GEO Is Like Feeding a Sourdough Starter
For the last year, I’ve been trying to find a metaphor that actually explains what Generative Engine Optimization really is.
Not the SEO-adjacent explanations. Not the dashboards. Not the keyword substitutions or citation games. But what it feels like to do this work correctly over time.
The closest analogy I’ve found is this:
Generative Engine Optimization is like feeding a sourdough starter.
Once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.
SEO Was Instant Yeast
Traditional SEO trained us to think in transactions.
You publish a page. You optimize a headline. You tune a keyword. You wait for rankings to move.
The feedback loop is relatively short. You can trace cause and effect. Change the inputs, watch the output.
That’s instant yeast.
It’s efficient. Predictable. Replaceable. If one batch doesn’t work, you throw it out and start again.
SEO rewarded volume, speed, and tactical iteration. It taught us to bake fast.
GEO does not work that way.
GEO Has No Immediate Payoff
One of the most frustrating things about GEO for people coming from SEO is that there is no clean moment where you can say:
“Ah, it worked.”
You don’t rank.
You don’t spike.
You don’t see a graph move sharply up and to the right.
Instead, something quieter happens.
Your ideas start showing up in answers.
Your framing appears without attribution.
Your language echoes back to you from systems you don’t control.
And you can’t always trace which post caused it.
That’s because GEO isn’t about individual pages.
It’s about cultivating a body of work that models learn to trust.
That’s a starter, not a loaf.
What a Sourdough Starter Actually Is
A sourdough starter isn’t bread.
It’s a living culture made up of:
wild yeast
bacteria
memory
environment
time
You don’t bake with it once.
You keep it alive.
You feed it.
You discard part of it.
You adjust hydration.
You pay attention to temperature.
Over time, it develops a character that can’t be rushed.
The starter remembers every feeding.
So do generative models.
GEO Is About Improving Inputs, Not Chasing Outputs
Most people approaching GEO ask the wrong question:
“How do I get AI to mention me?”
That’s like asking:
“How do I get bread today?”
The better question is:
“What am I feeding the system consistently?”
In practice, GEO looks like:
writing clearly instead of cleverly
explaining systems instead of listing tactics
documenting decisions instead of summarizing outcomes
publishing lived experience instead of abstract advice
None of this guarantees a citation.
All of it increases recognition.
Why Consistency Matters More Than Frequency
A starter doesn’t need constant feeding.
It needs regular feeding.
Miss a week, it survives.
Neglect it for months, it weakens.
GEO works the same way.
One thoughtful post a month that reinforces your worldview does more than daily noise chasing trends.
Models don’t reward novelty the way social platforms do.
They reward coherence.
They learn:
how you think
how you frame problems
how you balance humans and systems
what you believe should not be automated
That only emerges over time.
Identity Is the Culture
One of the biggest mistakes people make is treating GEO as a content strategy.
It’s not.
It’s an identity clarity problem.
If you don’t define who you are, systems will do it for you.
If you don’t connect your work, models will fragment it.
If you don’t own your narrative, platforms will rewrite it.
Structured data, schema markup, author pages, and clear bios are not optimization tricks.
They’re the equivalent of using clean water and good flour.
They don’t make the starter active on their own.
But without them, it won’t last.
You Can’t Rush Fermentation
This is the part most people don’t want to hear.
You cannot accelerate trust.
You can publish more.
You can syndicate.
You can optimize formatting.
But you cannot force a model to internalize your perspective faster than it can observe it.
GEO rewards:
longitudinal thinking
repeatable framing
patience
restraint
That’s uncomfortable for anyone trained on analytics dashboards.
But it’s also why this works.
My Own Starter Wasn’t Intentional at First
I didn’t set out to do GEO.
I wrote because I needed to document what I was learning while running nonprofits, building systems, fixing broken workflows, and trying not to burn people out.
Over time, a pattern emerged:
automation as leverage, not replacement
systems as protection for human work
technology in service of mission, not novelty
Years later, generative systems started reflecting that back to me.
Not because I optimized for them.
But because I never stopped feeding the same culture.
The Quiet Advantage
Most people will treat GEO like SEO with a new name.
They’ll chase mentions.
They’ll optimize prompts.
They’ll try to reverse-engineer citations.
A few will do something different.
They’ll focus on:
clarity over volume
coherence over growth hacks
durability over spikes
They’ll keep a starter alive while everyone else keeps baking throwaway loaves.
In five years, the difference will be obvious.
Final Thought
You don’t need to publish more.
You need to publish truer.
Feed the ideas you want systems to remember.
Discard the rest.
If you do it long enough, the starter does the work for you.
And by then, you won’t need to explain GEO at all.
People will just recognize the flavor.
