C:\Pages\Search Engine Optimization, GEO, & AI VisibilitySearch Engine Optimization, GEO, & AI Visibility
I’ve worked in search engine optimization since 2012, long before generative AI became part of the everyday marketing conversation. Over that time, I’ve experienced the evolution of search from keyword-focused algorithms to machine learning, semantic understanding, natural language processing, and now AI-generated answers. Today, search visibility extends beyond traditional Google rankings. Consumers are discovering businesses through AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other conversational search experiences.
The question is no longer just whether your website ranks. It’s whether your business can be found, understood, accurately represented, and cited wherever your customers search. I help organizations adapt to that changing landscape by combining established technical SEO practices with modern Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), AI visibility research, and analytics.
My experience includes hands-on implementation, not simply advising clients to adopt the latest technology. I’ve worked directly with tools such as Profound to analyze AI search visibility, developed prompt-based research strategies, investigated competitive citations, implemented structured data, and configured Google Tag Manager and GA4 to measure meaningful business outcomes.
I currently work as an independent consultant and embedded specialist, helping organizations develop practical strategies and implement the technical improvements needed to compete across traditional and AI-assisted search.
Search Has Changed, but the Fundamentals Still Matter
Google’s introduction of RankBrain in 2015 marked an important period in the evolution of machine-learning-driven search. Since then, search systems have become increasingly sophisticated at interpreting language, understanding intent, and connecting information across websites.
Generative AI represents another major shift. Instead of relying exclusively on a list of blue links, users can ask complex questions, receive summarized information, compare services, and discover businesses through AI-generated responses. That creates new challenges for organizations. A website might rank well in traditional search but receive limited visibility in AI-generated recommendations.
A brand might be mentioned without receiving a direct click. Important information might be summarized from third-party sources instead of the business’s own website. These changes make technical accessibility, semantic clarity, credible information, and brand consistency more important—not less.
Understanding SEO, AEO & GEO
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses on improving a website’s accessibility, relevance, authority, and visibility within traditional search engines.
- Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) focuses on making information clear, accurate, and useful for question-based discovery, including answer-oriented search interfaces.
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) extends these practices into generative AI environments, where brands and information sources may be mentioned, compared, summarized, or cited within AI-generated responses.
These disciplines overlap substantially, but they aren’t interchangeable. Effective GEO involves evaluating how AI systems represent a brand, which sources they reference, how competitors appear, and whether improvements to content and digital presence affect those observations. The goal isn’t simply to rank for another keyword. It’s to understand and improve an organization’s visibility across a broader search ecosystem.
My Approach to AI Search Optimization
I approach AI search through research, experimentation, technical implementation, and measurement.
That includes:
- Technical SEO audits, crawlability, indexing, and structured data.
- AI prompt research and conversational query analysis.
- GEO and AEO content strategy.
- AI visibility monitoring and competitive citation analysis.
- Topical authority development and semantic content architecture.
- Brand entity consistency and authoritative source research.
- Google Tag Manager, GA4, conversion events, and attribution.
- Local and national organic search optimization.
- Implementation roadmaps, technical QA, and repeatable workflows.
I don’t promise guaranteed rankings or AI citations. No one controls exactly what a search engine or language model will display. What I can provide is experience, technical execution, a defined methodology, and measurable improvements to the factors an organization can influence.
The goal is to build a search presence that remains useful as technology continues to evolve.
Beyond the AI Marketing Hype
New technologies inevitably bring new marketing terminology and new agencies promising shortcuts. I’ve watched similar cycles throughout my career. From algorithm updates to mobile-first indexing, semantic search, and machine learning, search professionals have repeatedly had to adapt their strategies and methodologies.
Generative AI is different in important ways, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for technical accessibility, strong content, credible information, and sound measurement. There is no universal trick that guarantees a business will appear in ChatGPT or another AI assistant. There is, however, meaningful work to be done: evaluating AI visibility, identifying information gaps, improving brand clarity, strengthening useful content, and measuring how emerging discovery channels contribute to business outcomes. That’s where I focus my efforts.
Use the tabs below to explore my experience, technical approach, and case studies across traditional SEO and AI-driven search.
Experience: From SEO to AI Search
I began my SEO career in 2012 at Fanatics, where organic search was a revenue channel, not a vanity metric. I learned to work at scale: technical accuracy, crawlable site architecture, content that matches intent, and decisions grounded in analytics.
