GEO for super funds

A 25-year-old starting their first full-time job used to open Google and type "best super fund". A growing number now open ChatGPT instead and ask it something far more specific: "I'm 25, starting my first job in Australia, what's the best super fund for me?". The AI doesn't return ten blue links. It returns an answer, often a shortlist of named funds. If your fund isn't in that answer, you're not on the list the member is now working from. This is where Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) comes in, with the focus on increasing the chances of your brand being cited (link included) or mentioned (without a link) within the AI’s responses.

GEO is a new search marketing strategy that focuses on optimising your content so it appears in responses in AI tools such at ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. GEO isn't a replacement for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): it's a layer on top of it (or alongside it). Without SEO (the foundation of everything), there is no GEO.

Traditional SEO was designed for one destination: Google's results page and clicks. But a webpage can be part of the top 10 results on Google and never once be cited by ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews. Why?

Usually, AI platforms combine the content that seems to answer the user’s highly contextspecific question most effectively and then combine those sources into one comprehensive and personalised recommendation. They take many factors into account, not just ranking position. In other words, the sort of queries people make in a conversation are not the same as those entered into the Google search box. Consequently, the answer is not usually the same either.

Decisions that used to start on a search results page (Google or Bing) by typing a query, clicking a blue link and visiting a webpage, can now initiate inside a conversation with an AI tool such as ChatGPT, Claude or Google AI Mode. This means members ask, compare and narrow down without ever visiting a fund's website. By the time they use a comparison tool, the shortlist is often already formed (provided by an AI).

This is the part that matters. Done well (this isn’t an exact science, and AI responses are constantly changing), GEO could put your superannuation fund into the member's decision at the moment it's being made. This new marketing strategy, specifically, helps you:

• Increase the likelihood of appearing in AI answers to commercial prompts (the bottom of the sales funnel).

• To put it another way, increase the possibility of being considered when members ask for a "low-fee super fund," an "ethical super fund," or the "best super fund for my first job."

• Influence the research stage, before a member ever opens a comparison tool or a fund website. When an AI answers questions related to "best super fund", it's usually synthesising information from trusted, third-party sites. GEO aims to have your website used as a source for AI, and also to earn presence across the sources AI actually trusts.

AI answers concentrate attention fast. If your fund isn't among the names an AI surfaces, you don't get a lower ranking, you get left off the shortlist entirely, at the precise moment a potential member is forming one.

A strong SEO strategy can deliver some results on AI platforms, but by focusing in depth on GEO too, the chances of appearing in AI responses increase enormously. In short:

• A strong SEO foundation.

• Content structured so AI can extract and attribute it. The content must be written and structured so that AI systems can quickly understand it, summarise it, and link it to your brand. This means using clear headings, straightforward answers, related entities, and unique and carefully checked information.

• Genuine authority across the third-party sources models rely on. AI platforms do not depend only on what a company says about itself. They also check trusted outside sources like industry magazines, review sites, directories, expert articles, and wellknown websites. Getting mentioned in all these places can strengthen your brand’s reputation and improve its chances of being recommended.

• Ongoing tracking of how AI platforms describe and recommend your fund.

Get in touch to chat about how we can build an GEO strategy for you.