Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the process of making your business visible to AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. It's about getting your business mentioned, recommended, and cited when people ask AI for help finding products and services.
Think of it as SEO's younger sibling. SEO gets you found on Google. GEO gets you found on ChatGPT.
Why does this matter now?
Because the way people search for businesses is changing fast. 64% of consumers now use AI tools to discover local brands and services. Instead of typing "best plumber near me" into Google, they're asking ChatGPT "can you recommend a reliable plumber in my area?"
The difference is huge. Google gives you a list of ten blue links. ChatGPT gives you one or two specific recommendations with reasons why. If your business is the one being recommended, that's an incredibly warm lead. They've basically been told to use you by a tool they trust.
And the numbers bear this out. Businesses that get cited by AI tools report conversion rates that are significantly higher than traditional search. When someone arrives at your website because ChatGPT told them to, they're already sold on you before they even pick up the phone.
How do AI tools decide who to recommend?
AI models like ChatGPT are trained on enormous amounts of web data. They read news articles, review sites, directories, blog posts, forums, press releases, and millions of other pages. From all of this, they build an understanding of which businesses exist, what they do, and how credible they are.
The more places your business is mentioned in a positive, relevant context, the more likely AI tools are to recommend you. It's about breadth of coverage across trusted sources.
Here's the crucial stat: 68% of AI citations come from third party sources, not from the business's own website. That means reviews on Trustpilot, listings on Checkatrade, articles in trade publications, and press releases distributed through news wires all carry more weight than what you write on your homepage.
What actually goes into GEO?
GEO covers several areas, but the main ones for a small business are:
Press release distribution
This is the fastest way to get your business mentioned across dozens or hundreds of trusted websites at once. A single press release distributed through a service like EIN Presswire appears on Google News, Bing News, Apple News, Yahoo, and industry outlets. AI models pick up these mentions and start associating your business with your trade and location.
Content optimization
Your website content needs to be structured so AI tools can easily understand and extract information from it. This means clear headings, direct answers to common questions, specific statistics, and schema markup that tells machines exactly what your business does and where.
Review and directory management
Consistent listings across review sites and directories reinforce your business identity in AI training data. The more places that confirm your name, location, and services, the more confident AI tools become about recommending you.
Technical access
AI tools send crawlers to read your website, just like Google does. If your site blocks these crawlers (many do by default), AI tools literally cannot see your content. A quick check of your robots.txt file tells you whether you're blocking GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or PerplexityBot.
Is GEO expensive?
It doesn't have to be. Some agencies charge £5,000 to £10,000 per month for GEO services, but they're targeting large companies with large budgets.
For a local business or tradesperson, the core elements — a press release, some content fixes, and proper technical setup — don't need to cost thousands. FastGEO's GEO Starter package is £150 and covers an audit plus your first press release. That's enough to get you started and see whether AI tools begin picking you up.
Can I do GEO myself?
Some of it, yes. You can check your robots.txt, claim your directory listings, and ask for reviews without any help. We've written a full guide on how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT that walks through the steps.
The parts that are harder to do yourself are press release writing and distribution, schema markup, and ongoing monitoring. That's where having someone handle it for you saves time and usually gets better results.
The window is closing
Right now, GEO is where SEO was in 2010. The businesses that move first will dominate their local AI recommendations for years. The ones that wait will find themselves competing against established names that AI tools already trust.
The same pattern played out with Google. Early movers got page one rankings and kept them. Latecomers had to spend thousands catching up. GEO is following the exact same trajectory.
Want to see where you stand? Open ChatGPT and ask it to recommend a business like yours in your area. If you're not there, get in touch with us. We'll show you what's happening and how to fix it.