Search has changed repeatedly since then. I worked through the shift toward machine-learning-driven relevance, semantic understanding, mobile-first experiences, and intent-based content. Google’s RankBrain era reinforced something I still believe: a page has to satisfy a real question, not just contain a matching phrase.
Today I apply that same foundation to SEO, answer engine optimization (AEO), and generative engine optimization (GEO). My recent hands-on work includes AI prompt and query research, Profound visibility analysis, citation and competitor research, structured data, answer-focused content, and AI referral attribution. I also personally configure Google Tag Manager, GA4 events, and conversion tracking.
I work as an independent consultant and embedded specialist. That means developing the strategy, implementing the technical changes, validating tracking, and explaining the results without burying the work behind jargon.
What I help organizations do
- Build a searchable foundation: technical audits, indexing, internal links, schema, and information architecture.
- Answer the right questions: search-intent research, conversational prompts, topical hubs, and useful original content.
- Evaluate AI visibility: brand mentions, third-party citations, prompt coverage, competitive gaps, and source consistency.
- Measure what changes: GSC, GA4, GTM, CRM attribution, conversions, and AI referral analysis.
- Operationalize improvements: implementation roadmaps, SOPs, quality checks, and collaboration with writers and developers.
Local SEO + AI Discovery
People still use maps and traditional search to find local services, but they also ask AI assistants questions such as “Who offers this treatment near me?” or “Which provider serves this area?” My local SEO approach accounts for both kinds of discovery without assuming the systems rank or cite businesses in the same way.
I start with accurate business information, useful location pages, clearly described services, and consistent brand identity across the website and reputable third-party sources.
What I prioritize
- Google Business Profiles: categories, services, descriptions, locations, photos, reviews, and accurate operating details.
- Entity consistency: business names, NAP data, provider identities, and service areas across sites and citations.
- Location pages: unique, genuinely local content addressing service availability, eligibility, directions, and next steps.
- Conversational demand: location-specific questions, long-tail queries, and common decision-stage concerns.
- Structured data: appropriate Organization, LocalBusiness, location, service, and other supported markup.
- AI visibility research: checking how a business is represented in answers and identifying inaccurate or missing context.
- Attribution: GBP links and UTMs, GA4 events, calls, forms, and CRM outcomes.
National SEO + GEO
National search programs require more than a large keyword list. They need technically accessible websites, well-defined topic relationships, distinct page intent, authoritative content, and a way to identify where competitors win visibility.
For GEO and AEO, I extend conventional search research into prompt clusters, answer patterns, brand/entity relationships, citation sources, and referral measurement. I look at where search engines and AI systems may find a reliable answer, then identify practical changes that make the site’s information clearer and more useful.
How I approach a national program
- Technical baseline: crawlability, indexing, rendering, canonicals, redirects, sitemaps, internal linking, and templates.
- Demand mapping: topics, audience needs, customer journey stages, classic queries, and conversational prompts.
- Content architecture: hubs connecting services, conditions, products, supporting questions, and relevant evidence.
- Authority and citations: identify trusted sources, expert contributors, and third-party mentions worth earning.
- AI competitive research: analyze which brands and sources appear for representative prompt sets.
- Measurement: organic search trends, AI-referred sessions, qualified leads, attribution limitations, and conversion quality.
- Execution: practical roadmaps, page-level recommendations, QA, and ongoing testing.
My strongest recent experience is with U.S. search campaigns. I distinguish domestic national work from specialized international SEO requirements rather than presenting them as interchangeable.
Technical SEO + AI Accessibility
A website can publish great content and still make it difficult for search systems to find, render, interpret, or connect that information. I focus on removing those technical barriers while improving the experience for people.
For AI discovery, the fundamentals still apply: accessible pages, meaningful headings, descriptive internal links, consistent entities, trustworthy source details, and content that presents clear answers in context. I evaluate whether important information is available in the rendered HTML instead of relying on interfaces that a crawler may not process reliably.
Implementation and QA
- Crawling and indexing: robots directives, noindex rules, XML sitemaps, orphan pages, and canonical signals.
- Rendering: JavaScript-dependent content, navigation accessibility, and server-rendered information where practical.
- Site structure: intuitive navigation, descriptive URLs, breadcrumbs, semantic heading hierarchy, and internal links.
- Structured data: schema that accurately reflects visible page content, with validation and maintenance.
