Why cybersecurity brands should care about GEO and AI search
Security professionals don’t glide serenely through the sales funnel like consumers buying trainers. They ricochet between analyst PDFs, industry publications, peer reviews, vendor demos, tradeshows, internal politics, and budget constraints — all fuelled by the certainty that if it breaks, it’s on them.
Now, though, there’s an extra layer in this already chaotic process: AI search.
Instead of opening 10 browser tabs and three Gartner reports, cybersecurity buyers are increasingly shortcutting the vendor research process through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot.
While these AI tools will never replace the chaotic buyer journey, they are becoming a pivotal top-of-funnel moment — where vendor selection gets narrowed down from ‘hundreds of tools’ to ‘a manageable few’.
Do cybersecurity brands need GEO?
The short answer is “yes”. GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. In simple terms, it’s about making sure your brand appears when generative AI tools answer questions about your category, whether that’s Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, or whatever comes next.
This is not to be confused with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). For starters, AI search doesn’t behave like a traditional search engine. It doesn’t list 10 blue links and wish you luck. It synthesises what it’s seen across the web and presents a version of reality based on repetition, credibility, and perceived consensus.
So a question like: “What’s the best cybersecurity platform for a mid-sized business?” gets interpreted as several questions at once, fanning out behind the scenes into variations such as:
Best cybersecurity platforms for mid-market companies
Top endpoint protection and response (EDR) tools
Cybersecurity suites vs point solutions
Ransomware protection platforms
Security tools for hybrid cloud and compliance
The AI then pulls comparisons, reviews, analyst write-ups, and vendor content across all of those angles and synthesises an answer along the lines of: “For mid-sized businesses, platforms like Tanium, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and SentinelOne are often recommended…”.
In short, the answer is built from a variety of sources and from patterns of visibility across the entire web.
Why PR matters for GEO
This query fan-out means that your carefully crafted and SEO’d website no longer guarantees visibility in AI-related search.
Instead, the most influential places are those where other people talk about you, such as analyst notes, trade coverage, practitioner forums, benchmarking reports, podcasts, community discussions, and, increasingly, security subreddits.
As a result, GEO creates a growing dependency on third-party validation.
In a large-scale analysis of 75,000 businesses, Ahrefs — a company that helps marketers drive visibility across AI search, SEO, content, and social — found that brand web mentions have the biggest impact on whether a company is cited by AI search engines.
That means that PR and media coverage now play a direct role in shaping how — and whether or not — your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
How cybersecurity brands can boost GEO with PR
If you’re new to GEO, then here are a few practical implications for comms teams:
First: avoid focusing on ‘tier one’ coverage if it lacks technical credibility. AI systems heavily weight specialist and practitioner-facing sources. A mention in Dark Reading or an analyst blog often carries more influence than a glossy business profile in a national newspaper.
Second: broaden your definition of visibility. Analyst commentary, community discussions, podcasts, technical newsletters, and developer forums all contribute to how consistently your brand appears across the web.
Third: invest in original research such as threat reports, benchmarks, performance data, and incident analysis. Generative systems favour structured, factual material. What’s more, buyers gravitate toward anything concrete in a market drowning in abstract promises and buzzwords.
Looking to boost your visibility with cybersecurity PR?
If AI search is now helping CISOs decide which vendors even make the shortlist, then being talked about in the right places has never mattered more.
Wildfire is a PR agency specialising in cybersecurity clients. Over the years, our team has worked with leading cyber brands including Acronis, Cloudflare, Rapid7, SolarWinds, Splunk, and Tanium to build awareness, credibility, and sustained visibility across trade media, practitioner communities, national outlets, and AI search results.
If you want your cybersecurity brand to show up more often in the conversations shaping buying decisions — both human and algorithmic — fill in the form below and let’s talk about your communications goals.
