What GEO is and how to get your website into ChatGPT and other AIs

Until recently, anyone who needed a service searched on Google and clicked links. Today, many people ask an AI directly — "who builds websites for clinics?", "what's the best way to sell cakes online?" — and get a ready-made answer, sometimes with business recommendations and links. GEO is what increases the chance of your business being in that answer.

How AIs choose what to cite

Each AI has its own approach, and they change often, but there's a pattern: they look for pages they can read easily, that answer the exact question and that seem trustworthy. They also cross-check what your website says against what other websites say about you.

• Content that answers right at the start, in a few sentences.
• Specific information: timelines, steps, criteria, what's included.
• Who's behind the website, stated clearly.
• Consistency: the same name, services and contact details everywhere.
• Mentions of the brand on other websites, profiles and directories.

GEO vs. SEO: what's the difference

• The goal of SEO: ranking well in Google's results.
• The goal of GEO: being understood and cited inside AI answers.
• What they share: a fast, well-structured site with useful content — without that, neither works.
• GEO's emphasis: direct answers, structured data, brand consistency and a presence beyond the website.

What makes a website ready for AI

Copy that answers

Each page opens by explaining, in plain language, what it is, who it's for and how it works. Questions customers ask become subheadings, with the answer right below.

Structured data

Markup that visitors don't see (schema.org) describing the company, the services, the articles and the frequently asked questions. It helps crawlers understand the site without guessing — and it has to match what's written on the page.

Access for AI crawlers

The main content has to be in the code the server delivers, not only appear after JavaScript loads, because many AI crawlers don't run scripts. It's also worth checking that robots.txt doesn't block AI search crawlers by mistake.

A consistent brand on and off the website

Google Business Profile, social networks and directories with the same name, the same description and a link to the website. AIs form an opinion about a brand from what the internet says about it, not just from its own site.

How to check whether your website shows up in AI answers

1. 1Ask each AI, in the words a customer would use: "who does [your service] in [your area]?".
2. 2Ask directly: "what is [your company name]?".
3. 3Note whether your website appears, what the AI says and where it got the information.
4. 4Repeat once a month: the answers change over time.

What not to do

• Stuffing pages with keywords or with questions nobody asks.
• Putting information in the structured data that isn't on the page (made-up reviews, for example).
• Publishing dozens of generic texts just to "have content".

GEO on the websites I build

GEO goes in during the build, together with SEO, and is done before launch: copy that answers, structured data, access for crawlers and consistent information. It's part of every website I deliver — it isn't sold separately, nor applied to websites built by other people. See the details in GEO: website optimization for AI.