Consider leveraging tools to aid in creating and fine-tuning content:
- AI Writing Assistants: Ironically, you can use generative AI to help with GEO. Tools like ChatGPT or Jasper can help draft sections, suggest questions to address, or simplify language. For example, take a dense paragraph you wrote and ask ChatGPT to rephrase it more clearly – then edit that output for accuracy. However, do not rely on AI to produce facts or entire content without human review, as you risk inaccuracies. Use it as a collaborator for style and structure.
- Content Optimization Software: Tools like SurferSEO, Clearscope, or MarketMuse analyze top-ranking content and suggest terms and questions to include. While they’re geared for traditional SEO (looking at SERP data), many of the suggestions (like “People also ask” questions to answer) are directly applicable to GEO. If the tool says top pages all mention “widget lifespan” and you don’t, consider adding that info – likely users ask about it, so an AI might consider it important too.
- HubSpot’s AI Search Grader: Mentioned earlier, it can also specifically tell you where your content might be lacking relative to AI queries. It might reveal, for instance, that your share of voice is low for a certain subtopic – indicating you need more content on that.
- Readability and Grammar Checkers: Tools like Grammarly or Hemingway can enforce clarity and catch confusing phrasing. They ensure your content doesn’t have ambiguities or errors that might throw off a model. Grammarly can also check tone (e.g., make sure it’s not too casual or too aggressive unless that’s intended).
- Schema Generators: To quickly implement Structured Data, you can use generators (Merkle’s schema generator, Google’s Structured Data markup helper) to create JSON-LD for FAQs, HowTo steps, etc., based on your content. Then embed them. This technical step greatly aids how search engines feature your content (and indirectly how AI sees it).
- Analytics and Heatmaps: After publishing, see how users engage. If certain sections are rarely read (based on scroll depth or heatmaps), maybe they’re not that useful or need reworking – if humans skip it, AI might too. Also track if those pages start getting traffic from Bing Chat or other referrers (per your tracking setup). That’s a sign your content is getting used by AI; analyze why that content succeeded and apply lessons to others.
In creating GEO-optimized content, always balance human value and AI accessibility. They are not mutually exclusive – content that is clear, authoritative, and well-structured benefits both. Indeed, Google’s helpful content system and E-E-A-T guidelines encourage much of what we described, meaning by serving AI’s needs, you’re likely also improving classic SEO and user satisfaction.
The end result of this step should be a suite of high-quality content pieces that effectively answer the key questions in your domain, are structured for easy digestion, and richly demonstrate your expertise. With these content assets in hand, we next turn to fine-tuning them for retrieval and integration (RAG) as well as promoting your brand as a reliable source (brand trust). But first, let’s delve deeper into the mechanics of retrieval-augmented generation in the next section.