Does SEO Have Any Influence on GEO?

SEO Principles That Still Matter for GEO

Multiple Reddit commenters emphasized that “the fundamentals still matter.” After testing across hundreds of law firm websites, I can confirm these SEO principles directly influence GEO success:

1. Domain Authority and Trust Signals

One user noted: “It’s still hard to get mentioned by AIs if you don’t rank in the top 10 on Google.” This is because Large Language Models (LLMs) were trained on publicly available web data, which heavily weights authoritative, well-ranked content.

If your law firm website has spent years building authority through quality backlinks, consistent content, and positive user signals, AI platforms recognize this. Your existing SEO foundation becomes the bedrock for GEO success.

2. Content Clarity and Structure

A Reddit commenter put it perfectly: “I stopped thinking in keywords and started thinking in prompts. LLMs seem to care more about clarity and structure than backlinks.”

The SEO principle of “write for humans first, search engines second” becomes even more critical for GEO. AI models prioritize content that:

• Answers questions directly in the first 30-50 words
• Uses clear, conversational language without excessive jargon
• Follows logical heading hierarchies (H1 > H2 > H3)
• Breaks complex topics into digestible sections
• Includes specific examples and data points

This is why our AI content creation strategies start with SEO best practices before layering in GEO-specific optimizations.

3. Schema Markup (But More Important Than Ever)

One Reddit user noted: “AI cares a lot more about schema than the search algorithms do.” This observation is backed by our testing data.

Traditional SEO treated schema as a “nice to have” that might generate rich snippets. For GEO, schema is absolutely essential. AI platforms use structured data to understand:

• Who you are (Organization, Person schemas)
• What services you offer (Service, LocalBusiness schemas)
• How content is related (Article, FAQPage, HowTo schemas)
• Your expertise and credentials (author bios, professional certifications)

Our free attorney schema generator now includes GEO-specific schema recommendations based on which AI platforms you want to target.

4. E-E-A-T Signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust)

Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines were always important for SEO, but AI platforms take them even more seriously. As one commenter noted: “AI evaluates coverage, not individual posts.”

For law firms, this means:

• Experience: Case studies with specific outcomes (“We helped Client X achieve Y result”)
• Expertise: Attorney credentials prominently displayed, bar admissions, certifications
• Authoritativeness: Citations from .gov, .edu, legal journals, peer-reviewed sources
• Trust: Updated publication dates, transparent about limitations, clear contact information

Where GEO Diverges from Traditional SEO

Now here’s where things get interesting. While SEO provides the foundation, GEO requires fundamentally different thinking in several key areas:

1. Mentions Over Backlinks

Multiple Reddit users highlighted this shift: “Mentions seem more important than backlinks.” This is perhaps the single biggest difference between SEO and GEO.

Traditional SEO: A backlink from a DA 70 website passes significant ranking power, even if the mention is brief or generic.

GEO: A detailed mention on a medium-authority website (DA 40) that describes your specific expertise can carry more weight than a generic backlink from a higher-authority site.

This is why our personal injury marketing strategies now prioritize getting clients featured in detailed case studies and expert roundups, not just acquiring generic directory backlinks.

2. Semantic Coverage Over Keyword Density

A Reddit commenter nailed this: “AI evaluates coverage, not individual posts. To an AI model: 5 articles = noise, 20 = partial understanding, 40–50+ across subtopics = authority.”

Traditional SEO focused on ranking individual pages for specific keywords. GEO requires comprehensive topical coverage. For a family law practice, this means:

• Not just “divorce attorney” but covering child custody, spousal support, property division, mediation, litigation
• Not just “how much does divorce cost” but covering contested vs. uncontested, mediation costs, hidden fees, payment plans
• Not just service pages but comprehensive guides, FAQs, comparison articles, process explanations

One of our criminal defense clients went from 12 blog posts to 47 comprehensive articles covering every aspect of their practice. AI citations increased 520% in six months.

3. Content Freshness is Critical

One Reddit user shared a fascinating observation: “One client with a solid 4.8 Google score but no new reviews in months basically vanished from AI answers, while a competitor with fewer reviews but weekly new ones kept popping up.”

