My content strategy behind top SEO and GEO rankings for Gies Law Firm

Discoverability is one of the most underestimated challenges for businesses of any size, in any industry. You can have the best product and the sharpest brand and still be invisible online. That gap between what you offer and who can actually find you is where content marketing lives.

I've spent a lot of time closing that gap for my clients. And the more I do it, the more I'm convinced that most of what passes for SEO advice out there is overcomplicated. There’s a simpler path. It’s called “writing genuinely useful things for the people you want to reach.” Be strategic about how you do it, and the rankings will follow.

Blogging as the foundation of Content Marketing and SEO

A lot of folks treat their blog like a social media checkbox. Post something. Stuff in some keywords. Move on. But that's not content marketing.

What actually works is treating every piece of content as a real resource. Something that answers a question someone is actually asking. Something that earns its place in search results because it deserves to be there.

My approach starts with understanding what your audience is actually searching for. Not just the obvious terms, but the specific questions, concerns, and language your people use. From there, I focus on creating content that's thorough, current, and genuinely useful. I do the homework. I get into the nuances. I write things that a person would actually want to read as opposed to content that technically contains the right words.

I'm not generating AI slop and calling it strategy. There's a place for AI in this work, but it's not writing things that don't know anything about your business ethos and how people engage with you. 

Because I craft content like I give a f___, I’m able to consistently secure featured snippets for my clients' content on Google and get top placements in AI answers.

What are featured snippets?

Featured snippets arethose highlighted answers that appear at the very top of Google's results, above everything else.

Featured snippets get chosen by Google's algorithm when a page is structured to directly and clearly answer a specific question. They're valuable not just for the traffic, but because they signal your content is credible, relevant, and worth surfacing as the answer. That kind of placement builds brand authority and trust with potential clients before they ever click.

Getting there isn't magic. It comes from writing clearly, structuring information well, and actually answering the question

Example of a clients rich snippet blog post pulling into a Google AI Overview

This is where GEO comes in and why you should care now

There's a newer layer to all of this worth paying attention to and everyone’s already selling their expertise. Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO. This is the practice of showing up in AI-generated answers… aka the results you see in ChatGPT.

I've found in my own work that the content I've built for clients is showing up in these AI-generated answers without me having to do anything different. The strategy that earns traditional search rankings is the same strategy that earns GEO placements. AI tools pull from the same signals search engines always have — authority, relevance, structure, and genuine usefulness.

This is good news if you're already invested in quality content. It means your SEO work has a longer shelf life and a wider surface area than ever. If you're not yet invested in it, this is the time. The businesses that are showing up in AI answers right now are the ones who started building content authority before everyone else caught on.

You don't chase GEO separately. You earn it by doing the underlying work right.

Results out in the wild: Gies Law Firm

Some of my work with Gies Law Firm, an Oklahoma cannabis law Firm, is a testament to the power of strategic content marketing in driving traffic and qualified leads as well as building trust with your target audience. This is a competitive, fast-changing area where businesses desperately need to be found by the right people at the right moment, and where trust is everything.

By building a consistent content strategy around regulatory updates, practical legal guides, and the specific questions potential clients are actually searching for, Gies is now positioned as a leading authority in Oklahoma's cannabis legal landscape. They're owning search results in the places where people are actually looking for legal help. And that content is surfacing in AI-generated answers too.

More traffic. More qualified leads. More trust before the first phone call. That's what this kind of work produces and it's not specific to law firms or cannabis. The mechanics work for any business operating in a space where people are searching for answers. Chances are, if you’re offering a product or service, there’s a knowledge gap you can take advantage of.

SEO isn't Instagram. It doesn't give you 200 likes in an afternoon. It's a compounding investment. Content you build today continues to work for you months and years from now, growing in authority and reach over time.

What I offer is a strategy built to last: research-driven content, technical optimization, and a consistent approach to showing up in traditional search, in featured snippets, and increasingly in AI-generated answers.

If you're serving a specific market, a specific geography, or a specific audience this kind of targeted content strategy is one of the highest-leverage things you can invest in.

Interested in SEO + marketing services? Get in touch.

*Website design projects come with complementary SEO setup