Salt Lake City Marketo User Group - 0 to HERO: GEO Success in the Age of AI; September 2025

You should already be owning how your brand shows up on search, but are you even in the conversation when it comes to your brand and AI chatbots?

What if Chat GPT is selling your company’s services short or not even suggesting you as a solution? 😱

Join us on September 11th at the Pattern office in Lehi for a timely discussion on how Search Engine Optimization is transforming into Generative Engine Optimization. Hear from Mike Schmutz, founder of DataXGrowth, on how to treat bots as users of your site and his HERO approach - Holistic Engine Revenue Optimization. Snacks, jokes, and a collaborative atmosphere are included.

1. Adobe User Group House Rules To ensure our Adobe User Groups stay user-focused and a safe space for members to learn, network, and problem solve, we ask that all Adobe User Group session attendees follow these rules: No self-promotion or pitching of any kind is permitted at Adobe User Group events Don’t contact people outside of the User Group without their consent If User Group members share their use case at the User Group, please don’t share that information without their consent

2. Notice: This User Group Meeting is being Recorded. To ensure that we are abiding by the Adobe User Group Code of Conduct, we are informing all user group attendees at SLC MUG on 9/11/25 that this meeting will be recorded and posted on the Adobe User Group YouTube Channel to promote training, education, and future learning.  If you do not wish to participate in a LIVE recorded session , please feel free to watch the recording at a later time, which will be linked after the meeting concludes. Send us any questions you may have to [email protected] or [[email protected]].  

3. Stay connected with our Salt Lake City chapter! Sign up for Bevy – the space where User Group leaders and members connect! Step 1:  Navigate to mugs.marketo.com/salt-lake-city-mug/ Step 2: Create an account using the email associated with your Adobe Experience Manager user account Once you’ve joined the chapter, you’ll receive notifications and reminders about new events that the chapter has posted! 

4. Marketo & Mochas – September 18 th – 10 AM PT Join Joe Stewart (Adobe; Sr. Product Marketing Manager) Isabella Hargreaves (Adobe; Product Marketing Manager) and Charlie Oakham (JTF; Chief Marketing Technologist) as they discuss how Marketo’s GenAI capabilities can help you build campaigns and personalize at scale. Focus areas will be: Use of AI Assistant Content Accelerator in the new Email Designer to generate copy, images and subject lines. Engage audiences across channels including; Interactive Webinars, email, mobile & AI-based chat. Manage multi-brand marketing at scale and easily control assets, templates and design

5. New Marketo User Group; Foundations Adobe is pleased to announce the creation of the new Foundational Marketo User group The purpose of this new MUG is to bring together like minded individuals who are just starting out on their Marketo journey and want to learn the foundational aspects of Marketo Engage. We will have 5 sessions between now and the end of 2025 to get you started and set you up to get certified as a Marketo Professional! Join the MUG:

6. New Email Designer Adobe is continuing to host the bi-weekly office hours for those that would like to learn more about the new Email Designer. Register below: Adobe has released a free course to help you learn the new Email Designer! If you have been waiting to learn more about how to use the new features and functionalities, here is your chance:

7. 2026 Adobe Experience Maker Awards Spotlight on spectacular. Submissions are now open for the 2026 Adobe Experience Maker Awards , celebrating the innovators who are reimagining customer experiences. Apply in up to three of ten categories , including The Groundbreaker (new) —celebrating customers laying the foundation for increasingly personalized experiences. Finalist companies will receive two complimentary passe s to Adobe Summit and two invitations to the Awards gala.      ⏳ Submissions close October 17, 2025.   Apply now

8. Upcoming User Group Events

9. Upcoming User Group Meetings Calendar (North America) DATE MUG CHAPTER FORMAT TOPIC Sept 3 rd New York City Virtual 'Ask Me Anything' with Inga Romanoff and Sandy Whiteman Sept 4 th Phoenix Virtual Building Nurtures that Work for Your Audience. And You. Sept 11 th Silicon Valley Salt Lake City In-person In-person Scaling Smarter: Building Intelligent Data Pipelines & Activating AI-Driven Marketing 0 to HERO: GEO Success in the Age of AI Sept 17 th South Florida Virtual Virtual Lunch & Learn: AMA with SFMUG Sept 25 th Portland In-person September Portland MUG RSVP HERE

10. Upcoming User Group Meetings Calendar (International) DATE MUG CHAPTER FORMAT TOPIC Sept 3 rd ​ IT Industry MUG – Japan Netherlands In-person In-person ITKETO - "Our Adobe Marketo Engage Struggle" ~ Aiming for both career and results ~ AI powered marketing automation Sept 8 th Brisbane In-person Brisbane MUG: Dynamic Chat and AI Trends Sept 15 th Brasil In-person Primeiro Evento Presencial do BRMUG Sept 24 th Chandigarh, India Dynamics – Japan Virtual In-person Design Smarter, Not Harder: Hands-On with Marketo’s New Email Editor DKETO - ROI concerns can be clarified if we all talk about them! Sept 25 th SFDC – Japan Germany In-person In-person SFKETO - 5 Use Cases of Data and AI in MA and Salesforce Hamburg September MUG RSVP HERE

