AI is changing the way people search for businesses online. But rather than making SEO less important, it’s making it more valuable than ever. Here’s why, and what your business can do to stay visible.
For years, businesses have relied on Google to help customers find their products and services. Having a well-designed website and a good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy meant you had a better chance of appearing when potential customers searched for what you offer.
However, the way people search is changing.
With Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI-powered search tools becoming part of everyday life, people aren’t always scrolling through pages of search result. Increasingly, they’re asking questions and receiving direct answers, recommendations and comparisons.
For example, instead of searching for “accountants Hawke’s Bay”, someone might ask:
“Can you recommend an accounting firm in Hawke’s Bay that specialises in helping small businesses with tax planning and business growth?”
AI-powered search tools may respond with a shortlist of businesses, explanations of their services and links to relevant websites.
The big question is: will your business be one of those recommended?
SEO isn’t dead. It’s evolving.
Traditional SEO has always been about helping search engines understand your website and making sure your business appears for relevant searches. That hasn’t changed.
What’s changing is how search engines and AI tools interpret, organise and present information.
Today, your website needs to do more than target keywords. It needs to clearly communicate who you are, what you do, where you operate and why customers should trust you.
This is where GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) comes in. GEO focuses on making your business information easier for AI-powered search tools to discover, understand and potentially reference in their answers.
The good news?
Good SEO provides the foundation for good GEO.
Clear website content, strong technical performance, relevant information and a trustworthy online presence all help support visibility in both traditional and AI-powered search.
There’s no magic trick that guarantees your business will be recommended by AI, but there are plenty of practical steps you can take to improve your chances.
What can you do to help your business get found?
You don’t always need to be a web developer or SEO expert to make a difference. In fact, some of the most valuable improvements start with the knowledge you already have about your business and customers.
- Keep your website content fresh and relevant
- Think about the questions your customers ask, the problems they need solved and the services they’re looking for.
- Your website should answer those questions clearly.
- If you’ve introduced a new service, completed an interesting project, expanded into a new area or have useful advice to share, make sure that information is on your website.
A website that accurately reflects your business gives search engines and AI tools more useful information to work with.
What you can do: Review your website regularly. Update outdated information, add new services and share useful articles, news or project updates.
- Answer your customers’ questions
AI search is particularly well suited to answering conversational questions. Think about the questions you hear every week from customers.
- How much does your service cost?
- How long does the process take?
- What areas do you service?
- What’s the difference between your products?
- What should someone know before getting started?
These questions make excellent website content.
Adding FAQs to relevant pages can help customers find answers quickly while giving search engines clearer information about your services.
What you can do: Write down five to ten questions your customers regularly ask. Send them to us, or add the answers to your website if you’re comfortable updating it yourself.
- Ask for Google reviews
Reviews have always been valuable for building trust, and they remain an important part of your business’s online presence.
They can help prospective customers understand what you’re like to work with, what services you provide and the experiences other people have had. Detailed, genuine reviews are particularly helpful.
For example, a review that mentions a specific service and location provides more context than one that simply says “Great service!”
What you can do: Make requesting Google reviews part of your normal customer follow-up process. Encourage honest feedback, and respond to reviews when you can.
- Share your projects, experience and expertise
One of the best ways to demonstrate what your business does is to show real examples.
Case studies, completed projects, customer success stories and practical advice can all help establish your expertise.
If you’re a builder, show your completed homes. If you’re an accountant, share useful business advice. If you’re a service provider, explain how you’ve solved a customer’s problem.
This content gives potential customers confidence and provides search engines with more detailed information about your capabilities.
What you can do: Send us photos, project details, customer stories or ideas for articles. Even a few notes can be turned into valuable website content.
- Make sure your business information is consistent
Your business name, contact details, services and location should be accurate across your website, Google Business Profile and other relevant online listings.
Conflicting or outdated information can create confusion for customers and make it harder for search tools to identify accurate information about your business.
What you can do: Check your Google Business Profile, update your business hours, review your service categories and make sure your contact details are correct.
What can MRD do to help?
While there are plenty of things we have mentioned above you can do yourself – or we can help you with that too – some of the more technical aspects of SEO and GEO require specialist knowledge.
That’s where we come in.
- Review your SEO and GEO strategy with a GEO Audit –
We can provide a full GEO Audit on how your website currently performs in traditional search and assess opportunities to improve how your content is presented for AI-powered search.
This includes identifying relevant search terms, understanding what potential customers are looking for and recommending improvements to your website’s structure and content.
Rather than simply chasing rankings, we focus on attracting the right visitors — people who are actually looking for your products or services.
