What is GEO, and does a small business need it?
Generative engine optimisation in plain English, what it shares with ordinary search work, and the short list of things a small business should actually do.
Every few years search gets a new acronym and a new invoice line. Generative engine optimisation, written GEO, is the current one. The question a small business owner should ask is not what it stands for but whether it is a different job from the search work they may already be paying for. Mostly, it is not.
What is generative engine optimisation?
Search engines return a list of links. Assistants write an answer and, increasingly, name the sources they drew it from. Generative engine optimisation is everything that makes your business one of those sources: being easy to find, easy to understand and easy to quote, and being described consistently enough that the assistant is confident you are who you say you are.
How is it different from SEO?
| Search engine optimisation | Generative engine optimisation | |
|---|---|---|
| What you win | A place in a list of links | A mention or a citation inside an answer |
| What it reads | Pages, links, listings | The same, plus reviews and directory profiles |
| What it rewards | Relevance and authority | Clear answers, consistency and corroboration |
| How you measure it | Search Console, in Google's own data | Asking the assistants and writing down what they say |
What should a small business actually do?
- Open each important page with a direct answer to the question it exists for, in two or three plain sentences.
- Describe the business in one sentence, and use that same sentence on the website, the Google listing, and every directory and social profile.
- Keep name, address and phone identical everywhere, character for character.
- Publish the facts an assistant gets asked for: what you sell, where, for whom, and roughly what it costs.
- Earn reviews and mentions on sites the assistants already trust in your field.
- Every month, ask the assistants the questions a buyer would, and note who they name.
Is llms.txt worth adding?
It is a plain-text file at a fixed address on a website that states, in order, who the business is, what it sells and where the proof is. It is a proposed convention, not a standard every assistant has said it reads. It takes an hour to write and costs nothing to keep, so we add one, ours included, and treat it as cheap insurance rather than a ranking lever.
Can anyone guarantee an AI citation?
No. Assistants change their answers from week to week and from one way of asking to another. An agency promising that ChatGPT will recommend you is selling something it does not control. What it can promise is the work above, done well, and a monthly record of what the assistants actually say.
How do we handle it?
As one piece of work with search, not three. Starter's search option is $2,000 a month: page optimisations, a researched article and Google Business posts. Standard, at $4,000, adds the answer-engine work and a monthly record of what the assistants say about you. We do not publish a figure for how often assistants cite us, because we have not measured it to a standard we would defend.
When does a small business not need it at all?
When nearly all its customers come from walking past, from word of mouth or from one marketplace. A corner bakery needs a complete Google listing and good reviews, which serve both search and assistants, and very little else. Spend on this when buyers research before they buy, and ask an assistant while they do.