GEO Search Engineering:
The 5 Pillar Systemᵀᴹ
GEO Search Engineering: The 5 Pillar System™
Our structured, AI-ready framework for making your firm found trusted and recommended in AI search.
What is the
GEO Search Engineering: The 5 Pillar System™
and why should you use it?
Is your website disappearing in AI Search?
The 5 Pillar System™ is a proprietary SEO/GEO framework developed by Claire Mullaney, founder of GEOSearchStudio, to help law firms, tech companies and property firms achieve visibility in AI powered search platforms.
Based on the latest GEO research, the framework was developed in 2025 and addresses the fundamental shift from traditional search engines like Google, to generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude.
According to Claire,
"AI search doesn't return a list of websites or blue links, it returns one trusted answer. If your firm isn't optimised for AI understanding, you simply don't exist in that answer."
In her latest Linked In article she explains further how this impacts firms. The research clearly shows that some of the old and reliable SEO tactics just don't work for AI search optimisation anymore. Though, there are still some very important aspects of SEO that should continue to be implemented.
The 5 Pillar System™ integrates the best of SEO and GEO tactics, as a result GEOSearchStudio has got you covered in every important AI visibility way to help your business stay ahead of your competitors.
This fast evolving AI mediated economy requires firms and brands to move beyond the mindset of simple rankings to focus on multimodal content and technical readability
Figure: The AI Discovery Shift: GeoSearchStudio
AI visibility is disproportionately focused on decision-stage pages (industry, tools, pricing) and is accelerating fastest in high-trust, high-risk sectors such as legal, finance, and healthcare (Source: 2025 State of AI Discovery Report: What 1.96 Million LLM Sessions Tell Us About the Future of Search)
PILLAR 1:
AI Discoverability
How easily AI systems can find, recognise and retrieve your firm.
We measure:
- Whether you appear at all in AI systems (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini)
- How often you appear vs competitors
- Whether you appear for category-based or location-based queries
- How accurately you are described
- Whether AI is hallucinating, outdated, or missing information
Outcome:
A clear, honest snapshot of your current AI visibility and which retrieval layers are failing.
PILLAR 1
AI Discoverability
How easily AI systems can find,
recognise and retrieve your firm.
PILLAR 2
Brand & Category Clarity
Whether AI can confidently classify
who you are and what you do.
PILLAR 3
Entity & Topic Strength
The semantic foundation AI uses to
decide if you are an authority.
PILLAR 4
Structural Readability
Whether your website can be understood when AI reads it like
a flat document.
PILLAR 5
Trust And Evidence Signals
The external credibility AI relies on
to judge reliability and authority.
What is GEO Search Engineering: The 5 Pillar System™
and why should you use it?
Is your website disappearing in AI Search?
The 5 Pillar System™ is a proprietary SEO/GEO framework developed by Claire Mullaney, founder of GEOSearchStudio, to help law firms, tech companies and property firms achieve visibility in AI powered search platforms.
Based on the latest GEO research, the framework was developed in 2025 and addresses the fundamental shift from traditional search engines like Google, to generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude.
In her latest Linked In article she explains further how this impacts firms. The research clearly shows that some of the old and reliable SEO tactics just don't work for AI search optimisation anymore. Though, there are still some very important aspects of SEO that should continue to be implemented.
The 5 Pillar System™ integrates the best of SEO and GEO tactics, as a result GEOSearchStudio has got you covered in every important AI visibility way to help your business stay ahead of your competitors.
This fast evolving AI mediated economy requires firms and brands to move beyond the mindset of simple rankings to focus on multimodal content and technical readabilit
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Figure: The AI Discovery Shift: GeoSearchStudio
AI visibility is disproportionately focused on decision-stage pages (industry, tools, pricing) and is accelerating fastest in high-trust, high-risk sectors such as legal, finance, and healthcare (Source: 2025 State of AI Discovery Report: What 1.96 Million LLM Sessions Tell Us About the Future of Search)
What The 5 Pillars Mean And How
They Help Your AI Search Visibility
PILLAR 1: AI Discoverability
How easily AI systems can find, recognise and retrieve your firm.
We measure:
- Whether you appear at all in AI systems (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini)
- How often you appear vs competitors
- Whether you appear for category-based or location-based queries
- How accurately you are described
- Whether AI is hallucinating, outdated, or missing information
Outcome:
A clean, unified topic graph that strengthens how AI ranks, cites and recommends you.
