In eCommerce, staying relevant means anticipating the next trend; in design, but also in how people find and engage with your brand. Digital discovery is evolving rapidly, and the traditional SEO playbook is no longer sufficient on its own. If 2025 has made one thing clear: it’s that search is evolving. Fast.
Click-through rates are dropping. Google traffic is in decline. Gen Z are discovering through TikTok before they even open a browser. People are asking questions in chat-based tools like Gemini or ChatGPT instead of typing them into search bars. And Instagram content is about to become searchable via Google. The future isn’t SEO vs. social. It’s SEO + Social Media Optimisation (SMO) + Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) = a three-pronged approach that helps your content show up in traditional search, stand out on social platforms, and appear in AI-driven search responses.
This guide aims to shed light on this new search ecosystem, ensuring your brand is discovered by the right audience, wherever they choose to search.
UNDERSTANDING THE NEW SEARCH ECOSYSTEM
For years, SEO was the undisputed champion, ensuring your product pages and blog content ranked high on search engines. And while SEO still starts with great content, the way people find information, especially in the visually-driven world of eCommerce, is rapidly evolving. Search used to mean Google. Today, it also means TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and, increasingly, generative AI chatbots.
This disruption isn’t coming. It’s here:
- Organic web traffic is shrinking across the board: Google’s traffic is down 6.4% year-over-year¹
- AI Overviews are reducing click-throughs by 34.5%²
- 40% of Gen Z prefer TikTok over Google for search³
Discovery now starts with enriched visual content as well as keywords, and brands must adapt to how, where and why their audiences are searching. This poses a unique challenge: if users are getting answers without ever clicking, how does your brand stay visible? And in a world of instant results, how do you make sure it’s your content that gets showcased?
LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMISATION (SMO) FOR EXTERNAL SEARCH
Discovery today is inherently social and visual. This is where Social Media Optimisation (SMO) takes centre stage, especially as younger generations increasingly turn to social platforms for product discovery and even direct shopping. According to our own research, 83% of Gen Z shoppers now start their product discovery journey on platforms like TikTok and Instagram⁴.
And Instagram has just changed the game. From July 2025, public posts and Reels from professional accounts will be indexed by Google⁵. That means your fashion content on Instagram – your Reels, carousels and stories – could appear in search results when someone searches “sustainable gym wear” or “black summer maxi dress”. And the more your content is shared by users, the more likely it is to be picked up.
This means that User-Generated Content (UGC) – already the most effective way to build trust and authenticity – is an even more powerful SEO and SMO asset too.
🔧 Action Plan: Optimising Instagram for External Search
- Use keyword-rich captions, alt-text, and bios: think like a search engine. Use specific, descriptive terms (e.g. “cropped leather biker jacket” or “beachy linen trousers”).
- Google prioritises useful and high-quality content. Prioritise beautiful imagery, compelling videos, and creative Reels that not only showcase your products but also offer genuine value, like styling tips, behind-the-scenes, or fabric features. Video content, in particular, is a powerful way to bring products to life and show them in real contexts. The most effective way to do this at scale? User-generated content (UGC). It’s authentic, affordable, and increasingly preferred by both platforms and shoppers. Reels remain favoured by Instagram’s algorithm, with their visibility on Google set to grow.
- Set your Instagram to public and professional: only these profiles are eligible for Google indexing.
- Video Accessibility: utilise captions and descriptions for all your videos and Reels. This provides more crawlable text for search engines, boosting discoverability, and ensures compliance with EU regulations around digital accessibility.
And don’t stop at Instagram. TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube are powerful discovery engines, with platforms like TikTok Shop becoming full-funnel experiences where Gen Z can discover and buy instantly.
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO GENERATIVE ENGINE OPTIMISATION (GEO)
SEO and SMO are only two-thirds of the picture. The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) has introduced a new frontier: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). GEO is about ensuring your brand content is referenced by AI tools like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), Gemini, and ChatGPT. It’s less about keywords, and more about contextual, authoritative answers to real user questions, for example, content that answers “What’s the best skincare routine for dry skin in winter?” is far more likely to be picked up by AI-generated overviews. According to eMarketer, almost 80 million US consumers have shifted to GenAI search. And that number is growing¹.
🔧 Action Plan: Generative Engine Optimisation
- Prioritise intent over search terms: Instead of “silk dress,” consider content that addresses user intent, such as “how to style a silk slip dress for a summer wedding” or “what are the best fabrics for sustainable activewear?” GEO interprets the larger context of the question.
