“Recommend a good SEO agency in the Tricity”, “which dentist in Gdynia sees patients on Saturdays?”, “compare three renovation companies from Rumia”. Questions like these are increasingly going not to a classic search engine, but to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot. If an AI assistant does not know your business or has incomplete information about it, it simply will not recommend it.

The activities that increase the chance of appearing in the answers of generative systems are called GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). In this guide we explain how it works in practice and where to start.

Where do AI assistants get information about businesses?

Language models use two main sources of knowledge:

• the data they were trained on – this is knowledge “frozen” at a certain point in time, often many months ago,
• real-time search – more and more assistants search the internet while answering and cite the sources they used.

For a business this means one thing: information about you must be easily accessible, consistent and credible in many places online – on your website, in your Google Business Profile, in directories, in reviews and in industry articles.

GEO vs SEO – how do they differ?

Classic SEO fights for a position in the list of results. GEO fights for your business to be mentioned or cited in the answer. In practice, the two approaches overlap to a large extent: websites that are highly visible in search engines are also used more often by AI systems, which themselves rely on search results. GEO does, however, add a few accents worth knowing.

7 practical GEO steps

1. Describe clearly who you are and what you do

An AI assistant must understand without any doubt what the business is called, what it offers, to whom and where it operates. This information should be stated plainly on the home page, in the “About us” section and on the service pages – without marketing platitudes. The sentence “We are an SEO agency from Pogórze near Gdynia that optimises the websites of businesses from the Tricity” is far more readable for a machine than “We deliver innovative digital solutions”.

2. Ensure your data is consistent across the entire internet

The business name, address, phone number and description should be identical on your website, in your Google Business Profile, on social media and in directories. Discrepancies – e.g. an old brand name on Facebook – make it harder for systems to link the information to a single business.

3. Add structured data

Schema.org markup (e.g. Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage) describes the business in a format that machines understand. It does not guarantee citations, but it makes the correct interpretation of the content easier.

4. Create content that answers customers’ questions

People ask AI assistants full questions, not short phrases. FAQ sections, guides and comparisons in which the question is the heading and the answer appears directly below it are easy for AI systems to use. You will find an example of this approach in the article how to choose an SEO company – 10 questions.

5. Show evidence and specific figures

AI systems readily cite facts: results, dates, comparisons. Case studies with measurable results – such as L’Entre Villes Sopot – are more “citable” than general assurances of effectiveness.

6. Build your brand’s presence beyond your own website

Mentions in local media, expert articles on industry portals, rankings, directories and customer reviews mean that many independent sources “talk” about your business. For AI systems this is an important signal of credibility. More about building authority: off-page SEO.

7. Do not block the bots you care about

Check your robots.txt file. If you block AI search bots (e.g. OAI-SearchBot, used by ChatGPT search, or PerplexityBot), your website may not appear in their answers. It is worth distinguishing between bots that collect data for training models (e.g. GPTBot) and those that search for information in real time – make a conscious decision about each of them. It is also worth registering your website in Bing Webmaster Tools, because various search services use the Bing index.

What about the llms.txt file?

There is a lot of talk in the industry about the llms.txt file, which is meant to make it easier for language models to learn the content of a website. As of today, there is no confirmation that the largest search systems, including Google, use it. You can add it, but it is not worth treating it as a priority – good content, structure and authority deliver far more.

How can you check whether AI knows your business?

The simplest test: ask several AI assistants questions that your customer might ask, e.g. “which companies in Gdynia deal with…”, “what do you know about [business name]?”. Check:

• whether your business appears at all,
• whether the information is up to date and correct,
• which sources are cited – and whether your website and Google Business Profile are among them.

Repeat the test every month and record the results. AI answers vary depending on the wording of the question and the moment, which is why trends matter, not a single result. More about measurement: how to measure visibility in AI.

The most common mistakes

• Mass-generating texts “for AI” – this is a straight road to losing quality and trust. Read how to use AI safely when writing content.
• Outdated contact details – an assistant may recommend your business with an old phone number.
• No reviews – when making recommendations, AI systems often take ratings and reviews into account.
• Content without an author and evidence – it is harder for both people and machines to trust it.

Summary

GEO does not replace SEO – it is its natural extension. Businesses that have consistent data, specific content, proof of effectiveness and a strong online presence are recommended more often by both Google and AI assistants. Would you like to check how your business performs in AI answers? Order a free SEO audit or see what our search engine optimisation includes.