
5. Content quality is now the real differentiator
AI has made content production dramatically cheaper. The result? There’s more content than ever, and a lot of it is average.
The Princeton research on GEO found that citing credible sources, adding specific statistics, and including expert quotations can improve AI visibility by 30-40% compared to generic content.
This is where brands with genuine expertise have a real edge. Original data, named experts, third-party validation. these are the signals AI is trained to prioritise. And they’re the things that authentic, expert-driven PR has always been good at producing.
What this means for your brand’s visibility strategy
So if we put all of this together, what actually changes for B2B marketing directors?
Your PR investment is more valuable than you think
Every piece of earned coverage your brand earns is now building something broader than a backlink. It’s building your brand’s source-of-truth footprint: consistent, contextual mentions across the publications and platforms that AI reads and trusts.
The brands showing up in AI answers aren’t always the most well-known. They’re the ones that have built a consistent, credible presence across the right sources over time. That’s a PR brief, not just an SEO brief.
Not all coverage carries equal weight in AI search
A mention in an industry-specific publication that AI cites regularly might be worth more than a mention in a national outlet that AI tends to ignore for your sector. Understanding which publications actually drive AI citations for your target topics is now a meaningful part of planning your PR strategy.
Consistency beats volume
Scattering different messages across dozens of publications is less effective than reinforcing the same core narrative across trusted sources. AI tools cross-reference information to build a picture of who’s credible and what they stand for. Consistency helps. Contradiction confuses.
Your experts need a visible presence
AI tools are increasingly good at understanding entities: people, organisations, products. Making sure your senior spokespeople have visible, verifiable expertise online. LinkedIn profiles, speaker bios, author pages, industry profiles. directly supports your brand’s AI visibility. An unnamed expert quote in a press release does a lot less work than a named, credentialed contributor.
Your measurement framework needs updating
If your PR and marketing reporting only covers coverage volume, backlinks and domain authority, you’re missing a growing part of the picture. B2B brands should now be tracking:
- Whether your coverage in publications actually appear in AI citations for your sector
- How often your brand appears in AI answers for priority buyer questions
- Whether the AI-generated descriptions of your brand are accurate and positive
- Changes in branded search volume that correlate with PR activity
Questions to ask your PR agency or SEO partner
Use these to sense-check whether your current partners are thinking about AI visibility or just going through the motions.
- Are you auditing AI answers for our priority search queries? Across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Not just Google rankings.
- Which publications are you targeting, and do they show up in AI citations for our sector? Coverage volume is not the same as AI-visible coverage.
- Is our brand narrative and expert positioning consistent across all channels? Website, LinkedIn, press coverage, speaker bios, industry profiles.
- Are you pushing for contextual brand mentions, not just links? AI reads context, not just link equity.
- Is our content built on original data, expert quotes and specific statistics? These are the signals AI prioritises.
- Are our senior spokespeople set up with structured, verifiable online profiles? Author pages, structured data, external proof points.
- Is AI visibility part of how you measure and report results? If it’s not tracked, it’s not being optimised.
- Are you still doing great, earned PR work? Because all of the above sits on top of the basics, not instead of them.
The bottom line
GEO isn’t a revolution. It’s an evolution. And for B2B brands, it’s actually an opportunity.
The work that builds genuine authority: earning coverage in trusted publications, positioning your experts, crafting a consistent narrative. is exactly the work that drives AI visibility. The only real change is that the playing field is bigger. There are more places your buyers search. More platforms deciding who gets mentioned. And the bar for being cite-worthy is higher because there’s so much more noise.
If your brand has been investing in quality PR and content? You’re ahead of most.
Just keep doing it. And make sure your partners know where AI is looking.
Ready to make your brand AI-search visible?
If you want to understand how your brand shows up in AI search or build a strategy that earns citations across both traditional and AI search, get in touch with Midnight. This is exactly the kind of challenge we help B2B brands navigate.
About the author
Rik Turner is Midnight’s AI SEO partner and the founder of PR for AI, helping brands earn AI search visibility. He specialises in content strategy, SEO, GEO and team training workshops. Over 16 years in digital marketing, working with brands like M&S, Waitrose, Hotjar, Yell, giffgaff & Dragonfly AI.
