1) AI eats the worlds. Changing human decision making along the way.

The way people search for information is changing. For the last 20 or so years Google used to be the go-to-solution for finding information. It was so ingrained, that googling something found it's way into the dictionary.

With the rise of AI-powered chatbots, like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, users are turning to large language models (LLMs) for answers instead of browsing through a long list of blue link search results.

This means we are facing a significant shift in how people look for information online, and consequently there decision making.

For companies, who used to acquire a significant chunk of their costumers via Google (and still are), this means focuses on ranking content for Google, is no longer enough. With the rise of AI-powered chatbots and search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, users are turning to large language models (LLMs) for answers instead of browsing through search results.

This shift isn’t just about search. AI-generated responses are becoming a major channel for content discovery and brand visibility. Unlike traditional search engines that return ranked links, LLMs often times generate answers directly from a vast pool of data. This means businesses and content creators need to optimize their content not just for search, but for AI-generated responses. There

Enter ALLMO (Applied Large Language Model Optimization), also referred to as GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). This new field focuses on ensuring that your content is recognized, referenced, and utilized by AI-driven platforms.

In this short-series of articles, I'll dive into the fundamentals of ALLMO, explain how to analyze your competitive improvements, and how to get started with optimizing your contents.

2) Definition

ALLMO is the practice of optimizing content to be recognized, understood, and cited by Large Language Models in their generated responses. Unlike traditional SEO, which aims to secure top rankings in search results, ALLMO ensures that your content becomes part of the AI knowledge base that powers LLM-generated answers. This covers both - static LLM models that have a knowledge cut-off date with no access to live data - and Models (for example RAG Retrieval Augmented Generation) that leverage live search to retrieve information from the web.

And we are just seeing the beginning. I expect this definition to change every few months.

How ALLMO Differs from Traditional SEO

• AI-generated responses vs. ranked search results: LLMs don’t just rank websites; they generate their own responses based on training data and context.

• Longer search terms: Users provide more context in questions to AI chatbots. According to Google, the average search query is twice as long when asked to an AI compared to traditional search engines. Since LLMs are much better at understanding and providing relevant context, optimization efforts now focus on topics and the relationships between characteristics, rather than short very specific keywords.

  
  

3) Why Does ALLMO Matter?

Changing Search Behavior

More users rely on AI-generated answers instead of clicking through search results. The share of search traffic influenced by AI models is growing rapidly, meaning businesses must adapt or risk losing visibility.

Brand Visibility in AI-Generated Content

If your content isn’t being referenced by AI models, your brand loses a crucial source of exposure. AI-driven recommendations and responses shape user decisions, making ALLMO essential for long-term digital strategy.

Competitive Advantage

Early adopters of ALLMO can position themselves as trusted sources of information. Since AI-generated content often relies on a mix of existing authoritative data and emerging insights, companies that align their content strategy with AI models will have a better chance of being cited in LLM responses.

Think of it this way: More and more content is generated by or with the assistance of AI. Today’s AI training data lays the foundation for future models. If your content isn’t optimized for AI now, it may not be included in future training datasets, reducing your visibility over time.

4) ALLMO vs. GEO, LLMO, or AIO - What term should I use?

Of course, it's up to the reader which term they prefer and currently there are several terms used to describe this discipline.

In this blog, the term ALLMO will be used, because it's the most precise and practical term in comparison to the proposed alternative (and because the domain was registered a couple months before the topic became hot).

• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) could easily be confused or misunderstood with the abbreviation for Geography, especially. It’s proximity to SEO is nice in written text, but may add to confusion in verbal conversations.

• LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) is hard to pronounce, sounds very technical and lacks branding clarity.

• AIO (AI Optimization) is already commonly associated with Google’s AI Overviews, which are only a sub-field of ALLMO.

By putting the 'A' in ALLMO, we not only make it easier to pronounce, but also emphasize its focus on applied strategies and actionable insights for improving AI-driven content discovery. Unlike traditional SEO, ALLMO addresses a distinct set of challenges and opportunities—it's a separate discipline with only limited overlap.

5) Conclusion & Next Steps

AI-powered search engines are redefining digital visibility. If you want your content to remain discoverable and influential in an AI-first world, you need to start optimizing for LLMs today.

The ambition for ALLMO.ai is to become the go to suite for all things applied large lange model optimization. 

Starting with insights into Search visibility, brand perception, and recommendations we'll soon expand into more areas. Further new insights will be regularly posted on this block. The next 2 parts are going to be:

• Part 2: How does ALLMO work: A deep dive into how LLMs work, and how they are different from google.

• Part 3: Here we’ll focus on how ALLMO works, and showing insights and basic strategies to increase your contents visibility in large language models.

Lastly, connect with me on Linkedin to stay up to date on all new articles.