Question 1

What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?

Accepted Answer

Generative engine optimisation is the work of getting AI services that write their own answers, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews and Perplexity, to name, recommend and link to your business. It combines consistent facts about you, mentions on sources AI trusts, content that answers buyers' questions directly and a website AI crawlers can read.

Question 2

Where does the term GEO come from?

Accepted Answer

The term was introduced in a 2023 research paper, presented at the KDD conference in 2024, that tested how content changes affect visibility in AI-generated answers. The researchers found that adding citations, quotations and statistics could raise a source's visibility by around 30–40%. The term has since been adopted by agencies and tools as the name for the whole discipline.

Question 3

What is LLM SEO?

Accepted Answer

LLM SEO is another name for generative engine optimisation. LLM stands for large language model, the technology behind ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot. The term emphasises that you're optimising for how these models find, understand and describe your business, rather than for a traditional ranking algorithm. The methods are the same as GEO.

Question 4

Does GEO have anything to do with geography or local SEO?

Accepted Answer

No. Here GEO means generative engine optimisation, not geographic targeting or geo-fencing. Local SEO is a separate discipline about appearing in Google Maps and local results. The two do reinforce each other, though: AI tools often draw on Google Business Profiles and reviews when someone asks for a recommendation in a particular town or city.

Question 5

What's the difference between GEO and SEO?

Accepted Answer

SEO aims to rank your pages in the list of links in search results. GEO aims to get your business named and cited inside AI-written answers. They share foundations, and Google says its AI features rely on the same SEO fundamentals, but GEO puts more weight on entities, third-party mentions and content that's easy to quote.

Question 6

What's the difference between GEO and AEO?

Accepted Answer

They overlap a great deal. AEO, answer engine optimisation, grew out of featured snippets and voice search and focuses on becoming the cited answer to specific questions. GEO is broader and also covers how AI understands and recommends your brand overall. In practice, most of the work is the same, and many agencies use the terms interchangeably.

Question 7

Is GEO SEO the same as generative engine optimisation?

Accepted Answer

Yes. GEO SEO is simply a way of saying generative engine optimisation while making clear that it's part of search marketing. You'll also see AI SEO, LLM SEO, AI search optimisation and ChatGPT SEO. The names vary by agency and tool, but they all describe the same goal: being named, described correctly and linked in AI answers.

Question 8

Which AI platforms does GEO cover?

Accepted Answer

The main ones are ChatGPT, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Claude. For most UK businesses Google matters most, since it handles around 91% of UK searches according to StatCounter, so AI Overviews reach the most buyers. We weight the work towards the platforms your own customers use.

Question 9

Is GEO a passing trend?

Accepted Answer

The label may change, but the shift behind it isn't going away. Google has shown AI Overviews in the UK since August 2024 and AI Mode since July 2025, and AI assistants are built into Windows, phones and browsers. Whatever the work ends up being called, businesses will need to be visible in AI-written answers.

Question 10

Does GEO work for UK-only businesses?

Accepted Answer

Yes. AI tools tailor answers to the location and language of the question, so a buyer in Manchester can get different names from one in New York. For UK-focused businesses, the relevant sources are often UK directories, trade associations, review sites and local press, which are fewer and easier to get into than global ones.

Question 11

Does GEO replace SEO?

Accepted Answer

No. Many AI tools find their sources through search indexes, so pages that rank well in Google are more likely to be used in AI answers. Strong SEO makes GEO easier, and good GEO work, such as clearer content, better structure and more mentions, usually helps SEO too. Think of GEO as building on SEO, not replacing it.

Question 12

What does generative engine optimisation involve?

Accepted Answer

A review of how AI describes you and your competitors today; work on entities and consistent facts; earning mentions on credible sites; writing content that answers buyers' questions and is easy to quote; a technical check that AI crawlers can read your site; and monthly tracking of how often you're named, how you're described and what's changed.

Question 13

What is an entity in GEO?

Accepted Answer

An entity is something AI can identify unambiguously, such as your company, a product or a person. When AI tools can link your website, Companies House record, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn page and directory listings to the same entity, they're more confident naming you and less likely to confuse you with a similarly named business.

Question 14

How important are brand mentions for GEO?

Accepted Answer

Very. AI services weigh what others say about you, not just what you say yourself. An Ahrefs study of around 75,000 brands found brand mentions correlated with AI Overview visibility at 0.66, against 0.22 for backlinks. Mentions on trade sites, in comparisons, in the press and in reviews all count.

Question 15

What kind of content gets cited by AI most often?

Accepted Answer

Content that answers a specific question directly, contains verifiable facts and figures, compares options fairly or is based on original data. The GEO research found that adding statistics, quotations and citations to sources made content noticeably more visible in AI answers. Vague, promotional copy with no concrete detail is rarely quoted.

