Ask ChatGPT for the best agencies in your city, or for suppliers of your product. It’ll give you names. If yours isn’t one of them, you’ve just found a channel you’re missing out on.
What GEO Actually Is
Generative Engine Optimization: the work of getting generative engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google’s AI Overviews — to mention and recommend your brand when someone asks about your category.
It doesn’t replace SEO. It shares the same foundations, but the selection criteria are different: Google decides which link to show; an AI decides who to cite within an answer.
What an AI Looks at Before Citing You
- Entity clarity. Is it obvious who you are, what you do and where you operate? Structured data carries a lot of weight here.
- Consistency across sources. If your name, address and description differ between your website, your Google listing and directories, the model loses trust.
- Content written as answers. Copy that directly answers specific questions, not marketing paragraphs.
- External mentions. Other people talking about you on sites the models have read.
How It’s Measured
There’s no ranking position like in Google, but there is a clear trend. You define a fixed set of questions — the ones your customers would actually ask — and query each engine periodically, logging whether you show up, in what context and with what message.
Is It Worth It Yet?
It depends on the sector. In B2B and professional services, where buyers research thoroughly, it’s already bringing in business. For local retail, local SEO and Google Business Profile still carry far more weight.
We run it as a standalone service, and it fits especially well alongside SEO because they share the same technical foundation.
What It Means to Be Understandable to an AI Search Engine
AI assistants don’t replace Google, and they don’t work like a directory where a business simply “signs up”. They build answers from sources they consider relevant and clear. That’s why the foundation is still an accessible website with useful content, consistent data and trust signals. If a brand doesn’t precisely explain what it does, who for, and in what context it’s the right fit, a system will struggle to connect it to a specific recommendation.
GEO isn’t about repeating “ChatGPT” on a page. It’s the work of structuring real knowledge so that people, search engines and AI systems can all understand it: clearly scoped services, sector pages, identifiable authors or contacts, case studies, honest FAQs, and external references when they add credibility.
Actions That Make Sense Right Now
Start by checking the basics: name, contact details, service areas, Google listings and relevant profiles all need to match. Then build pages that answer high-intent questions with clear examples and boundaries. Mark up organisation, services, FAQs and content correctly where it applies; structured markup helps interpretation, but it won’t make up for weak copy or a confusing offer.
It’s also worth tracking the questions customers ask before buying. They’re the best starting point for articles, comparisons and solution pages. An industrial company can document applications; a clinic, its care process within legal limits; a local shop, its services and coverage area.
How to Measure GEO Work
There’s no single, stable “AI ranking” metric. Track the trend in branded searches, qualified mentions, referral traffic, queries, and the visibility of the pages feeding those answers. A well-run GEO service improves a company’s overall digital clarity, even when the user ends up searching on Google or asking their network instead.
What Sources Help a Company Become Citable
Answer engines value information that can be verified and understood without extra context. That favours clearly scoped service pages, case studies describing real work, consistent company profiles, identifiable authors and useful documentation. An unsupported sales claim is easy to ignore; a clear explanation with context, boundaries and examples is far more reusable.
Think of every page as a potential answer to a specific question. Instead of saying you’re a “leader”, explain what you do, who for, what you deliver, where you work, and what a customer should expect. This approach improves both the human experience and your chances of showing up when an AI synthesises alternatives.
A 90-Day GEO Plan
In month one, you fix entity inconsistencies and prioritise the most important commercial pages. In month two, you document questions, case studies and applications with a structure that lets you link them together. In month three, you review which content is getting impressions, mentions or queries, and expand only where there’s demand. You don’t need dozens of articles; you need precise coverage of what the business actually does.
The work of GEO should coexist with SEO, not compete with it. If a page isn’t useful, crawlable and trustworthy for a search engine, it won’t be a solid foundation for an AI assistant either.
What Not to Do to Get Featured in AI
There’s no secret file you send to ChatGPT to get it to recommend your brand. Stuffing a page with your city’s name or publishing generic copy with no evidence doesn’t help either. Models rely on information that’s crawlable, consistent and verifiable. If your website, your Google listing, your profiles and external references all say different things, trust drops before an AI ever gets to cite you.
How to Build a Citable Page
A page that works in this context answers a specific question in plain language, identifies who provides the service, in what area, for what type of customer, and with what evidence. Add dates when they matter, real case studies you can verify, and links to sources or your own documentation when they explain a technical capability. The goal isn’t to write for a machine — it’s to leave an answer a person can understand and check too.
It’s better to prioritise a handful of high-value questions than chase generic mentions. For example: which supplier solves a specific application, which clinic offers a treatment in a given area, or which company can manufacture a part under a specific certification. Those questions look a lot more like a real commercial opportunity.