Tagline
PILLAR 2: Brand and Category Clarity
Whether AI can confidently classify who you are and what you do.
AI needs explicit, unambiguous clarity on:
- What you do
- Who you help
- The problems you solve
- How you differ from category competitors
When your digital identity is inconsistent, AI blends you with competitors or misfiles your category entirely.
We identify:
- Missing or conflicting messaging
- Blurred service categories
- Confusion between you and competitors
- Gaps in your brand’s semantic footprint
Outcome:
AI gains a confident, consistent definition of your firm, essential for correct recommendations.
PILLAR 2:
Brand and Category Clarity
Whether AI can confidently classify who you are and what you do.
AI needs explicit, unambiguous clarity on:
- What you do
- Who you help
- The problems you solve
- How you differ from category competitors
When your digital identity is inconsistent, AI blends you with competitors or misfiles your category entirely.
We identify:
- Missing or conflicting messaging
- Blurred service categories
- Confusion between you and competitors
- Gaps in your brand’s semantic footprint
Outcome:
AI gains a confident, consistent definition of your firm, essential for correct recommendations.Whether your firm is positioned in a way AI can interpret confidently.
PILLAR 3: Entity and Topic Strength
The semantic foundation AI uses to decide if you are an authority.
AI relies on “entities” not keywords, to understand a business.
We analyse:
- Which service concepts are present
- Which are missing
- Where topics overlap or blur together
- Whether your content signals true expertise
- How well your services align with the entities AI expects
- Whether your content signals true expertise or just surface-level information
Outcome:
A clean, unified topic graph that strengthens how AI ranks, cites and recommends you.
PILLAR 3:
Entity and Topic Strength
The semantic foundation AI uses to decide if you are an authority, because AI relies on “entities” not keywords, to understand a business.
We analyse:
- Which service concepts are present
- Which are missing
- Where topics overlap or blur together
- Whether your content signals true expertise
- How well your services align with the entities AI expects
- Whether your content signals true expertise or just surface-level information
Outcome:
A clean, unified topic graph that strengthens how AI ranks, cites and recommends you.
PILLAR 4:
Structural Readability
Whether your website can be understood when AI reads it like a flat document.
AI doesn’t navigate your site like a human.
It extracts meaning from structure, hierarchy, and patterns.
We assess:
- How your services are structured
- Heading Hierarchy
- Content density
- Thin or redundant pages
- Internal linking logic
- Thin, redundant, or conflicting pages
- How clearly AI can map your services
- Whether your structure signals the right category
Outcome:
A website that AI can read, parse and classify with zero ambiguity.
Tagline
PILLAR 4: Structural Readability
Whether your website can be understood when AI reads it like a flat document.
AI doesn’t navigate your site like a human.
It extracts meaning from structure,
hierarchy, and patterns.
We assess:
- How your services are structured
- Heading Hierarchy
- Content density
- Thin or redundant pages
- Internal linking logic
- Thin, redundant, or conflicting pages
- How clearly AI can map your services
- Whether your structure signals the right category
Outcome:
A website that AI can read, parse and classify with zero ambiguity.
PILLAR 5:
AI Discoverability
The external credibility AI relies on to judge reliability and authority.
AI places enormous weight on trust signals.
We review:
- Accreditations and memberships
- Awards and recognition
- Third-party listings
- Press and media mentions
- Review sites and testimonials
- Consistency across your entire digital footprint
- Conflicts in NAP data (name/address/phone)
Outcome:
A trust layer that gives AI confidence to recommend your firm above competitors.The external credibility AI relies on to judge reliability and authority.
PILLAR 5: Trust and Evidence Signals
The external credibility AI relies on to judge reliability and authority.
AI places enormous weight on trust signals.
We review:
- Accreditations and memberships
- Awards and recognition
- Third-party listings
- Press and media mentions
- Review sites and testimonials
- Consistency across your entire digital footprint
- Conflicts in NAP data (name/address/phone)
Outcome:
A trust layer that gives AI confidence to recommend your firm above competitors.
Tagline
Why The 5 Pillar System™ Works
Each pillar strengthens a different part of your AI identity.
Together, they create:
- AI clarity
- AI confidence
- AI-ready structure
- AI-interpretable expertise
- AI-grade trust signals
Why
The 5 Pillar System™
Works
Each pillar strengthens a different part of your AI identity. Together, they create:
- AI clarity
- AI confidence
- AI-ready structure
- AI-interpretable expertise
- AI-grade trust signals
This is what makes your firm findable, understandable and recommendable in an AI-led search landscape.