What is GEO and why would I build an MCP Server?

While the world figures out what AI is (and is not) capable of, SEO is rapidly changing. How our content is found online for many businesses plays a vital role in visibility, profitability and impact. This article introduces evolving technologies that could be useful for marketers and business owners to have on their radar.

Overview of Terms

Terms like LLM, AI, and Agents can all be quite confusing - but the key consideration is that the way people are getting information from the Internet is changing. Instead of clicking links and reading our carefully-written pages, often new content is generated each time the user searches.

Importantly for you the generated content now includes links to pages - and a new goal is to have your links included in the content.

I will use the term "LLM" in this article - because that is the underlying technology that makes all this magic possible.

GEO and MCP

I am going to introduce two things - GEO and MCP:

GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation

LLMs read existing content, store all sorts of complex maths about how the content is structured and then generate new content based on it. Importantly they do not store the actual original content (the way a traditional search engine's index would).

Here is an example from Google which has generated a Cheesecake recipe instead of simply linking to an existing one:

GEO is about optimising our websites so the LLMs like our content enough to use it and include links to our website. Akin to the traditional SEO aiming to get into the index for particular keywords so we come up high on the listings. Expanding the description reveals citation links, and clicking those shows search results we are more familiar with.

The goal of GEO is to be in those results:

How to implement GEO is outside the scope of this article, but these links will help you explore further:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_engine_optimization

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=generative+engine+optimisation

• https://llmstxt.org/

MCP - Model Context Protocol

MCP is just a technical name for a tool and you do not really need to understand why it is called that (like API, HTTP or LLM). 

As I mentioned above, LLMs are creative tools that generate new content each time - MCP is a way for them to get deterministic (not generated) information and to perform specific actions.

The goal of MCP is to complement the LLM's creativity with more reliable data or actions.

You can think of MCP as being in a similar category to the sitemap.xml - we list all the pages on our site in the sitemap, the MCP lists all the things a user can do on our website (in a way that a chat-based LLM can work with interactively).

I do want to stress: MCP is brand new and everyone is still figuring out how it will evolve. I am sharing these ideas to help put it on your radar as marketers so you know the possibilities it can bring and we can talk about them when you would like to know more.

It was first released last Autumn and tools like ChatGPT only added support for it in early 2025. It's unclear how Google etc is going to use it, but I imagine the generated AI result at the top will one day become more interactive.

Imagining an MCP Server for a Job Vacancy Website

Here is an example of how MCP could interact with a job vacancy website.

The MCP server could list currently available jobs so that:

• Google might one day use this in results

• A chat bot (whether embedded on your website, or someone using a different app) could then "talk" about the jobs which are available.

• You could even have an application process in the MCP - so the MCP server tells the LLM what questions to ask, the user can apply for the job.

• There is huge accessibility potential for this - allowing users devices to change how they interact with your site based on their needs.

Imagining an MCP Server for an Event Booking Platform

Let's say you run a membership platform where you run events for your members.

The MCP server could offer a "Booking" action - so a user can book an appointment by talking to their AI app.

• I imagine tools like Home Assistant and Alexa will one day make use of MCP for this "Hey Alexa, book me on to the next Badminton Club social event" and the MCP server will offer locations, times and other options provided by the MCP server.

• A user's LLM could ask your MCP Server what events the member has booked for, and offer reminders or sync to their calendar.

Creating an MCP Server

An MCP server is a lot more work to set up than a sitemap.xml and what we can do with it depends on various factors - but as with everything, we can start small and focus on what is impactful.

I hope that is a helpful summary to GEO and MCP - if you would like to explore this exciting new era of the Internet with Steadfast Collective - get in touch!