Question 16

Does structured data matter for GEO?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Structured data, or schema markup, describes who you are, what you offer, where you operate and which questions a page answers in a format machines understand. It strengthens your business as a clear entity and helps AI match the right facts to the right question. It's not a shortcut on its own, but it supports everything else.

Question 17

Should we write for AI or for people?

Accepted Answer

For people, in a way AI can easily interpret. That means clear headings, the answer first, concrete facts instead of vague claims and one topic per section. Content that genuinely helps a buyer decide is what both readers and AI tools value. Writing stuffed with keywords or obviously aimed at machines tends to fail with both.

Question 18

What technical setup does GEO need?

Accepted Answer

AI crawlers must be allowed in robots.txt, for example OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search. Important content should render without JavaScript, since some AI crawlers can't run it. The site should be fast and logically structured, with an up-to-date XML sitemap. We check all of this in the GEO review.

Question 19

How does digital PR support GEO?

Accepted Answer

Digital PR is the work of getting your business mentioned in the press, on trade sites and in buyer's guides. Every credible mention becomes a source AI services can read and a signal they can trust. For GEO, the goal is relevance rather than volume: a mention on the right trade site often beats several on unrelated blogs.

Question 20

What is an AI citation?

Accepted Answer

An AI citation is when an AI answer shows your page as a source, usually with a link, as Perplexity, ChatGPT search and Google's AI Overviews do. A citation is worth more than a passing mention because it gives the reader a direct route to your site and signals that your content was trusted enough to build the answer on.

Question 21

Can you appear in AI answers without a website?

Accepted Answer

To some extent, through your Google Business Profile, directories, reviews and mentions elsewhere. But your own website is the only source you fully control, and it's where AI tools look for authoritative details such as prices, services and contact information. Without one, the facts about you depend entirely on what others publish.

Question 22

What is a GEO strategy?

Accepted Answer

A GEO strategy decides which questions and contexts you want to be named in, how you want to be described, which sources should confirm it and what content is needed to get there. It sets priorities, because you can't win every question at once, and defines how progress is measured, usually through monthly tracking of a fixed question set.

Question 23

How do you write an About page AI understands?

Accepted Answer

Say plainly what you do, for whom, where and since when, who runs the company and what sets you apart. Include your registered company name and number as they appear on Companies House, and link to your official profiles. Then make sure the same details appear in your structured data and on every directory where you're listed.

Question 24

Does social media affect GEO?

Accepted Answer

Indirectly. Profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram help AI connect the facts about you to one entity, and public discussions mentioning your business, on Reddit for instance, can become sources for some AI services. Social media rarely drives GEO on its own, but consistent, active profiles support the overall picture.

Question 25

Do press releases help with GEO?

Accepted Answer

Only if they lead to coverage on sites AI services read and trust. A press release on a distribution service that nobody picks up rarely has any effect. What helps is genuine news, original data or expert comment that journalists and trade publications want to use, which then becomes a credible mention of your business.

Question 26

Does brand awareness matter for GEO?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The more often your name appears in credible, relevant contexts, the more likely AI is to include you in answers. That's why GEO is closely tied to PR, partnerships and brand building, not just website changes. Branded search volume in Search Console is a useful signal of whether that awareness is growing.

Question 27

Do reviews affect GEO?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Third-party reviews on Google, Trustpilot and sector-specific sites are one of the signals AI tools use to decide who to recommend, especially for local services. Encourage genuine reviews and respond to them. Fake or incentivised reviews are banned in the UK under the DMCC Act, with CMA fines of up to 10% of global turnover.

Question 28

How often does GEO work need updating?

Accepted Answer

Continuously. AI models, their sources and your competitors all change, so facts, content and mentions need keeping current. Prices, services and contact details should be updated as soon as they change, guides reviewed a few times a year, and the question set tracked monthly so you spot shifts early rather than months later.

Question 29

How quickly does generative engine optimisation work?

Accepted Answer

AI tools that search the web live, such as Perplexity, ChatGPT search and Google's AI Overviews, can reflect changes within a few weeks once pages are recrawled. What models learned in training updates less often, so the full effect builds over several months. Most businesses see a clear trend after three to six months of steady work.

Question 30

What happens when AI models are updated?

Accepted Answer

Answers can shift, sometimes noticeably. Businesses with strong, consistent signals across many sources tend to be affected least, which is exactly what GEO work builds. Because we track the same questions every month, we can see when a model update changes the picture and adjust priorities rather than guessing.

Question 31

Can GEO harm our Google rankings?

Accepted Answer

No, done properly it tends to help. Clearer content, better structure, consistent facts and more mentions from credible sites are things Google rewards too. The only risk would come from shortcuts, such as auto-generated pages or fake reviews, which harm both SEO and GEO and which we don't use.

