Welcome to the new era of search—one where AI doesn’t just rank links, it writes the answer.

In this episode, Gail Goole and Guy Goole decode what’s happening behind the scenes of Google’s AI Mode and why traditional SEO tactics are no longer enough. We’re diving into the evolution of search, the rise of AI-Generated Responses, and the new rules of visibility in a world where ranking number one isn’t the goal. Being chosen is.

We cover:

• What Google’s AI Mode actually does when a user asks a question.
• Why search results are now being synthesized, not just listed.
• The critical shift from keyword-based ranking to entity-based understanding.
• How brands get selected (or ignored) by AI Assistive Engines in zero-click environments.
• What “Generative Engine Optimization” really means, and how it builds on concepts like Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
• The three factors that determine whether AI uses your brand in its answers: Understandability, Credibility, and Deliverability.
• The new role of your website’s About page as your “Entity Home”.
• Why your brand’s Digital Brand Echo needs structure, corroboration, and consistency across all platforms.
• How CMOs, SEOs, founders, and marketing leads can adapt fast, before their competitors outpace them.

This is not just another SEO trend. This is a fundamental reset in how search works and how business visibility is earned.

Who this episode is for:

• Business leaders who want to future-proof their brand visibility.
• CMOs and SEO leads navigating AI-driven search.
• Brand strategists working to stay ahead of Google’s next move.
• Founders and authors building personal or corporate digital authority.
• Marketing teams trying to figure out what actually matters now in their organic digital strategy.

Big Takeaways: It’s no longer about “ranking”—it’s about being trusted and used by the AI that writes the answers. AI Assistive Engines like Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, and Perplexity choose which brands to feature, and which to ignore, based on their confidence in a brand’s narrative. Brands that win are the ones that are clear, credible, and consistently represented across the web.

Listener quote (you’ll relate): “If the machine doesn’t understand who you are, it can’t trust you. And if it doesn’t trust you, it will never recommend you. Whether you’re a brand, a person, or a product, what Google and AI say about you when you’re not in the room is your new reality.”

Concepts we decode in this episode:

• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
• AI Assistive Engines
• Entity Home
• The Kalicube Process
• Digital Brand Echo
• Understandability, Credibility, Deliverability (UCD)

Resources mentioned:

• The Kalicube Process for Personal Brands: The DIY Guide
• Entity Home and schema markup
• The “Claim, Frame, Prove” method for brand storytelling
• N.E.E.A.T.T. (Notability, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust, Transparency)

Sponsored by: Three Steps Digital Brand Management—helping you take control of your digital footprint and turn your brand into a trusted, high-performance asset across Google, ChatGPT, and AI.

Subscribe and stay ahead. If you’re serious about being visible in the next generation of search, you won’t want to miss this. Hit follow, share with your team, and join us as we decode what it takes to win in AI-powered search.

Transcript from Generative Engine Optimization in the Age of Google’s AI Mode: How to Rank, Get Picked, and Stay Visible in AI Search When Traditional SEO Isn’t Enough Anymore

[0:00] Gail Goole here, and you are listening to Generative Engine Optimization in the AI Era, Decoding SEO 2.0. And I’m Guy Goole. Welcome. Welcome to the show, proudly sponsored by Three Steps Digital Brand Management. Now, Guy, let’s dive right in and decode. Let’s do it. You know, Gail, for a little while there, I think a lot of us in the search world felt a bit, well, a bit shaky when AI really started taking off. Like, are all SEO tricks suddenly useless? Oh, absolutely. There was definitely that collective uh-oh, what now moment wasn’t there. But, you know, what’s becoming clearer and what our sources really highlight is that Google’s AI mode, it hasn’t killed SEO.

[0:40] Not at all. It’s actually, well, it’s redefined it. Right. It’s not the end. It feels more like the start of something new, as you pointed out. As you said, the goal isn’t just about hitting that number one spot anymore, is it? Exactly. It’s fundamentally shifted. It’s now about ensuring your brand, your content, your well, your entity is really understood that it’s trusted and ultimately that it gets used and cited and recommended by these these AI reasoning engines. The ones driving the search results now. Yeah. And so much more. So understanding how this AI mode actually works is like step one, right? When you put in a query, especially a complex one, it’s not just spitting back 10 blue links. No, it gets way smarter. The sources say it breaks down the question, pulls together maybe dozens, sometimes even hundreds of relevant bits of text from all over. And then this is the key part, Guy. It actually analyzes all that, synthesizes it and creates a whole new AI written narrative to answer you directly. With citations. Yeah. It points back to the sources it found strong and trustworthy. Precisely. So, yeah, being visible still matters. But why you’re visible and how you get chosen. Totally different game. You need to be in that inner circle, that cohort of trusted sources the AI relies on. Which neatly brings us to generative engine optimization, GEO.

