CORE
January 2026
Search has a new partner in crime. Generative AI.
Tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews are changing how buyers discover, compare, and shortlist vendors. More and more, those early decisions are happening inside an AI response rather than a traditional search engine.
This shift is pushing a new discipline into the spotlight: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). GEO is the practice of structuring and positioning content so AI can accurately interpret your brand and confidently surface it in relevant answers.
And while traditional SEO isn’t going anywhere, the playbook is expanding. Marketers now need to structure and position content for two audiences at once: humans and machines.
That was the focus of Arketi’s recent webinar, hosted by Charles Askew, Executive Interactive Director, who unpacked what GEO means for B2B brands and shared practical steps to keep pace with this evolving trend.
Is your site built for the age of AI? Are potential customers bouncing because they can’t find what they need quickly and clearly? Reach out for a complimentary assessment to gauge how your website stacks up against today’s B2B website best practices and industry benchmarks.
Your website remains your digital storefront – building trust, guiding buyer journeys, and supporting prospects through nearly 70% of the B2B sales cycle before any direct engagement even occurs. Today, it also serves as a critical training ground for AI models, which analyze your content, structure, and digital signals to determine your brand’s credibility and authority.
So, how can marketers get a competitive edge? Askew condensed Arketi’s recent experiments with GEO into seven actionable steps for optimizing your digital presence for AI-driven search.
A logical heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3) and question-based subheads (for example, “How long does implementation take?”) make your content easier for AI to understand, categorize, and surface.
For example, here’s how we evolved the introduction on Arketi’s own webpage describing our Brand offering. We’ve added the HTML for emphasis:
<h1>B2B Brand Identity</h1>
<h2>What does it take to build a B2B brand that drives recognition and revenue?</h2>
<p>Design can be subjective, but at Arketi, we believe branding decisions should never rely on personal preference. Instead, our focus is always on communicating your message with clarity and impact.</p>
In the world of B2B marketing, clear communication is essential for connecting with both buyers and the AI models that increasingly shape their journeys. When you’re crafting copy, ditch the jargon and buzzwords. Instead, aim for language that’s straightforward and approachable. Imagine you’re having a direct conversation with your audience, and answer their questions as if you’re speaking to them one-on-one.
Show what you know since AI rewards real authority. Include author bios, case studies, and testimonials. Interlink related topics to form a rich “pillar page” ecosystem so users and AI recognize you as the go-to expert.
Make sure your brand shows up wherever your buyers (and AI) might look. Stay consistent across LinkedIn, Google, Crunchbase, and all those industry directories because this helps AI connect the dots and put you in the right categories. Don’t forget that backlinks from trusted publications still count – for both SEO and GEO.
If your content sits untouched for too long, it starts to look neglected – not just to buyers, but to AI, too. In fact, 83% of commercial pages cited by AI have been updated in the past year.
Make it a habit to regularly add new examples, tweak your copy, and update timestamps. A little attention goes a long way in showing people and AI that your site is active and up to date.
Generative AI is still the Wild West, so don’t wait for someone else to write the rulebook. Test, learn, and adjust as you go. One approach we’re exploring is publishing AI-friendly FAQs and glossaries that answer common industry questions in clear, structured language.
And while it may sound like the Matrix, we’re also experimenting with machine-readable pages designed specifically for AI platforms – content that most people will never visit directly, but that can improve how brands show up in AI-generated answers.
Performance still matters. Keep your site fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to crawl with a clean sitemap and intuitive navigation. SEO and GEO work best together, and strong technical fundamentals help both people and AI find what they need.
In a sea of competition, it’s difficult to know whether your brand’s message is breaking through – or if it even sets your team up for success. Arketi’s proven SCORE process helps us develop sound messaging that showcases our clients’ true differentiators, and it’s now available online. If you’ve got just seven minutes, take the quiz for instant insights!
With all this in mind, here is a simple three-phase roadmap to get you started:
Today: Run a Google Lighthouse audit to identify performance and technical fixes. Then do a quick “AI perception check” by prompting ChatGPT or Copilot with your company name and core offerings to see how these tools currently describe you.
Next month: Review content and identify your highest-performing webpages. Refresh those pages with clear headings, current proof points, and up-to-date information so both buyers and AI engines get a confident, accurate read on your expertise.
This year: Level up your foundation by adding schema markups, improving your XML sitemap, and verifying indexing in Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing plays an outsized role in AI-driven discovery experiences, especially across Microsoft’s ecosystem, so this step is key
Content remains king. But in today’s world, context is queen – and together they rule.
Put simply, if you’re a B2B marketer who can blend great content with clear structure, a steady rhythm, and genuine expertise, you won’t just show up in search results. You’ll stand out in this new world of AI-powered discovery.
Written by Charles Askew, Executive Interactive Director, Arketi Group
Bio: Charles Askew is Executive Interactive Director of Arketi Group, an integrated marketplace and workplace communications firm serving B2B technology companies. Askew has been with Arketi for more than two decades and plays a lead role in developing websites, digital tools, videos, animation, and more. He has extensive experience working in HTMLS, CSS3, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, and numerous content management systems.
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