AI search visibility
What "generative engine optimization" means, minus the jargon
You are going to get cold-called about this. Somebody will tell you that you need GEO now, that it is completely different from SEO, and that it costs more. Here is how to work out what you are being sold.
Generative engine optimization is a mouthful that means one thing: getting your business mentioned in the answers AI tools write, rather than only in the list of links underneath. As a service it is about two years old, so anybody claiming five years of experience in it is rounding up.
Roughly two thirds of what a decent job involves is work that was already good practice before anybody said the word AI. The other third is genuinely different, and it is the part most people skip because it is slow and unglamorous.
The two thirds that is not new
A site that loads quickly. One clear page per topic instead of everything crammed onto the homepage. Headings that say what is underneath them. Your name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear online. Pages that work properly on a phone.
All of that helps an AI answer for the same reason it always helped Google, because both have to read your site before they can use it. If somebody sells you AI optimization for a site that fails those basics, they are charging a premium to skip the part that would actually work.
The third that genuinely is new
These tools read across lots of sources and combine them, rather than picking one and ranking it. So agreement matters more than it used to. If your website says you started in 1998, your Google listing says 2001 and an old directory says 2004, the software will simply avoid saying anything about how long you have been around. Three answers is the same as no answer.
The other real change is that being the origin of a fact beats being the fourteenth site to repeat it. Anybody can rewrite the same generic advice about gutter maintenance. Almost nobody publishes what the permit office in their county actually requires, or what the last twenty jobs ran. Publish something only you would know and you become the thing that gets quoted.
And this part is a habit rather than a project. There is no version of it that finishes in six weeks and then you are done.
The rest of the cluster
| Topic | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Getting named in the answer | A search gives ten names. An AI answer gives two. What decides which two. |
| Labelling your facts | A standard way to label your phone, hours and services so software reads them right. |
| Laying out a page | Answer first, proof in the same section, and nothing important hidden until you click. |
| Checking what AI says about you | An afternoon of asking the questions your customers ask, and writing down what comes back. |
| Letting AI read your site | Your site may already be blocking them without you knowing. How to check, and why it matters. |
| Checking your existing labels | After a few plugins, most sites quietly claim things nobody meant. The four usual problems. |
Back to AI search visibility, or see what publishing primary data looks like in practice on our contractor website research.