What you need to know about GEO and why PR is mission critical

If you’re looking for your next holiday spot, hunting for a new home, or deciding on a Friday night takeaway, it’s hard to miss how dramatically the search landscape has changed within the last year.

What once required hours of research, comparison, and due diligence to uncover the answer to your query is now delivered instantly, packaged into a fully synthesised response sitting above the traditional search results page – this is what’s known as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).

In the age of AI, GEO is widely regarded as the next iteration of SEO. GEO refers to the practice of optimising digital content to enhance a brand's online presence and improve its visibility in the results produced by AI. Where SEO ensures your content can be found, GEO ensures your brand is chosen. Put more simply, its credibility based and content led.

AI doesn’t recommend just any brand. It recommends brands it understands and trusts. And trust is built on earned signals – and that is where the role of PR comes into play. If you’ve spent years perfecting your business’s SEO strategy, fear not. GEO isn’t here to replace SEO or render it obsolete; it’s just raised the stakes. Here in the Channel Islands, where smaller markets and close‑knit communities mean reputation travels fast, appearing accurately and consistently in AI‑generated outputs is becoming an increasingly powerful competitive advantage.

The new search reality

Before the advent of AI, the consumer journey was far more linear. The structured, step-by-step nature of the search environment allowed the conversion journey to be neatly mapped as a funnel, gently guiding consumers from awareness to consideration to purchase. Today, however, the proliferation of apps and social platforms for virtually every need, combined with the rise of AI, has transformed conversion from a funnel into a constellation. Each platform offers context for a micro-moment of decision-making: what to click, trust, buy, think, try, believe, and follow. AI now sits above the entire digital ecosystem, pulling from news articles, reviews, interviews, social platforms, podcasts and more to collate one definitive answer. Credibility has become the currency of visibility, and PR the driver.

Why PR is the engine of GEO

AI makes decisions based on the strength, depth and consistency of earned signals, press coverage, expert commentary, awards, founder interviews, thought leadership and the stories you tell all play a part. These are the raw materials of the PR professional and without them, AI has no foundation for trust. PR places your brand’s story in the high‑authority, high‑trust environments AI leans on. When a user asks a question, AI doesn’t just scan your ‘About’ page. It checks the media, industry analysis, expert platforms and credible third‑party sources. PR ensures your brand appears in these spaces with clarity and substance. Visibility in AI search also depends on consensus. AI looks for patterns across the many, seeking out that one strong narrative that replicated across publications, influencers, commentators, podcasts and niche media. The more coherent and consistent your story, the more confidently AI elevates it. AI favours crisp, repeatable positioning. PR distils your brand down to the essential elements: your value proposition, your tone of voice, your founder’s perspective, your proof points. If your story can’t be expressed in a compelling one‑sentence summary, both humans and AI will struggle to grasp and champion it.

The essential partnership

GEO hasn’t replaced PR, it has made PR more important than ever. The brands that invest in PR now will own the AI‑driven search landscape of tomorrow. The ones who don’t simply won’t feature in the conversation. It’s not something you can hack or even buy; it must be earnt, and built over time. If businesses adapt correctly and work with strategic partners like Orchard, they will find themselves more in control of their narrative than ever before.

Orchard’s Top Tips for GEO

• Build a reputation AI can trust by creating a steady flow of credible press coverage and expert commentary.

• Put your story where AI looks for proof We know that is in authoritative, high‑trust media environments.

• Create one clear narrative and repeat Be consistent across multiple channels to build consensus.

• Keep your positioning simple, sharp and memorable AI can more easily understand and summarise you.

• Collaborate with visible leaders Their expertise can strengthens your brand’s authority in AI‑generated search.

Keen to explore where your brand currently sits in the AI landscape, and where the biggest opportunities lie? Get in touch Brooke@orchardpr.com