GEO optimization: build a strategy in 6 steps
Customers search through ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity more and more. If you want AI to mention your business, you need an approach, not loose tricks. This is the complete plan: six concrete steps from baseline to authority, with what you do in each step and where to read more. The why is in what is GEO. The concept behind it is AI visibility.
What is GEO optimization?
GEO optimization is improving your website and your mentions on other sites so that AI mentions your business. It is about ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, at the moment a customer asks for advice. GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. Where SEO is about a position in the list of links, GEO is about a place in the answer itself.
It builds on SEO. An AI assistant that consults the web picks pages it can read. Those pages answer the question in the first paragraph, and other sites confirm what is on them. Three differences with regular SEO shape the approach below:
- You measure questions, not keywords. A customer types a whole question into ChatGPT, with their situation included.
- The answer has to be at the top. An assistant takes over the start of a page, rarely the fifth paragraph.
- Mentions elsewhere count. AI compares what you say about yourself with reviews, mentions and comparisons on other sites.
The definition and background are in what is GEO. Below is what you concretely do, in six steps.
Measure your baseline
You cannot improve what you cannot see. Define the questions your customers ask AI and measure whether you get mentioned. This is your starting point and your yardstick.
An accountant in Columbus writes down the questions clients call about. Which accountant suits a self-employed contractor is a different question from what a tax return for an S corp costs. She asks both once in ChatGPT and notes whether her firm gets mentioned, a competitor, or nobody. That note is the baseline. Without a list you improve pages for questions nobody asks, and you leave the questions where a job is at stake.
What you do this week
- Write down the questions customers actually ask, not just the keywords.
- Ask those questions once in ChatGPT and note whether you, a competitor or nobody gets mentioned.
- Keep that note. That is the baseline.
Make your site readable for AI
AI crawlers need to be able to fetch and read your content. Make sure you have fast, accessible HTML, a correct robots.txt for AI bots and a clean technical foundation.
The services page of that firm only loads its copy after a script runs. The page source shows an empty box. A crawler that does not run JavaScript sees no services at all. The accountant puts the copy in the source as plain HTML and checks that GPTBot, Google-Extended and PerplexityBot are not blocked in robots.txt. Only once the sentence is in the source does the rest of this plan have something to cite.
What you do this week
- Put the copy in the page source as plain HTML, not only after a script runs.
- Check that GPTBot, Google-Extended and PerplexityBot are not blocked in robots.txt.
- Check that the sentence is in the source before you do the rest of the plan.
Write content that AI cites
AI picks sources that answer a question directly and factually. Think in question clusters, give clear answers at the top and back them up with concrete facts.
For the question about the self-employed contractor there is now a page that answers in the first paragraph: who the firm works for, which returns it files, and in which cities. The price of an intro meeting is on the page as text, not in a PDF. The terms are further down. An assistant can take over that first paragraph without having to guess the rest of the site. The link below goes deeper into the writing.
What you do this week
- Answer in the first paragraph who you work for, what you do and in which cities.
- Put the price on the page as text, not in a PDF.
- Put the terms further down, so an assistant can take over the first paragraph.
Add structured data
With schema (such as Organization, Product and FAQ) AI understands your information unambiguously, without guessing. That increases the chance you get cited correctly.
The same page carries Organization schema with name, address and phone, matching the Google Business Profile. An FAQ block repeats the two questions from the baseline, with the same answer as the visible copy. Schema does not invent a fact that is not on the page. It only makes the fact unambiguous, so name and city do not have to be pulled from a menu or a footer.
What you do this week
- Add Organization schema with name, address and phone, matching your Google Business Profile.
- Repeat the questions from the baseline in an FAQ block, with the same answer as the visible copy.
- Do not put any fact in schema that is not on the page.
Build authority
If you are not mentioned anywhere else, AI has little reason to trust you. Build mentions, reviews and references through trade media, comparisons and digital PR.
