Search is changing. Many people no longer type a few words into Google and open ten links. They ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity a full question and get one answer, often with two or three recommendations. If your company is not in that answer, for that customer it does not exist.
Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, is the work of making your company appear, and be recommended, in those answers. It does not replace SEO. It builds on it.
It already sells
At a fado house we work with, we measure where every ticket comes from. In September 2026, 30 purchases on the website came from ChatGPT. In a Tripadvisor review, a visitor says they chose the venue on Gemini's recommendation. These are small numbers today, and they are growing.
What AI assistants look for
AI assistants recommend what they find described in a consistent way across sources they trust. In practice:
- The same name, address, hours, prices and booking link everywhere: Google, Apple Maps, Bing, booking platforms and guides
- Structured data on your website, so machines understand what you are, what you sell and where
- Independent sources: press, travel guides, sector directories, Wikidata
- Pages that answer the questions people really ask, written the way they ask them
- Recent reviews, requested automatically after each purchase
Where to start
- Fix what is wrong: outdated prices and hours in guides and platforms are the first thing an AI repeats
- Prepare a short fact sheet in the languages of your customers and send it with every correction
- Add structured data and a frequently asked questions page to your website
- Measure traffic and purchases from AI assistants in Google Analytics 4
GEO is slow work, measured in months, and it compounds. The companies that start now will be the ones the assistants already know.
Would you like to assess how your company appears in AI assistant answers?
Talk to us