What is GEO — and why should a business owner care?
In short
GEO gets AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity to recommend your business by name when someone asks.
It runs on the same inputs as your Google Maps ranking — your profile, your site, and trusted citations — so one effort covers both.
We prove it with repeatable queries, logged with the date, wording, and a screenshot — not vague "AI visibility" claims.
GEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of making sure AI engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews — recommend your business by name when someone asks. It matters because people are asking. Roughly 78% of local trade businesses are invisible to AI engines today (5W AI Visibility Index, via MarketingCode, May 2026).
How do AI engines pick a local business?
When someone asks ChatGPT "who's a good HVAC company in Chapel Hill," the engine doesn't guess. It grounds its answer in sources it trusts:
Your Google Business Profile — completeness, categories, services, reviews, and activity.
Your website's structure — clear pages that answer real questions, plus schema markup (machine-readable labels that tell engines what your business is, where it is, what it does).
What trusted third-party sites say — directories, citations, local press, community discussion.
That raw material overlaps almost entirely with what drives Google Maps rankings. That's why we sell one service, not two: the same work moves both surfaces.
What does GEO work actually look like?
No magic. Structured, verifiable work on things you control: a complete and active Google Business Profile; content pages on your existing site that answer the questions buyers actually ask; schema markup deployed and validated; consistent citations across the directories engines trust; and a real review base, grown the FTC-compliant way — real customers, no gating, no incentives (FTC final rule on reviews and testimonials, 2024).
How do you measure something as fluid as AI answers?
This is where most "AI visibility" claims fall apart, so here's our method in full:
We track a fixed set of query patterns per client — 20 for a full baseline, asked the way real buyers ask.
We run them on ChatGPT and Perplexity, the same engines every time.
Every run is logged with the date, the exact wording, and a screenshot.
AI answers vary between runs. We log multiple runs and report frequencies — "named in 7 of 10 runs" — instead of cherry-picking the best one.
You don't have to trust our numbers. You can check them. That's the difference between a measurement and a marketing claim.
Can anyone guarantee AI citations?
No. Anyone who guarantees a ChatGPT mention or a #1 Maps rank is selling something they don't control. What an honest operator can do is move every input the engines are known to read, measure the result monthly, and show you the trend. Engines change how they source answers; frameworks travel, tactics expire. The measurement is what keeps the work honest.
FAQ
Is GEO different from SEO? Related, not identical. SEO targets ranked lists of links; GEO targets being named in a direct answer. They share most inputs — content, structure, reputation — which is why we deliver them as one service.
Does GEO require rebuilding my website? No. We deploy schema, FAQ blocks, and content pages on your existing site. We don't build or host websites — ever.
How long until AI engines mention my business? Maps and AI visibility typically move over 60–120 days. Leading indicators — reviews, citations, profile activity — show up in your first monthly report. Anyone promising faster should show you their method.
Which AI engines do you track? ChatGPT and Perplexity, with documented runs. The same fixed queries every month, so the trend is real.
What does it cost? The full price list is public on our Services page: from a free scorecard to $3,997/mo. Most clients start at $697/mo.
Want to know if AI engines mention you today?
The free scorecard includes a five-query AI spot check — measured, dated, screenshotted. Get your free Visibility Scorecard.
Located in Chapel Hill, NC
11312 US 15-501 N, Ste 107 #1052, Chapel Hill, NC 27517 · Serving the Research Triangle
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