GEO Services Mirror Traditional SEO, Limit Traffic

Industry experts told Digiday that generative engine optimization (GEO) largely repackages fundamental SEO practices, though retrieval architectures like query fan-out and retrieval-augmented generation introduce new technical requirements. Experts including Jeremy Moser, Lily Ray and Michael King say GEO often functions as a branding channel rather than a referral traffic source, with Similarweb data showing under 1 percent referral traffic from AI platforms for major publishers.