What is GEO? How AI search decides which business to recommend
Customers are asking ChatGPT and Google's AI overviews who to hire. Here's what makes a small business appear in that answer.
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It's the work that makes AI tools, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Google's AI overviews, able to understand your business well enough to recommend it by name.
Why it matters now
A growing share of customers no longer scroll a list of ten blue links. They ask a question and act on the answer. If your business isn't in that answer, you were never in the running, and you'll never see it in your analytics.
What AI tools look for
- +Clarity, pages that plainly state what you do, who for, and where
- +Consistency, the same business name, address and phone everywhere
- +Evidence, reviews, real photos, and a site that looks maintained
- +Answers, direct responses to the questions customers ask, in your own words
It's the same work as good SEO
There's no separate AI tickbox to buy. GEO is largely well-structured content, structured data and trustworthy signals, done with the knowledge that a machine may be summarising your page rather than linking to it.
The businesses being recommended by AI right now are simply the ones that were easiest to understand.
Next step
SEO, Local SEO & GEOWritten by
Chloe Yates
Founder & Digital Marketing Consultant
I've started my own businesses over the years, and every time you learn the same lesson: none of this information is easy to find when you need it. Which path to take, which tools are worth paying for, whether the website builder you picked will still suit you in two years, it's all guesswork until you've made the mistakes yourself.
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