The Legal Marketer’s Guide to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

generative engine optimization

The digital marketing landscape has been seeing some rapid advancements (specifically in SEO) over the past couple of years — all brought on by the rapid rise and adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI).

A monumental shift occurred with the introduction of Google’s search generative experience (SGE) beta roll-out, OpenAI and ChatGPT taking over Bing SERPs, and the current AI Overviews in a large percentage of Google SERPs. Take a look at both search engines today, and you’ll see AI-generated answers at the top for many queries.

While useful for the end-user, AI-driven search engines pose a problem for legal content creators. Generative answers push down traditional organic search results, making traditional SEO less impactful. Now, getting your content to show in those generative answers is key.

That’s where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) comes into play, a strategy that extends beyond traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that helps legal content get interpreted and favorably presented by AI-driven search engines.

In this article, we’ll introduce GEO and dive deep into its significance for lawyers and legal content creators. We’ll also discuss how you can integrate these strategies into your existing SEO practices.

Evolution of Search Technologies

To fully appreciate the significance of Generative Engine Optimization, it’s essential to provide some context into how we got here.

Search Engine Optimization

The invention of traditional search engines like Google revolutionized how we access and disseminate information globally.

Getting your website to appear in search engines became the goal, and traditional SEO techniques were the solution. These solutions involve optimizing content to satisfy Google’s ranking factors through keywords, backlinks, and various on-page elements to achieve higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Despite Google’s frequent algorithms that shift the weight of these ranking factors, the core objective remains consistent: to enhance the visibility of websites in search results.

Although these tactics continue to be relevant, the landscape is changing, necessitating new methods for appearing on SERPs.

Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI Overviews

Introduced by Google in 2023, SGE marked a significant transformation in the search experience through the integration of generative AI. Google officially began rolling out AI Overviews to all searchers in the United States in mid-May 2024.

This technology reshapes the SERP by leveraging AI to produce relevant, contextual responses directly within the search results. Google’s goal is to fulfill the user’s query without requiring a clickthrough to another website. The more time you spend on Google, the better for them.

While these new search experiences aim to streamline the user experience by delivering precise answers, it poses a problem for content creators.

Marketers have traditionally relied on organic traffic driven by conventional SEO, and GenAI’s ability to satisfy queries directly within the SERPs can significantly diminish this traffic.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

GEO extends traditional SEO principles by incorporating an understanding of how generative AI models interpret, prioritize, and display content.

For legal content creators, this means adapting their content strategies to engage both traditional SEO and the nuanced demands of generative engines.

Legal professionals and SEOs need to embrace GEO by developing content that is not only authoritative and informative but also optimized for AI-driven interactions.

What Is Generative Engine Optimization and How Does It Work?

GEO adapts traditional SEO principles to the requirements of AI-driven search engines.

Unlike traditional search engines, which provide a list of websites, generative engines are more conversational, pulling from several different sources to output a response.

The research paper GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, a collaboration between Princeton University, IIT Delhi, Georgia Tech, and The Allen Institute for AI, is the main source of information for this article. Below is a great example from that paper of traditional SERP organization versus a Generative Engine response.

The search engine output on the left — the tried-and-true — displays a list of websites. The generative engine output on the right is more conversational, providing context to the search results.

GEO, much like SEO, improves how online content appears and performs in search engines that operate using generative AI technologies. It involves understanding how these AI systems analyze and rank content and adjusting the content to meet these criteria.

The process includes refining content so that it’s simpler for AI to summarize, structuring it in a manner that generative models can easily recognize and prioritize, and crafting it to directly answer queries, making it more likely to be chosen by AI when responding to searches.

GEO is useful for content creators and marketers tasked with boosting their content’s effectiveness in search engine results. This type of optimization is crucial in today’s landscape where search engines are relying on AI to generate responses.

What to Expect When Optimizing Your Content for GenAI-Assisted Search: What the Research Says

In this new era of SEO, i.e., GEO, successfully getting AI-based search engines to recommend your legal services can lead to increased business.

To accurately assess its on content visibility and performance, the GEO study uses two main metrics: Position-Adjusted Word Count and Subjective Impression.

  • Position-Adjusted Word Count is a metric used to evaluate the effectiveness of GEO strategies. This metric considers not only the frequency of words from the content appearing in the search responses but also their placement within those responses.
  • Subjective Impression is a metric designed to measure the perceived quality and relevance of content as it appears in AI-driven search responses. Unlike more quantitative metrics, Subjective Impression assesses how the content is likely perceived by the end-user in terms of relevance, trustworthiness, and utility.