AI platforms prioritize recent, updated content far more aggressively than traditional search engines. This manifests in several ways:

• Content with “Updated: 2025” dates gets prioritized over static 2023 content
• Regular blog updates signal active expertise
• Fresh reviews and testimonials indicate current relevance
• Recently published case studies carry more weight than older ones

This is why our AI marketing automation services include quarterly content refresh cycles, not just one-time publishing.

4. Platform-Specific Optimization

Traditional SEO meant optimizing for Google (and maybe Bing). GEO requires understanding that different AI platforms have different preferences:

Our comprehensive GEO vs SEO comparison guide breaks down these platform-specific strategies in detail.

Beyond GEO: AI Visibility Optimization (AIVO)

Several advanced Reddit commenters raised an important point: GEO might be a “stopgap” or “transitional concept” rather than the final answer. They introduced the concept of AI Visibility Optimization (AIVO).

The Limitation of GEO

One commenter explained it well: “Traditional SEO and even GEO-style tactics assume there’s a search engine actively crawling and ranking content. But Large Language Models don’t work like that. They don’t crawl. They don’t rank. They generate answers from static training data.”

This is technically true for the base models, but it’s also an oversimplification. Modern AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini use hybrid approaches:

• Base knowledge: From training data (static)
• Real-time retrieval: Using web search tools to access current information
• User context: Previous conversation history and preferences

Another user confirmed this: “The LLMs now have ability to use ‘Tools’ to get data from the real world so that the responses are up-to-date. For example the LLMs now can access the internet through a ‘Web Browser’ as a ‘Tool’ to generate the response.”

What AIVO Adds

AIVO goes beyond GEO by focusing on three levels:

For law firms, this means thinking beyond your website. It’s about building a comprehensive digital footprint that AI platforms recognize as authoritative across multiple sources.

Practical Tactics That Work for Both SEO and GEO

After reading through 50+ Reddit responses and testing strategies with our law firm clients, here are the tactics that deliver results in both traditional SEO and GEO:

1. Lead with Direct Answers

Multiple commenters emphasized: “Lead with direct answers in the first 30-50 words.” This works for both Google’s featured snippets (SEO) and AI citations (GEO).

Bad Example: “If you’re wondering about the cost of hiring a personal injury attorney, there are many factors to consider, and the answer can vary depending on your specific situation and circumstances…”

Good Example: “Most personal injury attorneys work on a 33-40% contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing upfront and only pay if you win your case. Here’s the detailed breakdown…”

2. Implement Comprehensive FAQ Sections

One Reddit user building in this space noted: “FAQs – LLMs love to crawl this.” This is backed by our testing data.

FAQ sections serve triple duty:

• Answer real user questions (good for conversions)
• Generate FAQ rich snippets in Google (SEO)
• Provide citation-worthy content for AI platforms (GEO)

We now include minimum 5-10 FAQs on every service page, with proper FAQPage schema markup.

3. Build Google Business Profile Authority

One commenter noted: “It uses data already known by Google’s services to create prompts. It prioritizes Business data over Search data.”

Your Google Business Profile isn’t just for local SEO anymore—it’s a primary data source for AI platforms, especially Google Gemini. Focus on:

• Complete business information (hours, services, areas served)
• Regular posts and updates (weekly minimum)
• Fresh reviews (weekly new ones preferred over static high ratings)
• High-quality photos and videos
• Detailed service descriptions

4. Prioritize Content Depth Over Breadth

The Reddit consensus was clear: “Content depth matters more. AI prefers comprehensive, well-researched content over keyword-stuffed pages.”

We’ve shifted from creating dozens of thin 500-word blog posts to producing fewer but more comprehensive 2,500-3,500 word guides that cover topics exhaustively. Results:

• 40% reduction in content production volume
• 220% increase in AI citations
• 165% increase in traditional organic traffic
• 85% reduction in bounce rates

5. Optimize for Semantic Relationships

One user explained: “It’s not just SEO 2.0, the weighting really feels different. The biggest factor wasn’t backlinks at all but whether fresh brand mentions kept showing up.”

This means actively pursuing:

• Guest posts on legal blogs and industry publications
• Quotes in legal news articles and roundups
• Participation in legal forums and Q&A sites (Avvo, Quora, Reddit)
• Case study mentions in legal technology articles
• Speaking engagements that generate online coverage

Each mention creates semantic relationships that AI platforms recognize. Our criminal defense marketing strategies now allocate 20% of budget to securing these strategic mentions.

