Try this right now. Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask: “Who are the best people for [what you do] in [your city]?”
Go on, we’ll wait.
Did your business come up? If it did, brilliant. If it didn’t, you’ve just met the newest front door to your business, and it’s one a lot of your competitors haven’t noticed yet.
Search is slowly turning into a conversation. People ask a question and get a written answer with a few businesses named in it. Getting yourself into those answers has a name: generative engine optimisation, or GEO.
What’s actually changed?
Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Claude all read the web, summarise it, and cite a handful of sources. Google rolled AI Overviews out widely in 2024 (here’s Google’s announcement).
And here’s the reassuring part. Google’s own guidance says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews. Good SEO still does the heavy lifting.
So GEO is mostly about one thing: being the clearest, most trustworthy answer to the questions your customers are asking.
How AI assistants decide who to mention
- Clarity: pages that answer the question near the top are easy to summarise.
- Structure: headings, lists, tables and FAQs give the AI neat pieces to lift.
- Specifics: prices, timelines, locations and steps are far more useful to an AI than adjectives.
- Trust: who wrote it, when it was updated, what sources it links to, and whether your business is described the same way across the web.
- Access: if your robots.txt blocks AI crawlers, or your words only appear after heavy scripts run, you’re harder to read.
Seven practical GEO moves
1. Answer the question in your first paragraph
Right under your main heading, write 20 to 60 words that say what you do, who it’s for and where. That little paragraph is the one most likely to be quoted.
2. Use the questions your customers actually ask
Turn some headings into real questions. “How much does a clinic website cost?” will get picked up far more often than “Our pricing philosophy”. Borrow the exact words people use on WhatsApp and on calls.
3. Add an honest FAQ, and mark it up
FAQs answer the long, specific questions people type into AI tools. Adding FAQPage structured data helps machines understand them. One thing to know: Google now only shows FAQ rich results for well-known government and health websites, so think of the markup as a clarity boost for machines.
4. Be specific
Turnaround times, service areas, what’s included and who the service suits. Specific facts are what get cited.
5. Show the people behind the words
Author names, credentials, “last updated” dates and links to reputable sources all line up with Google’s guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content.
6. Check who you’re letting in
Have a look at your robots.txt. Make sure it allows the assistants you’d like to appear in, such as OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended. Blocking some of them can be a fair business decision. Just make it on purpose.
7. Add an llms.txt file
llms.txt is a proposed standard: a short guide at the root of your site that points AI tools to your most important pages. It’s early days and not every tool uses it yet, but it costs very little and takes an afternoon.
Ranking on page one used to be the goal. Now the prize is being the name in the answer.
Where should you start?
Pick your five most valuable service pages. Rewrite the opening paragraph of each so it answers the customer’s question in plain, friendly language. Then add a short FAQ to each one.
That alone will put you ahead of most small business websites.
Our search and digital marketing work now includes GEO by default, and our content strategy service plans articles around the questions people are really asking. Curious how quotable your site is today? Book a call and we’ll take a look together.
Frequently asked questions
What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?
GEO is the work of making your content easy for AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Claude and Perplexity to find, understand and mention. It builds on good SEO.
Do I need special tricks to appear in Google’s AI Overviews?
Google says there are no extra requirements or special optimisations for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that the usual SEO best practices still apply. Clear, helpful, well-organised content is what counts.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file at the root of a website that gives AI tools a short guide to the site’s most important pages. It’s still an emerging idea, so think of it as a cheap, sensible extra.
Did your business show up when you asked an AI? Share this with a fellow business owner and see if theirs does.
Tagon Digital
Editorial team, Tagon Notes
Tagon Digital brings together website design, content strategy and digital marketing to help businesses improve online visibility and customer journeys.
Prepared by the Tagon Digital team with AI-assisted research and drafting. Facts and figures link to their original sources below.
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