Get your business quoted when the answer comes from an AI
People now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions they used to type into Google. Those tools reply with one written answer and name two or three businesses in it. Everyone else is left out. Our job is to get your business named in those answers. The work is called generative engine optimization, or GEO for short. It sits alongside our wider SEO services.
Ten blue links became one answer
Search used to give people a page of links and let them choose. Now an AI assistant reads those pages for them and writes one answer. That answer mentions two or three companies. If you are not one of them, the customer never sees you, no matter how well you rank.
The search result you knew
- A page of ten links, listed in order
- You competed for a position, then for the click
- Getting onto page one was most of the battle
- Customers landed on your site, and you convinced them there
The answer buyers get now
- One written answer that names a few sources
- You now compete to be quoted, not just to rank
- Being on page one is no longer enough to get quoted
- Customers often decide before they visit your site at all
Monthly US searches for generative engine optimization, from September 2024 to the peak in July 2025. Searches have levelled off since then, which is what happens when something stops being a fad and becomes normal. Figures from Ahrefs.
Four engines, four different answers
These four tools read the web differently and quote different sources. Doing well in one tells you nothing about the other three. We check how often each one mentions you, then work on the ones that leave you out.
ChatGPT
It relies on what it learned during training, plus live web searches. Being mentioned consistently across other websites matters more here than anything on your own site.
Google AI Overviews
These are built from pages that already rank in Google, so normal SEO still feeds them. A clear structure and a direct answer decide which pages get used.
Perplexity
It shows its sources clearly and prefers recent, specific pages that cite their facts. It is usually the quickest of the four to win.
Gemini and Copilot
These use Google and Microsoft search data. Clear markup, and the same facts about your business everywhere online, do most of the work here.
Measure, fix, then keep watching
Answer engine optimization only works if you first find out what these tools already say about you. We start by measuring that, because everything else is guesswork without it.
Measure
We type the questions your customers actually ask into all four tools, and record which companies get named.
- A fixed list of questions, taken from what your customers really ask
- How often each tool names you, compared with your competitors
- Tracking of Google AI Overviews, and whether mentions are positive
- Which competitors get named instead of you
Fix
Then we change the things those answers are built from. Some of that is on your website. A lot of it is not.
- Content rewritten to answer the question directly
- Markup that tells these tools exactly what your business is
- Mentions on the other websites these tools trust
Track
These answers change from week to week. We ask the same questions again, show you what changed, and act on it.
- The same questions asked again every week
- A report on where you were mentioned and quoted
- A list of next steps, ordered by what actually worked
Everything an AI SEO agency should be covering
Generative engine optimisation is not a single trick you can add on. It is six separate areas of work. Skipping any one of them is usually why a business stays invisible while its competitors get quoted.
Prompt and visibility tracking
- A fixed prompt set built from real buying questions
- How often you are named, measured across all four tools
- AI Overview tracking on the terms that matter
- Whether those mentions are positive, because a bad mention is not a win
Answer ready content
- Pages that answer the question in the first few lines
- Comparison and alternatives pages, the type quoted most often
- Your own data and statistics, which these tools quote far more often
- Recent updates, because these tools favour newer pages
Entity and structured data
- Markup describing what your business is, not just what you sell
- FAQ and how-to markup on the questions you answer
- The same business details on Wikidata, directories and your own site
- A presence in Google’s knowledge panel, where your industry allows it
AI crawler access
- The AI crawlers GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended deliberately allowed in
- An llms.txt file, where it genuinely helps
- Pages that load their content on the server, so crawlers do not see a blank page
- The same crawl and speed work as technical SEO
Third party presence
- Reddit and the forums your industry actually reads
- Review platforms such as G2, Capterra and Trustpilot
- PR work aimed at getting you mentioned, not just linked to
- Mentions of your name without a link, which still count here
Reporting and correction
- Visitors arriving from AI tools, shown separately in your analytics
- Incorrect or out of date claims about you corrected at the source
- A monthly report on mentions, quotes and how you compare
- A running record of what worked and what did not
What being quoted actually looks like
Figures from live work. We do not publish client names.
