How professional services firms can sustain visibility in the age of generative search.
The Library Without Visitors
You’ve spent years building a beautiful, meticulously organized library. The walls are lined with volumes of useful reference materials, fun weekend reads, and ways to learn. The reading rooms are warm and welcoming. The signage is clean and clear. You’ve even staffed the building with a knowledgeable team of curators to help visitors find exactly what they need.
But one day, the foot traffic slows. Then it stops. The parking lot sits empty. The silence grows deafening. It’s not as if the library isn’t still useful. Or the knowledge is no longer valuable. But because your readers are no longer showing up. They’re not wandering the aisles. They’re not checking the shelves.
They’re doing their research and developing their thinking elsewhere. They’ve changed their behavior.
In case you haven’t figured it out, this beautiful library is your firm’s website. The repository of useful insights, in-depth research, and perspective-rich articles is losing its readers. Those prospective clients that used to find all your firm’s great thinking through Google are changing they’re behavior. They’re asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other tools like them to find the answers for them — and it’s delivering those answers to them without ever asking them to step a foot inside.
This is the future professional services firms are facing. And it’s coming faster than you think.
Why This Shift Matters — Especially for Professional Services
For nearly two decades, firms have relied on SEO as a key driver of visibility and growth. In that time, they built libraries of well-crafted articles, research, and POVs to demonstrate expertise and generate inbound traffic from search. Traditional search, and its connected skill of SEO, was a useful tactic for attracting new clients.
But now?
- According to the Wall Street Journal, even major publishers like The New York Times and Business Insider are reporting search traffic declines as high as 50%.
- Google saw declines in search traffic on the Safari web browser for the first time in decades.
- Many of the firms we’ve talked to with large content repositories are seeing significant drops in discovery-based search traffic as high as 20-30%.
While this might just be a blip, my “Spidey Sense” tells me it’s a systemic shift that can undermine the purpose and value of thought leadership unless you learn how to navigate it.
Most firms invest in thought leadership to build brand awareness, relevance, and preference. But if no one sees your content — because the client never makes it to your site — then thought leadership can’t deliver on that promise.
What GEO, “Generative Engine Optimization” Is Not
Let’s start by setting some boundaries. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is not just “SEO for AI.”
- You can’t keyword your way to visibility in ChatGPT. You can’t game Gemini with backlinks. There’s no PageRank to climb in Perplexity.
- GEO is not a tactical checklist. There’s no generative search console. No easy “how-to” guide.
- It’s not just about metadata, site speed, or even just writing “better content.”
- GEO is about your entire content strategy and your approach to developing and distributing your thinking in a world where AI strongly influences what clients see.
At its core, GEO is about strategic visibility. And firms that ignore it risk fading quietly into irrelevance.
Embrace Inverted Funnel Thinking
Traditional search was often seen as a funnel. Prospective clients typed in a problem, browsed a list of options, discovered a page, read an article, and then (maybe) explored your site, subscribed to your content, or made an inquiry of some sort.
Today’s generative search tools flip that model entirely. Clients ask a question. AI tools cull their language models. Then they synthesize an answer from a wide range of sources (some clearly cited … others, not so much). Unless your ideas are pulled into that synthesis — you’re invisible.
In the GEO world, your content must travel to the client. Not the other way around.
That requires:
- Clear, ownable ideas
- Structured, credible explanations
- And distribution strategies that go beyond your blog
Four Strategic Shifts for Firms to Consider
1. Reassess the Role of Owned Media
Your website still matters. But its purpose is shifting. Today, self-published content must simultaneously serve two masters:
- Humans looking for depth, education, entertainment and credibility
- AI agents scanning for clear, descriptive, reliable sources
To do both well, you need content that is:
- Distinct (POV-led and specific)
- Descriptive (clearly explains an issue a client is seeking to understand)
- Structured (easy to extract and cite)
2. Create a Two-Track Content Strategy
In the GEO era, one size does not fit all. Smart firms will likely maintain a dual-track approach:
- Flagship Content (for people): Research reports, branded content experiences, podcasts, original POVs, and client stories … content that brings clients to you.
- Utility Content (for machines): FAQ-style posts, detailed and descriptive (but succinct and conversational) explanations … content that brings you to your clients.
