Search is changing right now
Many customers no longer ask only Google, but ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity: “Who builds good websites?”, “Which agency for an online shop?” The AI answers with a handful of names – and whoever is named gets the enquiry. There is even a term for it: GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), the counterpart to SEO for AI answers.
Google itself is turning into AI search
This is no longer just about ChatGPT: Google now shows an AI Overview right at the top and offers a dedicated AI Mode as a tab next to “All” – both run on Google’s own AI, Gemini. That AI answer sits above the normal results, and often even above the ads, and many people read it first before they ever scroll to the classic listings. Appearing in that summary is a clear advantage – and whether you appear depends on the same things that follow below.
First: the honest test
Before you change anything, check where you stand. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google the exact questions your customers would ask – with your line of work and your location. Does your name come up? Is the information correct? Write it down, so you can see later whether anything has shifted.
Where the AI gets its answers
A language model doesn’t “know” anything about you – it summarises what the web says about you. The main sources:
- Your website – the central source of information.
- Your profiles – Google Business Profile, Bing, Apple and directories.
- Reviews – Google reviews and what others write about you.
- Mentions – press, partner sites, listings.
The clearer and more consistent these sources are, the more likely the AI is to name you – and the more likely it is to get you right.
What actually helps
- Clear, quotable facts on your website. Write in full, simple sentences what you offer, for whom, where and from what price. A machine has to be able to lift one clean sentence from it. FAQ sections like “How much does … cost?” or “Where are you based?” are ideal for this.
- Being in the right sources – with identical details everywhere. Your name, address, phone and website should match across Google, Bing, Apple and directories. Contradictions confuse people and machines alike.
- Collecting reviews. Genuine reviews are a strong trust signal – for Google and for the AI answer.
- Good Google rankings never hurt. AI answers and classic search overlap: what ranks well on Google is often quoted too. It is no guarantee, though.
- Technical groundwork that helps machines. Structured data (so your line of work, address and prices are read cleanly) and a small file called
llms.txtthat gives AI systems your key facts in short form. It sounds technical, but it is quick to set up when the site is built.
What doesn’t work
- Tricks and keyword repetition. Pages that repeat the same keyword a hundred times look untrustworthy to people and AI – and are more likely to be dropped than named.
- “GEO guarantees”. No one can promise that ChatGPT will name you. Anyone selling that is selling hot air.
- Fast results. AI systems update their knowledge slowly. Changes on your site often take weeks to months before they reach the answers. GEO is something you build, not a switch you flip.
How to keep track
Ask the assistants again every few weeks – with the same questions as in your first test. And check your website statistics for visitors coming from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or Google’s AI Overview. That is how you notice whether your visibility is growing.
The basics count twice
The good news: almost everything you do for AI visibility also helps with normal Google search – clear content, clean technology, well-kept profiles, real reviews. So you aren’t building anything twice, just building it right once.
If you’d like a hand
We build websites so that people and AI understand them from the start: clear facts and FAQs on every page, structured data, llms.txt and consistent profiles at launch – and we even measure how many visitors come from AI assistants. More on this under Local SEO and Strategy; the prices are under Pricing. If you’d like to know where you currently stand with ChatGPT and the rest, we’ll take a look together in a free intro call.