AIM Special Report: Best Practices to Maximize GEO Search Results

Marketers, it’s time to think outside the four walls of your community in order to attract prospects. In fact, focusing on the neighborhood rather than your community may increase your chances of being included in an AI summary derived through search, given the natural-language approach of generative engine optimization.

“AI is taking a central role in deciding what information is actually shown,” noted Brooke Henderson, regional vice president of strategic partnerships at Yext, speaking on a panel titled Unpacking the Search Evolution: Ready, Set, GEO! held on the second day of this year’s Apartment Innovation and Marketing Conference.

Moderated by REACH by RentCafe Vice President Esther Bonardi, the panel examined best practices for incorporating GEO into marketing strategy alongside search engine optimization. Unlike SEO, which determines how high up in a list of search results your information appears based on inclusion and strength of relevant keywords, GEO draws on the content itself and how it relates to the search query to determine whether to include it as part of an AI-written response. “Content is literally the focus of GEO,” explained REACH by RentCafe Manager Kyle Jones.

---

READ ALSO: AIM Special Report: Leasing Strategies for Today’s Market

---

Success involves a different thought process, one that requires both consideration for how a search is actually likely to be worded as well as a need to build trust not just with the humans typing the search query but with the bots crawling the web in search of the best information to incorporate into the AI summary response. It also requires a consistent message across a wide variety of search engines and social media platforms, which may draw their information from a range of information sources.

Henderson divided strategies to improve search result representation—and GEO in particular—into four quadrants:

• Making sure your Google Business Profile is on key and differentiates you from the competition;
• Managing your reviews across platforms (Perplexity, for instance, draws on Yelp results), including both encouraging specificity since quality of information counts more today than frequency or volume of reviews and appropriate response to negative reviews;
• Maintaining an active and consistent presence across a variety of social media platforms;
• Managing how you are perceived by bots, since they produce 50 percent of traffic.

That last point can be better achieved by thinking differently about the information you provide on your site to improve its value. Take, for example, the frequently asked question section. It offers an opportunity to go beyond community and contract basics, Jones noted, to address the considerations a prospect may have about neighborhood services and amenities, local transportation options, area schools, walk scores and other factors. Liven up the information with maps, photos, videos and links.

Including a blog allows you to go into depth and provide more color. It can even cover the same subjects, Jones said, with the FAQ supplying shorter-form content and linking to the longer-form version on the blog. For topics, consider what a prospect might think about when they’re structuring their search, Bonardi suggested. At the same time, you’ll make it easier for search engines to crawl the information.

Aggregated content also performs well, Bonardi said. Since people tend to search by neighborhood and city, providing a large amount of the information they’re seeking on your site adds value.

Mind over matter (and Google searches)

Try thinking of the information you provide with a tourism-oriented mindset, advised Melissa Brady, senior vice president of marketing, communications & customer experience for Fogelman. Be more of a conversational, guiding presence than one that sells. And be sure to incorporate all of that relevant content across your communications—on social media, in eblasts and even in how your on-site team communicates.

However But don’t just copy and paste your written content across your media platforms, Bonardi cautioned,. Consistency doesn’t mean duplication; language should be targeted to the audience most likely to turn to each type of medium. Here, fresh content adds value.

GEO is still evolving, but additional benefits are emerging, Henderson said, such as the ability to enhance marketing efforts. “It’s a great opportunity for personalization ranking,” she said.

And it still has limitations. Perhaps the greatest challenge for the multifamily industry, Jones noted, is that it does not yet send users directly to the apartment community’s website. Instead, they often find the information they need in the AI summary and stop the search there.

“At the end of the day, users have to come to our website,” he said. “We’re not seeing AI play a role in bottom-of-funnel conversions just yet. But I expect that to change.”