5 Ways Entrepreneurs Are Rethinking SEO Amid the Rise of GenAI

Cody Barbo has a folder on his phone filled with all the AI assistants, and at least once every month, the Trust and Will co-founder and CEO asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Grok, and every other model the same question: What is the easiest, cheapest, and best place to set up my will online? The entrepreneur wants to see how his San Diego startup ranks against the rest of the estate planning industry when it comes to the answers that large language models are spitting out to hundreds of millions of users. “We’re competitive, so we’re like, is it us? Is it the OG, LegalZoom? Or is it a new player?” says Barbo, whose company has landed on the Inc. 5000 for the past two years after posting an average three-year growth rate of 1,127 percent. “Our search volume is getting eaten up by these tools.” There’s no standard term yet for what Barbo is doing, but founders have started calling this practice “search everywhere optimization,” “generative engine optimization,” and “answer engine optimization.” While the acronyms vary, founders agree that finding the SEO equivalent for AI is the future of marketing, as more consumers take their queries to AI agents instead of search engines. Even though the space is rapidly evolving in real time, founders are uncovering which strategies are most effective at surfacing company mentions in generative AI responses. Here’s what they’ve learned. Invest in long-form content Founders say one approach that has really worked so far is investing in long-form editorial content. That’s why Trust and Will has put so much emphasis on educational content on its website, publishing regular articles by industry experts and conducting a 10,000-person study in January. Brand-tracking software company Tracksuit has taken a similar approach, publishing articles about marketing, case studies, and original research. “Right now, it seems to be long-form content that works,” says Tracksuit co-founder and CEO Connor Archbold. “White papers and actual research, I think, will become important.” Become the trusted answer Length is not the only factor to consider when creating editorial content for AI to crawl and cite. Founders recommend leaning into a niche and becoming the go-to source for industry leaders’ frequently asked questions. “In the era of AI-powered search, visibility means becoming the trusted answer,” says Cassi Janakos Chavez, co-founder and COO of corporate lactation services company and two-time Inc. 5000 honoree Healthy Horizons. “We focus on maintaining our website’s authority with in-depth resources that show we are the leading expert on workplace lactation.” Prioritize founder-first storytelling When it comes to optimizing AI search, Tyler Eide, founder and creative director of the Seattle-based design agency Parker Studio, has been advising his clients to lean into founder-first storytelling. “There’s only so much you can control… so the best thing to do is to control what you can,” says Eide, whose company has worked with Google, Lululemon, and Zappos. That means having his founder clients ask themselves: “How can I get out into as many places as possible with the story that I want people to have?” Expand your entire digital footprint If links are the currency of search rankings, brand mentions are the most important factor for determining visibility in AI responses, says Andy Crestodina. The co-founder and chief marketing officer of Orbit Media Studios, a Chicago-based digital agency focused on web development and website optimization, says, “Have the biggest digital footprint. Make sure your brand is everywhere.” Go on podcasts, participate in webinars, post on LinkedIn, write for every possible website, issue press releases, and repeat your elevator pitch in any video that may get transcribed. Make sure your company is listed on every review site, trade association website, and conceivable directory. Crestodina calls this basic digital public relations. “Fill the web with your company name and surround it with relevant industry terms. Your new goal is to be in as much AI training data as possible,” says Crestodina, whose company has landed on the Inc. 5000 three times. “Be all over the place.” Keep testing Like Barbo, keep experimenting to see if and when your company name comes up after prompting AI agents with questions. “Best practices are good hypotheses. Everything I just suggested should be tested,” says Crestodina. “Use data to confirm or reject that hypothesis, and then iterate, rinse, repeat. It takes a lot of humility to be good at this.” BY ALI DONALDSON @ALICDONALDSON