Summary
In this video from Growth Hackers, Tom and Alexander provide practical guidance on updating existing blog content for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Rather than starting from scratch, the presenters argue that companies should leverage their existing content library, particularly blog posts that already perform well in traditional SEO. The recommended approach is to start with your best-performing blog posts rather than your worst. Posts that already rank well in Google Search have demonstrated relevant structure and content quality, making them strong candidates for GEO optimization. Starting with low-performing pages requires significantly more foundational work before any AI visibility improvements can be expected. The optimization process begins with a content audit to understand the topic, keywords, and focus of each page. The critical principle is to stay on the same topic rather than steering content toward entirely new areas, which would essentially mean starting from scratch. Once the audit is complete, the technical optimization follows a clear checklist: add clear H2 and H3 headings, shorten paragraphs, format information as bullet lists, add FAQ sections with structured schema markup, and include summaries at the top or bottom of the post. The presenters emphasize that GEO optimization should enhance rather than replace SEO performance. The goal is to make incremental improvements that make content more AI-friendly while preserving existing search rankings. A practical tip is to search for similar topics in an LLM, observe how the AI structures its answers, and then apply those structural patterns to your own blog posts. The session concludes by noting that deeper competitive research and benchmarking against high-performing competitors would be covered in future content.
Description
Learn how to update your existing blog content for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). In this video, we cover simple, practical steps to make your content more visible in AI search tools like ChatGPT and Gemini.
FAQ
Should I create new blog content or update existing posts for GEO?
Both matter, but updating existing well-performing blog posts is often the best starting point. Posts that already rank well in traditional search have proven content quality and structure, giving you a head start for AI search visibility rather than building from scratch.
Which blog posts should I optimize for GEO first?
Start with your best-performing blog posts in traditional SEO. These pages have already demonstrated relevance and quality that can be built upon. Low-performing pages require too much foundational work to be efficient starting points for GEO optimization.
What specific changes should I make to a blog post for GEO?
Add clear H2 and H3 headings, shorten paragraphs, use bullet lists, include FAQ sections with schema markup, and add summaries at the top or bottom. Format content so it is easy for both humans and AI models to scan and understand quickly.
Will GEO optimization hurt my existing SEO rankings?
No, when done correctly. GEO optimization should enhance rather than replace your SEO performance. The key is making incremental improvements that add AI-friendly formatting while preserving the core content and structure that drives your current search rankings.
How can I learn what format works best for GEO content?
A practical approach is to search for topics similar to your blog posts in an LLM like ChatGPT or Gemini, observe how the AI structures its answers, and then apply those structural patterns to your own content. This gives you direct insight into what formats AI models prefer.
Transcript
0:02 Hello sir. 0:04 >> Hello Alex. 0:05 >> Time for another little Jio talk between 0:09 us. We have lately been talking a lot 0:12 about Jio and especially creating new 0:14 content but today our focus going to be 0:17 updating existing existing content and 0:20 specifically your blog post how to make 0:24 them more geo adapted. So, what would 0:26 you say is the first thing you as a 0:28 company or a branch should think about 0:30 when updating your current blog to make 0:32 it more go applicable? 0:35 >> Yeah. Uh, that's a really interesting 0:37 question because I think most companies 0:40 would have been working a lot with blogs 0:43 or articles to get them ranked for SEO. 0:47 So, we actually uh are we're not talking 0:50 about starting from scratch. uh many 0:53 companies should already have a lot of 0:56 contents for similar purposes uh even 1:00 though like one is gone one is SEO. I 1:03 think is very uh interesting important 1:05 to look into what we can do uh like with 1:08 that how to make them rank for AI search 1:12 uh which is yield in this case of course 1:16 >> but is it easier to start a brand new or 1:19 would you say it's better to update what 1:21 you currently have? Uh I would say uh 1:24 both matter but uh in in this case since 1:28 I I I believe many companies already 1:31 have some articles and uh or blogs and 1:35 some of them should already have a good 1:38 uh u ranking or or good uh appearance 1:42 for organic search. So I think looking 1:45 into this existing content up to how to 1:48 optimize them towards AI search that 1:51 could give us a quick start in term of 1:53 performance. Uh yeah I of course how to 1:56 start uh with the new topics new area 1:59 that's another uh topic but I don't 2:01 think we should just leave everything 2:03 behind and uh start from scratch. 