Michael D. Wandzilak
People can use AI assistants to research businesses, asking questions such as “who’s an estate attorney in Fort Wayne?” or “where can I get a facial nearby?” Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) describes work to make business information accessible and useful in those experiences. Much of that work overlaps with SEO, and inclusion in an answer is not guaranteed.
Where AI answers actually come from
Demystify this first, because everything practical follows from it. When an assistant recommends a business, the answer is assembled from two sources:
- Training data — what the model absorbed about the world when it was built: websites, articles, directories, reviews. Slow-moving, but it’s why established, widely-mentioned businesses get named “from memory.”
- Live retrieval — for anything current or local, assistants search the web in real time and read pages before answering. ChatGPT leans on Bing’s index and its own crawlers; Google’s AI features draw on Google’s index; Perplexity crawls aggressively itself.
Traditional SEO remains relevant because search indexes can supply sources for assistant answers. Also check whether the relevant crawlers can access your pages, alongside information about your business on other sites. Our client-site investigation is described in our crawler-access case study with checks for interpreting the results.
The GEO checklist, in priority order
1. Make sure AI systems can read your site
Distinguish search and retrieval crawlers from training crawlers when setting access rules. robots.txt and firewall policies both need checking; a simulated user-agent request is only a preliminary test. Our step-by-step check explains how to interpret it. Google-Extended is a robots.txt product token, not a separate HTTP crawler identity.
2. Tell machines exactly what you are with entity schema
Structured data (Schema.org JSON-LD) can describe a business through fields such as its name, location, hours, services, founder and social profiles. On every site we build, a connected @graph of LocalBusiness (or the specific subtype), Person and Service nodes ships in the head of every page, each fact matching what the page visibly says. Keep structured data consistent with the visible page so tools that use it receive the same business details.
3. Publish content that answers questions in plain language
Generative engines quote and synthesize; they reward pages that state things clearly. The formula is unglamorous: one question per page or section, a direct answer in the first sentences, specifics and numbers over adjectives, and a visible FAQ where the questions are real ones. (Notice that this is also just… good writing for humans. The overlap is not a coincidence — assistants were trained on what humans found useful.)
4. Get mentioned in places models trust
Independent sources can provide corroboration: reviews, directories, professional associations, press and partner pages. Check that relevant listings reflect the same name, address and business details, and correct outdated information.
5. Keep your facts consistent
Check for outdated hours, addresses and phone numbers across your listings. Schedule a review when business details change so readers and tools can find consistent information.
6. Add the emerging plumbing: llms.txt
A proposed standard gives AI systems a curated, markdown map of your site. An llms.txt file is an optional addition; our llms.txt guide explains its format and the limits of the adoption evidence. Keep it accurate and assess whether tools relevant to your audience use it.
7. Measure it
Ask the assistants your customers’ questions, monthly, and record the answers. Watch your analytics for referrers like chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai and for the crawlers in your logs. It’s early, the tooling is immature, and anyone promising you a “#1 ranking in ChatGPT” is selling something — but trend lines are already visible and worth tracking.
GEO vs SEO vs AEO — the terms, quickly
SEO optimizes for ranked lists of links. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) targets direct-answer surfaces like featured snippets and voice. GEO targets generative assistants that compose recommendations. The labels get thrown around interchangeably, and honestly, the work overlaps heavily — the pillars above serve all three. AI-specific checks include relevant crawler policies and the way assistants cite or describe the business.
Where to start
Run the crawler-access check today — an access check can reveal rules that stop some services from fetching your pages. Then schema, then content. If you’d rather have it done for you, this is now a standing part of our SEO & performance work: we audit AI-crawler access, build the entity graph, and set up the measurement — the same process we run on our own site.
Frequently asked questions
What is Generative Engine Optimization in one sentence?
GEO describes work to make business information accessible and useful in AI-assisted research, alongside checks of how assistants cite and describe the business.
Is GEO different from SEO?
Much of the work overlaps with SEO. AI-specific checks include relevant crawler policies and how assistants cite or describe your business.
Can I pay to appear in ChatGPT's recommendations?
No. There’s no ad placement inside organic assistant recommendations today. Anyone selling guaranteed AI rankings is overpromising — the honest work is access, structure, content and reputation.
How long does GEO take to show results?
There is no fixed timetable for changes in assistant answers. Record a baseline, verify technical fixes and repeat the same questions over time to see what changes.