Question 32

What is share of voice in AI search?

Accepted Answer

Share of voice in AI search is the proportion of answers to your key questions in which your business is named, compared with competitors. If you're named in 12 of 40 tracked answers and your main rival in 20, you know where you stand. It's the main headline metric in our monthly GEO report.

Question 33

Can competitors affect what AI says about us?

Accepted Answer

Indirectly, yes. If competitors earn more mentions and publish clearer content for the same questions, they're more likely to be named instead of you. That's why we track which competitors appear and how they're described, so you can see where they're stronger and where you have an opening.

Question 34

How do we see traffic from AI tools in Google Analytics?

Accepted Answer

Visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini appear as referrals from domains such as chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai. We set up a custom channel group or report so you can follow sessions, enquiries and sales from AI in one place. Many people also search your brand after seeing you in an answer, so we watch branded search too.

Question 35

How much does generative engine optimisation cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends on your sector, how competitive it is and how much content and how many mentions are needed. After a free GEO review you get a clear proposal, usually a fixed monthly fee in pounds with no long lock-in, so you know the cost upfront and can judge it against tracked results.

Question 36

Can we do GEO ourselves?

Accepted Answer

Partly. A lot of the groundwork, such as clear facts, answer-first pages and consistent listings, a capable in-house team can handle. What a GEO agency adds is analysis of what AI says today, prioritisation, technical checks, earning mentions and consistent monthly measurement. We'll tell you honestly if you can manage it yourselves.

Question 37

What does a GEO agency do?

Accepted Answer

A GEO agency measures how AI services describe your business, works out why competitors are named instead, and then fixes the causes: facts, entities, content, mentions and technical access. It tracks the same questions every month and reports how often you're named, how you're described and which sources are cited, so progress is visible.

Question 38

Which sectors benefit most from GEO?

Accepted Answer

Sectors where buyers compare options before deciding: professional services, B2B and SaaS, private healthcare, education, travel and hospitality, and e-commerce with products that need explaining. Local service businesses benefit too, because AI is increasingly asked for recommendations in a specific area, where few competitors have strong signals.

Question 39

Is generative engine optimisation worth it for small businesses?

Accepted Answer

Often, yes, especially in niches and local markets where few competitors have clear, consistent information online. A smaller business with a well-structured site, accurate listings and genuine reviews can be named ahead of larger players. The scope can start small, with a handful of priority questions, and grow if it works.

Question 40

Does GEO work for B2B companies?

Accepted Answer

Particularly well. B2B buyers often ask AI to compile and compare suppliers before they contact anyone, so being named in that shortlist leads directly to enquiries. Detailed pages on pricing models, integrations, security, case studies and how you compare with alternatives are the content AI tools tend to draw on.

Question 41

Does GEO work for local businesses?

Accepted Answer

Yes. AI tools often recommend nearby businesses, drawing on Google Business Profiles, reviews and local directories. Google states that more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. Combining GEO with local SEO, with the same name, address and phone number everywhere, gives the strongest result for clinics, trades and shops.

Question 42

How do we get started with GEO?

Accepted Answer

Book a free GEO review. We show how AI services describe you and your competitors today, which questions matter most and what would make the biggest difference first. If you'd rather start with something lighter, try the free AI check to see whether you're named for a few key questions.

Generative engine optimisation that gets you named by AI

Buyers ask AI instead of searching. AI answers with a handful of names. The businesses named there win trust before anyone has visited a website.

The question moves to AI

The answer chooses for the buyer

A fast-growing search

What is generative engine optimisation?

Generative engine optimisation: five building blocks that get AI to name you

Entities and facts

Sources and mentions

Content worth citing

Tech AI can read

Monthly tracking

Same question. Before and after GEO.

DIY, a traditional SEO agency or a GEO agency?

Where we make you visible, and how we measure it

AI services

Measurement

Generative engine optimisation makes you a name AI recommends

How our GEO agency works

GEO review

Entities & facts

Content & sources

Tracking

What's included in our GEO service

For businesses that want to be there when buyers ask AI

Visible on Google, missing in AI

B2B and service firms

Brands in competitive markets

How does AI describe your business today?

More on SEO and AI visibility

How AI chooses which companies to recommend

How to appear in ChatGPT: 7 reasons you are not mentioned, and what to do

How long does SEO take? Realistic timelines, and is SEO worth it?

What is hreflang? How to show Google the right language version

What we do beyond GEO

AI visibility

Ready to grow?

Generative engine optimisation (GEO): FAQ

	CaptivateClickEnd-to-end GEO	Do it yourselfYou test and write in-house	Traditional SEO agencyFocus on Google rankings	Tools onlyMeasures, but doesn't fix
Measures how AI describes you	Yes	Partly	No	Yes
Builds entities and consistent facts	Yes	Partly	Partly