Google search engine results. ChatGPT. AI Overview. If only Waldo had so many ways to be found. He could trade up that garish red-striped sweater for a nice cashmere from Saks Fifth Avenue. Fortunately, NYC event planners don’t need dramatic 80s stripes to get noticed. A solid understanding of how to get your business found in Google and AI search will do. In this article, we’ll show how to combine GEO and SEO for event planners to rise above the online noise, no Aqua Net required.
How ChatGPT Changed the Digital Marketing Landscape
If you’re like most businesses, you’ve noticed a roller coaster in website visitors since ChatGPT and other AI tools hit the digital landscape. The good news is that you don’t have to lose business just because your old event planner SEO strategy isn’t capturing generative AI search tools. The old rules of SEO still work. Now, they’re combined with the new marketing kid on the block: generative engine optimization (GEO).Combining SEO and GEO can help your event planning business stay visible as online search evolves.
What Google Looks For When Compiling Search Results
You may think that the overabundance of AI slop means your content is lost forever. Not so. Google still looks for quality markers that can set your website apart. Google considers many signals of content quality and relevance. Its E-E-A-T framework helps explain what makes content trustworthy.
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
Why You Still Need Traditional SEO for Event Planners
The tried-and-true SEO techniques you learned as a budding NYC event planner with stars in your eyes still apply. These include:
- Long- and short-tail keywords
- Content that matches user intent
- Optimized websites
- Original, authoritative, people-centered content
- Social proof through online reviews and social mentions
How ChatGPT Changed Search Results
Although SEO still matters, it’s not enough to generate the website traffic you need to succeed as an NYC event planner. ChatGPT helped bring large language models (LLMs) into the mainstream, changing how millions of people find information online. Today, potential event clients searching for their next event planner use ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overview, and other generative AI platforms.
Generative AI has also transformed traditional SEO. Google uses AI to more accurately tailor its search results to the user’s intent.
How Event Planners Can Use GEO
What marketers have learned about marketing for AI since ChatGPT’s rollout has been dubbed generative engine optimization (GEO). Combining SEO and GEO strategies can improve your chances of being discovered through traditional search and AI-powered recommendations.
How to Create Content for Generative AI
Generative AI loves clarity and brevity. Use the following strategies to create content for generative AI.
- Write clear content that speaks to the user’s intent.
- Format your headings to match questions users ask.
- Make your content scannable with short paragraphs, lists, and tables.
- Use simple sentence structure, while still adding color and personality for human readers.
- Provide long-form content that addresses a topic in depth.
Get Your Event Planning Business Found With SEO and GEO
As an NYC event planner, you’re continuously marketing yourself. Make sure your website is working as hard as you are. Generative AI has been a game-changer for digital marketing. But make no mistake — it’s still a game with predictable rules, and you can still win with a digital marketing strategy that combines the best of GEO and SEO for event planners.
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