The rush to GEO is understandable. But here's what gets missed in the scramble

According to Gartner, only 34% of companies have trained their teams in GEO. Yet according to eMarketer, 94% of digital marketers plan to increase their GEO spend in 2026.

That gap tells you everything about the moment we're in. The AI rush is real but the understanding hasn't kept pace. In the scramble not to be left behind, the foundational steps that determine whether GEO actually works at all are being skipped.

The result is significant investment in a discipline that can't deliver its full potential until something more fundamental is addressed.

Marketing and comms teams are watching budgets flow into GEO without a clear picture of what it can't do.

And what it can't do is fix your foundations.

What GEO actually is and isn't

GEO is a valuable and fast growing discipline and the instinct to invest in it is understandable. US data from Search Engine Land suggests LLM referral traffic tripled across 2025, and converts at around 18%, higher than paid search or SEO. In addition, Gartner expects traditional search volume to drop 25% this year. So the commercial case for being visible in AI search is undeniable.

But GEO is an amplifier. And amplifying a weak signal doesn't help your brand. In fact, it does the opposite and broadcasts problems more loudly. The brands rushing into GEO right now without fixing their foundations aren't gaining an advantage. They're optimising for a destination they haven't yet reached.

How LLMs actually form a picture of your brand

This is the part many brands are understandably turning to GEO partners to solve for them.

LLMs don't just count mentions. They synthesise everything they've ever read about a brand to form a coherent picture. When someone asks ChatGPT to explain what your company does, compare you to a competitor, or recommend a provider in your space, the model draws on that picture to form a recommendation.

If your brand is saying different things in different places - even something as small as inconsistent capitalisation in your brand name or strapline - the model can't form a coherent picture. It either produces a vague, generic description that could apply to any competitor, or fills the gap with a competitor's clearer, more consistent messaging.

Think about how we form an impression of someone we know very little about. Without enough consistent information to draw on, we fall back on what others are saying. LLMs work the same way. If the content they've read about your brand is inconsistent or sparse, they can't form a confident picture so they either produce something vague, or repeat what your better-defined competitors are saying instead.

Consistent brands get cited specifically and accurately. Inconsistent brands get replaced.

The proof is already there

One example of this is an airline which had several variations of its brand name across its digital properties. Different subsidiaries, different markets, different teams. The kind of inconsistency that accumulates over years without anyone noticing. Once they standardised their brand name and added organisation schema to reflect that consistency, their AI citation rate jumped 35% within weeks. 

This demonstrates what's actually driving AI visibility for most brands. Fix the foundations first. Then use GEO to amplify a signal that's already clear and consistent. That's the sequence that works.

The question to ask before you spend

Before any CMO commits budget to GEO, there's a more fundamental question worth asking. What does ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini say about your brand?

Does it clearly describe your positioning, tone, and differentiators? Or is it vague and something that could apply to your competitors? Worse still, is it not citing you at all?

If it's not telling your brand story, the problem isn't that you haven't done enough GEO. It's that the content LLMs have read about your brand isn't consistent enough to form a clear picture.

Fix this, then amplify from a position of strength.

This isn't about cutting your GEO investment. It's about making sure it has something solid to build on.

Move now or you won't catch up

The brands building sustainable AI visibility aren't necessarily spending the most on GEO. They're the ones making sure every piece of content, every press release, every product page, every thought leadership piece, and every social post is telling the same story, in the same language, with the same brand positioning.

Here's the compounding effect - every accurate citation increases the probability of the next one. Every consistent signal makes the model's picture of your brand clearer and more citable. The brands getting this right now are building a moat that gets exponentially harder for competitors to cross.

That's the real urgency. Not whether to invest in GEO - but where to start. Every month you delay fixing your foundations is another month your competitors are compounding their advantage.

GEO on top of inconsistent content doesn't build your brand - it burns your budget.

OnBrand helps brands fix the foundations, ensuring every piece of content is consistent, on-brand, and ready to be cited. Visit fullyonbrand.co.uk.