Skip to content
Optimizely Logo

Your website isn't broken. It's invisible.

If your content management system (CMS) can't speak to machines, your content won't just rank lower - it will disappear entirely from the digital conversation. 

AEO/GEO capabilities are coming to Optimizely CMS

Watch the announcement video

Your audience isn't clicking - they're copy-pasting answers from AI

The way people search has changed. We've moved beyond the ten blue links on a search result page. People aren't scrolling results, but are trusting AI to give them the full answer.

At Optimizely, we have over 9,000 customers globally, and we’re watching this shift happen in real-time across industries and regions. Human traffic is steadily declining. For many sites, sessions are dropping anywhere between 10-30% YOY.

If you haven’t seen the dip in your Google Analytics yet, brace yourself - it’s coming. And while some referral sources are still holding strong, the trend line is clear: Your website has a new job. Fewer people are browsing your site the way they used to.

If your content isn't surfaced in that answer, you're not just missing clicks. You're missing your audience.

The traffic drop you can't explain

Your traffic tanked. Your rankings didn’t. So, what changed? The clicks are still out there. They're just not reaching your site. This isn't a dip in performance. It's a shift in control.

Here's what's really going on

  • You're still showing up...but not in the answer box.

  • AI tools are skipping your site and serving up your content without credit.

  • Your content is getting scraped and summarized before anyone ever clicks.

  • CTRs are down. Conversions are down. And it's not because your content isn't working.

Search used to lead to your site.
Now it ends with an AI summary.

If you’re not part of the summary, you’re not part of the decision.

GEO vs SEO: What's the difference?

 

SEO

Search engine optimization

 

GEO

Generative engine optimization

Goal
Rank on traditional Search engine results pages (SERPs)→Appear as a trusted source in AI-generated answers (e.g. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews)
Metrics
Click through rate (CTR), keyword rankings, organic sessions→Inclusion in AI summaries, brand citations in generative responses
Optimization targets
Keywords, backlinks, metadata, page speed, UX→Structured content, brand trust signals, context clarity
Typical formats
Long-form articles, landing pages, glossary articles, videos optimized for search→Structured Q&A, entity rich content, schema markup, knowledge graphs

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) can help your brand

  • Get seen by AI

  • Get scraped with proper structure

  • Get surfaced in summaries that drive decisions

Helpful GEO signals

  • Structured content
    Schema, sections and markup built for LLMs

  • Context-rich value
    Answers that get picked up and cited

  • Trust signals
    Your brand name stays in the result, not stripped from it

How top brands are getting seen by AI

What smart digital leaders are doing, today

  1. Auditing key content assets to determine AI readiness
    Reviewing top content to ensure it's structured, focused and easily understood by AI models
  2. Rebuilding content structure with LLM-readability in mind
    Breaking down content into clear, modular sections that AI can easily summarize and reuse.
  3. Updating CMS strategy to feed the new AI discovery layer
    Adapting CMS workflows to prioritize structured content, internal linking and semantic markup for AI visibility.

Why does this matter? In the era of generative search, visibility isn't just about ranking - it's about being referenced, summarized and trusted by AI.

AI has fundamentally changed how people discover and engage with content. Our digital strategy, and how we measure success, has evolved just as quickly. We’re no longer just optimizing for clicks; we’re optimizing for visibility in the AI-driven world.
Michiel Dorjee

Michiel Dorjee

Director of Digital Experience, Optimizely

logo_white_full

So what's next?

You can’t out-hack the algorithm. But you can design for how AI thinks. Stop chasing clicks. Start owning AI. The clicks haven’t disappeared. They’ve just stopped going to websites that haven’t evolved.

See what's coming: AEO/GEO in Optimizely CMS

Watch the video