Can GEO Boost Your Sales Pipeline?

GEO vs. SEO — and why your business needs to care about both

For 20+ years, the formula has been straightforward: rank on Google, get found, win the click. And it still works, Google processes 13.7 billion searches a day.

But a parallel channel is emerging fast, and most businesses haven't clocked it yet.

AI search traffic grew 527% year-over-year. Platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are increasingly where buyers start their research, particularly in B2B.

This has given rise to something called GEO: Generative Engine Optimisation.

The simplest way to understand it: SEO is about ranking on a search results page. GEO is about being cited inside an AI-generated answer.

Why the distinction matters

Google serves 10 links per page. AI tools typically cite just 2–7 sources per response.

That's a significantly narrower gate. If your content isn't structured in a way that AI can find, extract, and trust — you're simply not part of the conversation.

Here's where the data sits right now:

• AI influences 12–18% of all web referral traffic globally, up from 5–8% in late 2024

• 75% of AI Mode sessions end without the user ever visiting a website

• The GEO market is valued at $886m and projected to hit $7.3bn by 2031 — growing at 34% annually vs 12–17% for traditional SEO

• 94% of CMOs plan to increase GEO investment this year

But… and this is important organic search still drives 30–42% of traffic across most industries. AI traffic sits at roughly 3% in absolute terms in many sectors. The volume gap is still vast, but it is shifting fast!

So what does this actually mean if you're running a business?

SEO and GEO are becoming interdependent.

SEO builds the authority that AI systems need in order to cite you. GEO structures your content so AI can actually find and use it. Drop one, you lose ground on both.

For businesses of 20–200 people, this means your marketing team needs to be thinking about both surfaces, not just one.

Most businesses I'm speaking to haven't even started this conversation yet. Which means there's a window of opportunity for those who move early.

One thing worth doing this week: ask your marketing team how your business shows up when someone asks ChatGPT about what you do. The answer might surprise you…