What Is GEO? AI Search Visibility Explained

Some customers now skip the search bar and ask ChatGPT or Gemini for a recommendation instead. I wanted to see what these assistants actually say about local businesses around me, so I asked them three questions a customer might ask. The answers say a lot about what gets a business recommended, and it isn’t anything mysterious.

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) means making your business easy for AI assistants to understand, describe and recommend. It builds on the same foundations as traditional SEO. Google’s own guidance on AI features is that there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: no special markup and no “AI file”. The SEO fundamentals still do the work.

What I asked, and what came back

I’ve left the businesses unnamed. The point is the pattern, not the names.

“Can you recommend a reliable electrician in Moonee Ponds?” The answer named three electricians and matched each one to a type of job: an owner-operator for heritage homes and switchboard upgrades, a long-established family firm for bigger jobs and EV chargers, and a third for emergency callouts. The reasons it gave were things those businesses make clear about themselves: what they specialise in, their licence details, how long they’ve been operating, their star rating, and what customers praise in their reviews.

“I need an accountant for my small business in Essendon. Who would you recommend?” This answer named five firms and linked to each firm’s own website. Three of those links went to pages dedicated to Essendon. The descriptions mirrored what each firm says about itself: fixed-fee packages, Xero and MYOB setup, how long they’ve served local businesses, and even the street one of them is on.

“Who does local SEO for small businesses in Ascot Vale?” Kwantum didn’t come up. The answer named an agency whose website talks specifically about Ascot Vale and the suburbs around it, two agencies based nearby in Moonee Ponds, and some of the large Melbourne SEO agencies. For a business a few weeks old with a brand-new Business Profile and few mentions anywhere yet, that’s what I’d expect. It’s a useful baseline, and I’ll run the same question again as Kwantum’s profile and website mature.

What the answers have in common

Specific beats general. The electricians were recommended for specific jobs because their websites and profiles say exactly what they do. “Electrician” on its own gives an assistant very little to work with. “Heritage rewiring and switchboard upgrades in Moonee Ponds” gives it a reason to send you a particular customer.

Suburb pages get cited. The assistant pointed people straight to accountants’ Essendon pages. If you want to be recommended in a suburb, have a page on your website about your work there.

Credentials and reviews get repeated. Licence details, years in business, star ratings and phrases from reviews all made it into the answers. For a tradie, that means putting your licence number on your website and asking happy customers for reviews. For a professional service, it means stating your qualifications and how long you’ve been helping local businesses.

What sets you apart gets repeated too, if you say it plainly. Details like fixed-fee packages and no lock-in contracts showed up in the answers. Assistants can only pass on what you’ve actually written down.

The answer to my own question was a local SEO checklist. When I asked about SEO help in Ascot Vale, the assistant listed what to look for: an optimised Google Business Profile, a consistent name, address and phone number across directories like True Local and Yellow Pages, and content about the suburbs you serve. That’s local SEO.

GEO is mostly SEO done properly

Some agencies sell AI search as something entirely new, so they can charge a premium for it. In my view, it comes down to the fundamentals that good SEO has always needed: consistent business details across your website, your Business Profile and the sites that link to you, and content that answers the questions people actually ask. More of those questions are now being asked of AI assistants, so answering them clearly matters more than ever. Don’t let anyone convince you it’s a different discipline.

What to do this month

• Ask the assistants yourself. Use the questions your customers would ask, note who gets named and how they’re described, and repeat it every month or so.
• Spell out what you do. Your website should list your main services, the suburbs you cover, your licence or qualifications, how long you’ve been operating, and what makes you different.
• Build suburb pages for the areas you most want work from.
• Keep your Google Business Profile current. Google’s guidance for its AI features specifically mentions keeping your Business Profile information up to date.
• Get reviews and reply to them. They feed both your Maps ranking and what assistants say about you.
• Keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear.

Structured data can help search engines confirm these facts, but Google says it isn’t required for its AI features. Treat it as a helper, and make sure it matches what’s visible on the page.

What to be wary of

There’s no reliable way to trick an AI assistant into recommending a business it otherwise wouldn’t. Be wary of anyone promising guaranteed placement in AI answers, because no one controls that outcome. What GEO can do is make your business easy to understand and describe accurately, wherever an assistant looks.

Curious where you currently stand? Our AI search visibility service starts with exactly that kind of check.