- Improve your website’s technical SEO
Behind every great looking website is a lot of technical detail that visitors never see.
Search engines need to be able to crawl, understand and index your website correctly.
We can help with:
- Website speed and mobile performance
- Page titles, meta descriptions and heading structures
- Internal linking between relevant pages
- Structured data (schema markup) where appropriate
- Crawlability, indexing and technical issues
- Website architecture and navigation
These improvements help provide a stronger foundation for search visibility and a better experience for your visitors.
- Optimise your content for traditional and AI search
The way content is structured can make a difference to how easily it can be understood.
We can help organise your website content with clear headings, useful answers, relevant keywords and well-structured service pages.
We can also identify opportunities to expand thin or outdated content, create dedicated pages for important services and make your expertise more visible.
The goal isn’t to write content for robots. It’s to create genuinely helpful content that works for your customers and is easy for search engines to interpret.
- Build your online authority
Your website is only one part of your online presence.
Mentions of your business on relevant industry websites, quality backlinks, business listings and other credible sources can all contribute to your visibility and reputation.
We can identify opportunities to strengthen your online presence and help ensure your website is connected to relevant, trustworthy sources.
- Monitor, measure and keep improving
SEO isn’t something you do once and forget about. Search behaviour changes, competitors update their websites, and Google continues to evolve.
With ongoing SEO support, we can monitor your website’s search performance, identify opportunities, track meaningful results and recommend improvements over time.
AI search visibility is also an emerging area of measurement, so it’s important to be realistic about what can be tracked and avoid promises of guaranteed AI recommendations.
A beautiful website is just the beginning, at MRD, we believe a great looking website is the beginning of your online marketing, It should be beautifully designed, easy to use, technically sound and built to help your business grow.
But even the best-designed website needs to be found. That’s why we bring together website design and development, SEO, GEO and ongoing website support, helping our clients build a strong online presence and adapt as search technology evolves.
We know the businesses that continue investing in useful content, strong websites and search visibility will be better positioned as AI changes how customers discover products and services.**
So… is your website ready for AI search?
If you already have a website with MRD, you’ve got a great starting point.
There may be opportunities to improve your existing content, strengthen your SEO, add helpful information or make technical changes that support your visibility in both Google and AI-powered search.
Get in touch with the MRD team.
We can review your website, identify opportunities and help you decide where to focus your efforts.
Because a beautiful website is important. But a beautiful website that gets found? That’s even better.
Article FAQ's
Absolutely! SEO is more important than ever, but the way people search is changing. While traditional Google searches are still widely used, more people are turning to AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews to find businesses, products and services.
Good SEO helps search engines find and understand your website, while also providing the foundation for visibility in AI-powered search. Businesses that invest in quality website content, technical SEO and a strong online presence will be better positioned as search continues to evolve.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) focuses on improving your website’s visibility in traditional search engine results, such as Google. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) builds on this by helping AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews discover, understand and potentially recommend your business.
Both rely on clear, relevant content, a technically sound website and a trustworthy online presence. The key difference is that SEO focuses on search engine visibility, while GEO also considers how your business may appear in AI-generated answers and recommendations.
There’s no guaranteed way to get your business recommended by ChatGPT, but there are steps you can take to improve your chances.
Start by making sure your website clearly explains what your business does, who you help and where you operate. Include detailed service information, answer common customer questions, publish useful content and showcase your experience through projects, case studies and customer reviews.
Keeping your business information consistent across your website, Google Business Profile and other reputable online platforms also helps establish a trustworthy online presence.
The easier it is for AI tools to find and understand your business, the better positioned you’ll be for potential inclusion in relevant recommendations.
Yes, it’s worth considering GEO as part of your existing SEO strategy. The good news is that you don’t need to start from scratch!
A well-optimised website already has many of the foundations needed for AI search visibility. GEO builds on these by focusing on how clearly your content answers questions, communicates your expertise and provides useful information that AI-powered search tools can understand and reference.
An SEO and GEO audit can help identify what’s already working and where improvements could strengthen your visibility across both traditional and AI-powered search.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Optio, neque qui velit. Magni dolorum quidem ipsam eligendi,
You don’t need a huge marketing budget to start improving your visibility in AI-powered search. Some of the most effective steps are also the simplest.
Keep your website content accurate and up to date, answer the questions your customers regularly ask, request genuine Google reviews and share examples of your work. Make sure your services, location and contact information are clearly explained and consistent across your online presence.
For businesses wanting to go further, a professional SEO and GEO strategy can help identify opportunities to improve website content, technical performance and overall search visibility.
totam, facilis laudantium cum accusamus ullam voluptatibus commodi numquam, error, est. Ea, consequatur.