- Named in 38 percent of answers in a B2B software category, up from zero in twelve weeks
- Quoted by Perplexity on 41 of the 60 questions we track
- Included in Google AI Overviews for the three searches that bring in the most enquiries
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We work with clients directly and on monthly retainers. We also work through Fiverr and Upwork, where we hold Top Rated and Top Rated Plus status. Here is what a few recent website and SEO clients said.
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The questions people actually ask us about AI search
Including the two that most agencies avoid answering honestly.
What is answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization, or AEO, means getting your business named inside the answers AI tools write, instead of only appearing in a list of links. In practice it involves three things. Answering real questions clearly on pages these tools can read. Adding markup so they can identify your business with confidence. Earning mentions on the websites they already trust. Generative engine optimization is the same idea with a different name, and people now use the two terms to mean the same thing.
What does GEO stand for, and how is it different from AEO?
GEO is generative engine optimization, the work of getting your business named inside answers that AI systems generate. AEO is answer engine optimization, and LLM SEO and AI visibility are two more labels for broadly the same thing. The industry has not settled on one name yet. Some people draw a line between them. AEO leans towards direct question and answer formats. GEO covers the whole picture, including entity data and third party citations. In practice you want all of it, so we do not sell them separately.
How is this different from the SEO we already pay for?
It is the same foundation with a different goal. Normal SEO aims for a ranking position, and that still matters, because Google AI Overviews are built from pages that already rank. What is new is writing to be quoted. That means three things. Structure an answer so it can be lifted straight off the page. Make it obvious what your business is. Get mentioned on the sites these tools pull from. If your SEO is already solid, this builds on it rather than replacing it.
How do you get a business mentioned in ChatGPT?
There is no form to submit and nobody can guarantee a mention. Three things do work. Being described the same way everywhere online. Appearing on the websites and forums the tool already uses. Publishing pages that answer specific questions directly instead of talking around them. After that you measure it. We track a fixed list of questions so you can watch how often you get mentioned, rather than taking our word for it.
Is SEO dead now that AI answers everything?
No, but the goal has moved. These assistants read the same web, use many of the same signals, and quote pages that were already doing well. What changed is that ranking is no longer the finish line, because someone can get their answer without clicking anything. The work is mostly the same. It is now judged on whether you get named, not just on your position.
How much does generative engine optimization cost?
It depends on how competitive your industry is and how visible you already are. We start with a fixed price measurement project. That tells you how often you are currently named and exactly where the gaps are. We quote the ongoing work from there. If the measurement shows you are already being quoted well, we will tell you, rather than sell you a monthly retainer you do not need.
How do you prove it is working?
We use a fixed list of questions, asked again on a schedule, with every result recorded. You see how often you were named, which tools named you, which sources they quoted, and which competitors appeared instead. This is not an exact science and answers vary each time you ask. So we report the trend across the whole list of questions, rather than screenshotting one good answer.
What is the best agency for generative engine optimization?
Nobody can honestly claim that yet, and you should be wary of anyone who does, because this work is barely two years old. There are three things you can check instead. Does the agency measure your current visibility before selling you anything? Will they show you the exact questions they track? Can they explain the work in terms you can check yourself? Ask any agency those three questions, including us.
Want to know what the assistants say about you right now? Send us your domain and three buying questions, and we will run them.
Tell us what you need and we will show you how we would do it
Share a few details about your business and what you want to fix or build. It could be a new website, a WordPress site that keeps breaking, SEO that has stalled, or a sales process that needs automating. We will come back with honest advice, even if that means a smaller job than you expected.
A reply within one business day
A real person on the team reads your message and replies, usually the same day.
A free review of your current setup
We look at your website, rankings or systems before we talk, so the call is useful.
A written proposal
You get a clear scope, timeline and price in writing before any work starts.
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