- Performance: Core Web Vitals, image handling, caching, layout stability, and script management.
- Migration and recovery: redirects, 404 resolution, duplicate content, legacy URLs, and launch QA.
- Analytics engineering: GTM containers, variables, triggers, tags, GA4 events, key events, and conversion validation.
- Testing: Search Console, crawling tools, page inspection, event debugging, and post-release monitoring.
Content Marketing + Answer Optimization
The purpose of content has not changed: help someone make sense of a problem and take a useful next step. What has changed is how that content gets discovered and reused. People now encounter information through search results, AI overviews, conversational assistants, and links cited inside generated answers.
My approach combines search intent, topical depth, editorial credibility, and answer-friendly structure without reducing everything to generic AI-generated copy.
How I develop content
- Research real demand: Google queries, Search Console data, competitor coverage, customer questions, and AI prompt patterns.
- Map topics: distinguish cornerstone pages, supporting explanations, comparisons, FAQs, and local or service-specific pages.
- Write for humans first: clear introductions, direct answers, useful detail, examples, and actionable next steps.
- Make answers easy to find: descriptive headings, concise definitions, logical sections, and helpful internal links.
- Show credible sourcing: appropriate expert review, author context, up-to-date facts, and transparent claims.
- Use AI responsibly: assist with brainstorming, audits, clustering, and drafts; independently verify important facts and preserve original expertise.
- Improve existing pages: consolidate overlap, correct outdated information, strengthen weak sections, and monitor performance.
- Evaluate visibility: track classic search performance alongside AI citations and referral behavior where measurable.
Case Studies
My work spans enterprise e-commerce, healthcare, and multi-location service businesses. These examples show the progression from foundational enterprise SEO through semantic content strategy to hands-on generative AI visibility research and implementation.
Project references and supporting analytics can be provided where appropriate. I include measured outcomes where available and otherwise focus on the work performed.
#1: Fanatics
I began my career working on organic visibility for a high-volume e-commerce business, supporting SEO across more than 160 NCAA and professional sports sites. Scale, seasonal urgency, and revenue accountability made technical accuracy essential.
- Supported organic traffic and revenue growth across a large multi-site portfolio.
- Contributed to approximately 20% year-over-year organic revenue growth.
- Handled time-sensitive optimization during peak sports and retail periods.
- Worked on site architecture, category discoverability, content, and performance monitoring.
#2: ePackagingResource
Improved organic search visibility for an industrial packaging supplier by aligning product and category content more closely with commercial search intent.
- Drove significant organic traffic growth early in the engagement.
- Rewrote and optimized on-page content for clarity and qualified demand.
- Improved rankings for relevant queries through targeted content and metadata work.
- Strengthened product and category discoverability through site structure and keyword mapping.
#3: Lakeview Health & Stepping Stone Center for Recovery
lakeviewhealth.com | steppingstonecenter.com
As the primary SEO strategist, I led recovery work after a problematic website migration and rebuild, with limited content and vendor resources. The strategy combined technical remediation with more coherent healthcare content architecture.
- Audited redirects, 404 errors, crawl paths, indexing, and technical site health.
- Reviewed backlink quality and addressed problematic links.
- Consolidated overlapping content to reduce cannibalization and improve relevance.
- Built keyword maps, internal-linking systems, and hub-and-spoke topic architecture.
- Collaborated with developers on website performance and site structure.
- Implemented HubSpot CRM and automation to improve lead tracking and reporting.
#4: Evolve Treatment Centers
This is my clearest hands-on example of modern AI search work. I combined technical SEO and healthcare content strategy with direct GEO research, prompt monitoring, citation analysis, and attribution.
- Performed AI/GEO query research and developed prompt clusters around treatment types, admissions, care options, and location intent.
- Configured and worked directly with Profound for AI visibility, competitive brand analysis, and citation research.
- Reviewed how Evolve and competitors appeared in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity responses.
- Developed answer-focused content and question-led FAQ approaches for real parent and patient concerns.
- Implemented structured data and FAQ schema where appropriate to represent content accurately.
- Worked on AI referral source identification and attribution across analytics and CRM systems.
- Audited indexing, canonicals, redirects, XML sitemaps, legacy URLs, service hierarchy, and conversion paths.
- Evaluated expert attribution, service definitions, and source clarity for sensitive healthcare content.
