How brands and retailers are preparing for GEO, ‘the future of SEO’

After years of retooling their businesses for search engines, brand and retail leaders say they’re getting ready for a new frontier: GEO.

The term, which means generative engine optimization, refers to optimizing web content to show up in results from AI-driven search platforms, like ChatGPT or Google Gemini. It’s a new way for brands to stand out and reach customers, especially considering that nearly 60% of U.S. consumers have used a generative AI tool for help with online shopping, per an August 2025 survey from Omnisend. If a customer asks an AI engine about buying lip gloss or a T-shirt, the relevant brands want to make sure they show up.

But it’s not an easy journey, executives conceded this week in interviews with Modern Retail and during panels at Shoptalk Fall in Chicago. Brands and retailers have spent decades crafting their SEO playbook, figuring out which keywords to include on product pages, blogs and additional web content to show up in Google or Yahoo. Now, with GEO, platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity are pulling and ranking information — oftentimes, in response to hyper-specific inquiries, rather than one-word or two-word requests. This could also have financial consequences for brands, especially as these agents start enabling checkout.

How brands and retailers are preparing for GEO, ‘the future of SEO’ – Modern Retail

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