[1:57] That’s the term floating around. It is. And it’s really the art and science, isn’t it, of optimizing your whole brand presence specifically so these AI systems, search assistance, recommendation engines pick you. And, you know, this idea didn’t just appear out of thin air. It builds on earlier concepts.

[2:13] Jason Barnard was talking about answer engine optimization, AEO, way back. Trying to get into those direct answer boxes. Right. Back in 2017, GEO is kind of the evolution of that, acknowledging how much bigger and, well, more integrated AI has become in everything. And the sources are really clear, Gail. This isn’t just putting a new label on old SEO. It’s a fundamental shift. You’re not just optimizing for search engines anymore. No, you’re optimizing for what some are calling the algorithmic trinity.

[2:41] So yeah, search engines are still there, but now you’ve got large language models and knowledge graphs in the mix too. They all talk to each other. They all influence that final AI output. And this isn’t just theory, which is great. It’s practical. Work from folks like Kalicube, for instance, lays out like a whole roadmap, 13 points rooted in these AEO ideas, actionable stuff. It really is. So let’s just pause and remind everyone what we’re decoding here. Generative search optimization in the AI era, decoding SEO 2.0. Okay. So Guy, if the goal is to be understood and used by these synthesizing machines, how do we actually optimize for that? What does it look like on the ground? Well, it really boils down to building trust, I think. Yeah. And making sure the machine can actually understand what your brand is about, why it’s relevant. It’s about clarity. Yeah, aligning your digital footprint with structured knowledge, making it semantically clear, contextually relevant. So the machine gets who you are, what you do, and crucially, why you’re credible on a topic. Which means thinking way beyond just keywords on a single page. Oh, definitely. You need to elevate your content’s credibility by clearly signaling who’s behind it, the person, the company.

[3:53] Mastering entity optimization is key here for the people, the products, the corporation itself. And part of that is establishing your entity home. Like the one authoritative place online the machine learns to trust to understand who you really are. Could be your About Us page if it’s really well structured with schema, maybe a verified profile somewhere important. But it needs to be super clear, super consistent. Which kind of bumps the old obsession with just link building down the priority list a bit, doesn’t it? Links still matter, obviously, but the focus gets much broader. It’s all about N-E-A-T-T now. Ah, yes. N-E-A-T-T. Say it with me, guy. Notability, experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness, and… Transparency. Phew. It’s a mouthful, but each part is crucial. How does a machine know you have experience? Well, it looks for proof across different sites, reviews, mentions. How does it see transparency? Clear contact info, consistent data about who you are. Signals we have to actively build and manage across our entire digital presence. And the medians, they seem to use three main pillars to decide who gets included in their answers.

[4:59] Understandability, credibility, and deliverability. Right. Can the machine understand you? Does it find you credible? And can it actually deliver your information effectively in its answer? That builds what the sources call algorithmic confidence. Algorithmic confidence. I like that. And you build it through clarity, making things unambiguous, maybe using STEAMA markup through corroboration. Meaning independent sources backing up your claims. And through consistency everywhere online, there’s even a neat little framework mentioned.

[5:26] Claim, frame, prove, make your claim, put it in context, then show the proof across the web. Which all leads directly to this idea of zero-click reputation. This is so important now, Gail. It really is. Because with AI mode giving answers directly on the results page, people might not even click through to your site. So how your brand appears or doesn’t appear in that AI answer, that is your reputation for many users. Totally. Because look, in this AI world, if the machine doesn’t get your entity, doesn’t understand who you are, well, you basically don’t exist to it for that query. And if it doesn’t trust you, it won’t use your information. Simple as that. And if it doesn’t choose you because maybe your competitor has done the work to build that understanding and trust, well, they win that moment. Even if it’s a zero-click win, they got the visibility. So for you listening, maybe you’re a CMO, a CEO, an SEO lead trying to navigate this. The big takeaway is, well, your whole digital footprint needs structure by design. Machines need to post it easily. It needs to be backed up, corroborated across trusted places online to build that all-important credibility. And it has to be contextually spot on for the questions people are actually asking the AI. That’s how you get chosen, cited and recommended in this new era. We dived, decoded and deciphered SEO 2.0 today. Oh, thanks again to our sponsor, Three Steps Digital Brand Management. And thank you for listening. See you next time for another new and necessary nugget of knowledge.