Selling Financial Services Online? Forget SEO, Introducing GEO
The digital playbook that has governed Wall Street's marketing efforts for the last 20 years, an $80 billion industry known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is now obsolete. The relentless pursuit of the top spot on a Google search results page is being superseded by a more profound and disruptive force: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). For anyone working in financial services today, understanding this shift isn't just about staying current; it's about staying relevant.
As customers, from retail investors to institutional clients, increasingly turn to AI assistants for instant, synthesized answers, the battleground for visibility has moved. As noted by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and others, the goal is no longer to achieve a high ranking but to gain "model relevance." This means being the trusted source cited within an AI's direct answer. This change will ripple through every department of a financial services firm, demanding a radical rethinking of how products are sold, expertise is communicated and trust is built.
Consider the broad implications across the industry:
Asset Management
A marketing team's success will no longer be measured by clicks to a mutual fund's landing page. Instead, the critical question becomes: When a user asks an AI, 'What are the best-performing sustainable investment funds?' does the AI cite your firm's ESG report and mention your specific ETF by name? This requires a strategy focused on getting fund commentary, performance data and manager insights into the financial news and data ecosystems that train these AI models.
Retail Banking
For product managers, the focus must shift from keyword-based web copy to comprehensive, conversational content. Research shows that user queries in large language models are significantly longer and more detailed than in traditional search. When a potential customer asks a chatbot, 'What are the best mortgage options for a first-time homebuyer with a low down payment?' the bank whose detailed guides, transparent fee structures and customer testimonials are ingested by the AI will win the recommendation.
Wealth Management
Research and analysis teams now have a new channel to assert their influence. Their market outlooks and white papers must be optimized not for search engines, but for summarization. The goal is for an AI to quote your firm's chief economist when asked about inflation forecasts or to reference your analyst's sector report when summarizing a market trend.
Investment Banking
Even in this relationship-driven field, digital reputation matters. An M&A team's public-facing deal tombstones and industry analysis can feed AI models. When a CEO or journalist asks an AI, 'Which firm has the most expertise in fintech M&A?' the answer will be shaped by the digital trail of expertise your team leaves across reputable platforms.
To thrive in the post-SEO world, firms must pivot from chasing algorithms to building verifiable authority. This is no longer just a task for the marketing department. It requires a coordinated effort between product specialists, compliance teams, analysts and communication leaders to create a deep, interconnected web of trustworthy information. The firms that successfully make this transition will not just attract the next generation of clients; they will become the foundational knowledge sources for the new age of digital finance.
Fore more like this on Forbes, What Is Agentic AI And What Will It Mean For Financial Services? and The Data Centers Powering AI Boom In Financial Services.
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