#5: Dayton Children’s Hospital
Conducted UX and SEO auditing for a large healthcare website with complex relationships between clinical conditions, treatments, providers, locations, and patient resources.
- Reviewed navigation, information architecture, semantic page groupings, and provider discovery.
- Mapped page hierarchy to patient intent and clinical-service relationships.
- Identified opportunities to reduce navigation complexity and improve contextual internal links.
- Recommended improvements to directories, related content, pagination, and appointment pathways.
- Flagged content organization that could make important information easier for visitors and search systems to retrieve.
#6: PT Solutions
Developed topic clusters and service-hub strategies for orthopedic therapy, injury recovery, and rehabilitation topics, helping organize complex healthcare information around the questions patients actually ask.
- Mapped injuries, conditions, treatments, and recovery topics into service hubs and supporting pages.
- Identified gaps around ACL injuries, knee rehabilitation, shoulder conditions, spinal issues, and post-surgical recovery.
- Analyzed competitors and keyword intent to prioritize content opportunities.
- Recommended contextual internal links between symptoms, conditions, treatments, and services.
- Connected national subject-matter content to relevant geographic and service-specific demand.
#7: Above and Beyond Therapy
Supported multi-location local SEO for an applied behavior analysis provider, with emphasis on accurate business information, geographic relevance, and service findability.
- Audited Google Business Profiles, service categories, descriptions, service areas, and profile completeness.
- Reviewed consistency of location names, addresses, phone numbers, and service details.
- Developed location-specific content and GBP optimization recommendations.
- Reviewed local landing pages, FAQ opportunities, and applicable structured-data opportunities.
- Evaluated UTM tracking, appointment links, reviews, and local search measurement.
#8: Asthma & Allergy Specialists
Developed on-page recommendations to strengthen the discoverability and clarity of healthcare service, provider, and location content.
- Audited page titles, H1 headings, descriptions, and search intent across key pages.
- Recommended metadata and content improvements for asthma, allergy testing, immunotherapy, and related conditions.
- Strengthened page-topic clarity and location/provider consistency.
- Identified ways to connect useful patient education resources with relevant services.
#9: Advanced ENT & Allergy
Conducted healthcare content auditing and topic planning focused on allergy symptoms, diagnostics, treatments, and patient education.
- Analyzed existing content, keyword intent, competitive coverage, and missing subject areas.
- Organized topic clusters around testing, immunotherapy, medications, symptoms, and treatment decisions.
- Developed recommendations for content briefs, titles, headings, FAQs, and internal links.
- Prioritized common patient questions and clear explanations of treatment options.
SEO & GEO Agency Red Flags
The arrival of AI search has created new opportunities and a new wave of vague promises. Whether you are hiring for SEO, AEO, or GEO, a credible partner should be able to explain what was changed, why it matters, how it will be tested, and what the data can actually prove.
Questions worth asking
- Guaranteed AI recommendations: no consultant can guarantee inclusion in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or AI overviews.
- Vanity visibility scores: a dashboard metric without a defined prompt set, baseline, or business outcome is incomplete.
- Mass-produced AI pages: publication volume is not evidence of usefulness, accuracy, or expertise.
- “Secret” LLM tricks: unsupported claims about special tags, files, or ranking signals deserve scrutiny.
- Schema as a magic fix: structured data clarifies content but does not guarantee citations or answer placement.
- Missing technical audits: unresolved indexing, duplicate content, or rendering issues undermine the basics.
- Weak attribution: AI referral traffic and assisted conversions need careful interpretation, not invented certainty.
- No human review: healthcare and other sensitive content require reliable sources and editorial responsibility.
SEO, SEM & AI Search
Organic search, paid search, and AI-mediated discovery are not identical channels. They serve overlapping audiences, influence each other, and require different approaches to attribution.
Paid search: fast feedback
PPC can test messaging, capture high-intent traffic quickly, and show which landing pages or offers convert. Paid results still depend on budget, auction dynamics, and campaign configuration.
Organic search: durable relevance
SEO invests in accessible pages, useful content, links, and sound site architecture. It can build durable demand capture, although performance is never guaranteed and algorithms evolve.
AI visibility: another discovery path
AI-generated responses can summarize information and mention or cite brands without generating a click. I evaluate representative prompts, brand presence, citation sources, and attributable sessions instead of treating every mention as a lead.
How I connect the data
- Use paid search data to learn which queries, problems, and landing pages convert.
