Why You Still Need SEO: How Generative Engine Optimization Works

Your customers are no longer searching only on Google. They're asking ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to plan their trip, Gemini to compare operators, and Google's AI Overviews to summarize what matters before a single click. 

The question isn't whether AI reshapes travel discovery, it's whether the AI answering those questions mentions you, describes you accurately, and recommends you over the competitor it cites instead.

‍

What GEO is and what it isn’t

A second layer of optimization, on the same pages.

Generative Engine Optimization is the work of making sure large language models, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and AI-native search surfaces like Google AI Overviews and Perplexity can reach your site, understand what you offer, and represent your brand accurately in the answers they generate.

GEO shouldn’t be seen as a separate service running parallel to SEO. It's a second layer of optimizations applied to the same pages, content, and infrastructure, engineered for how AI reads, retrieves, and cites. 

For example, at Propellic, when we rewrite a page for a target keyword, we're also building it in extractable chunks, with answer-first structure, consistent entity framing, and the schema AI models treat as ground truth. One piece of content, both goals.

‍

Co-occurrence is the biggest conceptual shift from SEO to GEO. A travel brand appearing near "Rome private tours" thousands of times in unlinked mentions across high-authority sources is a stronger AI signal than any single backlink, and AI models favor recency, so volume and freshness compound. Digital PR, partnerships, and topical mentions become first-order GEO work, not a nice-to-have.

‍

Our Methodology

A flywheel, not a checklist.

GEO visibility is a feedback loop. The right personas determine the right prompts; the right prompts shape the content; that content determines visibility; measurement tells us whether the loop is working. If visibility improves and KPIs follow, we reinforce. If they don't, we recalibrate the personas and prompts. The loop is self-correcting.

How We Measure

North star: conversions and revenue.

Whether a booking originated from a Google click, an AI Overview citation, or a ChatGPT referral, what matters is whether the work drives outcomes, not traffic for its own sake. Two reporting layers bring both sides of the equation into view:

01 Ongoing prompt visibility. Strategic prompts monitored continuously for appearance, position, sentiment, and co-cited sources.

02 Monthly AI section in your SEO report. GA4 sessions by AI referrer, landing pages, and what's converting, paired with prompt visibility.

‍

What we’re building next

Up until very recently, AI referral traffic often reports as "direct" in GA4, or collapses into branded Google search when a user re-queries your name after reading about you in ChatGPT. Even now with new GA4 parameters being passed for ai-assistant, there is still much to be tested.

We're developing methods to correlate tracked-prompt visibility with movement in branded GSC clicks, adjusted for travel seasonality. Not proof of attribution, a strong directional signal that today's "no AI referral" number hides real demand.

What we won't do is invent attribution we can't defend.

Every strategy, framework, and benchmark in this document was built inside engagements with tour operators, resorts, transportation companies, and destinations working through the same questions you are. Our teams live inside this industry's seasonality, booking windows, and competitive dynamics, our GEO practice is built on that foundation, not bolted onto generalist SEO work.

Citation share in AI answers is sticky, established sources feed future training and live retrieval, making positioning harder for competitors to displace with each passing

quarter.

Let's talk about GEO for your brand. 

‍

Start the conversation

‍