Appear in ChatGPT: the GEO guide for SMEs

Appearing in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI-generated answers is becoming a real issue for small businesses: some of your future customers now put their questions to an AI rather than scanning ten results. GEO, for Generative Engine Optimization, covers the practices that help these tools cite you. Here is how it works and the 7 actions to take.

What is GEO?

SEO aims to rank your pages in Google's results. GEO aims to have your company cited in the answer an AI writes.

The difference is significant: a search engine shows a list of links, while the assistant writes a single answer and mentions only a few sources. There is no second page.

GEO does not replace SEO; it builds on it. When an assistant searches the web to answer, it starts from pages that rank well, are clear and are judged reliable. A site that is invisible in Google has little chance of being cited by an AI.

How AI tools choose their sources

Nobody outside their publishers knows the exact rules, and they change. Three principles nonetheless emerge from how they work:

they must be able to read your site: content blocked to crawlers, or shown only after complex loading, escapes them;
they pick up precise passages: a clear, self-contained answer to a question is easier to cite than promotional copy;
they cross-check: a company described the same way on its website, its Google Business Profile, directories and in the press inspires more confidence than one that only talks about itself.

7 practical actions

1. Allow AI crawlers

Your site's robots.txt file says which crawlers are allowed to browse it. Some sites block those of AI assistants, sometimes without knowing it, because of a default setting. Have this checked first: it is the quickest to fix.

2. Answer your customers' questions

List the questions you are asked on the phone or in meetings: prices, timelines, differences between two solutions, steps. Give each one a page or a section, with the question as a heading and the answer in the first sentence.

3. Write passages that stand alone

A paragraph should still make sense out of context. Name things rather than writing "this solution" or "as seen above". Definitions, step lists and comparison tables are formats that are easy to reuse.

4. Give verifiable facts

Sourced figures, rates, timelines, areas served, years of experience, client references. Precise content is more useful to cite than a string of adjectives.

5. Add structured data

Structured data (schema.org) describes your company, your services and your articles in a format machines read without ambiguity: name, address, activity, author, date. It serves Google as much as the assistants.

6. Look after your presence elsewhere

An up-to-date Google Business Profile, client reviews, professional directories, press articles, partners who mention you. Check that the name, address and activity are identical everywhere.

7. Keep your content up to date

Show the date of the last update and review your key pages: content several years old on a topic that moves is picked up less.

How do you know whether you are cited?

Test it yourself: ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google your customers' questions, for example "which company for this service in this town?". Note whether you appear, which competitors are cited and which sources are mentioned.

Answers vary from one attempt to the next: repeat the test, and run it again each month with the same questions to follow the trend.

What not to expect from GEO

No provider can guarantee a citation in ChatGPT: answers change with the wording, the user and model updates. Be wary of promised results. What can be done is to improve your chances, with work that also benefits your classic SEO.

In practice

Start with two checks: can AI crawlers read your site, and does it clearly answer the five questions your customers ask most? Those two points cover the essentials for a small business.

We review your visibility in Google and in AI assistants. Discover our GEO service and our SEO & GEO service, or ask for a free quote: you receive it within 48 hours.