The Future of Search Is Headless: Tech Experts Weigh In on GEO’s Impact

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The rules of brand visibility have changed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to completely change how users access the information that shapes their lives. The only way to keep your content visible as the waves of change rock our modern world will be to master Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) (opens in a new window).

But the technology is still emerging. How do you find the best way to boost your GEO when we’re still learning about it?

We turned to our Storyblok tech experts, who are seeing this tech in action every day. We asked about the best ways to prepare for GEO success in a constantly shifting landscape. Spoiler alert: the future-proof benefits of a headless CMS radiate through all parts of the content journey.

We’ll give you a quick overview of GEO and cover how it's impacting your visibility. Then, we’ll go over why our experts are betting on headless as the future-forward solution and how you can reap the benefits for yourself.

Let’s dive right in!

GEO 101: The new rules of search

Since the dawn of the internet age, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the end-all, be-all for getting found online. The closer to the top you were, the more findable you were. The #1 spot was heavily coveted – and to get there, your content had to be tailored to search engine crawlers and ranking rules.

But a lot has changed. Google’s still top dog, but a new contender has shaken things up: AI. ChatGPT alone sees a staggering 2.5 billion prompts per day (opens in a new window). Users are flocking towards its ultra-personalized, conversational solutions to any problem they could possibly be facing.

And that’s completely changing which answers come up.

Think of it like this: your average shopper isn’t Googling “running shoes” anymore. They’re going to an AI bot and having a conversation – what are the best shoes for endurance running? And for runners in rainy climates? And which ones come in their favorite color? The AI might even be pulling from conversations they’ve had to find the most hyper-specific match possible.

Search engine tactics have evolved beyond optimizing for popular long-tail keywords. If you want to thrive in this brave new world, your site needs to evolve for the AI era.

GEO is a shifting landscape

There’s a good chance that this isn’t the first time you’re hearing about GEO. It’s been a hot topic lately, and for a good reason – it’s about to change everything.

• Gartner is predicting an over 50% drop in organic search traffic by 2028 (opens in a new window)
• In 2024, nearly 60% of Google searches were zero-click (opens in a new window), with users getting their info from the AI overview and not following through with any URLs

Companies that fail to adapt to the new way of search risk losing visibility. That means less clicks, potential customers, and conversions.

But what does it mean to stay visible? How can you set yourself up to win the game of GEO when most of us are still trying to learn the rules?

Bring in the experts

The key part of that last sentence: Most of us. Fortunately, there are plenty of tech-savvy search enthusiasts who can help lead the way to sustained visibility. We consulted with a variety of Storyblok experts to find the best way to get ready for the age of AI search.

Their answers point to a single horizon: the future is headless.

What do we know so far about headless CMS and GEO?

Let’s get one thing straight: SEO still matters in the GEO landscape. Basic SEO best practices aren’t going anywhere, and will form an essential foundation for the AI evolution. Hold on to good habits like:

• Creating high-quality, expert-driven content
• Tracking and responding to what your ideal audience is searching for
• Making sure your technical performance (opens in a new window) is top notch

But, there’s also a lot that’s changed. Some GEO best practices are things that you may not have even known existed before the rise of generative search engines. For example, did you know that how you structure your data (opens in a new window) will influence how easily your content is found?

On top of that, the truth is that there’s still a lot we don’t know. The tech is still evolving, and with it, the role your CMS type will play. At this stage, Data Team Manager Nicole Hölzl theorizes that legacy systems might actually have a head start on visibility:

“Legacy CMS platforms may appear more visible in search or LLM outputs because they've been around longer, giving them deeper crawl history and stronger traditional SEO signals. This would mean that more of their content ends up in the training data for current LLMs.”

Senior FullStack Engineer Alba Silvente Fuentes agrees, arguing that some LLMs may not even be able to tell where content is coming from without an explicit identifier attached.

Does this mean legacy systems have a slight edge? The answer is a tentative “maybe” – but just for now. A lead today doesn’t guarantee a sustained GEO presence in the future, especially considering the upward trend of AI searches.

In fact, despite being comparably newer and less represented in backlog datasets, Hölzl also advises that headless CMSs “offer advantages in structure and metadata that align well with how modern AI systems retrieve and understand content.”

Headless is fluid, not fixed

So, what is this core structural difference offering the ultimate GEO advantage?

Flexibility.

Headless CMSs have a well-earned reputation as the future-proof option. The API-based system gives you the freedom to change your tech stack whenever and push content to any channel, ensuring you’re in full control of your entire site.

But the future-proofing doesn’t stop there. It expands to include every part of your content life cycle. It ensures you’re free to pivot to whatever strategy you need, phase in any tool that can give you a GEO edge, and do it all with minimal downtime or performance lag.

And as it turns out, that flexibility is also key to gaining visibility in generative search results – to the point where that legacy edge from earlier is significantly dulled.

