GEO: How to Get Your Business Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews

Short answer: to get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, make sure AI crawlers can reach your site, get indexed in Bing as well as Google, write pages that answer one question directly in the first lines, publish facts or data nobody else has, and keep your company described the same way everywhere. Then check monthly whether you are actually cited.

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is SEO for answers instead of links. The goal changes from “rank on page one” to “be the source the assistant quotes.” Much of classic SEO still applies, but a few things matter more than they used to.

Step 1: let AI crawlers in

Check your robots.txt and your firewall or CDN settings. Many sites block AI bots by accident through a security plugin. The user agents worth allowing include GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot and Google-Extended. Check each vendor’s documentation for the current list, as it changes.

Step 2: get into Bing, not only Google

ChatGPT search and Microsoft Copilot rely heavily on Bing’s index. Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools, submit your sitemap and turn on IndexNow so new pages are picked up quickly. It takes about 20 minutes and is skipped by most small businesses.

Step 3: write answer-first pages

• Use the question as the H1, the way a person would ask it.
• Answer it in the first 40–60 words, plainly, before any context.
• Use question-style H2s and answer each in its first sentence.
• Add a comparison table or numbered steps where it helps. Assistants reuse structured content more easily.
• Add an FAQ section with FAQPage schema.

This post follows the same structure, on purpose.

The change is easiest to see side by side. A typical service page opens like this: “At our agency, we believe every business deserves marketing that works. Since 2015 we have helped hundreds of clients…” Nothing in that paragraph can be quoted as an answer. An answer-first version of the same page opens with the fact a buyer is looking for: “A local SEO setup for a single-location service business takes four to eight weeks and covers the Google Business Profile, service pages per area and review collection.” An assistant can lift that sentence and attribute it to you.

Step 4: publish something worth citing

An assistant has no reason to cite page number twelve that repeats the same advice. It cites the page with a specific number, a clear definition or a framework with a name. Original data works best: surveys, benchmarks from your own work, aggregated numbers from your market. We publish industry reports for this reason, such as our 2026 SEO report on AI Overviews and click-through rates.

Which questions should you write about first?

Start with the questions your buyers ask on sales calls, in the exact words they use. Those are the questions they also type into ChatGPT. I keep a running list from discovery calls, proposals and Upwork job posts, and most topics on this blog come from it.

Then cover the topic in depth instead of writing one page per keyword. For Parquet Service, a floor restoration company in Paris that launched with no ad budget, we built the domain around one subject and published 228 articles covering it from every angle: techniques, wood types, prices by area, common problems. The first leads came within 30 days, acquisition cost stayed at €0 and revenue reached €12K by month three. Depth on one subject is what makes a site look like an authority, to search engines and to assistants. The full case is here.

Step 5: keep your entity consistent

Models build a picture of your company from many sources. Use the same name, the same one-line description and the same service list on your site, LinkedIn, Clutch, directories and guest articles. Mark up your organization and authors with schema, including links to their profiles.

Step 6: earn mentions off your site

Assistants often cite third-party pages: review platforms, “best agencies” lists, industry publications, Reddit and forum threads. A handful of real reviews and a few genuine expert answers in places your buyers read can matter as much as another blog post.

How do you measure GEO?

What	How	How often
Citations	A fixed list of 15–20 questions your buyers ask, checked in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews	Monthly
AI referral traffic	GA4 referrals from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com	Weekly
Indexing	Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools	Weekly
Leads	“How did you hear about us?” on your booking form	Ongoing

What should you do in the first 30 days?

1. Week 1: check robots.txt and firewall rules for AI crawlers, add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools, submit sitemaps, turn on IndexNow.
2. Week 2: write down 15–20 buyer questions and check which assistants cite whom today. Save the answers as your baseline.
3. Week 3: rewrite the opening of your five most important pages so each answers one question in the first lines. Add FAQ schema where there is a real FAQ.
4. Week 4: align your company description on LinkedIn, review sites and directories, and publish one piece with information nobody else has.

After that, the work becomes a monthly rhythm: new answer pages for open questions, one piece of original data per quarter and a citation check against the baseline.

What doesn’t work

Mass-produced articles that restate what is already out there. Search engines treat them as scaled content, and assistants have nothing new to quote from them. Fewer pages with real expertise beat many generic ones. An llms.txt file is cheap to add, but there is no solid evidence yet that it changes citations.

FAQ

Is GEO different from SEO?

It builds on SEO. Crawlability, indexing and quality still come first. GEO adds answer-first structure, original data and off-site consistency.

How long does it take to get cited?

Usually weeks to a few months after a page is indexed, depending on competition for the question.

Can I pay to be cited?

Not in organic answers. You can pay for ads in some AI products, but citations come from content and reputation.

Does GEO work for small local businesses?

Yes, often better than for large brands, because local questions have fewer strong sources. A complete Google Business Profile, service pages that answer local questions directly and real reviews on the platforms assistants read are usually enough to start appearing in answers for your area.

Should I block AI crawlers to protect my content?

Only if your content is the product you sell, such as paid research. For a service business, blocking AI crawlers mostly means assistants describe your market using your competitors’ pages instead of yours.

Want to know whether AI assistants recommend you today? Book a call and we’ll run your buyer questions with you.