The digital search landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. Traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies—still essential—are now sharing the stage with a new player: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). This evolution, fuelled by AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews and Gemini, is changing how businesses appear (or disappear) in search results.
While SEO agency options in Australia helped businesses rise through rankings in classic search engine results pages (SERPs), GEO ensures your brand remains visible in AI-generated answers—those summarised, instant responses now appearing above the fold. For Australian businesses, this isn’t just another trend. It’s a strategic necessity.
What Is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?
Generative Engine Optimisation refers to the practice of making your content discoverable, extractable, and usable by AI-powered search models that generate direct answers to user queries.
Unlike traditional SEO—which focuses on indexing, keywords, and backlinks—GEO is about ensuring machine learning models like Gemini and Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) understand your content well enough to reference or summarise it directly. This requires structured data, topical authority, and human-readable clarity.
Put simply, it’s about making your business “AI-readable”, not just “search engine friendly.”
Generative engines don’t crawl the web in real time like traditional bots. They rely on snapshot-based training data, structured content, and semantic relevance. GEO optimises for those conditions.
Key GEO Elements:
• Entity-level clarity: Your brand, product, and service pages need to be clearly connected to key topics.
• Structured content: Use of schema, FAQs, how-to blocks, and modular paragraphs.
• Authority and experience: Real-world expertise, local relevance, and trustworthiness signals.
• Crawlability: JavaScript-heavy sites or poorly structured pages are often missed or misrepresented by AI.
In Australia, businesses in sectors like healthcare, finance, trades, and education are already being affected. AI Overviews summarise queries using trusted sources—so if you’re not part of those sources, you’re effectively invisible.
Why GEO Matters for Australian Businesses
Australia’s digital economy is tightly interwoven with Google’s ecosystem. With Google holding over 94% market share in the Australian search market (StatCounter, 2024), changes in Google’s search experience disproportionately affect Aussie brands.
In May 2024, Google began rolling out AI Overviews across Australian users, following trials in the US. This update now introduces AI-generated summaries at the top of many search results, answering questions with a combination of AI logic and quoted sources.
Here’s what that means in practical terms:
1. Traditional rankings are getting pushed down
Where once a well-ranked page might appear in the top 3 organic spots, it’s now being displaced by a blended AI answer—meaning your link may not be seen at all. This is especially true for question-based searches like:
• “What’s the best type of solar battery for Perth homes?”
• “How to choose a local NDIS provider in Melbourne?”
• “Affordable aluminium fencing options Brisbane.”
AI Overviews often display a summarised paragraph, followed by links that may not even include top-ranking traditional results.
2. Trusted content is winning the AI war
AI systems rely on training data and relevance, not just page structure. If your website lacks clear topical expertise, regular content updates, or credible citations, it won’t be referenced—no matter how slick your homepage looks.
3. Australian context matters—but only if the AI sees it
AI overviews often pull from US-centric or global sites. Unless your content is locally anchored with Australian spelling, references, pricing, and regulations, your visibility may be eclipsed by offshore competitors.
4. User trust begins and ends with visibility
In the age of instant answers, users are less likely to scroll down. Being part of the AI Overview is becoming the new Page One. GEO ensures your business isn’t left out of that conversation.
How We Do It: GEO in Practice
At Spark Growth Marketing, we integrate AI search optimisation strategies with our existing SEO agency practices to give our clients an advantage. We’ve helped businesses across Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, and regional areas improve not just their rankings—but their presence inside AI-generated results.
Here’s how we approach it.
1. Content Strategy Rebuilt for GEO
We start with a full audit to identify what search engines—and now AI models—see when they scan your site.
Then, we rebuild your content structure, ensuring:
• Each page covers one specific topic clearly and completely
• Headings and paragraphs use natural language questions and answers
• Key pages (like services, products, and locations) are semantically linked
We also include FAQs, explainer snippets, and schema markups to increase AI extractability.
2. Topical Authority Building
For GEO to work, your site must be a recognised authority on key topics. That’s why we help clients develop clusters of content that position them as reliable sources.
If you’re a Perth-based solar installer, for example, we won’t just optimise your homepage—we’ll build a web of support pages:
• “Solar rebate programs in WA”
• “How much energy do Perth households use?”
• “Comparison: lithium vs lead-acid batteries for Australian homes”
Each of these becomes a node that tells AI engines: this business knows what it’s talking about.
3. Australian-Centric Optimisation
Unlike cookie-cutter global SEO, our content is designed for Australian search intent:
• We use Australian grammar and spelling
• We reference local laws, councils, and pricing
• We link to Australian government sites, not international counterparts
This helps AI identify the location relevance of your content—crucial for appearing in Australian-based AI results.
4. AI Model Index Monitoring
Because AI engines don’t index in real time, we track model visibility over time using tools that monitor inclusion in AI answers (e.g., via SGE preview environments and third-party model trackers).
If your site disappears from AI-generated responses, we catch it early and adjust.
5. Cross-Platform Presence
AI engines sometimes quote from LinkedIn posts, Google Business Profiles, product reviews, and other non-website sources. That’s why we advise clients to maintain consistent messaging across platforms, so no matter where AI looks, it sees you.
Where AI Search Is Headed—and Why GEO Isn’t Optional
Search engines are no longer passive directories. They are answer engines, and if your business isn’t answerable, it’s ignorable.
In 2025, we expect even more integration between voice search, Gemini-style chat interfaces, and mobile results. Users will increasingly speak or type in natural, conversational prompts, and expect immediate, AI-curated summaries.
If your content isn’t GEO-optimised, you won’t be quoted. If you’re not quoted, you’re invisible.
Final Thoughts
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is not a replacement for SEO agency services in Australia—it’s the next phase of it. For Australian businesses looking to stay competitive, especially in saturated local markets, visibility inside AI-generated results is now a key driver of growth.
Whether it’s AI search optimisation in Australia, appearing in Gemini summaries, or building local authority content, we’re here to help you adapt—and thrive.