- Organise your content: Use structured formatting, ie. bullet points, headings, and summaries, to make your information scannable by AI.
- Keep content current: Outdated info will be ignored. Update pricing, availability, and policies regularly.
- Content audit: review your existing product descriptions, blog posts (e.g., trend reports, styling guides), and FAQs. Are they answering potential customer questions thoroughly and clearly? Is the information conversational and easy to digest?
- Establish EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust): Create confident, credible, and human-written content.
- Synchronise content across channels: GEO benefits from repetition and consistency across blogs, product pages, social and marketplaces. Ensure consistent product data and brand messaging across all digital touchpoints.
- Ensure images and videos are enriched with clear, English-language metadata to improve how GenAI tools find and understand them (StoryStream’s AI can automate this at scale).
INTEGRATING FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE = THE SEO + SMO + GEO SYNERGY
The future of digital discovery is about creating a powerful, integrated approach where SEO, SMO, and GEO work in harmony. Great GEO doesn’t remove the need for superior SEO; instead, these practices work in tandem.
Here’s how they reinforce each other:
- Comprehensive content: visually-rich assets like product images and videos or UGC Galleries, coupled with detailed captions and descriptions, provide a wealth of keywords and context. This aids both traditional SEO crawling, enriches your social media presence, and gives GenAI more information to pull from.
- Building brand mentions: A key factor for visibility in AI overviews is how much your brand is discussed across the web, not just on your own site, but in articles, social media posts, reviews, and influencer content. Research from Ahrefs shows that brands with more online mentions are 66% more likely to appear in AI search results². Put simply: the more people are talking about your brand, the more visible it becomes to tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Overview. Actively encourage user-generated content, collaborate with influencers, and pursue PR to increase discussions around your brand name.
- Content across owned channels: As GenAI takes over the top of the search journey, visibility comes from how well you use your first-party data (what your audience tells you) and owned channels (your website, blog, social media).
The takeaway? If your content isn’t being talked about, it’s not being found, by people or by AI. UGC, influencer collaboration, and consistent content distribution across your ecosystem are essential.
The rise of GenAI in search and the new indexing capabilities of Instagram mean that a siloed approach to online visibility is no longer sufficient, an updated strategy must integrate the foundational power of SEO, the dynamic reach of SMO, and the emerging imperative of GEO.
HOW STORYSTREAM CAN HELP.
We help brands turn UGC, video and influencer content into shoppable, searchable, and AI-optimised experiences. With features like automated metadata enrichment, video accessibility, and intelligent product tagging, we make it easy to win attention across every discovery channel.
StoryStream provides the essential platform to unify these efforts. We empower your brand to centralise, distribute, and optimise compelling visual content across diverse channels, simplifying how you adapt to new discovery methods and ensuring your stories shine brightly across every evolving search and social touchpoint.
References:
- SEO and Search Decline—Marketers Must Meet Audiences in GenAI and Social, eMarketer, June 2025
https://www.emarketer.com/content/seo-search-decline–marketers-must-meet-audiences-genai-social - AI Overview Brand Correlation Study, Ahrefs, May 2025
https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-brand-correlation/#methodology - Gen Z Prefers TikTok for Search, eMarketer, June 2025
https://www.emarketer.com/content/gen-z-prefers-tiktok-google-searches - StoryStream + Territory Influence via Pollfish, Consumer Behaviour Research, 2025
- Instagram Expands Its Reach with Google, Marketing4eCommerce, June 2025
https://marketing4ecommerce.net/en/instagram-indexing-google/ - AI Search vs. Google Graph Infographic, Social Media Today, May 2025 https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/ai-search-versus-google-graph-infographic/748426/
- Keyword factors can help ensure brand visibility in AI overviews, WARC, May 2025
https://www.warc.com/content/feed/keyword-factors-can-help-ensure-brand-visibility-in-ai-overviews/en-gb/10637?utm_source=daily-email-free-link&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-email-emea-prospects-20250528 - How to Do Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) for Ecommerce, Salsify, February 2025
https://www.salsify.com/blog/how-to-do-generative-engine-optimization-geo-for-ecommerce - Gen Z Turns to Google Shopping Over Amazon, IBTimes UK, June 2025
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/genz-turns-google-shopping-over-amazon-thats-not-amazons-only-problem-1735799