“From a technical standpoint, there is no reason why legacy systems may currently be more discoverable or visible in LLMs than content published through composable architectures,” says Edoardo Sandon, Website Team Manager. “If anything, I'd argue that the flexibility of a headless CMS can actually be very helpful when it comes to creating "mirrored content" that is more digestible for LLMs. This applies whether it’s a llms.txt or more "standard" structured data such as JSONLD/Schema.org or an RSS feed.”

Edoardo Dusi, Senior Developer Relations Engineer, highlights the strategic technical agility of headless as key to its performance in an AI world: “One of the strongest advantages of a headless CMS is the flexibility it offers when adapting content for emerging AI technologies. As initiatives like llms.txt gain traction, it’s becoming clear that new standards will likely define how information is presented to LLMs and AI-powered search engines.”

Headless is built to embrace change, not oppose it like legacy systems. With the optimal structure for easy reuse and delivery, headless has a clear advantage when it comes to maintaining an agile, flexible GEO strategy as we learn more about what works – not to mention offering multiple data sources for more discoverable experiences.

Facundo Giuliani, Solution Engineering Team Manager, tells us more: “The flexibility provided by a Headless CMS, in addition to the API-first composable approach applied by platforms like Storyblok, should make it easier for developers and content creators to structure content for easy reuse and delivery, and adapt it to the standards and definitions that should be followed to make it “LLM ready”.”

Headless brings out the human in AI

Yes, you read that right. With all the clamor about AI’s impact, it can be hard to believe that leaning into AI can help your company make more meaningful customer connections. But the truth lies in the reason people are abandoning traditional search engines in the first place: AI offers a more personalized, conversational approach to gathering information.

When a user wants an answer from Google, they’re tossing in a few keywords and sorting through the mountains of URLs to see if anything is relevant to them. But with AI, they can ask for exactly what they need to know and trust that AI will come back in seconds with a helpful, personalized answer. It won’t be long before this is the main way people find your brand.

Showing up in a search result that offers that level of personalization and ease is a valuable thing. One AI prompt can take someone from not knowing anything about your brand to completely understanding how you can meet their specific needs. No sales call required!

The only way to show up in that extremely targeted answer as a citation is to choose tech that will line you up as easily understandable by LLM. If you don’t, you’re stuck competing for the increasingly old-school Google rankings.

But you won’t escape AI there, either. With the AI overview creating more zero-click searches than ever before, even the #1 position isn’t a guarantee of traffic anymore.

Stay in control of your GEO

Beyond the structural flexibility of headless CMS, there are other elements that make it a smart choice in the AI era, too. Storyblok alumnus Thomas Peham, now CEO and Co-Founder of Otterly.AI, explained the common problem more and more sites are seeing with being AI visible in a recent LinkedIn post: (opens in a new window)

“More and more web hosters and CDN providers are blocking ChatGPT bots from crawling your content. Some give you the option to decide with a simple turn-off/turn-on toggle (e.g. Cloudflare). But others? They don’t tell you at all - they just block it by default.”

Peham mentions this is a cost-saving maneuver by the providers, but it has real-world implications: missing the chance to be cited by LLMs, losing traffic as a result, and getting buried by the competition as the terrible grand finale.

“That’s another reason why websites running on a headless CMS are most often better positioned at AI search than monolithic ones”, concurs Barry D’Arcy, VP of Partners. “Your frontend typically runs on “better” CDNs that allow you to control bot traffic”.

Will any headless CMS help you win the GEO race?

Our expert consensus is clear: even this early on, headless CMSs are better for GEO. The increasing user numbers mean that this advantage is only going to become more important.

But choosing just any headless CMS isn’t going to do the trick.

Starting with headless is a great shortcut to finding architecture that’s naturally better poised to support GEO success. But soon, as more people adopt headless to get the same benefits, the benefit that pure headless architecture offers will become the status quo.

Going headless will no longer be an ace in the hole for content strategy - it’ll be a requirement just to get a seat at the poker table.

So, yes, by all means, you should go headless. But don’t let it be the only quality you’re looking for. Make sure you’re choosing an enterprise CMS (opens in a new window) according to your company's unique needs. Some headless systems scale better than others, some are just easier to use. The best CMS is ultimately the one that most effectively supports your goals – for GEO and beyond.

Headless and GEO: Key takeaways

Headless CMS has long been recognized as the most future-forward way to manage content. Freedom to publish across any channel, use any backend tech, and stay endlessly agile have already been major advantages.

The experts have spoken. In the age of AI, that headless flexibility is no longer a perk. It’s now the price of entry for appearing in the next generation of web search. And companies that resist paying it risk getting the door shut in their face.

Want to stay ahead of the curve? Try Storyblok for free today (opens in a new window), or contact our team (opens in a new window) for a free personalized demo.