GEO means making your business information easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and for Google's AI answers, to understand, cite and recommend. It builds on good local SEO. It doesn't replace it.
- Publish clear, factual information: what you do, where, and when you're open.
- Keep your name, phone, hours and services the same everywhere they appear.
- Give your website structured data, real FAQs and an llms.txt file.
- Ask the assistants about your business yourself, and fix what they get wrong at the source.
What is GEO?
GEO is generative engine optimization: making your business easy for AI systems to understand, cite and recommend. "Generative engines" are the tools that write an answer instead of handing you a list of links. That means assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, plus the AI summaries that now sit at the top of many Google searches.
When someone in Roosevelt asks one of those tools "who does furnace repair near me?" or "is there a dentist in Vernal taking new patients?", the assistant writes a short answer and often names a few businesses. GEO is about being one of the businesses it names, and making sure what it says about you is true.
More people now ask an assistant the questions they used to type into a search box. Nobody can tell you exactly how many, so be wary of anyone who quotes a number. But the direction is clear enough that the basics are worth getting right now.
How is GEO different from SEO?
SEO is about being found on Google and Google Maps when people search for what you do, near where you are. The result is a map and a list of links, and the customer clicks and decides. GEO is about the answer itself: the assistant reads, summarizes and picks, and the customer may never see your website at all.
They overlap more than they differ. Both reward the same things:
- accurate, consistent facts about your business
- a clear website that says what you do and which towns you serve
- a complete Google Business Profile
- real reviews from real customers
Good local SEO is the foundation for GEO. If Google can't work out what you do, an AI assistant probably can't either.
How do AI assistants find and describe a business?
Assistants usually work from a mix of sources, and the mix depends on the tool and the question:
- Live web search. Many assistants run a search and read the top results before they answer. Your website, your Google Business Profile and your directory listings are what they find.
- What they already learned. Assistants are trained on large amounts of public web text, so older information about your business may already be built in, including hours you changed or a number you dropped years ago.
- Listings and reviews. Map listings, review sites and local directories often feed the answer, especially for "near me" questions.
If your website says you close at 6, your Google listing says 5, and an old directory says you closed for good, the assistant has to guess. Sometimes it guesses wrong. Sometimes it recommends a competitor whose facts were easier to read.
What makes content easy for AI to cite?
Assistants favor information that is clear, specific and easy to lift out of a page. In practice that means:
- Say it plainly. "We repair and install furnaces, air conditioners and water heaters in Vernal, Naples, Maeser and Jensen" beats "Comfort solutions for your home."
- Answer real questions directly. The first sentence under a heading should be the answer. "Yes, we take walk-ins Monday through Saturday" is easy to quote.
- Give each main service its own page. A bakery's custom cakes, a clinic's sports physicals, a repair shop's trailer brakes. Each page can be found and cited for that exact question.
- Add structured data. Schema.org markup, usually written as JSON-LD, tells machines your name, phone, hours, services and FAQs in a format they don't have to guess at.
- Add an llms.txt file. This is a newer, proposed convention: a short plain-text file at the root of your site that sums up who you are and points to your key pages. Not every assistant reads it yet, but it's cheap to add and does no harm.
# Example Heating and Air > Furnace and air conditioner repair and installation > in Vernal, Naples, Maeser and Jensen, Utah. Open Monday to Friday, 8 to 5. Emergency calls answered after hours. ## Key pages - [Furnace repair](https://example.com/furnace-repair/) - [Service area](https://example.com/service-area/) - [Questions](https://example.com/faq/)
What should a local business do first?
Start with the facts, then the website, then the listings. Most of this is a one-time cleanup followed by light upkeep.
Checklist: GEO basics for a local business
- The same facts everywhere. Name, address or service area, phone, hours and website match on your site, your Google Business Profile, Facebook, review sites and any directory or chamber listing.
- A clear website. Each main service has its own page that says what it is, who it's for and which towns you serve.
- Structured data. Business markup with your hours and services, plus FAQ markup on your questions page.
- An llms.txt file that sums up your business in plain words and links your key pages.
- An FAQ page that answers what customers really ask on the phone: service area, how to book, what to bring, how pricing works.
- A complete Google Business Profile with the right category, hours, holiday hours, services and real photos.
- Real reviews, with replies. Ask your customers, and answer every review, good or bad.
- A yearly fact sweep. Search your business name and fix any old listing that's wrong.
What should you avoid?
GEO is new enough that some bad advice is going around. Steer clear of these:
- Anyone who promises you a spot in ChatGPT. Nobody controls what an assistant says, just as nobody can guarantee a ranking on Google.
- Fake or bought reviews. They break Google's policies and can break consumer protection rules. A pile of look-alike five-star reviews reads as fake to people and machines alike.
- Keyword stuffing and hidden text. Repeating "best plumber Vernal plumber Roosevelt" all over a page makes it harder to understand, not easier.
- Mass-produced pages. Dozens of thin, near-identical pages for every town add noise. A few genuinely useful pages beat a hundred empty ones.
- Claims you can't back up. If your site says "open 24/7" and it isn't true, an assistant may repeat it, and an unhappy customer will notice.
How do you check how AI describes your business?
Ask. It's the simplest test there is, and most owners have never tried it.
- Write down five to ten questions a real customer might ask, like "Where can I get my dog groomed in Roosevelt?" or "Who can fix trailer brakes in Vernal?" Add one that names your business directly.
- Ask them in a few assistants and in a regular Google search, ideally signed out or in a private window.
- Note whether you're mentioned, and whether the facts are right: hours, phone, services, towns.
- When something is wrong, find where it came from. It's usually an old listing, an outdated page, or a fact missing from your own site.
- Fix it at the source, then check again in a month or two. Assistants refresh on their own schedules.
Answers can change from one day to the next and from one person to the next. Look for patterns across several questions, not a single answer.