Generative engine optimisation (GEO)
AI search optimisation.
Be named in the answer.
AI search optimisation, also called generative engine optimisation (GEO), is the work of making your brand the one that AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews mention, cite and recommend.
- Also called
- GEO, AEO or LLM optimisation
- Engines
- ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot
- Starts with
- An AI visibility audit, from £500
- Led by
- Mark Bryce-Sharron, SEO, Automation and AI Strategist
Is this for you?
Is AI Search Optimisation Right for You?
It is right for businesses whose customers research before they buy, and who cannot afford to be left out of the answer.
- Customers tell you they found a competitor through ChatGPT or another AI engine
- You rank well in Google but your brand is missing from AI answers
- AI engines describe your business wrongly, or confuse you with someone else
- You sell in a market where trust decides the sale, such as energy, insurance, debt or software
- You want to move before your competitors do
Sound familiar? Request a proposal
What Is AI Search Optimisation?
AI search optimisation is the practice of improving how often, and how accurately, AI engines mention and recommend your brand in their answers.
When someone asks an AI engine for a recommendation, it does not return a list of links to choose from. It writes an answer and names a few brands. There is no page two.
The work is to make your business one of the names: easy for the engine to identify, backed by content it can quote, and corroborated by sources it already trusts. It builds on organic SEO and does not replace it.
What we do
What Does AI Search Optimisation Involve?
It involves six strands of work: entity signals, citable content, structured data, crawler access, third-party mentions and citation tracking.
- 01
Entity and brand signals
Making it unambiguous who you are, what you do and where, with the same facts stated consistently across your site and the wider web.
- 02
Citable content
Pages that answer real questions directly, with evidence and a named author, so an engine can lift and attribute them. See content marketing.
- 03
Structured data
Schema markup that tells engines exactly what your business, services and pages are.
- 04
AI crawler access
Checking that the crawlers AI engines use can reach, render and read your content.
- 05
Mentions and digital PR
Coverage on the trusted sites engines lean on when deciding who to recommend. See digital PR.
- 06
Citation tracking
Measuring where you are cited, engine by engine and question by question, against your competitors.
What you get
What Will You Receive?
You receive an audit, a strategy, the implemented work and regular citation reports.
AI visibility audit
A benchmark of where you are cited today, by engine and by question.
Target question set
The customer questions worth winning, agreed with you.
Entity and schema work
Your business facts made consistent, and structured data added or corrected.
Content
New and restructured pages built to be quoted.
Earned mentions
Coverage on the sources engines trust in your market.
Citation reports
The same questions re-tested, so you can see what has changed.
How it works
How Does an AI Search Programme Work?
It runs in five stages: audit, strategy, build, earn and track.
- 1
Audit
An AI visibility audit shows where you are cited today and who is recommended in your place.
- 2
Strategy
We agree the questions you need to win and what your brand should be known for.
- 3
Build
We fix entity signals and structured data, and create or restructure the content engines need.
- 4
Earn
Digital PR earns mentions on the sources each engine trusts in your market.
- 5
Track
We re-test the same questions and report what has changed.
In depth
How Is AI Search Optimisation Different From SEO?
SEO earns a position in a list. AI search optimisation earns a mention in the answer itself.
The two share foundations, and an engine is unlikely to cite a site that cannot rank. But the goal, the unit of work and the way success is measured are all different.
| SEO | AI search optimisation | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank in a list of results | Be named in the written answer |
| Works on | Pages and keywords | Passages, facts and the brand as a whole |
| Won by | Relevance and authority | Clarity, evidence and corroboration |
| Measured by | Rankings and clicks | Citations and mentions |
| How they relate | The foundation | Built on that foundation |
In depth
How Do We Improve Your AI Visibility Over Time?
We work in a loop: audit where you stand, strengthen what engines read, earn outside mentions, then re-test.
AI answers are not fixed. The same question can produce a different answer next month, as engines update and competitors act. A single round of changes is not enough.
Each pass through the loop uses the same set of questions, so progress is measured like for like.
Reporting
What Do We Measure and Report?
We report on outcomes you can check for yourself, not activity.
Citation rate
How often you are cited across the target questions.
Share against competitors
Who is recommended when you are not.
Accuracy
Whether engines describe you correctly.
AI referral traffic
Visitors arriving from AI engines.
What Does AI Search Mean for Your Sector?
The more a purchase depends on trust, the more it matters which brands an AI engine is willing to name.
