Does ChatGPT Know Your Business Exists?

01 What is generative engine optimization?

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is making your pages easy for AI search tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews to read, trust and quote when they answer a question. It builds on SEO: the page still has to be crawlable and indexed, and then it has to answer clearly.

02 How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO works on where your pages rank in a list of results. GEO works on whether an AI answer reads your page and quotes it. Much of the groundwork is shared, such as crawlable, indexed pages. Our SEO page covers rankings; this page covers AI answers and citations.

03 What is AEO, and is it the same as GEO?

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the same work aimed at direct answers, such as a voice assistant's reply or an answer box. In practice the steps overlap almost completely: a clear answer in the first sentence, facts that match everywhere, and structured data that says what the page says.

04 Can you guarantee that ChatGPT will cite us?

No. Nobody can, because the AI tool decides what it quotes, and answers change from one day to the next. What we can do is remove what stops a tool reading your pages and make the answer easy to quote, then record what the tools cite before and after.

05 Do we need an llms.txt file?

llms.txt is a proposal for a short plain-text (markdown) file at the root of your site that gives AI tools a map of your main pages. Google says it needs no such file for AI Overviews, so we treat llms.txt as an extra, not the main work.

06 Does schema markup help AI search?

Structured data helps AI tools and search engines read facts such as your services, questions and breadcrumbs, but Google says there is no special schema needed for its AI features. We add markup that matches the visible text, as on our own AI service pages, and never markup that says more than the page.

07 What does the GEO pilot include?

One service: the questions buyers ask about it, a record of what AI tools cite today, fixes to what blocks AI tools, the page labels, llms.txt and the copy on its pages, and the same check run again. You also get a plan for your other services.

08 What is not in the scope of the pilot?

Link building, paid ads, a full site redesign and rankings work for Google's regular results are outside the pilot. So is writing pages only for AI tools: everything we change is for your visitors too. If you need rankings work, our SEO team covers it.

09 How do you measure progress?

We ask the AI tools the same set of buyer questions before and after the changes and record the sources each one cites. We also check indexing in Search Console and visits from AI tools in your analytics. We report what changed, without turning it into a promise.

10 How much do GEO services cost?

It depends on the number of services and pages, and on how much copy needs rewriting. Tell us the service and the questions your buyers ask, and within two working days we come back with an approach, a rough timeline and a rough number.

11 How long does the pilot take?

It depends on the pages involved and how quickly changes can go live on your site. The scope is one service, so it stays small. We agree the timeline at the discovery call, and you see the baseline before we change anything.

12 Do you need access to our site, and who owns the changes?

We work only in the accounts you invite us into, such as your CMS or code repository, and you can remove access at any time. We sign an NDA before we start, on request. Every change is on your site and yours to keep.

13 Do you work with UK and US clients from India?

Yes. We sign an NDA before we start, on request, and work only in the accounts you invite us into. You can remove our access at any time, and every change on your site is yours to keep.