Beginner’s Guide to GEO and Nano Banana for AI-Driven Search

If your brand keeps getting skipped—or mentioned inconsistently—in AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews, you’re not alone. The good news: you can influence inclusion odds. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is about making your content easy for AI systems to understand, cite, and visualize. And yes, visuals matter. Clean diagrams, UI snippets, and on-brand graphics—paired with solid metadata—can help AI answers select and position your content more often.

Before we start, a quick expectation check: GEO doesn’t “force” inclusion, and AI Overviews can change click patterns across queries. Industry analyses in 2024–2025 show that AI answers centralize information and can reduce downstream clicks in some cohorts, as covered by the Search Engine Land overview on AI-powered search and zero-click dynamics (2025). See the context in Google’s own explanation of how AI Overviews surface grounded summaries with citations (2024) in the Google blog on generative AI in Search. Use this guide to set up a repeatable, visual-first workflow—then measure and iterate rather than expecting guarantees.

GEO in plain English (and how it differs from SEO)

Think of classic SEO as optimizing for ranked links. GEO optimizes for AI-generated answers that synthesize sources and sometimes include images or diagrams. You’re aiming to be:

• Understandable: clear headings, short paragraphs, explicit answers

• Cite‑worthy: well-sourced claims and entity clarity

• Multimodal: images and diagrams that reinforce the story

A concise framing is offered by the industry primer in Search Engine Land’s “What is GEO?” (2025), which explains that GEO focuses on clarity, structured evidence, and entity grounding so AI systems can quote or summarize you. For more practitioner detail, the agency guide “What is Generative Engine Optimization?” by Go Fish Digital (2025) echoes that GEO isn’t just keyword placement—it’s about scannable structure, explicit claims, and machine-readable context.

One more nuance: AI Overviews and chat answers often show fewer sources than a full SERP, and the order/format differs from classic listings. That’s why being citation-friendly and visually supportive matters more here.

Why visuals and multimodal assets move the needle

AI systems like Gemini are natively multimodal—they can interpret text and images together. Google and DeepMind’s model updates for Gemini 2.5 Flash emphasize efficient, multimodal understanding and generation, as summarized in the DeepMind introduction to Gemini 2.5 Flash (2025). When your page pairs a clear explanation with a simple diagram that includes strong alt text, captions, and structured data, you’re giving the model more hooks to understand and cite your work.

On the web side, Google’s image guidelines stress that good filenames, alt text, captions, and structured data (ImageObject) help systems interpret what an image is about and how it should be displayed or licensed. See Google Search Central’s “Google Images best practices” and the “Image license metadata” structured data guidance. These basics are both accessibility wins and GEO wins.

Three simple reasons visuals help:

1. Entity anchoring: A labeled diagram can disambiguate terms (e.g., GEO vs. SEO) and reinforce the entities you care about.

2. Scannability: AI answers prefer concise, extractable information; diagrams often communicate relationships faster than text.

3. Multimodal signals: When images carry descriptive metadata and appear near key claims, they strengthen the page’s topical coherence.

What is “Nano Banana” (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)?

“Nano Banana” is a commonly used nickname in 2025 media coverage for Google’s upgraded image generation/editing capabilities within Gemini—officially referred to as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image. Google’s developer communications outline how to prompt and refine images with size, layout, and reference controls, as shown in the Google Developers Blog guide to prompting Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (2025). For a practitioner’s look at the nickname and hands-on results, see PCMag’s “nano bananas” explainer (2025).

In practice, you can use Gemini 2.5 Flash Image to create brand‑consistent visual assets quickly—concept diagrams, UI mockups, or step sequences—then apply accessibility and metadata so they’re GEO‑ready.

A visual‑first GEO workflow you can follow today

Here’s a beginner‑friendly, repeatable process for producing on‑brand visuals with Nano Banana/Gemini and preparing them for AI‑driven search.

1. Prepare your brand kit

• Gather your palette hex codes (e.g., primary #3B82F6, dark navy #0F172A), logo lockups (SVG/PNG), typography notes, and 1–2 screenshots of your UI if relevant.

• Keep brand assets organized and licensed; maintain an asset source log.

