Get cited, not just ranked: the GEO layer
Ranking is no longer the whole game. A growing share of buyers never see a blue link at all, because they ask an AI engine and read the answer it assembles. So the goal has to widen from "rank for the query" to "be the source the AI quotes." This is the GEO layer, generative engine optimisation, and for a B2B founder it is not a fringe channel. It is becoming a primary one.
The numbers that reframe the goal
Seventy-three per cent of B2B buyers now use AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity for vendor research. That alone moves AI from novelty to channel. What makes it a priority rather than a nice-to-have is the conversion gap: AI-referred visitors convert at around 14.2 per cent versus 2.8 per cent for Google organic. The visitor who arrives because an AI engine cited you as a source arrives pre-qualified, having already been told you're worth a look, and they convert at roughly five times the rate of a generic organic click. Being the source the AI cites is now a primary distribution channel.
Your own pages are the citation surface
The most useful fact for a founder is where those citations come from. An analysis of 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity found that 86 per cent of AI citations originate from brand-managed sources, 44 per cent from the first-party website and 42 per cent from business listings. The AI engines are not quoting third-party press about you. They are quoting your own pages. That means the citation surface is something you control directly, which is exactly the kind of leverage a lean operator should want.
How to make a page quotable
Structuring a page to be cited is a discipline you can apply to every page you publish. Lead with a clear, standalone claim that an engine can lift cleanly. Back it immediately with supporting data, a specific number or fact rather than a vague assertion. Add schema markup so the structure is machine-readable. And put a named author with a real, credible bio on the page, the human-experience signal that both Google's E-E-A-T and the AI engines lean on. A page built this way is easy for an engine to extract, attribute and trust.
The reframed goal
The old goal was to rank for the explainer. The new goal is to be the answer the AI quotes. "AI Overviews killed SEO" gets this exactly backwards: AI Overviews ended the thin-explainer click, and getting cited is simply the new form of ranking. When you optimise to be the source, you capture the surviving high-intent click and the AI citation at once, and the visitor who arrives through either door is worth about five of the old ones. Structure for citation and the engine works for you instead of around you.