Generative Engine Optimization: be the business AI assistants recommend
When a homeowner asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity who to call for a new roof in their town, the answer comes from what those systems can read and trust about you. We make your business clear, consistent and citable.
At a glance
- Who it is for
- Businesses whose customers have started asking AI assistants for recommendations
- Time to first signal
- Entity and schema work in the first month; AI mentions tracked from day one and built over quarters
- Typical scope
- Entity audit, schema graph, source-worthy content, mentions program, monthly prompt tracking
What is Generative Engine Optimization and how does it work?
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the work of making a business understandable and citable to AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. These systems answer from pages they can parse, facts that are consistent across the web, and sources they already trust. GEO builds that: clear About and service pages, a structured data graph describing your services and locations, original content worth citing, and mentions on the directories and publications AI models draw from.
Unlike a ranking, an AI recommendation is not a position you hold; it is a probability that rises as the model finds more consistent, verifiable evidence about you. That is why GEO is less about tricks and more about removing every reason for a model to be unsure.
Who this is for
- Home-service companies hearing "I found you on ChatGPT" and wanting more of it
- Businesses with a strong reputation offline that AI assistants describe vaguely or confuse with a competitor
- Companies whose website never says plainly what they do, where, and for whom
- Owners who want AI visibility measured, not guessed at
What you get
Named deliverables, so the monthly invoice always maps to work you can see.
AI visibility baseline
How ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews describe and recommend your business today for a set of buyer prompts, and which competitors they name instead.
Entity audit and cleanup
Every place your business is described, from your About page to directories to social profiles, reconciled so name, services, areas and credentials agree.
Structured data graph
Organization, Service, LocalBusiness and FAQ schema connected with stable identifiers, so machines can read what you are rather than guess from prose.
Source-worthy content
About, team and service pages that state facts plainly, plus original material (local cost factors, process explanations, checklists) that gives a model a reason to cite you specifically.
Mentions and citations program
Listings, associations, supplier pages, local press and industry publications that AI systems crawl, earned honestly.
Monthly prompt tracking
A fixed set of prompts run on a schedule across the major assistants, logging mentions, descriptions and competitors so you see the trend.
How the work runs
In order. Each step produces something you can review before the next one starts.
- 1
Prompt baseline and entity audit
We define the prompts a buyer would use for your services and metro, record what each assistant says, and map every source that describes your business.
- 2
Clarity plan you approve
The facts we will make consistent, the pages we will rewrite, the schema we will add and the mentions we will pursue, in order.
- 3
Fix the foundation
About, service and location pages rewritten for plain facts; schema graph deployed and validated; listings reconciled.
- 4
Earn citations
Original content published and mentions pursued month over month, prioritized by the sources assistants actually cite for your category.
- 5
Track and adjust
Monthly prompt runs show what changed. Descriptions that are still wrong or missing get targeted next.
SEO and GEO compared
They share a foundation and diverge in what they optimize, how they are measured and how they move.
| Dimension | Traditional SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| What you are optimizing for | A position in a ranked list | Being understood and named in a generated answer |
| Primary signals | Relevance, links, technical health, engagement | Entity consistency, verifiable facts, mentions on trusted sources, parseable structure |
| Unit of work | The page | The business as an entity, plus the pages that describe it |
| How it is measured | Rankings, clicks, impressions | Mention rate and accuracy across tracked prompts, AI referral traffic |
| Volatility | Changes with algorithm updates | Changes with model updates and the sources a model retrieves at that moment |
| Relationship | Earns the crawl and authority GEO depends on | Builds on SEO; cannot substitute for it |
How we measure it
- Mention rate: how often you are named across the tracked prompt set, by assistant, month over month
- Description accuracy: whether services, areas and facts are stated correctly when you are mentioned
- Share of voice against the competitors assistants name for the same prompts
- AI referral sessions and leads in GA4 where assistants pass a referrer
What this cannot do
- No one can guarantee an AI citation; models, retrieval sources and answers change without notice
- Results differ between users, sessions and locations, so tracking shows trends rather than fixed positions
- AI assistants lean on reviews, directories and press; a business with little third-party footprint takes longer
- GEO cannot fix a weak offer; if the facts about your business are unremarkable, making them clearer does not make them persuasive
Generative Engine Optimization questions, answered
Direct answers first. If your question is not here, ask it on the call.
Which AI assistants do you optimize for?
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Overviews, because those are where buyers currently ask for recommendations. The underlying work, clear facts, consistent entities and citable content, carries across all of them; the tracking covers each one separately.
Can you get us mentioned in ChatGPT?
We can make it more likely, and we can measure whether it is happening. We cannot buy or force a mention. Assistants recommend businesses they find described consistently across sources they trust, so the work is building that evidence and then checking the prompts monthly.
Is GEO the same as AEO?
No. AEO targets answer features inside Google search, such as featured snippets and People Also Ask, where a passage is lifted from one page. GEO targets AI assistants that synthesize an answer from many sources. They overlap in content structure; GEO adds entity, schema and mention work.
What is an entity and why does it matter?
An entity is the thing a model understands your business to be: name, type, services, locations, people and relationships. If your website, Google profile and directory listings describe you differently, the model's picture is blurry and it recommends someone clearer. Entity work makes the picture sharp.
Do we need a lot of new content?
Not a lot, but the right kind. Models cite pages that state facts plainly and add something original: local cost factors, a documented process, a checklist. We usually rewrite the About and core service pages first, then add a small set of original resources.
How do you measure GEO if there are no rankings?
With a fixed prompt set run monthly across each assistant. We log whether you are mentioned, what is said about you and who else is named, then report the trend. GA4 shows the sessions and leads that arrive from assistants that pass a referrer.
What the audit covers
- Technical crawl: indexing, speed, Core Web Vitals, broken pages
- Google Business Profile completeness and category fit
- How ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe your business today
- Three local competitors and what they outrank you for
- A prioritized list of what to fix first, in plain English
What happens next
- 1We review your submission within one business day.
- 2We run the audit and book a 20-minute call in your time zone.
- 3You keep the written findings whether or not we work together.
Related services
Find out what AI assistants say about your business
The free audit includes the prompts a buyer would use for your services in your city, what each assistant answers today, and what to fix first.