- Energy: buyers ask AI to compare suppliers and brokers. Engines favour sources with clear, current pricing information and an established reputation.
- Insurance: questions are specific and comparison-led. Being cited depends on accurate, well-evidenced content about each type of cover.
- Debt: engines are cautious here and lean on regulated, authoritative sources. Accuracy and visible credentials decide who is mentioned.
- Tech and SaaS: buyers ask for shortlists and alternatives. Appearing in comparisons, reviews and community discussions is what gets a product named.
How Does Each AI Engine Find Its Sources?
Each engine draws on different sources, which is why a brand can be cited by one and missing from another.
| Engine | What it draws on | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | What it learned in training, plus live web search | Be present on well-known sources, and be findable when it searches |
| Google AI Overviews | Google’s own search index and ranking systems | Strong organic rankings and quotable content matter most |
| Gemini | Google’s models, grounded in Google Search | Much the same foundations as AI Overviews |
| Perplexity | Live web search, with sources shown on every answer | Crawlable, well-sourced pages. Its citations make gaps easy to spot |
| Copilot | Microsoft’s models, grounded in Bing | Bing visibility matters, and many sites neglect it |
Why Act on AI Search Now?
Because your customers are already asking AI for recommendations, and each answer names only a handful of brands.
Nobody can guarantee a citation, and we will not pretend otherwise. No engine publishes its rules, and they change. What we can do is make your business the clearest and most credible source to cite, then measure whether it is working.
There is also little risk in the work itself. Clear entity signals, evidenced content and trusted coverage are the same things that improve organic search. If an engine changes how it chooses sources tomorrow, none of that effort is wasted.
Who leads this work
Mark Bryce-Sharron
SEO, Automation and AI Strategist
Mark combines deep SEO expertise with AI, computational linguistics and information architecture, and builds automation tools in Python that make this work faster and more precise.
Meet the teamWhy Utterly Digital
No guesswork, just great results.
Specialists since 2018
Utterly Digital has focused on search since 2018, from our base in Cheltenham.
Tested, not guessed
Changes are measured. What works is kept and rolled out. What does not is dropped.
Sector depth
Deep experience in energy, insurance, debt, tech and SaaS, where trust is hardest to earn.
Clear scope and price
You know what you are getting, and what it costs, before any work starts.
Proof
The work, and what it achieved.
- Software development
Software Development UK
A new domain in a fiercely competitive sector that reached third place on google.co.uk for ‘software development company’.
Read the case study - Energy price comparison
Business Energy UK
An energy comparison brand we co-own, built from nothing: domain, website, 105 pages of content and a PR-led launch.
Read the case study - Real estate (USA)
Yvette Sellyn
A full SEO and technical audit for a real estate professional in Sarasota, Florida, launching under her own name.
Read the case study
FAQs
AI Search Optimisation: your questions answered
What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?
GEO is another name for AI search optimisation: improving how often AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mention and cite your brand. You may also see it called AEO or LLM optimisation.
Is AI search optimisation different from SEO?
Yes, though the two overlap. SEO aims to rank your pages in a list of results. AI search optimisation aims to have your brand named in a written answer. Strong SEO is the foundation for both.
Can you guarantee my brand will be recommended by AI?
No. Nobody can. The engines do not publish how they choose sources. We do the work most likely to earn citations and measure the result.
How long does it take to see a change?
It varies by engine. Those that search the live web can reflect changes relatively quickly. Those leaning on what they learned in training take longer. We re-test regularly so you can see movement as it happens.
Do I still need SEO?
Yes. AI engines draw heavily on the same web that search engines index, and Google’s AI Overviews are built on its own search results. A site that cannot rank is unlikely to be cited.
How much does AI search optimisation cost?
It starts with an AI visibility audit, from £500. Ongoing work is scoped from the audit findings and priced before it begins.
Does it matter if my site blocks AI crawlers?
Yes. If your site blocks the crawlers an AI engine uses, that engine cannot read your content. Checking this is part of the audit.
AI search optimisation
Request an AI search proposal
Tell us about your business and the competitors you want to be measured against. Most programmes start with an audit.
We reply
A specialist reads your enquiry and comes back to you, not a sales script.
We agree the scope
A short call to confirm what you need, what is included and the price.
Work starts
Only once you are happy with the scope and have given the go-ahead.
Prefer to talk? 01242 323 543
AI search optimisation
Request a proposal