11. Share your experience with Adobe Marketo and receive a $25 gift card as a thank you! Review us on G2 Review us on TrustRadius © 2025 Adobe. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

12. New World of GEO HERO Framework for Site Optimization

13. Why “HERO” Framework? Holistic Engine Revenue Optimization. Combines SEO, GEO, and CRO practices all together. Focus for site optimization is compatibility with all types of users: AI Crawlers, Google Bot, and Potential Customers. Site Speed / Core Web Vitals Site Structure / Schema Content Optimization / Holistic Entity Continuous Optimization

14. User behavior in the GEO world Long-tail is the new norm. Tech savvy users are looking for specific answers and details to more specific questions. Research phase moves off‑site. Users get “pre‑visit” education from AI answers Fewer, more qualified visits. Expect lower sessions, higher intent . Implication: Your site must function as proof, depth, and action . Finish the job that AI starts.

15. What “good” looks like now Entity‑first structure: organize around things (people, products, services, locations), not just keywords. Use hubs, relationships, and disambiguation. Machine‑readable clarity: robust, accurate schema on every key page template Speed and ranking authority: target INP ≤ 200 ms, LCP ≤ 2.5 s, CLS ≤ 0.1 . Conversion‑ready UX: assume visitors already know the basics—lead with pricing, side‑by‑side comparisons, specs, proof .

16. Site structure for entities Create “entity homes.” One canonical page per core entity (brand, product line, service category, locations). Use it as the source of truth and interlink out to subpages. Build topic hubs. Cluster related articles/how‑tos/comparisons beneath the entity home; use Breadcrumbs and ItemList for lists/collections. Disambiguate. Use clear names , synonyms (on‑page), and sameAs links to authoritative IDs (Wikidata, official profiles) in schema to help machines map the entity. Free tool: https://schema-auditor.replit.app/ Free tool: https://llmstxtbuilder.io/

17. Site structure for entities: LLMs.txt Adding an llms.txt file makes your site instantly more legible to AI models. It’s a lightweight, robots.txt-style text file at your domain root that summarizes your site’s purpose, structure, and key resources in a format LLMs can parse quickly. Focus on site’s most important content… not everything.

18. Site structure for entities: Schema Prefer JSON-LD , validate routinely, and stay within Google’s supported structure. Ensure Organization + Article/Person coverage (plus sameAs ) across key templates. Use FAQ/HowTo/QAPage only when the page truly matches those patterns.

19. CWV Drives Users and Conversions Core Web Vitals has become the most important data trend to watch for keyword ranking and conversions in 2025 Metrics to own: INP ≤ 200 ms , LCP ≤ 2.5 s , CLS ≤ 0.1 ; measure on real users at the 75th percentile . Why it matters: A Deloitte/Google study found 0.1s faster mobile load correlated with +8–10% conversions and higher AOV . Free tool: https://corewebvitalsaudit.com/

20. Core Web Vitals Audit Get very specific action items to work on for the site to overcome issues with CWV reporting .

21. Content patterns for GEO and CRO Lead with the definition. 1–2 sentences that unambiguously define the entity or claim. Structure for extraction and conversion. Q&A blocks, bulleted steps, spec tables, pros/cons, “vs.” pages, and explicit summaries (“TL;DR”). Ground with citations. Link out to primary standards/docs; it increases trust and helps answer engines include you as a source. (Engines like Perplexity prominently show source links.) Good tool to use: Frase.io

22. Content patterns for GEO and CRO: Content Scores Frase allows you to see content updates in real time for rankability for SEO and GEO crawlers.

23. Conversion for informed visitors Immediate proof: pricing, side‑by‑side comparisons, first‑party data, implementation details, compatibility matrices. Trust scaffolding: reviewer identity (UGC Stories), expert bios (E‑E‑A‑T), guarantees, security/compliance badges. Friction killers: pre‑filled forms, interactive assets, transparent shipping/return, live chat with real people .

24. Conversion for informed visitors: Pattern Product Pages Simplified product pages allowed users to get to the Contact Us page and convert at a 30% increase over more educational focused product pages. Users know that they wanted to find a solution and just need validation in order to make a choice on contacting Pattern.

25. Conversion for informed visitors: Vasion CTAs Personalized CTAs that focus on driving action and value for the user has proven to increase users engaging with the site by 400%, which has led to more conversions. This gives back trust signals to Google that the site is also relevant.

26. Conversion for informed visitors: Spin Product Tour Simplified Interactive Product Tours help to drive engagement and also drive conversions for Spin. 45% more users get to the Demo from product pages with the product tour available, which also has increased conversions by 35%.

27. 30/60/90‑day action plan: HERO Framework 30 Days - Critical updates: CWV / Site Structure Audit: CWV Updates, LLMs.txt, Organization + WebSite + Breadcrumb schema; entity inventory; content structure cleanup. 60 Days - Content Optimizations: Content Updates: Build entity homes & topic hubs; integrate product/service schema at scale; comparison articles & spec tables; set AI crawler policy. 90 Days - Overall User Optimizations GEO and CRO strategies: GEO/AEO content sprints (definitions, Q&As, how‑tos tied to entities); VICE Framework / Persona development; CRO tests for informed traffic.

28. Q & A - Real World Walk Through Connect on LinkedIn with the QR Code