Websites and search · 4 min read
GEO: how to show up in AI search
More buyers ask AI before they buy. GEO makes your site something these tools understand and quote.
Search is changing. Next to the classic list of links, people now get answers written by AI: Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT search and tools like Perplexity. When someone asks who services heat pumps nearby, the answer is stitched together from several sources. GEO, generative engine optimization, is the work that makes your business one of them.
GEO doesn’t replace SEO
AI search leans on the same signals as classic search. Your site has to be fast, well built and clearly structured, and your content has to answer real questions. The difference is emphasis. AI prefers content that is precise, unambiguous and easy to quote.
Six places to start
- Answer questions directly. Say plainly what you do, for whom and where. AI quotes a clear sentence before a marketing paragraph.
- Collect your customers’ real questions and answer them on your site.
- Use structured data. Schema.org markup tells machines what is a business, a service, a price or a contact detail.
- Keep your basics consistent. Name, address, phone and service area should match on your site, your Google Business Profile and directories.
- Get mentioned elsewhere. AI trusts sources that mention you: reviews, industry media and partner sites.
- Fix the technical basics. Slow or blocked pages are less likely to be read at all.
How do you measure it?
AI visibility is harder to measure than classic search. In practice you track which questions mention your business in AI answers, and the traffic arriving from AI tools in your analytics. With that in place, you can compare month by month.
Start where everything starts: a solid site and content that answers real questions. Want to know where you stand? We’ll cover it in your free Growth Map.