Search is changing quickly. At this year’s SEO IRL conference, one topic dominated every conversation. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is becoming an essential part of modern search strategies. AI-driven search systems now shape how people discover brands and make decisions. This shift matters for every in-house marketer, especially those working within medium sized organizations where resources are tight, and outcomes need to be predictable.
Here is the encouraging part. You do not need to become a computer engineer to prepare for this new environment. However, you do need a clear understanding of how AI interprets content, evaluates trust signals, and decides which brands to recommend. The tactics below capture the most important lessons I took away from SEO IRL 2025 and translate them into practical next steps that your team can act on with the support of a GEO specialist.
Why GEO Matters Now
Up until now, the most successful approach to SEO focused on keywords, links, and on page structure. These elements still matter. However, AI-powered search engines look at your brand in a much more holistic way. They interpret relationships between entities, evaluate brand clarity, scan for consistency across the web, and pull information from many different sources.
This means several things are now true.
- Your visibility depends on how well an AI system can interpret your brand story.
- Competitors who have stronger entity signals can show up in conversations that should belong to you.
- Your homepage and help centre content can play an outsized role in how AI defines your business.
- Your content needs to be designed for retrieval rather than only ranking.
GEO prepares your brand for a world where AI summarizes, explains, and recommends information. If your content is not built for this environment, the AI will attempt to fill in the gaps. This often favours your competitors.
Top GEO Tactics You Should Be Using Next Year
1. Anticipate Follow Up Questions Through Refinement
AI tools respond to one question and immediately predict the next. A strong GEO strategy maps out these refinements and builds content that supports the entire journey. Start by asking an AI tool about a broad question related to your product. Collect the follow up questions the tool suggests. Use those prompts to strengthen your content hubs and service pages.
This creates a content experience that feels complete, helpful, and easy for AI systems to reuse.
Speaker: Steve Toth
2. Create Objection Handling Content That Removes Dealbreakers
During SEO IRL, many speakers highlighted how often AI tools ask users clarifying questions. These questions uncover dealbreakers such as bilingual support, price transparency, installation requirements, shipping locations, or reliability.
You can use this behaviour to your advantage. Build objection-handling pages that clearly answer these concerns. AI systems favour direct and structured information. When your content removes a user’s concerns before they even ask, you increase your likelihood of being recommended.
Speaker: Steve Toth
3. Build Structured Comparison Pages Using a Content Matrix
AI results frequently reference comparison content. The strongest performers have a structured format that addresses consistent themes such as value, features, audience alignment, and outcomes. To benefit from this pattern, build a comparison matrix and then generate individual pages from that structure.
Speaker: Steve Toth
4. Verify How AI Describes Your Brand Through Truth Alignment
Begin by asking an AI tool a non-branded query such as “Who offers the best services for X in Canada”. See if your brand appears. Then ask the tool more specific questions about your business. Review the sources the AI cites and the statements it makes. Look for gaps, inaccuracies, missing information, or negative impressions.
Speaker: Steve Toth
5. Strengthen Your Homepage and Help Centre for AI Retrieval
AI systems show a strong preference for homepages and help centre content. These locations help the system understand what you do, who you serve, and how your offering works. Your homepage must clearly state your value, your services, your differentiators, and how you address common concerns.
Speaker: Steve Toth
6. Improve Your Brand Footprint Through Signal Engineering
Your website alone cannot carry your GEO strategy. AI tools look across the internet for signals that confirm who you are. This includes social content, press releases, sponsorships, reviews, YouTube videos, and any non-linked mentions of your business.
Speaker: Kevin Indig
7. Build an Internal Knowledge Graph Using Schema
Schema markup is one of the most powerful tools available to help AI systems interpret your content. Focus on building a connected set of schema elements that builds an internal website knowledge graph that define entities, relationships, services, audiences, and locations.
Speaker: Martha van Berkel
8. Adopt Vector Based Keyword Research and Topic Clustering
Keyword lists are not enough for GEO. Most teams will need a more advanced approach that includes vector embeddings, clustering, denoising, topic grouping, and automated brief creation.
Speaker: Brie Moreau & Amin Foroutan
9. Strengthen Your Presence in the Citation Layer
AI tools depend heavily on citations when creating recommendations. Brands that show up often in trusted sources are favoured. To compete, you need consistent schema, clean entity signals, strong content structure, and reliable external references.
Speaker: Kevin Indig
10. Reverse Engineer Competitors Through AI Research
AI tools can help you understand why your competitors perform well. You can evaluate their messaging, their structure, their citations, and the signals that support their visibility. Then you can reverse engineer that content and apply those principals to your own website content.
Speaker: Ross Simmonds
What This Means for In House Marketing Teams in Canada
These tactics require collaboration across content, design, development, and analytics. Start by reviewing your homepage, help centre, product pages, and brand signals. Then expand into objections, comparisons, schema, and structured topic research.
If you want help developing a roadmap or preparing your content for AI discovery, Foundery has a team of experts ready to support you with the next steps.
Want to grow quality leads for your business? We’ve got you covered.