2:06 >> Oh that's great but let's say you have 2:08 hundreds of blog posts out there which 2:11 should you start with? Yeah. Uh I think 2:14 just to make it super simple, there 2:16 could be two potential approaches. One 2:19 is to start with the worst performing 2:21 ones. One is to start with the best 2:23 performing ones. I think the easiest 2:25 answer here is to start with the good 2:27 performers because uh that means even 2:30 though from the traditional SEO 2:32 perspective those articles are already 2:35 have been showing some potentials to be 2:37 picked up by Google search that means 2:40 either the page are like structured in 2:42 the right way or have good content. Uh 2:45 there must be some reason to make those 2:47 page pages ranked in us for SEO purpose. 2:50 So if we start with those best 2:52 performers, try to optimize them uh them 2:56 towards the AI search uh perspective 2:59 that should give us much quicker uh 3:01 improvement uh uh like comparing to if 3:05 we start with the the worst performer uh 3:08 sorry the lowest performing pages then 3:11 we probably have like a long way to go a 3:13 lot of the work to do around that to 3:16 even make them start to appear 3:17 somewhere. 3:19 >> Okay, great. So start with the best 3:21 performing blog posts but when you have 3:24 decided okay I'm going to update this to 3:26 make it as great as possible for Jul 3:30 is the first thing you should do 3:32 >> uh yeah uh I think first would be good 3:36 to do some uh content uh uh audit try to 3:39 still try to understand what those pages 3:42 about uh what topics what keywords and 3:45 uh if we want to use those pages to also 3:48 rank well for AI search then that we 3:50 should try to stay on the same topic uh 3:53 same content, same focus on the search 3:56 terms so we don't suddenly steer them to 3:58 like totally new area or new topics. Uh 4:01 that means of course means again we 4:03 would start from a scratch that we try 4:05 to avoid. Once someone understand that 4:08 then it's still back to the the basics 4:10 the foundations uh make the page uh very 4:14 clear structured like H2 H3 headlines 4:18 make the paragraph shorter make the list 4:21 uh list clear structured like with 4:23 bullets uh basically make it like AI 4:27 schemable easier for either human being 4:30 or AI uh to understand what the page is 4:33 about and of course also try to add uh 4:36 like uh uh uh FAQ and uh how to schemas 4:41 on those. So everything try to again I 4:44 think we talked about this uh before in 4:46 other qu in other topics try to make the 4:49 uh content page as easy to consume as 4:52 possible. So from that perspective, then 4:55 you also try to steer that towards AI's 4:58 favor and of course back still back to 5:01 the foundation by improving for AI 5:05 search. We don't want to destroy the SEO 5:07 performance. So here we're talking about 5:09 the improvements. We are not talking 5:12 about like a try to restart everything 5:14 and that means we are back to uh scratch 5:16 again. 5:18 >> So one tip could be that you could have 5:20 a summary in the end. Would that be 5:22 >> definitely summary summary either in 5:25 like the very top or at the very bottom 5:27 try to help AI to understand this this 5:30 content is about that helps. Yeah. 5:32 >> So if we would try to update this talk 5:35 and make your answer a bit shorter and 5:37 try to summary summarize what we're 5:40 talked about make clear headings right? 5:43 >> Yes. 5:44 >> Short paragraphs 5:46 bullet lists. 5:47 >> Yes. 5:48 >> FQ's. 5:49 >> Yes. 5:50 >> And what else would you say? Summaries 5:52 >> summaries. 5:53 >> Yeah, I declare a schema to help the AI 5:56 to pick up what his page is about. 5:59 >> Perfect. But then you can 6:01 >> I think those are the big part of the 6:03 blog as it is so you don't ruin the 6:06 current SEO ranking. 6:07 >> Yes. 6:08 >> Okay. Perfect. Anything else you would 6:10 love to add to this? Uh I mean of course 6:13 uh like as as already mentioned earlier 6:16 when we're doing this uh we should be 6:18 more like careful like try to understand 6:21 I mean and go even though they they are 6:24 different we're not trying to replace 6:26 one uh with the other uh they just 6:29 appear at as different like placements 6:32 when people are doing the search work. 6:34 So deep in the day we still want to 6:36 provide clear information, valuable 6:39 information. Keep that as a core. 6:42 >> Okay, great. I think we we covered that 6:45 in today's talk. So try to and also one 6:48 tip could be that you use one of the 6:50 current LMS that's your favorite. Google 6:53 for something that's similar to your 6:55 blog posts, see how they structure the 6:57 information, and then take learnings 6:59 from that and try to squeeze that into 7:01 your current blog. And that could be in 7:03 a summary or 7:04 >> in a just long of the current blog post. 7:07 >> Yeah, exactly. I think that's another 7:09 interesting topic we probably can take 7:10 next time. How to do research, 7:12 understand what uh competitors or other 7:15 websites are performing well, what we 7:17 can learn from them. 7:19 >> But let's keep that to next talk. Yeah. 7:23 Thank you for today and have a great 7:26 afternoon. 7:28 >> Yeah. Thank you. Bye.
