GEO: What Apartment Marketers Need to Know
Learn all the basics of generative search and how to get started.
Your digital marketing staff is no doubt doing a bang-up job of optimizing your apartment websites, driving qualified leads that can then be converted into leases. But are those marketing strategies future-proof?
In the world of digital marketing—which is evolving so quickly that even experts have a hard time keeping up—will your strategies continue to deliver in the future, when artificial intelligence becomes an integral part of your online search strategy?
While SEO, or search engine optimization, remains a key way of getting your apartment communities noticed online, experts say it’s time to get familiar with a newer concept: GEO, or generative engine optimization, the practice of optimizing your online content for AI-powered search engines such as Google Gemini or Perplexity.
You’re probably already familiar with AI-driven search results. Those AI Overviews at the top of a Google search page—the blurbs that summarize the answer to your search query—are the results of an AI search by Google Gemini. “Those are Google’s version of generative search,” Kyle Jones, search manager for Reach by RentCafe, said.
Gone are the days of conducting a search and then clicking on the individual websites that result to find the information you seek. With generative search, you can just review the summary at the top of the page and get your answer.
For apartment marketers, though, generative search presents a new challenge—how to use GEO to optimize websites, social media and other online content to ensure that your communities appear in the AI-generated summaries, which, for Google searches are likely to be higher on the search page than organic listings or even sponsored ads.
“The days of simply trying to rank for keywords to hit the top of a search result are gone,” according to Nicholas Putz, director of marketing at Wangard Partners. “We need to take a much more thoughtful approach to our content that allows people to engage with it because if no one engages with it, then why would Google or any search partner using AI recognize us a credible source?”
The days of simply trying to rank for keywords to hit the top of a search result are gone
—Nicholas Putz, Director of Marketing, Wangard Partners
SEO vs. GEO
SEO helps improve the visibility of your website in results generated by a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. But GEO is designed for searches performed by AI in Google, ChatGPT or Perplexity, generative engines that rely on large language models—machine learning that uses natural language to process tasks.
Xiyao Yang, vice president of digital marketing for Bozzuto, explained the difference between traditional search engines and AI-based searches this way: A traditional Google search is like walking into a library, seeing all the books categorized on the shelves and then picking a book and reading it to get the information you want. Generative search, on the other hand, would be walking into a library where a librarian gives you a summary of the best part of a book based on your own reading history.
“For traditional Google search, our hope is to rank higher and on the first page,” she said. “But with AI, it’s trickier. It’s no longer about the first page of the results—instead, you want to be the results, in the summary.”
And in case you’re thinking that it’s way too early to be adding GEO to your digital marketing strategies, think again. “GEO is about getting ready for tomorrow,” added Jones. “It isn’t causing seismic waves in the apartment industry now, but it’s going to.”
Best Practices for Optimizing for AI Searches
Don’t abandon the basic tenets of SEO. “If you’re doing good SEO today, you’re in a good place for GEO tomorrow, with some added content strategies specific for GEO,” said Jones. “There’s a lot of overlap right now.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Content remains king. Keep it comprehensive and authentic. “To attract someone looking for a dog-friendly community, you need to do more than just say you allow dogs and that the fee is $35 a month,” explained Ellen Thompson, co-founder & CEO of Respage. “Have a page where you talk about the pet stores and dog parks nearby. That shows that you’re actually pet-friendly.”
For AI searches conducted by Google, your Google Business Profile remains vitally important as a source for AI to gather relevant information about your brand and communities. Be sure to include information such as Q&As and reviews there, and keep it current.
Don’t focus only on keywords. AI prefers natural, conversational language. Putz said that it’s essential for the content to be dynamic so that people will interact with it, whether it’s a blog post or a video. “Authenticity is the new wave of SEO,” he maintained. A Google search for keywords such as “two-bedroom apartments in downtown West Palm Beach,” will result in very different search results than a conversational query such as “What are the best apartments in downtown West Palm Beach, and why should I choose them?” The second search will trigger Google Gemini to conduct an AI search.
Use an omnichannel strategy—don’t focus only on your website or blog. Many users today are conducting searches in platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok, so be sure to create content for all of them. Wangard, for example, is using a holistic approach to marketing The Locklyn Apartments in Oconomowoc, Wis. “We are using an elaborate and authentic approach with many platforms and not solely optimizing for Google search,” Putz said. “I’ve seen a significant uptick in interest and the leases that are coming through.”
Use structured data. Incorporate headings, bullet points, questions and answers and schema markup, which is the code that search engines use to read and understand the content on your pages.
Enhance your social media presence, which is evaluated by AI searches. Cottonwood Residential posts videos on TikTok as part of its GEO strategy. “Using SEO-targeted keywords on social media posts like TikTok and Instagram will help GEO visibility,” explained Katie Madeira, digital marketing manager for Cottonwood Residential. “When you create social posts, it’s important to use strategic keywords in your content and in the caption, but in a conversational tone.” Six months ago, the company posted a video on TikTok to promote Cottonwood Lighthouse Point in Pompano Beach, Fla., that was written in a conversational tone to inspire engagement and interest in living there. The post amassed 13,000 views organically and is still showing up on the “For You” page on TikTok today. “Knowing that GEO pulls from all over the web, the more posts we have like this, the better,” said Madeira.
