AI is rewriting the rules of search
If your SEO strategy is built around rank tracking alone, it’s time to recalibrate. Google’s AI Overviews have completely changed the game. In this environment, tracking your position at the bottom of page one matters a lot less when an AI Overview is the first thing a user sees.
However, traditional organic rankings still matter. As AI handles quick informational queries, the clicks that do reach your website tend to come from higher intent searchers who are ready to act. Monitoring both your AI Overview presence and your traditional rankings gives you a full picture of your visibility on the search page.
So far, industrial and manufacturing companies have felt less disruption from AI search than many other sectors. But Google is pushing AI Overviews aggressively, and the trends shaping B2C and professional services are working their way into industrial search. The companies building the right strategies, especially those thinking in terms of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), will be the ones best positioned as GEO becomes essential for visibility across ever-increasing numbers of search results.
Thankfully, optimizing for AI Overviews and traditional SEO requires largely the same strategy. Structured, authoritative, fact-rich content wins in both environments.
Below, we’ll walk through the framework we use and what industrial marketers should prioritize right now.
SEO Hierarchy of Needs
Think of your SEO as a hierarchy: you have to build from the bottom up. Skip a layer, and you undermine everything around it.
1. Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that Google can find, read and properly index your website. Without it, no amount of great content will move the needle. For many industrial companies with lean, focused websites, this layer is straightforward. But if your site lists hundreds or thousands of products, Technical SEO is where you’ll invest the majority of your time.
Schema:
Search engines see code, not the polished webpage your customers see. A schema
is a set of structured tags you add to that code to tell Google exactly what it’s
looking at. For industrial websites, this is a must.
Examples of schema include:
• Pricing
• Part numbers
• ISO certifications
Without a schema, that data is just text on a page. With it, Google can parse, trust
and surface it (including AI Overviews).
Robots.txt:
This file tells search engine bots how to crawl your site. At a minimum, make sure
it’s not accidentally blocking content you want indexed. Beyond that, you can now
give explicit instructions for AI crawlers to access your site, a small but meaningful
step as more traffic flows through AI agents.
2. Content
Once Google can read your site, it needs targeted content to index. SEO content is built around search intent: if a potential client is searching on Google for something–whether a process, material or specification–your content should be the clearest, most credible answer available.
Industrial companies have a natural advantage here. The technical depth of our products and processes is exactly what search engines and AI models are looking for. The challenge is presenting it accessibly enough to serve real search queries.
Content formats that perform well in industrial SEO include:
• Blogs and technical articles: ideal for answering specific questions and building local authority
• Pillar pages: Comprehensive guides on core topics that serve as anchors for related content
• Video: Effective for demonstrating complex processes or equipment.
Interactive tools: Calculators, spec configurators or checklists that give buyers a reason to stay on your site.
If your content strategy isn’t generating results, it may be a structural issue. See our breakdown of 9 Key Reasons Your Marketing Content Isn't Working (And How to Fix It).
3. Brand
Once your technical foundation is solid and your content is producing traffic, brand becomes the deciding factor, especially in competitive segments. Google and AI models look at your presence across the entire internet, not just what’s on your website. They look at third-party mentions, reviews, industry directories, and even specialized boards. These off-page signals tell AI systems how much to trust your technical claims.
AI models can summarize general knowledge, but can’t replicate your history or expertise. That’s your competitive advantage, and it’s core to the “Experience” component in Google’s E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Use the checklist below as a starting point for the year ahead:
2026 SEO/GEO Checklist
SEO/GEO Audit (traditional rankings and AI Overviews)
Review and update schema markup
Check/Update your Robots.txt file
Create an SEO content plan for the year
Consistently write and publish according to your SEO content plan
Audit your brand
Perform third-party outreach to improve brand mentions
Get a Free SEO/GEO Audit
Not sure where your website stands? LoSasso offers qualifying companies a complimentary, high-level SEO/GEO audit that covers your technical foundation, content gaps and brand presence across the web. We’ll show you where you are and what it would take to get ahead of your competition before AI reshapes your segment.
Reach out to start your audit today.