2. Seed visual consistency with 3–5 references

• Upload “anchor” references: how the logo should sit, preferred background style, icon set, and an example diagram. Consistency reduces off‑brand drift.

3. Use prompt patterns in Gemini (Nano Banana / Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)

• Composition‑first prompt: "Wide 1200×628 banner, clean dark navy (#0F172A) background, central diagram with 3 labeled nodes, accent lines in #3B82F6, place Geneo logo bottom-right at 64px, high legibility."

• Style & brand prompt: "Flat illustration, no gradients, WCAG AA contrast, enterprise tech brand, minimalistic UI accents."

• Consistency prompt: "Match style to reference-1.png and reference-2.png; keep icon set consistent; avoid photorealistic skin tones."

You’ll find layout and reference controls in the Gemini image generation docs, which explain accepted inputs and context handling (2025).

4. Iterate and version

• Generate 3–5 variants; pick 1–2 best. Review for copy accuracy, legibility, logo clear space, and brand color correctness.

• Export @2x and @3x for responsiveness; consider WebP or optimized PNG.

5. Prepare metadata for GEO

• Filenames: use descriptive names, e.g., geo-vs-seo-diagram-gemini-aio.png

• Alt text: mirror target entities/claims concisely, e.g., “Diagram comparing GEO and SEO: AI answers cite scannable, structured content with visuals and ImageObject metadata.”

• Captions: one sentence that reinforces the claim context.

• Structured data: add ImageObject JSON‑LD with name/description/caption and license/creator details (see snippet below). Google’s image and licensing documentation explains these properties.

6. Publish and cluster

• Place each visual near the relevant claim; follow with a short explainer paragraph.

• Cross‑link related assets and provide a downloadable version.

• Consider adding images to an image sitemap so they’re easier to discover, per Google’s image sitemaps guidance.

7. Track and iterate

• Choose 3–5 KPIs (inclusion rate in AI answers, AI Overview prominence, sentiment of mentions, visual presence rate, topic coverage breadth).

• Run a 6–8 week pilot using two clusters: visual‑rich vs. text‑only. Maintain a holdout list for baseline comparison. Studies in 2025 (e.g., Semrush and SE Ranking) show that AIO trigger rates vary by intent and timeframe, so compare like‑with‑like.

One‑line recap: Prepare a brand kit, generate consistent visuals with prompt patterns, add accessibility and metadata, publish next to claims, then measure and iterate.

Accessibility and error‑prevention essentials

Small fixes prevent big problems. Keep these in your QA pass:

• Contrast: WCAG requires at least 4.5:1 for body text (3:1 for large text), and 3:1 for non‑text graphics like icons/lines. See W3C’s “Contrast (Minimum)” and “Non‑text contrast” guidance.

• Readability: Avoid tiny text inside diagrams; prioritize clear labels over decorative elements.

• Logo usage: Respect clear space; avoid placing logos on noisy backgrounds.

• Alt text: Provide meaningful alt text for informative images; use empty alt for purely decorative ones (per Google image best practices).

• Legal/licensing: Do not use copyrighted bases without rights; record sources and usage terms.

• Metadata accuracy: Filenames, captions, and JSON‑LD should match the image and the surrounding copy.

Common mistakes (and quick fixes):

• Off‑brand color drift → Re‑prompt with explicit hex codes and add brand references.

• Low contrast → Adjust foreground/background until ratios meet WCAG.

• Vague filenames (IMG_123.png) → Rename to describe subject and entities.

• Missing schema → Add ImageObject JSON‑LD with license/creator and caption.

Publish, cluster, and measure impact (with a neutral example)

Disclosure: Geneo is our product.

Here’s a neutral example of how a team might measure the results of this workflow using Geneo:

• Map assets to topics/entities: tag your new “GEO vs. SEO” diagram to its topic cluster.

• Monitor inclusion and prominence: read weekly inclusion rate in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and the mention/visual frequency in Google AI Overview panels.

• Track sentiment of mentions: watch positive/neutral/negative shifts after the visual rollout.

• Iterate your content roadmap: note which visuals/alt text variants correlate with higher inclusion or better sentiment, then prioritize similar assets for related entities.

Alternatives you might consider, depending on your setup:

• BrightEdge: if you already run enterprise SEO at scale and want AIO tracking tied into wider SEO workflows.

