GEO
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) for AI assistants
We provide generative engine optimisation (GEO) for small businesses that want to be recommended by AI assistants. When customers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude or Copilot who to use, those tools build an answer from what they can find and trust about you. The work covers crawler access, clear facts about your business, content the assistants can quote and a consistent presence across the web. You get named when someone asks an AI for a recommendation.
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and more
- Crawler access checked
- Consistent facts everywhere
What generative engine optimisation is
More customers now start with an AI assistant instead of a search engine. They ask ChatGPT to recommend an accountant in Nottingham, or Perplexity which local firms install EV chargers, and the assistant answers with a short list of names. If your business is not on it, the customer may never see a search results page at all.
Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the work of making your business one the assistants know about, understand correctly and feel confident recommending. The assistants search the web as they answer, through their own crawlers or a search index such as Bing, then summarise what they find. So GEO starts with being findable by those tools, and then makes sure what they find is clear, accurate and consistent.
GEO builds on the same groundwork as our SEO services in Nottingham.
Included in GEO work
- Checks of what the main assistants currently say about your business and your competitors
- Your robots.txt and firewall reviewed so the AI search crawlers you want can reach the site
- Bing Webmaster Tools set up, since several assistants rely on Bing’s index
- A clear, factual description of what you do, where and for whom, stated the same way everywhere
- Service pages that answer the questions people ask assistants, plainly enough to be quoted
- Structured data describing your business, services, areas and reviews
- An llms.txt file summarising the site for AI tools, alongside the normal sitemap
- Reviews and listings on the third-party sites assistants commonly draw on
- Regular re-testing of key questions across the assistants, with the results reported
Why assistants recommend some businesses and not others
An assistant recommending a business is making a judgement from limited evidence. It looks for a clear statement of what the business does and where, confirmation of that from other sources, and signs that customers are happy. Where the evidence is thin or contradictory, it either leaves the business out or gets the details wrong.
The common failures are mundane. A firewall that blocks AI crawlers without anyone deciding it should. A website that never says plainly which towns you cover. Directory listings with an old address. A handful of reviews from years ago. Each is easy to fix once someone looks.
- Say plainly what you do and where
- Let the crawlers you want reach the site
- Keep facts identical across the web
- Build a steady record of recent reviews
What GEO can and cannot promise
AI assistants are changing quickly, their answers vary from one conversation to the next, and none of the companies behind them publish how they choose sources. Nobody can promise that ChatGPT will name your business every time. What can be done is removing the reasons it would not, and measuring over time how often it does.
GEO also overlaps heavily with good SEO. Most of what helps an assistant recommend you, such as clear service pages, structured data, reviews and consistent listings, helps your Google rankings too. That makes it a low-risk investment: even as the assistants change, the groundwork keeps paying off in ordinary search.
For Google’s own AI answers, see our page on AI optimisation for Google AI Overviews.
Ask the assistants about your business
The free review includes asking the main AI assistants the questions your customers ask, and showing you who they recommend and what they say about you. You get the gaps in writing, along with what we would do first.
Get in touch
Talk to us about generative engine optimisation (GEO)
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
What is GEO?
GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. It is the work of making your business visible and accurately described in answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot, so they recommend you when customers ask who to use.
Is GEO different from SEO?
It builds on SEO rather than replacing it. Most of the groundwork is shared: clear pages, structured data, reviews and consistent listings. GEO adds checks specific to the assistants, such as which crawlers can reach your site, whether Bing indexes you properly and what the assistants actually say about you.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Not in the way you can buy a search ad. Assistant recommendations come from what the tool finds and trusts about your business. That is why the work focuses on making accurate, consistent information about you easy to find.
Should I block AI crawlers from my site?
It depends on the crawler. Some collect content to train models, others fetch pages to answer a user’s question live and link back to you. Most small businesses benefit from allowing the second kind. We explain the options and set robots.txt to match what you decide.
How do you measure GEO?
By asking the assistants a fixed set of the questions your customers ask, on a regular schedule, and recording whether and how your business appears. We also watch referral traffic from AI tools in your analytics. Answers vary between sessions, so we report trends rather than single results.