Otherwise the firm only appears on its own site. An assistant then has little second source. The accountant asks two clients for a review that mentions the service and the city, and writes a short piece for the local chamber of commerce. No made-up ratings and no paid mentions. A handful of real mentions with the same name and address is enough to see whether the next measurement shifts.
What you do this week
- Ask two clients for a review that mentions the service and the city.
- Write a short contribution for a local business association or a trade publication.
- No made-up ratings and no paid mentions.
Measure again and adjust
GEO is not a one-off action but a cycle. Measure your visibility score every month, see where you rise and fall, and improve where the data points.
Two weeks later she asks the same two questions again. If the firm is mentioned where it was missing, that page stays. If nothing happens, she changes one thing: the first paragraph, or the readability, not both. Otherwise she will not know what explains the shift. She repeats that round. GEO is that repetition, not a one-off publication.
What you do this week
- Ask the same questions again two weeks later.
- If nothing happens, change one thing: the first paragraph or the readability, not both.
- Repeat that round. Otherwise you will not know what explains a shift.
Why this order
The six steps are in this order because a later step runs dry without the one before it. A page the crawler cannot read does not get cited, however sharp the first paragraph is. Schema on a page without an answer only makes the gap tidier. Authority without a page of your own gives an assistant nothing to point to. And measuring once at the end does not tell you which change did something.
The accountant example is an illustration, not a case with numbers. Swap the trade and the city, and the loop stays the same: write down questions, check whether you get mentioned, make a page readable, put the answer at the top, repeat the same fact in schema, add a real mention, and ask the same questions again later. GreatCompany measures those questions in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Not in more assistants.
Count on weeks to a few months before a shift becomes visible. If you demand a date when it is done, you will not get one here. What you can see right away is whether the page is in the source. That is step 2, and it decides whether steps 3 to 6 land anywhere. The broader explanation, apart from these six steps, is under AI visibility.
Take step 1
Measure which questions AI mentions your business for, and know right away where to start. Join the waitlist to be first in line.
Free to join. When we open in the US, your free AI visibility report is first in line.
Does this plan need sign-off from leadership?
A plan is not an approval. If you want budget and time for this, it has to convince your leadership team. AI visibility on the leadership agenda lists the four elements your answer needs to hold up there.
Frequently asked questions
- What is GEO optimization?
- GEO optimization is improving your website and your mentions elsewhere online so that AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mention your business when someone asks for advice. It builds on SEO: the same readable pages, but with the answer at the top, facts in the copy and mentions on other sites.
- What does GEO optimization cost?
- If you do it yourself with software, you pay a monthly fee for the measurement and the advice; with GreatCompany that starts at $49 a month. An agency usually charges a fixed monthly retainer. An overview of tool and agency pricing is in the article about what GEO costs.
- How long does it take for GEO to work?
- That differs per platform and per market. Improvements come through fastest in AI systems that consult the web live, such as Perplexity and ChatGPT with search. Count on weeks to a few months before you see clear shifts, and keep measuring to follow the progress.
- Can I do this plan myself?
- Yes. You can do most steps yourself, especially with a tool that handles the measuring and the advice for you. For the technical steps or building authority some businesses bring in an agency, but the basics are very doable yourself.
- What is the most important step?
- Step 1, measuring. Without a baseline you do not know which questions you are missing and you improve at random. Once you measure, the rest becomes targeted and measurable.
- Does this plan work for every business?
- The approach is universal, but the details differ per industry. An online store focuses on product questions, a service provider on problem questions, a local business on neighborhood questions. The plan stays the same; you tune the prompts and content to your market.
Take step 1 of this plan
Step 1 of this plan is a baseline. Join the waitlist and get your first report as soon as we open: whether AI can read your site and which SEO issues are on it. That decides whether the other steps have an effect.
Free to join. When we open in the US, your free AI visibility report is first in line.
Curious what AI crawlers see on your site? About the technical scanPro $49, you do it yourself · Or automate your SEO for $99, built for WordPress