How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews

A growing share of your future customers will never see a list of ten blue links. They will type a question into ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity — “who does affordable websites for dentists near me?” — or read the AI Overview at the top of Google, and act on the answer they get.

For a small business, that raises a new question: what makes an AI assistant mention you?

The practice of answering that question has a name: generative engine optimization, or GEO. This guide explains it in plain language and gives you a checklist you can work through without a big budget.

GEO is optimizing your content so that AI tools cite or recommend your business in the answers they write. Traditional SEO aims for a high position in a list of links. GEO aims to be one of the sources an AI pulls from when it writes its answer.

The two overlap heavily. Industry guides such as WordStream’s GEO vs. SEO explainer describe it this way: SEO and GEO share the same foundations — a clean site structure, good backlinks and well-organized content — but GEO puts extra weight on being clear about who you are, structured data, being mentioned on other trustworthy sites, and keeping content fresh.

Two findings from recent industry research show why this is worth your attention (see the AI SEO statistics roundup from SEO.com for more):

• When an AI Overview appears, studies have found that clicks to the top organic result drop sharply — by around a third in several analyses.
• Many of the sources cited in AI Overviews do not rank in the top 10 classic results for the same search — one widely shared 2026 analysis put it at fewer than one in five.

The second finding is the good news for a small business. You do not need to outrank big national brands to be cited. A clear, specific, well-structured page can be quoted by an AI even if it is on page two of the classic results.

AI search tools don’t publish their rules, but their behaviour is consistent enough to plan around. They tend to cite sources that are:

1. Specific. A page that answers one question completely beats a page that mentions ten topics in passing.
2. Clear about the business. Name, services, location, service area, prices or price ranges, and contact details stated plainly and consistently everywhere.
3. Corroborated. The same facts about you appear on your website, your Google Business Profile, directories, reviews and other sites.
4. Easy to parse. Headings that are questions, short direct answers, lists and tables, and structured data (schema).
5. Fresh. Dated, recently updated content is favoured for anything time-sensitive.

A single “Services” page with six bullet points gives an AI nothing to quote. Give each service its own page that says what it is, who it is for, what is included, how long it takes, and how pricing works. (This is exactly why we gave each of our own specialist services its own page.)

Under each heading, answer the question in one or two sentences before you add detail. AI tools love a direct answer they can lift. “How long does a website take? Most small business websites take two to four weeks.” — then explain.

Collect the questions customers actually ask you by phone and email, and answer them on the relevant service page. Use the exact wording customers use.

Your business name, address, phone number, website and hours should match exactly on your website, your Google Business Profile, social profiles and directories. Inconsistency makes an AI less confident about you.

Schema is code that labels your content for machines: this is a LocalBusiness, these are its services, this is an FAQ. Most modern website platforms can add it, and it is one of the clearest signals you can send. If you are unsure whether yours has it, an SEO audit will tell you.

AI tools look for corroboration. Local business associations, supplier and partner websites, industry directories, podcasts, local news and genuine reviews all count. One real mention on a relevant site is worth more than dozens of low-quality directory links.

Reviews are both a trust signal and a source of language AIs quote (“customers say they respond quickly”). Ask every happy customer, and reply to every review — good or bad.

Google’s quality guidelines emphasise experience, expertise, authority and trust (E-E-A-T). Show real project photos, named team members, case studies and specific details only someone who has done the work would know.

Update your key service pages at least a few times a year, and show a “last updated” date on guides and articles. For anything that changes — prices, regulations, platform features — stale content is quickly passed over.

Check that your robots.txt does not block the crawlers you want (such as Googlebot and the crawlers used by AI search tools), that your pages load quickly, and that important content is in the HTML rather than hidden behind scripts or images.

• Don’t stuff keywords or publish thin AI-written pages at scale. AI tools and Google are both good at spotting content with nothing new to say.
• Don’t fake reviews or buy links. It can get your Google Business Profile suspended, and it undermines the trust signals GEO depends on.
• Don’t abandon classic SEO. Good technical SEO is still the foundation; GEO builds on top of it.

There is no Search Console for ChatGPT yet, so measure it simply:

No. GEO is built on SEO. A fast, well-structured site with clear service pages and good reviews is what both Google and AI assistants reward. Think of GEO as SEO with extra attention on clarity, structure and corroboration.

It varies. Improvements to structure and FAQs can be picked up within weeks once pages are re-crawled. Building mentions and reviews takes months. Most small businesses see the best results from steady work over three to six months.

Yes — often more easily than in classic rankings. AI answers frequently cite specific, local, detailed pages rather than the biggest brand. A clear page about exactly what you do, where you do it, is a strong candidate.

No. Your website, your Google Business Profile, Google Analytics 4, Search Console and a monthly check in the AI tools themselves cover the essentials.

Want to know how AI sees your business?

We will check how your business shows up in Google, AI Overviews and ChatGPT, and give you a prioritized list of fixes in plain language.