GEO explained: how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT

People now ask AI assistants who to hire. Here's what Generative Engine Optimization is, and the practical steps to show up in the answer.

A growing share of searches no longer happen in a search bar. Customers ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google's AI Overviews for “the best commercial cleaner near me” or “a mortgage broker who handles self-employed applicants” — and they get a short list of names back. If your business isn't one of them, you're invisible to that customer.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the work of making your business easy for those AI systems to find, understand, and confidently recommend.

How AI assistants decide who to recommend

AI tools build answers from content they can trust and parse. They favour businesses that are described consistently across the web, that answer real questions clearly, and that other reputable sources mention.

• Clear, specific service pages that say exactly what you do, for whom, and where.
• Consistent name, address, and service details across your website, Google Business Profile, and directories.
• Genuine reviews and mentions on sites the AI already trusts.
• Structured data that labels your services, locations, and FAQs for machines, not just people.

GEO doesn't replace SEO — it builds on it

Most of what helps you rank on Google also helps AI tools understand you: fast pages, strong content, and real authority. GEO adds a layer on top — writing in the question-and-answer format assistants pull from, and making sure the facts about your business are unambiguous everywhere they appear.

SEO gets you on the results page. GEO gets you named in the answer.

Where to start this month

• Ask ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview the questions your customers ask, and note who gets recommended.
• Rewrite your top service pages to answer those exact questions in plain language.
• Add an FAQ section with structured data to each core page.
• Fix any inconsistent business details across the web.

It's not a one-off task, but the businesses that start now will be the names AI tools are used to recommending when everyone else catches up.