GEO: how your business shows up in ChatGPT & co..

More and more people no longer search on Google – they ask ChatGPT. Whoever gets recommended there wins. What GEO is and how mid-sized businesses start now.

Search is changing fundamentally right now. Instead of ten blue links, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI overview deliver a finished answer – often with a recommendation. The decisive question for companies is therefore no longer just “What position do I rank in?” but: “Am I even named as an answer?”

What is GEO?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization – optimising content for generative AI search systems. While classic SEO targets rankings in the Google results list, GEO ensures that AI systems understand your content, classify it correctly and cite it in their answers.

Why it matters right now

The use of AI search is growing rapidly – and unlike Google, it’s not a long list of results that decides here, but a single answer. Whoever isn’t in it is invisible. The advantage for mid-sized businesses: hardly any competitor optimises for AI search today. Whoever starts now secures a head start.

Three steps to get started

First: build content in clear question-and-answer structures – exactly the way your customers ask. Second: build topical authority instead of multiplying thin pages. Third: technical cleanliness and structured data, so machines can attribute content unambiguously.

The easiest way in

An AI visibility check shows where your business appears in AI answers today – and where the competition does. From that comes a priority list you can work through step by step. That’s exactly part of my work on SEO & GEO.