Why you shouldn't rely on shortcuts in generative engine optimisation

You may remember this, if you are old enough: In 2002, search engine optimisation (SEO) transformed from a technical curiosity into a full-blown industry. All of a sudden, agencies, consultants, and “black-hat sorcerers” emerged overnight, offering tricks and hacks to get brands onto the first page of search results.

Today, we stand at the dawn of the next wave—what some call generative engine optimisation (GEO), answer engine optimisation (AEO), or simply AI engine optimisation (AIO). The logic is similar: Get your brand seen . . . but the stakes are higher, the rules blurrier, and the risks far more structural. 

Imagine a world where users no longer click search results but instead ask an AI assistant, in natural language: “What’s the best CRM for a small-business startup?” The answer on customer relationship management appears instantly. No links, no pages, just a response. Brands that hope to matter must not only rank, but be mentioned, cited, trusted, and recommended before that user ever visits their site.

This shift is real. Some articles say GEO is “about getting your brand noticed and accurately represented in AI-generated answers,” and talk about how it is “rewriting the rules of online shopping,” or advise brands that “AEO is the future of SEO.” 

But herein lies the danger. If SEO’s past is any teacher, we’re headed toward a new playground of snake oil and shortcuts. Soon you’ll see “GEO specialists,” “AI optimisation gurus,” and “zero-click quantum marketing” workshops popping up. Brands will chase algorithms that nobody fully understands, pay for tools that promise to “place you inside the answer box,” and invest in techniques whose mechanics are opaque even to those selling them. 

I should know. I’ve published daily for decades and licensed not under copyright, but copyleft (Creative Commons attribution), open for anyone, including artificial intelligence companies, to use, repurpose, or analyse. My reward? I’m widely well-positioned in the AI assistant era because I kept my content open, clear, structured, and undisguised. I don’t rely on tricks. My brand (in this case, my name) is simply known, cited, and relied upon. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other chatbots knew me very well the first time I asked them who I was or what my ideas were, back in 2022. That is the real lesson.

The perfect storm is approaching 

Here are the forces aligning: 

• AI assistants and answer engines now mediate discovery: Traditional search traffic is already falling. 
• Brands recognise that ranking No. 1 isn’t enough: They need to be the answer. AEO guides emphasise “being the response.” 
• Agencies and vendors sense new revenue streams: Tools measuring “AI brand visibility” and dashboards tracking “mentions in ChatGPT” promise access to this new ecosystem. 
• Algorithmic opacity means how you’re mentioned matters. Is your brand cited because you’re the best, or because you paid? The mechanics are hidden. 
• The consequences of getting it wrong are real: You could invest heavily, only to find your brand absent in AI answers while competitors dominate the mention space. 

If history repeats, this could be the SEO disaster 2.0: an industry of quick fixes, questionable tactics, and brands locked into dependency on channels they don’t control. 

What brands should do instead? 

Here’s the counter-advice: simple, logical, future-proof. 

1. Create open, structured, authoritative content. Don’t lock your content behind barriers. Make sure it’s accessible, clearly written, and structured for machine readability (headings, bullet lists, schema where appropriate). Brands optimised for AI answers aren’t hiding or obfuscating; they’re enabling. 
2. Ensure your brand is citable, not just linkable.SEO taught us backlinks. GEO/AEO teaches us mentions in articles, industry lists, data sets, and authoritative partners, in places as open and accessible as possible. AI engines favour earned media over pure brand-owned content. 
3. Avoid “trick” agencies chasing black-box signals.If someone offers a “GEO shortcut” or “AI answer box hack,” ask: What is the mechanism? What transparency do you offer? The models are evolving. You’re betting on infrastructure you don’t own if you rely on opaque tactics. 
4. Combine SEO foundation with GEO awareness. These are not separate marketing silos. Solid SEO still matters: fast site, good authority, clear content. But now you need to overlay a GEO mindset: how AI will interpret, summarise, and cite your content before the user ever visits. Think of it as guaranteeing your brand enters the conversation. 
5. Monitor and adapt, don’t optimise once and forget. Unlike traditional search results, AI answers evolve. Models update, data sources shift, assistants adopt RAG (retrieval-augmented generation). Brands must treat visibility as a continuous feedback loop, not a onetime project.

A cautionary tale

Remember when brands bought bulk link-packages in 2010, thinking that would guarantee a No. 1 Google ranking? Many saw a bump, then a crash, when the algorithm changed. GEO could replicate that cycle: Brand invests in “AI visibility tools,” sees short-lived gain, then is penalised or overshadowed as models adjust. 

But the bigger risk is dependence. If your brand presence becomes entirely mediated by an ecosystem you don’t control, say, a chatbot that places you in the answer box, you lose agency over your narrative. You become a commodity subject to the platform’s rules. 

The human-scale advantage

Here’s the good news: You don’t need a “magic GEO hack.” You just need authenticity, clarity, and openness. My own case (and many similar ones) prove it. I published each day, I licensed openly, I structured clearly—not for the algorithm, but for readers and machines alike. 

Brands that follow the same logic will create meaningful content, make it accessible, and make it citable. And they’ll not only avoid the GEO trap; they’ll also thrive in the AI era. Because when models evolve, and when assistants interface with your content, the brands they cite first will be the ones built on trust, not tricks.

GEO, AEO, and AIO are the next frontier, but they don’t require shortcuts. They require doing the fundamentals better. Avoid the hype, the sorcerers, the quick-fix vendors. Do what’s been proven: Publish well, open your content, let the engines (and your audience) do the rest.

Because the worst thing you can optimise for is the algorithm. The best thing you can optimise for is being known.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Enrique Dans has been teaching Innovation at IE Business School since 1990, hacking education as Senior Advisor for Digital Transformation at IE University, and now hacking it even more at Turing Dream. He writes every day on Medium. 

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