- Build organic content around demonstrated demand and unmet information needs.
- Evaluate whether that content is represented accurately in AI-assisted answers.
- Use GA4, GTM, Search Console, and CRM data to understand traffic and meaningful actions.
- Report results with clear attribution assumptions, including the visibility that cannot be measured precisely.
AI Search: SEO, GEO & AEO
I do not see GEO and AEO as replacements for SEO. They extend the work into new interfaces where search results may be summarized, synthesized, or cited by AI systems. Search evolved through machine-learning-driven relevance and semantic understanding long before consumer chatbots became mainstream; today, those foundations meet large language models and answer-driven discovery.
What the terms mean in practice
- SEO: help relevant, useful content be discovered, indexed, understood, and surfaced in conventional search.
- AEO: organize reliable information so it directly addresses questions and can be understood in answer-oriented experiences.
- GEO: evaluate and improve how a brand, entity, or source is represented in generative AI responses and citations.
What I work on directly
- Prompt and query mapping: representative question sets grouped by intent, service, location, and buying stage.
- Profound and AI visibility analysis: brand appearances, competitor presence, answer patterns, and citation sources.
- Content and entity clarity: consistent names, services, provider relationships, authorship, and credible supporting details.
- Structured content: direct answers, helpful explanations, headings, internal links, and appropriate schema.
- Technical fundamentals: indexability, crawlability, rendering, canonicalization, and clean site architecture.
- Measurement: AI referral sources, GA4/GTM events, CRM attribution, conversions, and traditional organic metrics.
- Responsible AI workflows: research and drafting assistance with human verification, editorial review, and privacy considerations.
How I define progress
I start with a documented set of prompts and source observations, compare changes over time, and connect what can be measured to business outcomes. AI answers vary across systems and sessions, so a visibility chart is evidence to interpret, not a promise of permanent placement. Some AI-influenced awareness will not produce directly attributable website traffic.
Ready to Improve Your Search & AI Visibility?
Search is evolving, and your strategy should evolve with it. Whether your organization needs a technical SEO audit, a GEO/AEO strategy, AI visibility research, or an experienced consultant to support an internal marketing team, I can help identify opportunities and turn them into practical recommendations and implementation. My approach combines nearly 15 years of search marketing experience with hands-on work in modern AI search technology.
How I Typically Help
- Technical SEO: Comprehensive audits, indexing, crawlability, structured data, site architecture, migrations, and technical troubleshooting.
- GEO & AEO: Generative search strategies, conversational query research, prompt mapping, answer-focused content, and AI visibility improvement.
- AI Visibility Analysis: Profound research, competitive analysis, brand mentions, citation tracking, and source evaluation.
- Content Strategy: Search intent, topical authority, service hubs, internal linking, content optimization, and semantic relationships.
- Local SEO: Google Business Profile optimization, local visibility, service-area strategies, and location-specific content.
- Analytics & Attribution: Google Tag Manager, GA4 events and conversions, Search Console, AI referral analysis, and reporting.
- Consulting & Training: Search strategy development, implementation roadmaps, SOPs, team collaboration, and ongoing technical guidance.
Who I Work Best With
I work with organizations that value technical expertise, clear communication, and measurable outcomes. Some engagements involve a defined project, such as a technical audit or a website migration. Others involve ongoing consulting, developing search strategies, or working as an embedded specialist alongside an established marketing team. I’m not a high-volume agency, and I don’t rely on generic monthly deliverables. I prefer to understand what is actually holding performance back, prioritize the most meaningful opportunities, and help implement solutions.
Getting Started
If you’re interested in working together, use the form below to tell me about your business, website, and goals.
Whether you’re concerned about declining organic traffic, struggling to understand your AI search visibility, or trying to develop a more sophisticated SEO/GEO strategy, I’m happy to discuss what may be possible. If you have access to Google Search Console, GA4, or an AI visibility platform, mentioning that information can help make our initial conversation more productive.
I personally review inquiries and will let you know whether your project aligns with my expertise.
I’ve worked in search engine optimization since 2012, long before generative AI became part of the everyday marketing conversation. Over that time, I’ve experienced the evolution of search from keyword-focused algorithms to machine learning, semantic understanding, natural language processing, and now AI-generated answers. Today, search visibility extends beyond traditional Google rankings. Consumers are discovering businesses ... Read more