Two hundred marketers practicing GEO were asked how they are growing their generative engine traffic. The answers reveal a field still in early-stage experimentation, with the majority defaulting to a single tactic that may not hold up over time. The gap between what most marketers are doing and what the data suggests will work long-term is one of the more actionable findings in recent AI marketing research.

Essential Statistics

• 68 percent of marketers practicing GEO are publishing listicles on their own websites as their primary GEO traffic tactic, the dominant approach by a wide margin.
• Guest posting listicles on other people’s websites and other unspecified tactics were each cited by 11 percent of respondents.
• Digital PR was identified by 6 percent of marketers as their primary GEO traffic growth method.
• On-page SEO was the least cited tactic at 4 percent, despite being one of the foundational elements of sustainable AI citation eligibility.
• The top tactic, publishing listicles, is explicitly flagged in this chart’s “What To Do Next” callout as a short-term approach that risks hurting traditional SEO performance.

Key Takeaways

• The dominance of listicle publishing as a GEO tactic reflects the early-stage nature of the field. Marketers are gravitating toward content formats that AI tools currently cite frequently, without fully accounting for the sustainability or SEO implications of that approach at scale.
• NP Digital explicitly warns that listicles won’t last as a GEO tactic and could hurt SEO. That is a significant signal from the data source itself, indicating that the most widely used current tactic carries a meaningful long-term risk.
• Digital PR at 6 percent and on-page SEO at 4 percent are underrepresented given their likely long-term impact on AI citation eligibility. These are the tactics that build sustainable authority rather than temporary citation frequency.
• The 11 percent doing guest listicle posting on third-party sites reflects awareness that external authority matters for GEO, even if the specific format chosen may face the same sustainability limitations as own-site listicles.
• The spread of tactics across this survey suggests the GEO field lacks consensus on best practices, which creates a competitive opportunity for brands willing to invest in the foundational approaches that the majority are currently underusing.

Actionable Insights

• Reduce listicle volume and redirect that content production capacity toward formats with longer citation shelf lives. Detailed guides, original research, data-driven reports, and expert interviews are more likely to maintain AI citation eligibility over time than listicles, which AI platforms may begin to filter as the format becomes overrepresented in training data.
• Increase Digital PR investment as a GEO strategy. Only 6 percent of marketers currently prioritize it, but earning citations in authoritative publications is one of the highest-signal inputs for AI citation algorithms. A brand consistently mentioned in credible external sources builds the kind of authority that drives AI citations across query types, not just for listicle-friendly topics.
• Treat on-page SEO as a GEO prerequisite, not a separate discipline. Only 4 percent of surveyed marketers cite it as their GEO approach, but structured headers, schema markup, clear factual claims, and fast page load are foundational to AI extractability. Improving on-page structure is one of the most scalable, lowest-risk GEO improvements available.
• Audit your existing listicle content for SEO performance before publishing more. If your current listicles are producing keyword cannibalization, thin content penalties, or declining organic traffic, scaling that format for GEO purposes will compound the SEO damage NP Digital warns about. Evaluate each piece individually before treating listicles as a default GEO template.
• Differentiate your GEO strategy from the 68 percent majority by focusing on tactics with lower competitive density. Most of your competitors are also publishing listicles. Building a Digital PR pipeline, optimizing on-page structure, and developing original data studies positions your brand in the less-crowded, higher-authority lane where AI citation sustainability is stronger.

“Sixty-eight percent of GEO practitioners are doing the same thing: publishing listicles. That is the short-term path. The brands that will win the GEO channel over the next two years are the ones building real authority through Digital PR and on-page fundamentals while everyone else races to the bottom with list content.” – Neil Patel