For twenty years, SEO was about one thing: coming out as high as possible on Google. But the shop window has changed. More and more people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini directly — and the AI answers with a single recommendation, not ten blue links.
The question to ask yourself is no longer just “do I show up on Google?”. It's: when AI recommends a company in my sector, does it say my name or my competitor's? That's what GEO answers.
What GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is
Generative Engine Optimization is the set of techniques that get generative AI models to understand, trust and cite your content when they answer their users. Where SEO optimises for a search engine, GEO optimises for an answer engine.
The difference is brutal: on Google you compete for a click among many results. In an AI answer, either you are the recommendation or you don't exist. There's no second page to hide on.
Why it matters right now
Because almost nobody is doing it yet. Just as SEO rewarded those who got there early, GEO is a window of opportunity opening right now. Getting ahead today costs a fraction of what it will in two years, when every one of your competitors is fighting over it.
- ✓Generative AI already sits between users and millions of searches that used to go straight to Google.
- ✓AI recommendations arrive with a bonus of trust: people take them as advice, not as an advert.
- ✓It doesn't show up in your Analytics, so it's traffic (and reputation) you're losing without noticing.
The new “first position on Google” is being the answer the AI gives. And for now, it's almost empty.
How you optimise for AI
There's no magic button, but there is a method. These are the fronts we work on when we prepare a website for AI to understand and cite:
- Clear, structured contentModels reward direct answers. Honest headings, clear definitions and concrete figures get cited far more readily than marketing filler.
- Authority and consistencyYour business described the same way on your site, Google Business, directories and reviews. AI cross-checks sources: if they don't tally, it doesn't trust them.
- Structured data and llms.txtSchema markup describing what you do, and an llms.txt file that tells the models explicitly who you are and what you offer.
- A presence in the sources AI readsModels feed on reference sites, press and aggregators. Being well cited away from your own site is what gets you into the answer.
No hype: nobody can “guarantee” that ChatGPT will name you, just as nobody serious guarantees you first place on Google in 30 days. What can be done is to make it a great deal easier — and to measure it.
Where to start (without the stress)
You don't need to reinvent your website. You need to audit how AI sees you today and plug the most obvious gaps. In practice, we start by asking the models themselves about your sector and seeing what they say — or don't say — about you.
From there we prioritise: first whatever gets you closest to appearing with the least effort, then we scale up. Just as with classic SEO, this is a long-distance race, not an afternoon's trick.
Frequently asked questions
What is GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization?
The work of getting the tools that answer in prose —Google's AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity— to name you when someone asks about what you do. You aren't competing for a position in a list: you're competing to appear inside an answer.
Is it the same as ordinary SEO?
It isn't different: it's additional. The basics still rule, because these tools feed largely off the same Google index. What gets added is how you organise the information inside each page so that a single paragraph can be quoted without the rest.
How do I know whether an AI is recommending my business?
By asking it, to start with: ask the questions a customer would and see whether you come up. It's a snapshot of one moment and it varies between answers, but it tells you whether you exist on that terrain or not. There are also tools that measure those mentions systematically.
What can I do this week to improve it?
Three concrete things: make each page answer a clear question from the first paragraph, add FAQs with answers that stand on their own, and make sure your business details (what you do, where, how to contact you) are consistent everywhere.
Is this going to replace search traffic?
It's going to change its shape. Some searches will be settled without anyone visiting a website, and others where the answer generates the visit because the person wants to check, compare or hire. The sensible thing is to prepare for both and measure what happens with yours.
Want to know whether AI is already recommending you?
In the free audit we ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini about your sector and show you exactly what they say about you. No cost, no obligation.