• Authoritas: for experimental AIO tracking and flexible exports when you prefer custom research.

• Manual scripts/APIs: if you have an in‑house data team and want bespoke monitoring across engines.

Experiment tip: A/B by topic cluster for 6–8 weeks, conduct weekly reads, and keep a holdout group to estimate baseline changes unrelated to your new visuals.

Quick reference: JSON‑LD snippet for an ImageObject

Below is a starter template you can adapt. Pair it with a visible tag and a concise caption under the image so both users and machines see the connection. See Schema.org’s ImageObject definition and Google’s image and licensing docs for properties and placement.

{
      "@context": "https://schema.org",
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "contentUrl": "https://example.com/images/geo-vs-seo-diagram.png",
      "name": "GEO vs SEO diagram",
      "description": "Diagram comparing GEO and SEO, highlighting scannable structure, citations, and multimodal signals",
      "caption": "GEO vs. SEO: how AI answers differ from classic search results",
      "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
      "creator": {"@type": "Organization", "name": "Your Brand"},
      "creditText": "Your Brand",
      "thumbnailUrl": "https://example.com/images/geo-vs-seo-diagram-thumb.png",
      "datePublished": "2025-09-01"
    }
    

Prompt recipes you can copy

Use these in Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (aka “Nano Banana”) to produce clean, on‑brand assets:

• Composition‑first banner "Wide 1200×628 banner, clean dark navy (#0F172A) background, central diagram with 3 labeled nodes, accent lines in #3B82F6, place Geneo logo bottom-right at 64px, high legibility."

• Style & brand constraints "Flat illustration, no gradients, WCAG AA contrast, enterprise tech brand, minimalistic UI accents."

• Consistency via references "Match style to reference-1.png and reference-2.png; keep icon set consistent; avoid photorealistic skin tones."

• Explainer sequence (step‑by‑step) "Create a 4‑panel explainer: Step 1 brand kit, Step 2 references, Step 3 prompt + iterate, Step 4 metadata + publish. Use #0F172A background, #3B82F6 accents, white text, clean labels, and large legible type."

For details on how Gemini handles image prompts, references, and edits, see the Gemini image generation docs (2025) on the developer site.

One‑page checklist: GEO‑ready visuals

• Brand palette and logo applied (e.g., #3B82F6, #0F172A; clear space respected)

• Flat, high‑contrast style; legible type; no tiny text in diagrams

• Descriptive filename with target entities (e.g., geo-vs-seo-diagram-gemini-aio.png)

• Alt text mirrors key entities/claims in one sentence

• Short caption connects the image to the nearby claim

• ImageObject JSON‑LD with license/creator/credit

• Visible tag on the page; consider adding to image sitemap

• Downloadable version and cross‑links to related assets

• Legal/licensing reviewed; asset audit trail updated

• Tracked in your dashboard with KPIs and experiment plan

Sources and further reading

• GEO basics and strategies: see Search Engine Land’s explanation in “What is GEO?” (2025): GEO definition and strategy, and Go Fish Digital’s 2025 guide: What is Generative Engine Optimization?

• Multimodal models: DeepMind’s update on Gemini 2.5 Flash (2025): Introducing Gemini 2.5 Flash

• Gemini image generation/editing: Google Developers Blog (2025): How to prompt Gemini 2.5 Flash Image generation and the Gemini image generation docs

• AI Overviews behavior and grounding: Google (2024): Generative AI in Search and AI Overviews

• Image SEO and structured data: Google Search Central’s Google Images best practices and Image license metadata; Schema.org ImageObject; Google’s image sitemaps guidance

• Accessibility: W3C WCAG 2.1/2.2 — Contrast (Minimum) 1.4.3 and Non‑text contrast 1.4.11

• Market context: Semrush (2025) study on AIO triggers: Semrush AI Overviews Study and SE Ranking (2024) recap: AI Overviews 2024 Research

Ready to try this? Start with one topic cluster, generate two or three clean diagrams with consistent metadata, and measure for 6–8 weeks. Then scale what works.

Soft CTA: If you want a single place to monitor inclusion, sentiment, and AIO panel prominence as you iterate, explore Geneo.