The Startup Ideas Podcast what the heck is GEO (AI search, rankings, $$$)
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Sep 12, 2025 
Cody Schneider, the founder of graphed.com and an expert in AI search, dives deep into the world of GEO—AI-driven search technology. He discusses how GEO, while generating buzz, still represents a small slice of overall searches compared to traditional engines. Cody emphasizes that conversion rates from AI search can be impressive, ranging from 10-40%. He outlines strategies for businesses to optimize their presence on AI-referenced URLs, stressing the importance of getting brand visibility on high-ranking pages for better search outcomes.
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Target Long Research Purchase Categories
- Prioritize AI search if your product has a long purchase decision or research-heavy buying process.
- Target SaaS and local service businesses where customers research deeply before buying.
AI Search Uses Massive Query Expansion
- AI search expands a user's query into many derivative queries and scrapes top-ranking pages to build an answer.
- The model pulls hundreds to thousands of pages into its context window and synthesizes the final response.
Build Surface Area On Source Pages
- Increase your surface area across the pages AI scrapes so the model sees your brand more often.
- Aim to be mentioned on many top-ranking listicles and roundup pages the AI references.