Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

From SEO to GEO: How AI Is Rewriting Law-Firm Visibility

By Dave Taillefer, Business Director / ICONA

Organic search has been a reliable engine for Canadian law firm visibility for more than two decades. But as generative AI begins to mediate how people find and interpret legal information, the familiar playbook — ranking pages, optimizing keywords, building backlinks — no longer captures the full picture. Search is shifting from a system of links to a system of answers.

Platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot increasingly shape the first impression clients form about the law. For many users, the journey begins not with a click, but with a synthesized explanation drawn from multiple sources. A firm doesn’t simply need to rank — it needs to be retrieved, recognized, and cited as a trusted voice.

That shift gives rise to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): the discipline of structuring content so that AI systems can extract it accurately, cite it confidently, and present it as part of their generated answers.

Below is a practical framework for law firms navigating this transition — what GEO is, how it differs from classic SEO, and how to prepare your website for an AI-first discovery environment.

Why This Shift Matters for Lawyers

Search behaviour is changing quickly. Traditional SEO has always aimed to improve rankings so people click through to your website. GEO recognises that the click may not happen at all — the answer might appear directly on the platform.

1. From clicks to answers

AI interfaces return synthesized responses that often eliminate the need for a traditional visit. These “zero-click” interactions mean visibility now depends on whether your wording, explanations, and legal frameworks appear inside the answer itself.

The central question becomes: is your firm’s knowledge part of the response clients see?

2. From pages to passages and entities

Generative systems do not “read” in the traditional sense. They extract entities, parse structured data, and identify short, self-contained passages that answer specific questions. Pages written solely for human readers — long, undifferentiated blocks of text, or keyword-heavy paragraphs — are harder for AI to interpret.

Machine-ready content needs clarity, structure, and explicit markers of jurisdiction, authorship, and legal context.

The Pillars of GEO for Law Firms

1. Relevance Engineering

Relevance engineering ensures your content is structured so AI systems can correctly interpret and cite it. It requires writing for two audiences at once: humans and machines.

This involves:

• Clear, question-led sections that mirror client intent.
• Jurisdictional references such as the Alberta Family Property Act or the Criminal Code of Canada.
• Structured data (JSON schema) including LegalService, Organization, and FAQ markup.
• Visibility testing through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI engines to identify whether and how your content is being cited.

The measure of success is not only readability but retrievability — how easily a machine can identify and lift your insights.

2. Intent Orchestration and Query Fan-Out

AI rarely stops at the initial question. A prompt such as “How does separation work in BC?” will cascade into related intent clusters:

• “How is the family home divided?”
• “How is parenting time determined?”
• “Is legal separation the same as divorce?”

An effective GEO strategy requires content ecosystems — “intent hubs” — where each related question is answered clearly, and internal linking signals topical authority.

To implement this:

• Map the questions clients ask most often.
• Develop interlinked answers that reflect jurisdiction-specific realities.
• Use headings written in plain language, mirroring real search behaviour.

3. Platform-Aware Optimization

AI platforms each retrieve content differently:

• Google AI Overviews rely heavily on traditional indexing, schema, and trusted sources.
• Perplexity cites passages verbatim, offering a clear window into what parts of your content are being used.
• ChatGPT blends licensed datasets with live queries through Bing, placing weight on clarity and authoritative signals.

To adapt:

• Ensure all major practice pages remain crawlable and updated.
• Strengthen factual clarity and citation consistency.
• Align terminology across websites, videos, and PDFs so AI recognizes them as referring to the same entities.

4. Measurement and Visibility Tracking

AI-first search obscures traditional metrics. Ranking or impressions tell only part of the story. Modern reporting requires GEO-specific indicators.

Track three categories:

• Inputs: optimized pages, schema coverage, FAQ growth.
• Channel visibility: citations from Perplexity or ChatGPT, bot activity patterns.
• Outcomes: leads tied to question-based or branded search terms.

These insights guide quarterly adjustments and reveal where content gaps prevent retrieval.

How GEO Differs from Traditional SEO

For law firms, this means shifting beyond competing for “divorce lawyer Toronto” toward being referenced when AI explains parenting time, support, or separation processes in a given jurisdiction.

A Practical GEO Roadmap for Law Firms

1. Audit your current site

• Identify practice areas already attracting AI citations or strong search demand.
• Break long content into concise, question-led passages.
• Confirm schema coverage and add missing entities such as lawyer names, jurisdiction, and statutes.

2. Build topic hubs

• Map intent clusters across family, criminal, civil, and estate law.
• Develop interconnected hubs that answer each related question comprehensively.
• Maintain compliance with Law Society rules protecting the public from exaggeration or misleading claims.

3. Test retrieval

• Run common legal questions through major AI engines.
• Analyze which sources appear and refine your passages accordingly.

4. Strengthen authority

• Ensure bios, credentials, and regulatory details are prominent and accurate.
• Reference authoritative Canadian sources such as CanLII or Justice.gc.ca.
• Refresh content promptly when laws or guidelines change.

5. Track and report

• Develop dashboards showing AI citations, bot activity, and content coverage.
• Measure inquiries tied to AI-driven discovery or question-based queries.

The Road Ahead

AI-first discovery is accelerating. For Canadian law firms, visibility will be determined less by ranking position and more by whether AI systems recognize and cite the firm’s content when questions arise.

GEO provides a framework to ensure legal knowledge is discoverable, credible, and accurately attributed in this new environment.

While many firms remain focused on legacy SEO tactics, early adopters of GEO will build durable advantages — with visibility extending beyond clicks into the realm where clients first seek answers.

At ICONA, we help firms shift from ranking-first to retrieval-first strategies, constructing content ecosystems built for both clients and machines.

If you’d like to explore how GEO fits into your long-term visibility strategy, schedule a call.

About the Author

Dave Taillefer is Business Director at ICONA Inc., overseeing SEO, content strategy and digital transformation for Canadian law firms. With deep knowledge of legal marketing, technical SEO, and now generative search strategy, Dave helps firms future-proof their online visibility.

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