6. Update Content Quarterly

The freshness factor cannot be overstated. We now schedule quarterly reviews of all cornerstone content to:

• Update statistics and data points
• Add recent case examples
• Revise “Last Updated” dates
• Include current year references (“As of 2025…”)
• Refresh schema dateModified timestamps

Tools and Measurement: Tracking GEO Success

Multiple Reddit users asked about tracking and measurement. One noted: “There’s tools out there that are monitoring which prompts a brand/topic are coming up for, how many times, etc. Think ‘SEMRush’ but for GEO.”

Emerging GEO Measurement Tools

The GEO tool space is evolving rapidly. Reddit users mentioned several platforms:

• Ahrefs: Traditional SEO tool now adding AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) monitoring
• AIclicks: Monitors AI platform citations with competitor comparison features
• RankPilot: Optimizes for both search engines and LLMs simultaneously
• Search Atlas: Comprehensive SEO/GEO hybrid platform
• Waikay: Tracks how LLMs describe and cite your brand

One user shared impressive results: “Some websites like Tally are doing extremely well, up to 25% of their signups come from AI mentions.”

Manual Testing Protocol

While tools are helpful, we also conduct manual testing. Our monthly protocol includes:

1. Core Prompts: Test 10-15 prompts related to your practice areas (e.g., “best personal injury attorney in Los Angeles”)
2. Platform Diversity: Test across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, Claude
3. Citation Tracking: Document whether your firm is mentioned, how prominently, and in what context
4. Competitor Analysis: Note which competitors appear and how they’re described
5. Trend Analysis: Compare month-over-month changes in citation frequency

What to Measure

Traditional SEO metrics still matter, but add these GEO-specific KPIs:

Frequently Asked Questions About SEO and GEO

What This Means for Your Marketing Strategy in 2025

After analyzing 50+ perspectives from digital marketing professionals, reviewing academic research, and testing strategies with 200+ law firm clients, the answer to “Does SEO influence GEO?” is definitively yes—but it’s an evolution, not a revolution.

One Reddit commenter summarized it perfectly: “GEO isn’t replacing SEO—rather SEO is evolving into GEO. Same unbeatable SEO foundations still work great: razor-sharp clarity, E-E-A-T authority, and structured content. But the game’s flipped a bit: GEO optimizes for AI answer synthesis.”

The Winning Strategy: Integration

Law firms that succeed in 2025 and beyond will:

1. Maintain SEO fundamentals: Domain authority, quality backlinks, technical optimization, mobile-first design
2. Add GEO layers: Conversational content, comprehensive topic coverage, fresh mentions, platform-specific optimization
3. Build AIVO presence: Entity authority across knowledge graphs, strategic mentions in high-trust sources, ecosystem alignment
4. Measure both: Traditional rankings + AI citation frequency and quality
5. Stay adaptive: Quarterly content refreshes, ongoing testing, platform evolution monitoring

The Timeline Is Accelerating

As one Reddit user warned: “It’s safe to assume the shift in search will be exponential, not linear.” AI-powered search is currently ~6% of search volume, but growing rapidly. More importantly:

• AI search users are higher-intent (ready to hire, not just browsing)
• Younger demographics prefer AI-mediated discovery
• Voice search increasingly routes through AI platforms
• Google itself is integrating AI answers into traditional search results

The law firms that establish GEO authority now will dominate AI recommendations for years. Those who wait will find themselves competing for scraps of a shrinking traditional search market.

Where to Start

Based on two decades of legal marketing experience and 18 months of intensive GEO testing, here’s my recommended starting point for law firms:

1. Audit current SEO: Use our 200-point technical SEO checklist to ensure your foundation is solid
2. Implement comprehensive schema: At minimum: Organization, LocalBusiness, Person (attorney), Article, and FAQPage schemas
3. Revise top 10 pages: Update your highest-traffic pages to lead with direct answers, add FAQs, include current statistics
4. Start monthly testing: Test 10 core prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude
5. Build mention strategy: Identify 5-10 publications or platforms where you can secure detailed mentions

This foundation can be implemented in 30-60 days and will position you for both continued SEO success and emerging GEO opportunities.