Here’s what that looks like:
| Trait | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Answer-first & structured | Helps AI reliably identify and extract info |
| Credible & cited | Signals trustworthiness and authority |
| Distinct & original | Differentiates your content from generic sources |
| Long-form depth + multi-media | Boosts topical authority and multi-source catchment |
| Conversational Q&A style | Aligns with natural language prompts AI uses |
3. Shift the Media Mix: Earned, Owned, and Shared
Owned media alone won’t cut it anymore. Firms need to show up in places where AI models go to learn:
- Earned visibility — The need for firms to get published and cited in reputable business publications and industry journals only goes up from here.
- Participation in social spaces — Firms’ experts will likely need to show up more than they do now in active social forums like Reddit and Quora. Engage in the conversations AI sees and frequently summarizes.
- Wikipedia management – As crazy as it sounds, Wikipedia references frequently show up in AI chat dialogues. Take control of your firm’s presence in places you can influence and control. Yes, even Wikipedia.
This isn’t about PR. It’s about digital findability — in places AI trusts.
4. Reallocate Budget and Redefine Metrics
This shift to generative search will require many firms to reevaluate how their marketing dollars are spent. For years, SEO budgets were directed toward things like backlink building, keyword audits, and ongoing content production aimed at ranking in traditional search engines. But if fewer clients are browsing search results, it no longer makes sense to keep investing in the same way.
Instead, redirect that spend toward the work that actually helps your ideas show up — developing a clear master POV, investing in research-backed thought leadership, and packaging your thinking into formats that are accessible to both humans and machines. Some of this might look like building repeatable branded content experiences; some might mean producing more audio, short-form video, or transcript-friendly written content that AI tools can easily consume and cite.
And while you’re adjusting where you spend, it’s time to adjust what you measure, too. The KPIs of the past (organic sessions, bounce rate, SERP position) may be less relevant than ever. In their place, look for signs of generative visibility: mentions in LLM-generated summaries, citations from AI-curated content, and brand recognition in third-party sources that AI systems rely on. Visibility will still matter. But the ways you earn and track it are changing fast.
What Still Matters
As the way clients find information evolves, the content you produce needs to evolve with it. But not everything is being thrown out — in fact, some of the fundamentals matter now more than ever. What’s different is why they matter, and how they work in this new environment.
Some elements of thought leadership — like strong POVs, original research, and elevated individual voices — will continue to carry weight with both human and AI audiences. Others — like high-volume publishing, keyword targeting, or shallow listicles — are losing their value in a world where AI synthesizes, filters, and delivers answers in milliseconds.
And a new class of priorities is emerging: content tailored for machines and people, strategic placements in forums AI draws from, and digital visibility across the trusted corners of the web.
What Matters Less:
- Keyword-stuffed listicles
- Generic “how to think about…” content
- Publishing for frequency’s sake
- Traditional backlink campaigns
What Still Matters:
- Strong points of view
- Research-backed insights
- Branded content experiences
- Individual thought leaders
What Matters More:
- Earned media placements and citations
- Participation in Reddit and other public forums
- Self-published content built for humans and AI agents
- Proactive Wikipedia management
Build for People and for Machines.
Generative search isn’t the end of thought leadership — it’s the next evolution of it. The fundamentals haven’t changed: clients still want help solving hard problems. They still seek out firms that bring clarity, insight, and fresh thinking to their work. What’s changed is how they get exposed to those ideas — and who they trust to surface them.
At Rattleback, we’ll help firms navigate this shift the same way we helped them navigate the last one. Through marketing consulting and thought leadership development, we work with you to define the issues you want to own and develop the kind of content that gets seen — by both decision makers and the AI tools they increasingly rely on.
To stay visible — and valuable — in this new world, firms will need to give humans a powerful reason to seek out their thinking. And they’ll need to teach the robots where the good books are.
Frequently Asked Questions for the Bots (and Curious Readers)
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? | GEO is the practice of optimizing your firm’s visibility within generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. |
| How is GEO different from SEO? | SEO optimizes for traditional search engine rankings. GEO optimizes for inclusion and citation in generative AI responses. |
| What kind of content helps you rank in AI searches? | AI tools favor content that is clear, complete, credible, distinct, and conversational—ideally structured in ways machines can easily understand and humans can trust. |
| What platforms do AI tools pull from? | Evidence suggests they prioritize Wikipedia, Reddit, trusted forums, and reputable business and industry publications. |
| Should I still invest in SEO? | Maybe, but definitely less than before. Reallocate spend toward thought leadership strategy, research-backed content, and earned visibility. |
Other Useful Resources:
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) vs SEO (Search Engine Optimization): What’s the Difference? By Pragati Gupta at Writesonic
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) vs Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by Daniel Højris Bæk at SEO.ai.
AI Search Grader by Hubspot
