7 things B2B marketers should know about GEO in 2025
As a B2B tech PR agency, we’ve spent a lot of 2025 fielding one big question from clients and prospects alike: “Can PR help us show up in AI search results?”.
With Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) climbing the agenda for marketing and comms teams, the pressure is on to make brands discoverable, not just by people—but by large language models (LLMs).
The good news? PR is one of the most effective ways to boost your GEO. Whether you’re running media campaigns, seeding commentary, or publishing original research, the tactics you already know can supercharge your visibility in tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Here’s our 7 top tips for B2B marketers, tech PRs, and comms professionals wondering if tried and tested PR tactics can help them win at GEO:
1. Yes, PR does support GEO rankings
Ahrefs analysed 75,000 brands and found that brand web mentions had the strongest correlation (0.66) with visibility in Google’s AI Overviews—compared to just 0.22 for backlinks. If you’re still wondering whether media coverage matters for AI search, it does. A lot. GEO doesn’t just reward authority. It rewards awareness.
2. If you only focus on your website, AI won’t know you exist
Generative engines like Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity don’t just scrape your homepage—they scan analyst blogs, Reddit threads, developer forums, and anywhere else your name shows up. If you’re not present off-site, you’re not present at all. SEO helps your site rank. PR gets your brand in the training data.
3. If you want to be in AI search, you need to get people talking
LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini regurgitate the most credible, repeated information they’ve seen. The more your brand name crops up in respected sources, the more likely it is to appear in answer boxes. It’s less ‘what you say’ and more ‘what everyone else says about you’.
4. Original research is great for AI search
Google says it prioritises “hidden gems”—unique, data-backed content that doesn’t exist elsewhere. LLMs are designed to summarise facts. So, if you’re publishing fresh benchmarks or first-party insights, you’re feeding them exactly the kind of structured content they love to quote (and cite).
5. Mentions are now just as important as backlinks
Traditional SEO worships the backlink. GEO? Not so much. Ahrefs’ 2025 study showed that unlinked mentions of a brand were significantly more influential in AI visibility rankings than classic link-building efforts. That doesn’t mean backlinks are useless. Far from it. They’re still a strong signal for organic rankings and a solid traffic driver. But the days of hounding journalists to sneak in a hyperlink are long gone. Now, just being mentioned in the right places boosts your GEO. That’s a win for B2B brands everywhere. Think less ‘domain rating’ and more “do people talk about you?”.
6. You won’t out-keyword the market leader, but you can out-insight them
Big brands dominate broad search terms. But when it comes to niche queries—like 'benchmarking inference time for edge AI” or “secure zero-trust mesh for IIoT”—the door is wide open. This is where PR-led research and thought leadership can sneak past the giants. Don’t aim for general. Aim for genuinely useful.
7. GEO gets customers to your site, but don’t let the journey end there
AI might get your brand mentioned in a search result, but the human still clicks. If your site doesn’t immediately prove valuable, the lead’s lost. Make sure your homepage has fresh proof points, strong messaging, great case studies, and useful content. Generating a load of half-baked content with ChatGPT won’t copy it. Good copywriters with strong opinions still have a place in any marketing team.
