Getting found by AI
When someone asks an AI who to call, it should say you.
More of your customers are asking ChatGPT before they ask Google. AI search optimisation is the work of making sure those tools know who you are, what you do and where, and say so correctly.
In short
What is AI search optimisation?
It is the work of making sure search engines and AI tools describe your business correctly and put it forward when someone asks. It splits in two: AEO is being the answer shown in search results, and GEO is being recommended inside tools like ChatGPT.
Why now
Nobody scrolls ten blue links to find a tradesperson any more.
Somebody with a leak types the question into their phone and gets an answer back, not a page of results. Somebody planning a renovation asks an AI what to watch out for, and which trades to line up, weeks before they ring anyone.
Both of those answers were assembled from things written about your industry and your area. Your business is either in them or it is not, and that is decided long before anyone visits your website.
Two different jobs sit behind that, and they are worth keeping apart in your head. One comes as part of the SEO work and costs nothing on top. The other is an add-on with a price of its own.
AEO
Being the answer, not the tenth link.
Answer engine optimisation. When Google replies directly with a boxed answer, or an AI summary quotes a handful of sources, that text came off somebody’s website. This is the work of it being yours.
- Answer the question, at the top
- A direct answer in the first line or two, then the detail underneath. Most trade pages bury the answer three paragraphs down, which is exactly where a machine stops reading.
- Ask the questions people actually ask
- How much to replace a hot water cylinder. How long a bathroom takes. Whether a job legally needs a licensed tradesperson. The ones you answer on the phone every week and nobody writes down.
- Structure it so it can be lifted
- Real question headings, lists where the answer is a list, and honest markup describing what the page holds. None of it is a trick. It is just being readable by something that is not a person.
- Keep your facts straight everywhere
- Your hours, service areas and services saying the same thing on your site, your Google Business Profile and everywhere else. Contradictions make you a risky source to quote.
AEO is included in the local SEO work at no extra cost, because it is mostly a matter of writing and structuring pages properly, which is work worth doing regardless. GEO, next, is the part with a price on it.
GEO
Being recommended inside the AI itself.
Generative engine optimisation. Getting tools like ChatGPT to know who you are and put you forward when somebody asks them who to call. This one is an add-on, because a real part of it is a cost rather than a task.
What makes it worth doing
- Gets you into conversations that never touch Google at all
- The mentions and articles keep working long after they are published
- Very few trade businesses are doing any of it yet
- The same work makes you more credible to Google, so nothing is wasted
What you should know first
- Slower and harder to measure than anything else I do
- Nobody can guarantee a mention, and anyone who says otherwise is lying
- Part of the budget goes to publications rather than to the work
- Pointless without the basics underneath it, so it is never the first thing to spend on
If the basics are not sorted yet, I will tell you to spend the money there first, on the website, the local SEO, or Google Ads if you need work this month. GEO on top of a site nobody can find is an expensive way to achieve very little.
How to appear in ChatGPT
Where it gets the answer from.
The question I get asked more than any other on this page. There is no submission form, no paid placement and nobody at OpenAI taking calls about it. What there is, is four things that make it more likely, in the order I would do them.
- 01
Let the crawlers in
ChatGPT reads the web through its own crawlers. A surprising number of trade sites block them without knowing, usually through a plugin or a host setting somebody ticked. Worth checking before anything else, because nothing below matters if the door is shut.
- 02
Be in the results it reads
When it goes looking, it largely reads what already ranks. Sitting on the second page of Google for a question means you are not in the pile it draws from. This is why the search work comes first and why it is not wasted.
- 03
Get named somewhere that is not your own site
It weighs what other people write about you more heavily than what you write about yourself. Trade bodies, suppliers, local press, genuine directories. One real mention in a place people trust is worth more than ten pages of your own copy.
- 04
Ask it about yourself every month
Type your trade and your town into it and read what comes back. You will find out quickly whether you are mentioned, and whether what it says is even right. Whatever is wrong almost always traces back to a source you can go and correct.
Do all four and you are a business it can find, understand and stand behind. Skip them and you are hoping. It is the same work whichever side of the world you are on, and whether you spell it generative engine optimisation or generative engine optimization.
What it costs
One is included. One is an add-on.
New Zealand dollars, GST added on top.
- AEO
- IncludedIn every SEO retainerNo surcharge, and there never has been one. The work behind it is the same work that makes a page rank in the first place, so billing you twice for it would be a con.
- GEO
- From $600A month + GSTAn add-on to a plan, not something bought on its own. Part of it pays publications to write about your business, which is the part that actually shifts how AI tools describe you. A bigger budget buys more of them.
GEO sits on top of getting found on Google, which starts at $600 a month. There is no version of this that works without the foundations underneath it, so I do not sell one.
The honest bit
Nobody can promise you a mention in ChatGPT.
Inclusion cannot be bought, nobody has a back door, and the answers change between two identical questions. Anyone selling you guaranteed AI visibility is describing something that does not exist.
What is real is this: businesses with clear information, consistent details and genuine mentions elsewhere get described accurately far more often than those without. I will show you what the tools say about you before and after, so you can judge it yourself.
Stu has been amazing in setting up our website, listening to what we wanted, offering his expertise and ideas, nothing was too much and all in a really friendly manner. Wherever you are in the world I'd recommend working with Stu, easy, professional and exceeds expectations.
Questions
Things people ask me.
What does AEO stand for?
Answer engine optimisation. It is the work of writing and structuring your content so a search engine or an AI can lift a clear, correct answer straight out of it and show it to someone, often without them clicking through.
What does GEO stand for?
Generative engine optimisation. It covers making your business easy for AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot and Google's AI results to understand and describe accurately, so that when somebody asks one for a recommendation you are in the answer and the details are right.
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO earns you a position in a list of results and the click that follows. AEO earns you the answer shown above that list. GEO gets you described and recommended inside AI tools, where there is no list at all. They share most of their foundations, which is why I sell them together rather than as three separate things.
Do I need this, or is Google still enough?
Google still sends most of the work for most trades, so it stays the priority. But a growing number of people ask an AI before they ask anything else, particularly for the research questions that come before hiring. The useful part is that the same foundations serve both, so this is rarely wasted effort.
How do I get my business to appear in ChatGPT?
There is no form to fill in and nothing to buy. It reads the web, so you appear by being visible in ordinary search, by being mentioned on sites other than your own, and by having your details consistent everywhere it looks. Then check monthly what it actually says about you.
Can you guarantee my business appears in ChatGPT or AI Overviews?
No, and it is worth being suspicious of anyone who says they can. There is no paid placement to buy, no submission form, and nobody at OpenAI taking calls about it. If someone offers you guaranteed AI visibility, ask them precisely what they would be purchasing on your behalf, because there is nothing there to purchase.
An AI is describing my business wrongly. Can that be fixed?
Usually, yes, and it is more common than people expect. It normally traces back to a stale directory listing, an old address, an inconsistent business name, or a competitor with clearer information. Fixing it at the source is the first thing I look at.
Do I lose work if someone gets their answer without clicking?
You lose the click. But the answer usually carries your name, and the person who reads a straight answer and then needs the job doing tends to remember where it came from. For most trades that trade is worth making.
Can I buy GEO on its own?
No, and I would not sell it that way. It only works sitting on top of the basics, so it is an add-on to getting found on Google rather than a separate service. AEO is different: that is included in every plan at no extra cost.
Let’s talk
Curious what the AI tools say about you?
Send me your business name and where you work. I will ask a few of them and send back exactly what comes out, flattering or not.