From Rankings to Relevance: How Brands Stay Visible in the Age of Response Engines

While some people still think of their geography book when they hear the word “GEO”, for others it’s the next big marketing challenge: Is traffic to your digital channels falling despite stable rankings? Your content appears in AI searches, but the website visitors aren’t coming? Welcome to the world of generative AI search. And the question of what this means for your digital strategy.

The Search in Transition

The answer does not lie in poorer content or tougher competition. It lies in the changing search behavior of users: A B2B buyer who used to visit your website now asks ChatGPT: “Which CRM systems are suitable for SMEs?” The AI answers and the user is satisfied – without having clicked on a link.

Initial figures show the extent of this: companies are experiencing traffic declines of up to more than 30%, which cannot be explained by traditional SEO factors.
Gartner expects organic search traffic to fall by 25% over the next year. This traffic is not moving to the competition, it is simply disappearing.

What Is GEO? And Why Is Everyone Suddenly Talking About It?

Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO for short, is the current answer to this change. The term describes the optimization of content for AI-supported search systems.

It is no longer about being in first position on a search results page. It’s about whether ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity and other AI search systems mention a company or product in their answer and present it correctly.

What Is Driving the Topic?

Google is currently rolling out its AI Overviews – AI-generated answers on top of traditional search results. At the same time, more and more companies are using ChatGPT and similar tools to search for information. These developments are having a massive impact on search behavior. The result: click-through rates and traffic are falling noticeably.

Why Is My Traffic Dropping Despite Good Rankings?

Generative AI systems work differently to traditional search engines. Google’s AI Overviews and other AI search systems search the internet, synthesize information from multiple sources (RAG) and present a ready-made answer. The result: the incentive to click on a link decreases.

While a classic search results page shows 10 or more links, an AI response typically only mentions 2-7 sources. The result: visibility becomes a scarce resource.

The buyer journey is changing massively, particularly in the B2B context. While early phases – information gathering, evaluation – used to mostly take place on company channels, they are increasingly taking place via AI-supported research. Only later, when there is concrete interest, do users land on your website. If at all.

This Is How the AI Decides Who Is Named and Who Is Not

In their responses, AI search systems name or link (cite) the original source – ideally. Neither is guaranteed. To achieve success here, three factors are particularly important:

Semantic relevance instead of keywords: Comprehensive, understandable answers to real questions count more than keyword mentions.

Authority and trust: The factors that Google describes as E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) are becoming even more important. AI systems do not want to make false claims, so they prefer established and trustworthy sources.

Holistic approach: The systems not only evaluate their specific domain, but also capture a comprehensive overall picture of a brand. All the information available on the Internet is taken into account, from the brand’s own content to mentions from traditional PR and public relations work.

What Does This Development Mean for Companies?

The Inconvenient Truth

AI builds on the expertise of brands and companies and answers questions with their knowledge. The user is satisfied. But customer relationships are built by others.

An example: The detailed guide to a complex B2B topic is perfectly summarized by the AI. The user gets in 30 seconds what would previously have taken him 10 minutes on a website. Why should they still click?

These Are the New Success Figures

The previous marketing dashboards no longer tell the whole story. Although a good ranking remains relevant, it no longer automatically guarantees traffic. Traffic alone is also no longer a reliable indicator of success. This is because the few website visitors may complete a purchase more quickly as they are already well informed.

The new metrics…

The GEO tools that are currently being developed offer new key figures for this purpose:

• AI Visibility: The visibility of a brand or company across various AI platforms. Mostly ChatGPT, Google, Perplexity and Copilot
• Share of Voice: Your own visibility in AI-generated responses compared to the competition.
• Citations: How often is your own domain or specific URLs linked in AI responses to relevant topics?
• Sentiment: Not just whether, but how your brand is presented.

The link to business: Visibility in AI responses influences whether a company even gets into the consideration sets of a target group. If you don’t appear in early searches, you won’t come into play later.

…and their pitfalls

These metrics are a start, but they have a catch: they only show a section. Common tools test with standardized prompts – but real users ask differently. They formulate individually, contextually, often with complex concatenations. It is therefore crucial to analyze both your own content and that of the competition and compare it with real usage data in order to gain a better understanding of what questions your own customers are actually asking.

If Nobody Clicks Anymore – What’s the Point of the Website?

However, the tactical discussion about GEO overlooks an even deeper strategic challenge.
Because GEO deals with a symptom: How do I ensure that AI systems quote me in their answers in the short term and that I remain visible?

But the even more exciting question is: What task does my website fulfill in a world in which potential customers arrive already deeply informed – or no longer arrive at all?

Or to put it another way:
What distinctive benefit will visitors to a website receive in the future that wasn’t already in an AI summary?

It is already becoming apparent that expectations of digital touchpoints are changing fundamentally. People are getting used to no longer giving computers commands (“Show me…”), but expecting results (“I need…”). AI translates, searches, synthesizes, suggests. And decides for itself how to achieve this result.

This is more than just a new way of searching. It is a paradigm shift in interaction with digital systems.

The task is to design your own digital experience in such a way that it delivers real, measurable added value in a world of generative AI.

This requires a holistic understanding of your own brand, content and data. Not just an optimization of individual pages. It means a strategic realignment of what a digital presence should achieve.

The Unfair Advantage: What Only Your Website Can Do

To solve these strategic issues, data expertise and experience design must go hand in hand. After all, it’s not just about being found, but also about being chosen. Opening the door, but also making sure that someone comes in – and stays.

This was the motivation behind the cooperation between moresophy and practical: Data-based insights and experience strategies based on them – two disciplines that often operate separately in practice.

The digital customer experience of the future must be more than just a store of information. It must ensure that interest turns into trust. And that AI snippets turn into a customer relationship.