Generative Engine Optimisation: get cited by AI engines.
A buyer asks ChatGPT for the best provider in your space. It names three competitors and not you. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the work of becoming one of the sources AI engines quote: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini.
Same question. Two very different answers.
AI engines answer with whoever they can verify. GEO makes you the brand they can.
The questions worth asking.
The three things people ask us before they buy, answered without the sales gloss.
What is GEO, and how is it different from SEO?
SEO wins the ranked link. GEO wins the mention inside the answer, before anyone clicks anything. They share a foundation, crawlable, well-structured, trusted pages, but GEO adds work on entity clarity, answer formatting and the third-party sources AI models learn from.
How do you get a brand into ChatGPT's answers?
AI engines cite sources they can read, trust and understand. That means three things: clear, factual content with the answer near the top; consistent signals about who you are across your site and the web; and coverage on third-party publications the engines already treat as reliable. You can't buy a recommendation, but you can become the obvious one to give.
How long does it take?
Initial citations often appear within four to eight weeks of restructuring key pages and earning fresh mentions. Fuller visibility across several engines usually builds over three to six months. Competitive categories take longer to displace the sources already being quoted.
Invisible at the moment of decision.
Buyers ask an AI, and it names someone else
More buyers ask an AI engine before they reach a results page, and many act on the answer without clicking a link. If you're not in that answer, you're not on the shortlist, and you never find out you were considered.
Be one of the names it gives
Your pages become easy to read and quote, the engines know who you are and what you're credible on, and independent coverage backs it up. When a buyer asks, you're in the answer.
Search gives answers now, not just links.
The old goal was ranking for the click. The new one is being the source the answer is built from, which means the engine has to be able to read you, trust you and quote you.
- SEO ranks pages for keywords and competes for the click.
- GEO works on entities, sources and answers, and wins the moment before the click.
- Same goal, get found. New surface, the AI answer.
Step one: what the engines say about you today.
Before any work starts, we build a set of 20 to 50 realistic questions your buyers ask, the kind typed into ChatGPT when someone is choosing a supplier, and run them across each engine. You get a written baseline:
- Which engines mention you, and for which questions.
- Who they name instead, and which sources they cite to do it.
- What they get wrong about you: old services, wrong location, a competitor's description.
- The pages and third-party sources that would change the answer.
That baseline becomes the tracker we re-run every month.
Written to be lifted into the answer.
Engines quote pages that answer a question directly, near the top, in plain declarative sentences. We restructure your key pages that way: a clear heading per question, the answer first, the evidence under it, and FAQ blocks built to be quoted. An llms.txt file and clean markup make sure nothing gets in the way.
- Direct answers at the top of every key page.
- FAQ and Q&A content written to be quoted.
- llms.txt, clean markup and pages engines can parse.
If your current site can't support this without a fight, Web Design builds it in from day one.
Four levers that get you cited.
AI engines decide who to quote on entities, sources, depth and structure. We work all four.
Entity clarity
The engine needs to know exactly who you are, what you do and where. Consistent names, descriptions and schema (@graph) markup across your site, profiles and directories.
Source trust
Engines lean on sources they already trust. Coverage on recognised publications, earned through PR Distribution, gives them independent evidence to cite.
Topical depth
One good page rarely makes you the reference. We build out the cluster of questions in your space so you're the obvious source for the topic, not just one query.
Answer structure
Clear answers, schema and formats engines can lift. The answer sits at the top, the evidence beneath it.
Fuel for the answer.
AI engines don't take your word for it. They look for what others say about you. That's why GEO works best alongside earned coverage: our team has secured 9,000+ placements across 1,800+ publisher domains, and those are exactly the kind of third-party sources engines read. Most brands see early movement in six to ten weeks once structured content and PR distribution are running together.
What you get, and when.
Baseline
The AI visibility check across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini, with the gaps and the plan.
Structure and markup
Key pages restructured, entity and schema markup added, llms.txt published, FAQ content built where the gaps are. First third-party placements go live.
First citations
Initial citations typically appear as pages are re-crawled and fresh mentions land. We log every one by engine and question.
Wider presence
Visibility builds across more engines and more questions. Your monthly report shows share of citations over time.
How it works.
Baseline
We test how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini answer your buyers' questions: what they say, who they cite, and where you're missing.
Structure
We make your content declarative, well-headed and machine-readable, with answers at the top and FAQ blocks where the gaps are.
Mark up and earn
We add entity and schema data and llms.txt, and line up the third-party coverage that gives engines evidence.
Track
We re-run the question set every month and log citations by engine and question. Share of citations is the number in your report.
Why WebBox.
Content and coverage under one roof
Most GEO advice stops at your own pages. We also earn the third-party coverage engines rely on, from the team behind 9,000+ placements.
Measured every month
A fixed question set, run on the same schedule, logged by engine. You see progress as a trend, not as a screenshot.
Tested on our own site
This site is built to the same structure: clear answers, schema, llms.txt. Ask an engine about us and judge for yourself.
What clients say.
Our sales team kept hearing 'ChatGPT recommended you' on calls, but we had no idea how often or for what. The monthly tracker was the first time we could see it. Perplexity picked us up first. Gemini took longer, and we're still not where I'd like in AI Overviews.
Questions, answered.
Something else? Book a call and ask us directly.
Related services.
Read before you decide.
Find out what AI says about you.
Tell us your market. We'll test what ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews say when your buyers ask, and show you where to start.