How does Contentful help with SEO and GEO?

“How does Contentful help marketers with generative engine optimization (GEO)?” If you’ve been following our interview series on AI search and how it’s transforming SEO, then you’re probably wondering about this question.

In our first three entries of our AI search series, I sat down with Josh Lohr, Contentful’s Senior SEO Lead, to get a tour of this fast-moving frontier. So far, Josh has given us the background on GEO that we need, we’ve looked at the various LLMs and how they are different, and you’ve gotten Josh’s three playbooks for GEO success.

In this episode, Josh and I will break down how Contentful helps your marketing teams get your content AI-ready for GEO, by building on what you’re already doing. Let’s dive in!

Video: Watch AI Search Series Episode 4

Don't miss the full series

Ep. 1 ► What is GEO and how does it differ from SEO?
Ep. 2 ► Understanding and optimizing for various LLMs
Ep. 3 ► Three GEO playbooks to prepare your content
Ep. 4 ► How does Contentful help with SEO and GEO? (this episode)
Ep. 5 ► 2025 SEO/GEO predictions and five takeaways (coming soon)

The foundational advantage of structured content

Josh began our discussion by highlighting Contentful’s strength in structured content: "Contentful's foundations are actually built with content modeling, creating structured content that lends itself perfectly to structured data. This is bliss for bots, allowing them to understand entities and schema that we need to inform them."

Structured content streamlines how AI bots interact with digital content. It simplifies data processing, making content easier to surface accurately and effectively in AI-driven search results. In my five years of working with global brands at Contentful, we’ve seen companies that embrace structured content change and adapt more quickly than they could before — and outflanking competitors, too.

When your content is structured in a way that makes sense for your business, your customers, and AI search engines, your organization will realize more and more of your objectives at speed.

Centralizing content for consistency

Another topic under the microscope was the benefit of centralized content management. Content centralization reduces duplicate content and helps you maintain consistent messaging across various digital channels. This consistency is crucial in generative searches, preventing outdated or contradictory information from surfacing in AI-generated results.

Scaling content efficiently with AI Actions

Contentful’s AI Actions was another topic of interest. Josh pointed out, "We're extensively testing features like AI Actions on Contentful.com — and it’s significantly boosted our own SEO performance."

AI Actions for SEO greatly streamlines content creation tasks like generating alt texts, meta descriptions, and translating content into other languages. This automation helps maintain brand consistency while dramatically scaling content output, freeing up creative resources for higher-impact projects.

Contentful’s customers are already making their own, integrating their prompts with Contentful-aware variables to balance creativity and consistency. 

Empowering teams through flexibility

Flexibility remains a key strength with Contentful, where marketers can independently manage content without needing developer assistance.

As Josh explained in the video: "You can create your own content model without waiting for developers. Structure your metadata for SEO or internal search exactly how you want."

This flexibility has positively impacted Contentful’s internal teams, enabling rapid content adjustments and more efficient processes during our recent rebranding efforts.

Contentful’s visual content modeler helps you structure your content for SEO, GEO, and beyond. Read more in the SEO Guide. 

A balanced approach to GEO investments

Through these conversations, one area of GEO strategy that was unexpected was the value of investing in other channels such as Reddit and YouTube. Drawing from recent research by Ahrefs, Josh noted, "Currently, AI sends roughly the same amount of traffic as Reddit."

This insight underlines the importance of strategically balancing GEO investments against other channels, focusing resources where audience engagement is highest. “Naturally, we should be questioning whether we’re overinvesting in AI search versus brand voice in other channels.”

Organizations feel the need for speed

Josh told me that speed is another critical component of GEO: "Contentful out-of-the-box is very fast. This satisfies SEO for Core Web Vitals but also makes AI bots very happy. When paired with optimal tech partners, it’s absolutely fire, speed-wise."

This insight led me to reflect on my own experience before joining Contentful, where I launched a healthcare startup’s brand and websites with Contentful as a builder. I was responsible for our technical SEO and ensuring that our content strategy was executed effectively.

One of the reasons I signed up with Contentful was because I found it to be an effective product for common business problems: you can publish relevant content quickly, gain organic share of keywords and brand voice, and also create very fast web experiences. You can consistently get Lighthouse scores in the upper 90s building sites with Contentful.

Humans love fast websites too — they click, read, and explore more when they’re not waiting for pages to load.

Over the last five years, I’ve helped dozens of global brands navigate these same challenges when it comes to site performance and SEO. One of these customers was Heap, a maker of digital insights software, who had a mandate to replatform their site in less than a month. They shared their performance tests before and after (which I confirmed independently). The performance results were very strong, with impressive speed gains and SEO results.

You can read more about their story here.

It’s easy to say, “You’ll get positive results from search with our product”. But it’s another to have lived it, and helped others experience it too. 

Building a future-proof business

Domains such as search and AI are changing faster than ever. We’ve seen the advantages of a composable content management platform with headless architecture increase and compound over time for digital experiences. It’s simply faster at adapting and transforming than more monolithic solutions. 

As Josh put it in our interview: "Businesses will need to continue refining content structures and optimization strategies as AI evolves. Continuous adaptability will be key, and platforms like Contentful will play a critical role in navigating these future challenges."

Catch up on the other entries in the AI Search series:

• Understanding GEO

• Optimizing for various LLMs

• Three playbooks for GEO success

In our final episode, Josh is going to give us his predictions for 2025, and leave you with five takeaways to complete your knowledge of SEO and GEO for the days ahead. Stay tuned!

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