What is GEO? How to get your business recommended by AI chatbots
Key takeaways
- GEO (generative engine optimisation) means making your business easy for AI chatbots to understand, trust and recommend.
- AI tools build their answers from what the web says about you: your website, reviews, directories and articles that mention you.
- Clear, factual content that answers real customer questions is the fastest way to start showing up in AI answers.
When someone asks ChatGPT "What's the best accounting firm for freelancers near me?" or asks Gemini to compare three project management tools, the AI gives a short answer and names a few businesses. If yours isn't one of them, that customer may never see you.
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of improving how your business appears in these AI-generated answers. It sits alongside traditional SEO, but the goal is different: instead of ranking a link on a results page, you want the AI to mention and recommend you by name.
How AI chatbots decide who to recommend
AI assistants that search the web look for sources that clearly answer the question, that seem trustworthy, and that agree with each other. A business that is described the same way on its own website, in reviews, on directory listings and in articles is much easier for an AI to recommend with confidence.
Where to start
- Write plain, specific pages about what you do, who it's for, where you work and what it costs.
- Answer the questions customers actually ask, in their own words.
- Keep your name, address and details consistent everywhere online.
- Earn genuine mentions and reviews on sites your customers already trust.
GEO isn't a trick. It rewards businesses that explain themselves clearly and are talked about in the right places. The sooner you start, the more of those AI answers you can win.
