Frequently Asked Questions

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) improves how your business ranks in Google's traditional search results. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is about how your business appears in AI-generated responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude. When someone asks an AI "who is the best dentist near me?" — that answer is determined by completely different signals than Google rankings. GEO optimizes for those signals.

Yes, and the shift is accelerating. AI assistants are now the first stop for millions of consumers researching local services — especially for high-consideration purchases like healthcare, legal services, home improvement, and fitness. The businesses showing up in those answers today are capturing customers that would have previously found you through Google.

Not necessarily. AI engines pull from different signals than Google's ranking algorithm. A business with strong SEO but no structured data, thin service pages, or missing schema markup can rank on page one of Google and still be completely invisible to every major AI engine. We see this in almost every audit we run.

We test ChatGPT (GPT-4o), Google Gemini, Grok (xAI), and Claude (Anthropic). These four engines represent the overwhelming majority of AI-assisted local search queries. We are also adding Perplexity to our panel.

Your GEO Score is your citation rate across all queries tested — the percentage of relevant local searches where your business is recommended by name with accurate information. A score of 0% means your business was not cited in any response. Most local businesses we audit start at 0%. The goal is measurable improvement toward consistent citation in your highest-value query categories.

We run 180+ carefully designed queries across four AI engines and your key geographic markets. Each query is scored for whether your business was cited, at what position, with what accuracy, and whether any competitor was recommended instead. We also run a hallucination check — searching your exact address to see whether AI engines correctly identify your business or attribute it to someone else.

An AI hallucination in this context is when an AI engine confidently recommends the wrong business at your location. For example — one of our audit subjects found that three of four AI engines named a competitor when given their exact street address. This means customers searching specifically for that business were being sent elsewhere. Hallucinations are surprisingly common and are directly fixable with schema markup.

A gap query is a high-intent local search where no strong local competitor is being cited by AI engines. These are the highest-value targets because there is no established citation leader to displace — just an open opportunity to claim. Our competitor analysis identifies your 10–15 highest-priority gap queries.

We deliver your full report package within 48 hours of receiving your business information.

Business name, website URL, address, phone number, email, primary city/market, and business type. That's it. We do the rest.

Three things your web team needs to improve your AI visibility:

Schema markup files — validated JSON-LD structured data blocks for your key pages. These tell AI engines who you are, what you offer, where you're located, and what your credentials are. This is the single highest-impact technical fix for AI visibility.

Content briefs — rewrite instructions for your service pages targeting your gap queries. Includes FAQ pairs, entity clarity statements, and the specific language AI engines use when recommending businesses in your category.

Blog post drafts — four long-form posts targeting your highest-priority gap queries, written in your business's voice and ready to publish.

Your web developer or agency adds it as a small code block in the header of each relevant page. On most platforms (WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, Wix) this takes under an hour. We include an implementation brief with step-by-step instructions for the most common platforms and a validation checklist so you can confirm it's working.

For the schema markup — yes, a developer or your web agency is the fastest path. The implementation brief makes it straightforward for any developer familiar with your platform. Most implementations take less than a day. The blog posts and content briefs can be handled by anyone with CMS access.

The schema markup files are platform-agnostic JSON-LD — they work with any website platform including WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, custom-built sites, and anything else. The implementation brief includes platform-specific instructions for the most common platforms.

We write the blog posts based on your business information, credentials, and differentiators. They're designed to sound like a knowledgeable person at your business answering a patient's or customer's real question — not generic marketing copy. Most clients publish them as-is or with minor edits.

AI engines update their responses on different timescales. Schema markup is typically recognized within 2–4 weeks of implementation. Content updates take slightly longer — typically 4–8 weeks for new blog posts to influence AI responses. We recommend tracking your citation rate monthly after implementation.

No one can guarantee specific AI citation outcomes — AI engine responses are probabilistic and change as models are updated. What we guarantee is that your audit is accurate, your assets are correctly built to maximize citation probability, and you'll have a clear baseline to measure improvement against.

Yes. SEO and GEO are complementary but separate. Strong SEO helps your website rank in Google but does not directly translate to AI citations. Many businesses with excellent SEO have zero AI visibility because they lack the specific structured data and content signals that AI engines require. GEO fills that gap.

The $300 audit and asset package is one-time — it gives you your baseline score, competitive landscape, and the assets to fix your foundation. AI visibility is dynamic — engines update, new competitors appear, your citation rate changes. Ongoing monthly monitoring and optimization is a separate engagement for businesses that want to actively manage their AI presence over time. We'll have more information on that soon.