An earlier version of this post used the term large language model optimization (LLMO), but we are shifting to the term generative engine optimization (GEO)—it’s a broader term and seems to be better understood in the market.

The missteps and hysterical hallucinations in the early days of generative AI are still seared into many people’s minds, but the truth is that large language models (LLMs)—ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity—are learning and improving every day. 

Where are they learning from? What is the content they train on? In addition to being trained on massive datasets of code and text, LLMs are trained on web content. And like all of us, LLMs have their favorite websites. The more we understand about the websites the LLMs favor, the smarter we can be about figuring out which websites we want our firms to be featured on and, going a layer deeper, what topics to cover to get onto those websites. 

A report from Muck Rack begins to point us in the right direction. They analyzed more than 1 million AI responses to see where LLMs are sourcing their information. The headlines:

• Most of what the LLMs consume about your firm happens away from your website
• Media placements carry extra weight and credibility with LLMs
• New content beats out older content for GEO visibility
• You must pay attention to your website content; it still matters—but actual traffic is declining

AI follows the crowd, more so than your website; LLMs need more info than what you say on your website to confirm what is accurate. That means they determine your brand’s relevance and credibility differently from search engines. They don’t “crawl and rank”—they infer credibility based on:

• How entities (brands, people, products) are mentioned
• Whether sources are cited by trusted domains, and how many domains are cited
• Recency, clarity and semantic context

According to the report, only 11% of links cited by AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude—they didn’t look at Perplexity, presumably because it is more of an “answer engine” as opposed to true generative AI) are “owned media”—i.e., your website.

More than 89% of AI citations are from earned media—meaning journalistic media outlets, first and foremost, but also government sites, academic sites and encyclopedic sites. News media is by far the most influential in this group—27% of links cited by LLMs are “journalistic.”

Media relations drives GEO

Trade press advertising has been a staple of professional services firms’ marketing for decades, but it might not work as well in the GEO era—more than 95% of links cited are from non-paid media. 

That’s different from Google, too, where it’s well-established that buying Google ads aids your search ranking. With GEO, you can’t buy your way to credibility.

With 27% of LLM citations being from journalistic media, your firm needs to be earning media coverage. For professional services firms especially, this requires a smart point of view on your industry and a willingness to share it through a thought leadership program—the media loves professionals with a unique POV that separates them from the sheep-following pack.

Going deeper into the Muck Rack study, only 15% of media sources appear across multiple industries. This means that, yes, they are pulling from the big media companies we’ve all heard of and want to have our companies featured in, but 85% of LLM citations are pulled from single-industry media, i.e., vertical trade press. Blanketing the vertical press in your space with smart thought leadership and other quotes and mentions is a smart PR strategy in 2025.

PR takes time to ramp up, and momentum builds over time. But for decades, research has shown that it is the best and most cost-effective way to raise brand awareness and build trust. As we enter this new era, that will be more true than ever before.

LLMs prefer new content over old

LLMs heavily favor fresh content, especially when it comes from journalistic media. There’s some logic to this—think about your own news consumption: You probably didn’t read a news article on a topic 12 months ago and then never read about it again. One of the foundational tenets of the news media is that things evolve and need to be updated. Likewise, the LLMs are looking for the latest and greatest: In Muck Rack’s study, 56% of ChatGPT’s journalistic citations were from the previous 12 months, compared to 36% for Claude.

In other words, you can’t rest on your laurels. If your content is older than 12 months, it’s becoming invisible. This means that your media relations efforts can’t be a crash diet; this is a lifestyle change. So, no more “six-month PR pushes”—say yes to a never-ending approach that will make your firm happier and healthier.  

GEO requires that you update and reformat your website content

One caveat for this moment in time—our own observations at Scribewise show that, in professional services, you can still impact how your company shows up in LLMs through your own website and social media channels. 

It starts with understanding how the LLMs consume content. They’re all a bit different, but the basic tenet is to format content so it’s easy to read—think FAQs, listicles (yeah, I know—yuck) and wiki-style pages. LLMs don’t read complete webpages; they focus on pieces of the pages, so you need to make each section of a page a complete, coherent thought.

Optimizing your website for LLMs is not a set-it-and-forget-it approach. You have to constantly update your content. Regular content updates to your website have always been good website hygiene, and that is even truer in the AI era. Smart firms will implement an “GEO content refresh” strategy—updating owned content regularly to stay in the AI conversation.

LLMs create a more human experience

Paradoxically, the robots are creating a more human experience than search engines ever did. Google’s core purpose has always been to “organize the world’s information.” AI’s purpose is to give you answers to the questions you have. 

It’s not a small difference, and it means that people will continue to turn to AI to search for answers. LLMs are proving to be better at surfacing higher-quality information than search engines ever have. This is better for the user, and better for your firm … as long as you’re the one providing high-quality answers.