TL;DR: The debate between traditional SEO and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a false choice. We took Mercury to the top of all modern search formats by following a disciplined 80/20 rule: 80% of our effort focused on mastering the fundamentals of traditional SEO, and 20% was dedicated to future-proofing our brand and technical stack for AI. This is the playbook that builds a resilient, authoritative brand for the new era of search.
The SEO world is buzzing with a new, complicated question: with the rise of AI, how much should we invest in this new thing called "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO)? It's a valid concern, especially when the stakeholders writing the checks are skeptical of chasing the latest trend.
James here, CEO of Mercury Technology Solutions.
We've been at the forefront of this conversation, advising our clients on how to navigate this shift. But theory is one thing; execution is another. Today, I want to pull back the curtain and show you exactly how we've applied our own medicine—the specific, no-hype strategy we used to push our own brand to the top of traditional Google search, Google's AI Overviews, and the new AI Mode.
This is our playbook.
The Strategic Foundation: The 80/20 Rule for the AI Era
Our entire strategy is built on a single, powerful premise: traditional SEO is the foundation for success in AI search.
Modern Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini have a timeliness problem. Their core training data is static and quickly becomes outdated. To provide current answers, they use a process called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), which essentially means they "browse" the live web. And where do they look? Research shows that nearly 90% of ChatGPT's citations come from the top 20 results of a traditional search engine.
This tells us everything we need to know. If you don't have the authority to rank in traditional search, you will be invisible to AI.
This led us to our 80/20 rule for investment:
- 80% of our resources are dedicated to a flawless, best-in-class traditional SEO strategy.
- 20% of our resources are focused on future-proofing our brand and technical infrastructure to be perfectly understood by AI models.
Mastering the 80%: A Flawless Traditional SEO Foundation
This is the "spring cleaning" and deep work that many brands neglect. We made it our absolute priority.
- Technical Excellence as a Non-Negotiable: We treated our website's technical health as a product (a close collaboration between our marketing and engineering teams). This meant addressing all technical debt—removing deprecated scripts, ensuring functional JavaScript fallbacks (critical for static LLM training data), and cleaning up our XML sitemaps to be 100% to spec. We knew that every millisecond of load time and every crawl error was a barrier to both search engines and AI bots.
- Authoritative Content as Our Engine (GAIO): We moved beyond standard blog posts to create deep, authoritative "Answer Assets". Our Generative AI Optimization (GAIO) strategy focuses on publishing original research and unique strategic frameworks—content that provides true "information gain" and makes us a primary source.
Investing the 20%: Building Our Brand as an AI-Ready Entity
This is our future-proofing layer. These are the brand and technical tasks specifically designed to make our expertise unambiguously clear to machines.
- Building the 'Trust Layer' with Brand Signals (SEVO): Through our Search Everywhere Optimization (SEVO) strategy (led by our PR and comms specialists), we focused on building a consistent and authoritative brand entity. This included:
- Creating a single, consistent brand description and implementing it across all platforms.
- Building a comprehensive "About Us" page detailing our founders, mission, and expertise.
- Claiming and optimizing our Google Knowledge Panel and Google Business Profile.
- A proactive digital PR strategy to secure regular press mentions and expert quotes.
- Engineering for Machine Readability: We implemented technical optimizations specifically for AI interpretation:
- Thorough Schema Markup: While LLMs may not use schema directly, it's a critical vehicle for helping Google and Bing build their understanding of our brand as an entity. This strengthens our presence in the Knowledge Graph, which AI systems can reference.
- Creating 'Citable Summaries': On key pages, we write concise, fact-based summary paragraphs that are specifically designed to be easily parsed and lifted by an AI model for use in a generated answer.
The Results: Visibility Where It Matters
By refusing to chase the hype and instead focusing on a disciplined, integrated strategy, we achieved top visibility across all three of today's most important search formats.
- #1 in Traditional Google Search: Our foundational 80% focus on technical excellence and authoritative content secured us top rankings for our most critical commercial keywords.
- Cited in Google AI Overviews: Our "Answer Assets," structured with clear headings and summaries, are regularly pulled into Google's AI Overviews, positioning us as a trusted source.
- Recommended in Google AI Mode: Our deep "Trust Layer," built through consistent brand signals and PR, has made us an authoritative entity that Google's AI Mode recommends in its conversational answers.
Conclusion: A Unified Strategy for a New Era
The lesson is clear: it’s not about choosing between traditional SEO and GEO. It’s about recognizing that a masterful execution of traditional SEO is the price of entry to the new world of AI search. The brands that win will not be the ones that chase every new acronym, but the ones that build a resilient, integrated strategy. They will invest in a flawless foundation and then layer on the brand and data structures that make their expertise undeniable to any machine.
This isn't just theory. This is the playbook we use for ourselves and the strategy we implement for our clients to deliver measurable results. In an era where the rules of search are being rewritten, a proven, disciplined approach is the ultimate competitive advantage.
If you're ready to move beyond chasing trends and build a search strategy that performs today and is ready for tomorrow, let's talk. Contact Mercury Technology Solutions to learn how we can implement this winning playbook for your brand
