Generative Engine Optimization
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is optimising a website so that AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews can find, understand and cite it.
When someone asks an AI assistant for a recommendation, the assistant reads a handful of sources and writes an answer. If your website is one of those sources, your business is in the answer. If it is not, a competitor's is. GEO is the work of making your site one of the sources.
It is a young discipline with low competition and rising search interest, which makes it the highest-return search work a small business can do right now. CcinoCode includes it in every multi-page build and offers it standalone for existing sites.
What is included
- Entity clarity
- One consistent description of what your business is, what it does and where, used verbatim on the about page, in structured data and in metadata, so every crawler reads the same facts.
- Structured data
- Organization, Service, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList and Article schema in JSON-LD, validated, on every page where it applies.
- Question-shaped content
- Headings phrased as the questions people ask, with the direct answer in the first sentence beneath. This is the shape assistants quote.
- llms.txt
- A plain-text summary of your business, services and key pages at the root of the site, in the format AI crawlers are starting to read first.
- Citation-friendly formatting
- Short paragraphs, lists, comparison tables, visible dates and specific claims with numbers, so an assistant can lift a fact and attribute it.
- Nothing hidden behind interaction
- Every answer in an accordion, every tab and every list is in the server-rendered HTML, because assistants read the page source, not the clicks.
Who it is for
Any business whose customers ask an AI assistant for recommendations before they search. That now includes most professional services, clinics, education providers, and local businesses in categories where people ask "who is good for X near me".
Businesses that already rank in Google but do not appear in AI answers. Ranking and being cited are related, but they are not the same thing, and a site can have one without the other.
How long it takes
Included inside a multi-page build. Standalone timing is confirmed on enquiry.
On a build, the work runs on days 3 to 4 alongside basic SEO. For an existing site it depends on how much of the content needs restructuring, and we confirm it after a look. AI assistants re-crawl on their own schedules, so results appear over weeks rather than on launch day.
How is GEO different from SEO?
SEO is about ranking a page in a list of links. GEO is about being read, understood and quoted inside a generated answer. The overlap is real: both reward fast, crawlable sites with clear structure and specific content. The differences are what each one selects for.
Search engines rank pages. AI assistants cite sources, and they prefer sources that state facts plainly, answer questions directly, describe the business consistently across the web, and carry structured data that confirms what the text says. A page can rank well and still be skipped by an assistant because its facts are vague, buried in marketing language, or inconsistent with what the same business says elsewhere.
In practice GEO starts where basic SEO ends. The site needs to be indexable first. Then the content is restructured so it can be quoted.
What does CcinoCode actually do for GEO?
Five things, in this order. First, we define your entity: one sentence stating what the business is and does, used identically everywhere. Second, we add structured data that confirms it in a form machines read. Third, we restructure page content into questions with direct answers. Fourth, we add an llms.txt file at the site root summarising the business and linking to key pages. Fifth, we format for citation: visible dates, lists, tables, and specific claims in place of adjectives.
Where the site has an FAQ or a blog, both are written to the same rules. Comparison and list content is the format most often cited by assistants, so an insights section is usually the highest-value addition after the core pages.
What can you expect from GEO?
A site that AI assistants can read correctly and describe accurately. That is the baseline, and most business sites do not meet it today. Beyond that, being cited depends on the assistant, the question, and what else is on the web about the same topic, and no honest provider promises a specific outcome.
What we can show you is the before and after. The AI visibility check runs your business through the major assistants and reports what they say now. After the work, the same check shows what changed.
Which AI assistants does this cover?
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. They read the web in different ways and weight sources differently, but they all respond to the same fundamentals: clear entities, structured data, direct answers and consistent facts. The work is not tuned to one assistant.
Questions about Generative Engine Optimization
More answers on the FAQ page.
What is Generative Engine Optimization in one sentence?
Do I need SEO before GEO?
How do I know if AI assistants mention my business today?
Is llms.txt actually used by AI crawlers?
Often combined with
Basic SEO
Technical setup, on-page optimisation, metadata, sitemap and Search Console, done before launch.
Content writing
Page copy written for your customers, structured so search engines and AI assistants can use it.
Web development
A fast, responsive Next.js website, built to be edited after launch.
Packages
How the services combine into a landing page, a multi-page site, SEO and GEO, or content.
Ready when your content is
Send a message on WhatsApp or use the form. Tell us what you do and what you need, and we reply within one working day with a fixed quote and a start date.
Or email info@ccinocode.com