GEO · AI Search Visibility

Generative engine optimization, with receipts.

GEO is getting your brand shown and cited in AI answers. A lot of people sell it as a secret new discipline. I sell it as the SEO you should already be doing, plus a real citation layer, and I can show you my own numbers to prove the approach works.

What GEO actually is

A short definition before the sales pitch.

Generative engine optimization is the work of making your brand show up, correctly and with attribution, when AI systems answer questions: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, Claude. Searchers increasingly get an answer instead of ten blue links. GEO decides whether your brand is in that answer.

Here's the thing: most of GEO is not new. AI systems cite pages that are specific, sourced, structured, and trustworthy. That was the SEO playbook already. I wrote up the overlap in GEO vs SEO: Same Thing, Baby. The new part is the citation layer: primary sources, quotable spans, and measurement across AI surfaces. Be discerning about anyone who tells you otherwise; the people selling GEO as brand-new are usually selling the mystery, not the work.

My receipts

From my own Search Console and GA4, on this site.

79,037

Google Search impressions on a single catalog page of mine in the last six months, a big share of them the long, full-sentence queries AI assistants send when they research an answer.

AI Assistant

A distinct traffic channel in my own GA4. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and friends send this site visitors today, and I can see which pages they come to.

Quoted, with my name on it

My case studies are built as primary sources with quotable spans, citation blocks, and speakable markup, so when AI systems retell the Oreo Blackout Tweet story, the attribution chain points here.

The catalog page in question: 119 AI Marketing Case Studies. The primary-source example: the Oreo Blackout Tweet, from someone who was in the room.

What I do

Audit, content, measurement. In that order.

GEO audit

Where your brand shows up in AI answers today, which pages get used as sources, and what is structurally blocking the rest. You get findings and a prioritized fix list.

Content built to be cited

Primary-source pages, first-party data, schema, and quotable structure. AI systems cite pages that say something specific and verifiable. Most brand content does neither.

Measurement

AI referral traffic, assistant-shaped queries in Search Console, and brand presence in AI answers, tracked over time. If it cannot be measured, I will say so instead of inventing a dashboard.

Questions people ask about GEO

GEO is the work of getting your brand shown and cited in AI-generated answers: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude. Same goal as SEO, new set of judges.

Mostly no, and I wrote a whole piece saying so. Roughly 80 percent is the SEO you should already be doing. The other 20 percent is real: citation-worthy structure, primary sources, and measuring AI surfaces instead of just rankings.

No, and nobody honest can. The models change, the retrieval changes, and there is no paid placement to buy. What I can do is make your pages the kind AI systems prefer to cite, and measure whether it is working.

Three ways I use on my own site: AI referral traffic in GA4, assistant-shaped queries in Search Console, and direct checks of what the major assistants say about the brand. Not perfect, but real numbers instead of vibes.

Usually no. The biggest wins tend to be restructuring what you already have: adding the specifics, the sources, and the markup that make a page quotable. New content comes after the foundation is fixed.

Audit first, usually 2 to 3 weeks. Then either a fix list your team executes or an ongoing engagement where I run it. I quote a number on the first call.

Related ways to work with me

Want to know if AI search mentions you?

Ask me for a GEO audit. You'll get findings and a fix list, not a retainer pitch.

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