GEO FAQ

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of restructuring content, schema markup, and third-party citations so that AI language models — including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot — extract and cite that content when answering relevant user queries. GEO is distinct from SEO: it targets how AI systems process and trust content, not how Google's crawler ranks pages.

SEO optimises for Google's ranking algorithm: backlinks, domain authority, keyword signals, and page speed. GEO optimises for how AI language models extract and cite content: structure clarity, answer extractability, schema specificity, and entity corroboration. Improving your Google ranking does not automatically improve your AI visibility. Many brands rank on page one of Google and appear in zero AI answers — and vice versa. GEO requires a separate workstream with different techniques.

GEO addresses the major AI search surfaces: ChatGPT (including Browse mode and SearchGPT), Perplexity AI, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. Each platform has slightly different extraction and citation behaviours, so effective GEO work is tested across all of them rather than optimised for a single surface.

Structural fixes — content restructuring and schema deployment — can produce measurable improvements in AI citation rates within 2–6 weeks. Citation-building work, which requires independent third-party sources to mention the brand, typically builds over a 2–3 month cycle. The timeline depends on the gap type: if the primary issue is content structure, results come faster; if the primary issue is authority (no third-party citations), it takes longer. Most clients see meaningful movement within the first 6–8 weeks if structural gaps are addressed first.

Each month: we audit 15–25 prompts across all major AI platforms to establish a current baseline. We identify the top three fixes ranked by expected impact. We implement those fixes — content rewrites, schema changes, citation outreach — and retest the same query set at the end of the month. The output is a results summary your agency can send to the client as-is, with before-and-after citation rates and a recommended focus for the following month.

No. GEOhelp is fully white-label. Everything we produce — audits, reports, content changes, schema — is delivered without GEOhelp branding. Your client relationship stays yours. We work as a silent execution partner behind your agency's offering.

The clearest signal: type a query your client's customers would use into ChatGPT or Perplexity. If a competitor appears in the answer and your client doesn't, GEO work is the gap. If you are already tracking this in Otterly or Peec.ai and seeing low citation scores, GEO is the execution layer that moves those numbers. The audit is where we start — we establish exactly which queries the client is invisible on before deciding what to fix.

A GEO audit is a structured evaluation of a client's current AI search visibility. We test 15–25 real prompts a buyer would type across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot. We score each result, identify why the client appears or doesn't, and produce a prioritised fix list ranked by expected impact. The output is an actionable document your team can either implement internally or hand back to us for execution.

Yes — that is the goal of the Agency Enablement service. We build a playbook specifically for your agency's client types: prompt templates for auditing, schema implementation checklists, content restructuring frameworks, and a citation-building process. The playbook is designed so a junior team member can run the process without needing to understand the theory behind every step. Many agencies start with Enablement and then hand the execution back to us for efficiency as volume grows.

GEO is highly relevant for local businesses. When a user asks ChatGPT or Perplexity 'best accountant in [city]' or 'top plumber near [location]', AI models synthesise answers from local directories, review sites, and locally-relevant content. Local businesses with clear entity definitions, LocalBusiness schema, and mentions on local directories significantly outperform those without. In many local categories, AI visibility is currently easier to win than Google Maps position, because fewer competitors have done the work.

Service pages benefit most immediately, because they are the most likely to be cited when a user asks a specific service-intent query. FAQ pages are highly extractable — if structured with explicit questions and clear answers, they are frequently cited verbatim. About and entity pages matter for brand citations. Comparison content ('X vs Y', 'best X for Y use case') is heavily cited in AI recommendations. Blog posts and thought leadership contribute to authority signals over time.