What Is GEO? How to Get Your Business Recommended by AI Search
A growing share of buyers start with a question rather than a search. They ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot or Google's AI Overviews to recommend an accountant, a builder or a marketing agency, and work from the shortlist they are given. Generative engine optimisation, usually shortened to GEO, is the work of making sure your business is one of the names in that answer. This guide explains how it works in plain English, and how much of it is genuinely new.
How AI Assistants Choose Who to Recommend
When an assistant answers a question about businesses, it usually does not rely on memory alone. It searches the web, reads a handful of pages, and writes a summary naming the businesses its sources present most credibly. Perplexity and ChatGPT's search mode show the sources they used, and Google's AI Overviews tend to draw on pages that already perform well in Google search. Two practical consequences follow:
- Your own website is only one input. Assistants also read directories, review sites, press coverage and comparison articles, and give weight to what several independent sources agree on.
- Ordinary search visibility still matters. If the pages that would mention you do not rank, an assistant is unlikely to find them.
What GEO Actually Involves
Strip away the new acronym and most GEO work falls into five areas, several of which are simply good SEO practice that many businesses have neglected.
1. Consistent facts about your business
Assistants are cautious when sources disagree. If your trading name, address, services or even founding year differ between your website, Google Business Profile, Companies House and directory listings, you become easier to leave out. Auditing and correcting those details is unglamorous work, and often the single most effective step.
2. Pages that answer real questions
Assistants quote pages that state things plainly: what you do, who for, where, and what it costs. Clear service pages, published prices or price ranges, and FAQs written in the words customers actually use are far more quotable than vague marketing copy. If a buyer would ask it, answer it somewhere on your site.
3. Being mentioned by others
Independent mentions carry real weight: reputable directories, trade bodies, local press, industry roundups and reviews. This is where GEO overlaps with digital PR, since coverage on well-known sites earns both links and citations that assistants read.
4. Technical access
If crawlers cannot reach or read your pages, nothing else matters. Check that your robots.txt is not blocking the crawlers AI search tools rely on, that key content is in the page itself rather than loaded by scripts after the fact, and that structured data describes your organisation, services and reviews. Our guide to technical SEO covers the foundations.
5. Reviews and reputation
A steady flow of genuine reviews on Google and relevant platforms signals that a business is active and trusted, and assistants often summarise review themes directly in their answers. Reply to reviews, including the critical ones.
How to Check Where You Stand
You do not need specialist software for a baseline. Ask several assistants the questions your customers would ask, such as "best your service in your town" or "who should I use for your problem", and note whether you appear, how you are described, and which sources are cited. Repeat monthly, because answers vary between sessions and shift as their sources change. The cited sources are often the most useful part: they show exactly where you need to be listed or mentioned.
Is GEO Different From SEO?
Partly. The overlap is large, since crawlable pages, strong content and reputable links help with both. The difference is one of emphasis: GEO puts more weight on consistent business information, third-party citations and plainly written answers, and less on ranking for any single keyword. For most small businesses, a sound SEO programme with those priorities added is a better use of budget than a separate GEO retainer.
Buying GEO From an Agency
Plenty of agencies now sell GEO or "AI search optimisation". Good ones start with an audit of how assistants currently describe you, fix the inconsistencies, and build content and citations over months. Be wary of:
- Guarantees that you will be recommended by ChatGPT or any other assistant. Nobody controls those answers.
- Reports built on a screenshot of one favourable answer, rather than a consistent set of questions tracked over time.
- Packages that turn out to be bulk directory submissions or low-quality articles under a new label.
Judge it like any other channel: agreed questions to track, a baseline, and a clear link to enquiries. Our guide to measuring marketing ROI applies here too.
Where to Start
Begin with the free steps: make sure your business details match everywhere, check that your key pages answer buyers' questions directly, and ask the assistants about your own business. If you want help, SEO agencies and content marketing agencies are where most GEO expertise sits today, and you can compare them in our UK agency directory.