AI Search Guides
GEO: What It Is, How It Works and Where It Fits
Generative Engine Optimisation is the practice of getting your brand cited by ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. This guide explains what GEO involves, how it differs from SEO, and why these two strategies now need to work in parallel.
THE PROBLEM
Your rankings look fine. So why is traffic falling?
A company can rank on page one of Google and still have zero presence in AI-generated answers. Those are different signals, measured differently, won differently.
A buyer who asks ChatGPT “what’s the best [category] software for a team like mine?” gets a confident answer — and your brand may not be in it, regardless of where you rank organically.
This is not a traffic measurement problem. It is a visibility gap that compounds every month your competitors close it and you don’t.
Where answers are generated
AI Overviews
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Gemini
Copilot
Zero-click growth
AI citation volatility
WHAT GEO COVERS
The six pillars of a GEO programme
A complete GEO programme addresses six distinct areas. Each affects whether AI decides to cite your firm when buyers ask the questions that matter to your business.
01
AI Visibility Audit
A baseline diagnostic across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews. Maps citation rate, sentiment, share of voice and the specific buying prompts where competitors are ahead.
02
GEO Content
Building or restructuring content to answer the exact buying prompts AI uses. Structured formatting, direct answers, FAQ schema — the signals AI engines weight when deciding who to cite.
03
Off-site Citations
Building your presence in the editorial sources AI trusts in your category. G2, Capterra, industry roundups, trade publications — the third-party signals AI uses to verify recommendations.
04
Competitor Tracking
Monitoring which firms AI recommends on your target buying prompts. Real-time visibility into competitor AI share of voice so you can respond before gaps compound.
05
Technical GEO
Ensuring AI crawlers can access and extract your content. robots.txt configuration for AI bots, schema markup for AI extraction, entity clarity across your site.
06
Monthly Visibility Report
Your citation rate, share of voice, sentiment and competitor position across all four AI platforms — every month. Not a raw data dump: a clear picture of what moved and why.
WHAT CHANGES
What you see within the first six months
Brands that build AI visibility now are establishing citation patterns, trust signals, and authority scores that compound over time. AI engines learn from the web that exists today and tend to keep citing sources they already trust.
Month 1
Months 2–4
Month 6+
FIND THE VISIBILITY GAP
Find out where your firm stands in AI search today
The AI Visibility Check maps your citation rate across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, shows you which competitors AI recommends in your category, and tells you exactly why you are missing. Delivered in five working days, from £495.
FAQ
Common questions.
What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It is the practice of making your brand visible and citable in AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
SEO works to rank your page in a list of search results. GEO works to get your brand cited inside an AI-generated answer. A page can rank number one organically and receive zero AI citations. Freshness, structured formatting, clear direct language, and third-party citations from trusted sources are what AI engines weight most.
Do I need GEO if I already have good SEO?
Yes. Good SEO is necessary but no longer sufficient. 68% of Google searches now end without a click, driven largely by AI Overviews answering the question directly. Buyers researching via ChatGPT or Perplexity operate outside the Google search result entirely. GEO builds on your existing SEO foundation. It does not replace it.
How quickly will I see results?
Technical fixes and content restructuring can produce citation improvements within weeks. Measurable AI citation improvements on specific buying prompts typically appear within 4 to 8 weeks. Building a broader share of voice compounds over 3 to 6 months.
Which AI platforms does GEO target?
The four primary platforms are ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Each has different citation patterns, different trusted sources, and different prompting behaviours. An effective GEO programme addresses all four rather than optimising for one.
What does GEO measurement look like?
The four key metrics are: citation rate (how often AI names your firm across target buying questions), position when named, share of voice vs competitors, and AI-sourced enquiries. Standard SEO analytics tools measure none of these. Specialist AI visibility platforms like Peec AI track them automatically.
Is GEO right for B2B professional services firms?
GEO is especially effective for B2B firms where buyers research extensively before engaging. When a prospect asks an AI assistant who the leading firms are in a particular discipline, being named in that answer can be the difference between getting on the shortlist or not. For firms where trust and expertise are the primary buying criteria, AI citation is increasingly a first-impression channel.
Find out what AI tells your buyers about your firm.
The AI Visibility Check maps the buyer questions where AI recommends competitors and not you — the gap this guide describes. Delivered in five working days.
Get an AI Visibility Check — from £495 →