SEO and GEO for Biotech Websites: Improving Visibility in Search and AI Answers

By Giuseppina Sannino, PhD

A biotech website needs to explain its science to people who may arrive with very different questions. A researcher may be checking sample compatibility. A potential distributor may want to understand the product portfolio. An investor may be trying to establish what makes the technology different.

Clear answers help those readers. They also give search systems better material to interpret.

SEO, or search engine optimization, helps search engines discover and understand content and helps users find it. GEO, or generative engine optimization, describes efforts to improve visibility in AI-generated answers. The two overlap, but neither gives a website control over whether an AI system cites it.

Start with useful answers

Before adding more content, review the questions customers and partners already ask.

Can someone tell which applications your product supports? Can they distinguish a research-use reagent from a diagnostic assay? Is it clear whether you sell finished products, supply components or provide development services?

A page that says “innovative molecular solutions” leaves those questions open. A page that identifies the product, intended application, evidence and limitations gives readers something they can evaluate.

Use their questions to organise the content. A comparison table may work for product specifications; a short explanation may be better for a service or scientific concept. Add an FAQ when there are genuine questions left to answer.

What GEO adds to SEO

AI search features can assemble answers from multiple sources rather than presenting only a list of links. Being included therefore involves more than appearing for a particular keyword.

However, Google explicitly says that its AI Overviews and AI Mode require no special optimization beyond established SEO practices. A supporting page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a search snippet, but eligibility does not guarantee inclusion. [1]

The research paper GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, accepted at KDD 2024, explores ways of improving visibility in generative search systems. Its findings come from particular experimental settings. They should not be treated as a universal formula for current AI platforms. [2]

For a biotech company, the practical priority is to make its expertise and evidence accessible without promising a citation outcome.

Build pages that explain the science clearly

Useful content should make it easy to identify:

• What the product, service or technology is.
• Which applications and audiences it serves.
• What evidence supports its claims.
• Which conditions or limitations affect the results.
• Where supporting documents and contact details can be found.

Name the author or technical reviewer where appropriate, and link to a relevant biography. Cite sources that support the actual statement being made. Update information when the evidence, product or regulatory position changes, rather than changing dates merely to make a page appear recent. These practices align with Google’s guidance on helpful, reliable content. [3]

For scientific claims, keep essential context beside the result. A sensitivity figure separated from its sample type or measurement method is easy to misunderstand, whether it is read by a person or extracted into an answer.

Get the technical foundations right

Content quality and technical accessibility need to work together.

PDFs and JavaScript are not automatically invisible to search engines. The important question is what the relevant crawler can actually retrieve and process. Keep a useful summary on the page and test accessibility rather than assuming it. [1, 4]

Review crawler settings deliberately. Different services and crawlers have different purposes; allowing access should follow your publishing policy.

Structured data can help describe page content, but it must match what visitors can see. Use types appropriate to the page and validate the implementation. It is not a shortcut to AI citations. [5]

Do not add FAQ markup expecting Google FAQ rich results: Google retired that feature in May 2026. Helpful FAQ content can still serve readers. [6]

Measure useful outcomes

Monitor search visibility, relevant visits, technical-document engagement and qualified enquiries. If you check AI answers manually, record the question, platform and date. A single appearance or omission is only a snapshot.

The commercial aim is to help suitable customers and partners understand your offer, not simply to accumulate mentions.

Frequently asked questions

Is GEO different from SEO?

It focuses on visibility within generated answers, while SEO addresses search visibility more broadly. Much of the underlying work overlaps. Requirements and behaviour vary between platforms.

Can anyone guarantee that an AI assistant will cite my site?

No. You can improve accessibility, relevance and evidence quality, but you cannot control an external system’s source selection.

Do I need a blog?

No. Strong product, service, application and technical-resource pages may be more useful than frequent general articles. Publish an article when it answers a worthwhile question that your existing pages do not address.

Sources

1. Google Search Central: AI features and your website
2. Aggarwal et al.: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, accepted at KDD 2024; manuscript on arXiv
3. Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
4. Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide
5. Google Search Central: Introduction to structured data
6. Google Search Central: Documentation updates, including retirement of FAQ rich results

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