Something changed quietly over the past couple of years. People started asking ChatGPT questions they used to type into Google. Things like “what is the best accountant for small businesses in London” or “which digital marketing agency should I hire for my startup.” And ChatGPT answered them, naming specific businesses and services in the process.
If your business is being recommended in those answers, you are winning a genuinely new kind of visibility. If it is not, you are invisible to a growing audience who never even opens a search results page.
This is what GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is about. It is the practice of making your business the kind of source that AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews want to cite and recommend. The good news is that it is not mysterious. There are practical, actionable things you can do right now to start improving your chances. Here are ten of them.
🚀 Want Maddog World to handle your GEO and AI search visibility? |
# | Step |
1 | Make your business easy for AI to understand |
2 | Keep your business information consistent everywhere |
3 | Write content that directly answers real questions |
4 | Add structured data (schema markup) to your website |
5 | Build your presence on platforms AI already trusts |
6 | Get mentioned in third-party articles and listicles |
7 | Earn and manage online reviews consistently |
8 | Use statistics and original data in your content |
9 | Stay active on LinkedIn and authoritative platforms |
10 | Test and track your AI search visibility monthly |
ChatGPT and other AI tools work by identifying entities, which means recognisable, well-defined things in the world. Your business needs to be one of them. That starts with having a clear, consistent description of what you do, who you serve, and where you operate, written in plain language and used the same way across your website, Google profile, LinkedIn, and directories.
If you offer five services, name them clearly. If you serve a specific location or industry, say so explicitly. Vague descriptions like “we help businesses grow” give AI nothing reliable to work with.
Quick win: Write a one-paragraph business description and use it word-for-word across every platform where your business appears. |
AI models cross-reference information from multiple sources before recommending a business. If your name, address, phone number, website, and service description differ between Google, Yelp, Trustpilot, and your own website, the model loses confidence in you as a reliable entity and is less likely to cite you.
Audit every major directory where your business appears and make sure the details match exactly. This single step can move a business from AI-invisible to AI-cited within four to six weeks.
AI tools are built to answer questions. They cite sources that answer those questions clearly and specifically. If your website content is full of general statements and marketing language, it gives AI nothing quotable.
Think about the questions your ideal customers actually ask. Then write pages and blog posts that answer those questions directly, in short paragraphs with specific information. Use real numbers, real timelines, and real examples. Specificity is what gets you cited.
Example: Instead of ‘We offer fast turnaround times’, write ‘Most projects are completed within 10 to 14 business days, with rush delivery available in 5 days for an additional fee.’ |
Schema markup is code added to your website that tells search engines and AI platforms exactly what your business is, what it offers, where it operates, and how to contact you. It is the closest thing GEO has to a direct communication channel with AI tools.
At minimum, add LocalBusiness, Organization, Service, and FAQPage schema to your key pages. If you have reviews, add AggregateRating schema too. Most website platforms have plugins that make this manageable without writing code from scratch.
AI tools learn from trusted sources. Wikipedia, Reddit, LinkedIn, Clutch, Trustpilot, G2, Yelp, and major industry directories all carry weight in AI training and retrieval systems. The more your business appears on these platforms with accurate, positive, and detailed information, the more likely an AI tool is to include you when answering relevant queries.
You do not need to be everywhere. Focus on the platforms most relevant to your industry and make sure your presence on each is complete and up to date.
💡 Not sure which platforms matter most for your industry? Let Maddog World build your AI visibility roadmap. |
Research shows that 43.8% of ChatGPT’s citations for recommendation queries come from best-of listicles and comparison articles. If you are not in those articles, you are largely invisible for the queries that matter most commercially.
Reach out to bloggers, journalists, and industry publications who write roundup pieces relevant to your sector. Offer your expertise, suggest a quote, or ask to be included where appropriate. Getting into just two or three high-authority roundup articles in your niche can make a noticeable difference in how often AI tools mention you.
Tactic: Search ‘best [your service] in [your city]’ and identify which articles rank. Then contact those publishers and make a case for being included. |
Reviews are a trust signal for both traditional search and AI-generated recommendations. ChatGPT and Perplexity give weight to businesses with a high volume of recent, specific, positive reviews across multiple platforms.
Build a simple system for asking satisfied clients to leave reviews on Google, Trustpilot, or industry-specific platforms. Respond to every review, positive or negative. In Manchester, the average local business has 30 reviews. Top performers have 100 or more. Volume and recency both count.
Pages with concrete numbers get cited by AI more often than pages with general claims. This is because numbers are specific, verifiable, and quotable. AI tools prefer sources they can extract a crisp fact or figure from.
If you can publish original research, a client survey, or an industry report with real data, that content becomes a citation magnet. Even using well-sourced third-party statistics in your blog posts improves how AI perceives your content’s credibility.
LinkedIn articles and posts are indexed and referenced by AI tools more than most business owners realise. Regular posts sharing expert insights, case studies, and practical advice build your profile as an authoritative source in your field.
Medium, industry forums, and Quora threads on topics relevant to your business also carry weight. Contributing genuinely useful answers and content on these platforms creates a trail of citations that AI can draw from when answering related queries.
You cannot improve what you do not measure. Pick ten to twenty questions your ideal customers might ask an AI tool, and test them in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews once a month. Record whether your business is named, how it is described, and which sources are being cited alongside you.
Over time this simple audit tells you exactly what is working, which keywords are producing citations, and where you still have gaps. The businesses building AI visibility in 2026 are the ones tracking it systematically, not guessing.
Tool tip: Set up a simple spreadsheet. Track your target queries, the AI platforms, whether you were mentioned, and which source was cited. Run it monthly and watch the trends. |
It varies. Businesses that fix their entity consistency and get into a couple of authoritative listicles often see movement within four to eight weeks. Building consistent AI visibility through content and reviews typically takes three to six months of steady effort, similar to SEO timelines.
They overlap but they are not the same. SEO optimises your site to rank in Google's traditional blue-link results. GEO optimises your presence so AI tools cite and recommend you inside their generated answers. Good SEO creates a strong foundation for GEO, but GEO requires additional steps around entity consistency, structured data, and off-site mentions.
Not necessarily. Some businesses get cited by ChatGPT from third-party sources before their own website ranks strongly. That said, a well-structured, fast-loading website with clear content is one of the strongest signals you can send. The two efforts work best when they run together.
Yes. GEO and AI search visibility is one of our core specialisms. We handle everything from entity optimisation and schema markup to content strategy, third-party mention building, and monthly AI visibility tracking. If you want a partner who understands both traditional SEO and the emerging AI search landscape, we are happy to talk.
You do not need to do all ten steps at once. Start with the ones that cost nothing: audit your business information for consistency, rewrite your homepage description to be specific and clear, and test your visibility in ChatGPT today. Those three actions alone will show you exactly where you stand and what matters most to fix next.
AI search is not a fad. It is where buyer attention is moving, and the businesses getting into position now will have a meaningful head start over those that wait.
🏆 Ready to get your business recommended in ChatGPT and AI search? Maddog World builds AI visibility strategies that actually work. |
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