These metrics help show how well GEO-optimized content performs, especially in terms of visibility and how users value it.

Research has clearly shown that traditional SEO methods like Keyword Stuffing are falling behind. They don’t quite meet the complex needs of AI systems that blend information from different sources to answer search queries directly.

GEO strategies that use sophisticated techniques such as adding statistics and quotes have proven much more effective. These methods better match how generative search engines work, improving the relevance and authority of your content right where users find their answers.

Below is a table illustrating how different GEO strategies stack up against traditional methods.

As you can see, strategies like Statistics Addition and Quotation Addition significantly outperform traditional methods such as Keyword Stuffing.

Let’s look at a specific example of how GEO can transform your content’s impact.

In this example, the content that uses GEO (highlighted in yellow) initially accounted for only 12% of the response at the bottom. After optimization, it moved up to claim 63% of the response at the top.

This shift from focusing merely on keywords to providing substantial, relevant content is not just useful but necessary. It keeps your content visible and relevant amidst rapidly evolving digital search technologies.

Based on these findings, legal professionals should expect that leveraging GEO strategies will significantly enhance the visibility, engagement, and authority of their content, impacting their business success in this AI-driven search era.

Optimizing Your Law Firm’s Content for GEO

As AI-driven search engines become more predominant, the need for content that aligns with these technologies grows. Unlike traditional SEO, which mainly focuses on keywords and backlinks, GEO involves enhancing content to meet the sophisticated demands of AI systems that prioritize context, relevance, and authority.

The research suggests that GEO can improve content visibility by up to 30%.

Several strategies have been identified as particularly effective to optimize content for generative search engines. These aren’t really new concepts — in fact, they’re already parts of traditional SEO.

At the end of the day, it comes down to good writing. But these principles should help guide you.

Easy-to-Understand

Content should be simplified not only to aid reader comprehension but also to facilitate AI processing and understanding.

When legal content is involved, this often means breaking down complex legal jargon into definitions that are easy to grasp, which can significantly boost the content’s presence in AI-generated responses.

Authoritative

Use your legal expertise to reinforce the authority of your content.

By including accurate data and your informed opinions, you establish credibility, which AI systems value highly. Personalizing your content and offering your insights enhances your content’s appeal to AI, recognizing it as a reliable source for user queries.

Technical Terms

Including specific legal terms related to your practice area greatly increases your content’s relevance for specialized queries.

For instance, when discussing intellectual property law, using precise terms like “trademark infringement” or “patent application process” signals your expertise. Detailing the legal procedures for filing a patent helps AI recognize the relevance of your content, improving its categorization and visibility on AI-driven search platforms.

Fluency Optimization

Grammatically correct and logically structured content is good for both user engagement and AI comprehension.

An article on personal injury claims, for example, should logically progress from what constitutes a personal injury, through the claims filing process, to potential legal outcomes.

This clear structure not only helps clients understand the content but also aids AI systems in recognizing the content as coherent and structured, which is crucial for achieving higher rankings.

Cite Sources

Citing credible sources boosts your content’s trustworthiness. AI algorithms often verify the reliability of content through the sources cited, influencing how prominently your content features in search results.

Discussing a new family law reform? Cite relevant statutes or landmark court decisions to substantiate your points and signal to AI the reliability of your content.

Quotation Addition

Incorporating quotations from reputable legal experts or judicial opinions adds depth and perspective to your content, making it more informative and engaging.

When discussing complex topics like corporate compliance or securities regulations, quoting a well-known legal authority can enhance the content’s richness, which AI systems favor.

Statistics Addition

Supporting your arguments with up-to-date, relevant statistics not only adds authority but also engages readers more effectively. AI recognizes these elements as indicators of content quality and relevance, often giving preferential treatment to such data-rich content in search responses.

For instance, discussing litigation trends? Include statistical data on lawsuit filings in specific sectors like technology or healthcare.

Adapting to AI in Legal Marketing

As AI reshapes how search engines operate, it’s important to adapt to stay visible and relevant online.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a vital adjustment for anyone creating legal content who wants to stand out in a crowded digital space.

By adopting GEO strategies, lawyers can ensure their expertise continues to reach and impact their audience effectively.

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