What does a GEO agency do?
A generative engine optimization (GEO) agency gets your brand recommended when buyers ask Google’s AI or ChatGPT what to buy. Most of that work happens on other websites, because that’s where AI looks. In our study of 10,000 keywords, 80.69% of the links next to brand names in Google’s AI Overviews went to other sites, not the brand’s own. In ChatGPT, it was 57.58%.
Google AI Overviews
ChatGPT
- Other websites
- The brand’s own site
Links next to brand mentions, on the same 601 keywords. Source: Web Asset Builders study of 10,000 US keywords, August–September 2026.
So a GEO agency does four jobs:
- Finds the questions your buyers ask AI, from “what’s causing this?” to “which brand should I pick?”
- Checks today’s answers in Google’s AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT, and notes who gets named.
- Gets your brand onto the pages AI trusts, and onto the pages that rank on Google for the same questions.
- Tracks the answers and keeps closing gaps, so AI names you more often.
That’s one strategy, not a single trick. It’s the same plan we run as an AI SEO agency, and GEO is one name for it. You’ll also hear it called answer engine optimization, which our AEO agency page covers.
What’s included in our generative engine optimization services
Our generative engine optimization services cover every place AI gets its answers, not just your website. Here’s what’s included:
| Service | What we do |
|---|---|
| Buyer question research | We list the real questions your buyers ask AI at each step, from the problem to the final choice. |
| AI answer checks | We ask Google’s AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT each question more than once, and record which brands get named. |
| Source mapping | We find the pages each AI trusts for your topic, like reviews, “best of” lists, comparisons, forum threads and videos. |
| Getting you on those pages | We work to get your brand added or corrected on those pages, with real facts. You approve everything first. |
| Pages that rank on Google | We go after the pages that rank for your buyer questions, since Google’s AI leans on them. |
| Technical GEO | We make your own site easy for AI to read (more on this below). |
| Tracking | We obsessively track what each AI says about you, and fix what’s wrong or missing. |
Getting onto other people’s pages is real work. It means reaching out to the people who write the lists and reviews, helping you earn more reviews from real customers, and fixing old or wrong facts. We never write fake reviews, and we never promise a spot.
Technical GEO: making your site easy for AI to read
Technical GEO makes sure Google’s AI and ChatGPT can reach, read and understand your pages. It’s the base of the work, and it starts with six checks:
- Let the AI bots in. Your robots.txt file and your host’s firewall should let the bots from Google and ChatGPT read your pages. It’s easy to block them by accident.
- Get your pages into Google’s index. Google’s AI can only use pages that are in Google’s index, its stored copy of the web.
- Put key facts in plain text. Say what you sell, who it’s for, where you work and what it costs in words on the page, not only in images or PDFs.
- Answer one question per section. A clear heading with a direct answer under it is easy for AI to use.
- Keep your facts the same everywhere. Your name, products and details should match on your site and on your profiles on other sites.
- Label facts with structured data. Schema markup helps search engines read your page. But Google’s AI doesn’t need any special AI file or code.
Technical GEO alone won’t get you recommended. A perfect site still loses if the pages AI trusts never mention you. That’s why it’s one part of the plan, not the whole plan.
GEO for Google’s AI vs ChatGPT
Google’s AI and ChatGPT pick their sources in different ways, so GEO needs a plan for each. In our study, the two shared only 3.33% of the pages they linked to, on average, across 6,482 keywords where both had links.
Source: Web Asset Builders study of 10,000 US keywords, August–September 2026.
Google’s AI leans on pages that already rank. In our study, Google’s AI Overviews linked to 49.19% of the pages ranked #1 for the same keyword, but only 9.83% of the pages at #10. So GEO for Google means getting your brand named on the pages near the top for your buyer questions, and ranking your own best pages too. Google AI Mode wasn’t part of our study. It’s also Google search, so we start from the same top pages and check its answers on their own. Our AI Overview optimization service goes deeper on Google’s side.
ChatGPT leans on what it already knows. In our study, 82.22% of ChatGPT answers named at least one brand that an AI with no web search also named for the same question. And when ChatGPT named brands it already knew, 85% of those mentions had no link to the brand’s own site. So GEO for ChatGPT means being named across the web, in reviews, lists, articles and forum threads, with facts that match.
A plan built for one of these AIs can miss the other completely. We run both from the start.
How to choose a GEO agency
Pick a GEO agency that shows you today’s AI answers first, plans for Google’s AI and ChatGPT on their own, and measures recommendations, not just traffic. Use these six checks:
- They show you where you stand first. Before any plan, they should show what Google’s AI and ChatGPT say about you now, and who they name instead.
- They plan for each platform. One plan for “AI” won’t cover both, because each AI trusts different pages.
- They work beyond your website. If their only answer is more blog posts on your site, that’s SEO with a new name.
- They measure recommendations. They should tell you which buyer questions they’ll track, on which platforms, and how they tell a recommendation from a passing mention.
- They check more than once. AI answers change. In our study, the brands Google’s AI named overlapped only 60.06% across three runs of the same searches. One screenshot proves little.
- They’re honest about limits. No one controls what AI says. A good agency raises your odds and shows you the trend.
Red flags to watch for
- A promise of a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT or Google’s AI.
- A package of paid guest posts sold as GEO. In our study, only 2.00% of the sites Google’s AI Overviews linked to, and 2.36% of ChatGPT’s, were in a catalog of sites that sell guest posts.
- Dozens of AI-written blog posts on your site, and nothing else.
- Reports that show only rankings and traffic.
Questions to ask on the first call
- Which of our buyer questions will you track, and on which AI platforms?
- Which pages does each AI trust in our market, and how will you get us onto them?
- How will we see progress between reports?
- Who approves what gets published about us?
You can test us the same way. Our free AI visibility audit shows where you stand in Google’s AI and ChatGPT, what your buyers ask AI and how to close the gap. It’s yours to keep.
Who we do GEO for
We do GEO for businesses whose buyers ask AI before they choose. That includes online stores, software companies, law firms, healthcare practices, contractors and other local businesses. The questions change by industry, and so do the pages AI trusts. A shopper asking for the best running shoe sees different sources than a homeowner asking who fixes roofs. So every plan starts with your buyers’ real questions.
Law firms are a clear example. People ask AI what to do after a crash or an arrest, and then which lawyer to call. Our GEO for law firms work gets firms named in those answers. You approve every page before it goes live, so you can check it against your state bar’s rules.
