How Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) rewrites the rules of search

It’s the end of search as we know it, and marketers feel fine. Sort of. For over two decades, SEO was the default playbook for visibility online. It spawned an entire industry of keyword stuffers, backlink brokers, content optimizers, and auditing tools, along with the professionals and agencies to operate them. But in 2025, search has been shifting away from traditional browsers toward LLM platforms. With Apple’s announcement that AI-native search engines like Perplexity and Claude will be built into Safari, Google’s distribution chokehold is in question. The foundation of the $80 billion+ SEO market just cracked.