Key points
- GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the practice of making web pages easy for AI answer engines to understand, trust and cite.
- ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot mostly draw on pages that already rank in conventional search, then quote the clearest factual passages.
- Most GEO work is good SEO done more clearly: one intent per page, direct factual statements, structured data and questions answered in full.
- Nobody can guarantee an AI citation. You can make your pages the easiest ones to cite.
What GEO means, in one paragraph
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of structuring a website so that AI answer engines can extract accurate facts from it and cite it as a source. Where SEO aims for a position on a results page, GEO aims to be the page an answer engine reads, summarises and names when someone asks a question such as "do I need a structural engineer for a crack in my wall?" or "who builds websites for electricians in North London?". The term is new. The underlying work is not: clarity, facts, structure and consistency.
How AI answer engines choose their sources
Most answer engines do a version of the same thing. They take the user's question, run one or more searches against a conventional index (Google's for AI Overviews, Bing's for Copilot and much of ChatGPT's browsing, Perplexity's own index alongside others), retrieve a shortlist of pages, then read those pages and build an answer from the passages that state the relevant fact plainly. Three things follow from that.
- If your page is not findable in normal search for the topic, it is unlikely to be cited. GEO does not bypass SEO; it sits on top of it.
- The engine is looking for extractable passages: short statements that answer the question without needing the rest of the page for context.
- Consistency across the web matters. If your business name, address, phone number and services differ between your website, your Google Business Profile and the directories, the engine has less confidence about who you are and what you do.
What makes a page extractable
Direct factual statements
Write the answer first, then the nuance. "A chartered structural engineer can inspect a crack, identify the likely cause and tell you whether it needs monitoring or repair" is extractable. "We pride ourselves on a holistic approach to structural concerns" is not.
One intent per page
A page that covers crack inspection, beam calculations and extensions at once gives the engine a muddled signal about what it is for. One page per service and intent, with a title and H1 that match how people ask, is easier to rank and easier to cite. We cover the structure in Service pages that win.
Clear entity facts
State who you are, what you do, where you work and who you work for, in plain text, on the page and in the footer. Company name and registration, location, service area, qualifications and accreditations. Answer engines build a picture of your business as an entity with attributes; make those attributes easy to read.
Structured data
Schema.org markup (Organization or LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Article) gives machines a second, unambiguous reading of the same facts. It does not replace visible text; it confirms it. Mark up only what is actually on the page.
FAQs that answer the actual question
A FAQ helps only if each answer is a real answer. "How much does a crack inspection cost in London?" deserves a starting price or an honest "fixed quote after a short call", not "contact us for a quote".
Consistent NAP
Name, address and phone number should be identical on your website, Google Business Profile, Companies House (where relevant) and any directory you are listed in. Small differences weaken the match.
llms.txt
A plain-text file at /llms.txt that summarises what the business is, what it does, which pages to cite and how to tell it apart from similarly named companies. It is an emerging convention rather than a standard, and not every engine reads it, but it costs little and removes ambiguity. Automika publishes one at automika.co.uk/llms.txt.
Example · Panoptic Design
When we rebuilt the website for Panoptic Design, a chartered structural engineer working across London, we built six search-led service pages with one intent each (crack inspection, RSJ and steel beam calculations, chimney breast removal, extensions, rear extensions and side-return extensions), plain-English FAQs, structured data and the same entity facts on every page. The crack-inspection page, which states what an inspection involves, who carries it out and where, is the site's best organic performer. That is the shape of GEO-friendly work: it is the same page Google wants.
GEO vs SEO: how different are they really?
Mostly overlapping. The technical foundations are identical: crawlable, fast, server-rendered HTML, clean URLs, sensible internal links. The content foundations are identical too: cover the topic, match the intent, earn some authority. The differences are in emphasis and measurement.
- SEO tolerates vague copy if links and signals are strong. GEO rewards clarity and facts, because the engine quotes you.
- SEO is measured in rankings and clicks. GEO is measured in citations and mentions, and that measurement is immature. There is no single report that shows how often you are cited in AI answers, so you track proxies: branded search, direct traffic, "how did you hear about us?" on enquiries, and manual spot-checks of the questions that matter to you.
Be cautious of any "GEO package" sold separately from your website and search work. It is the same work, done more carefully, which is why our search and GEO service builds it into the site.
Does a UK service business need it?
In proportion to how much of your work comes from search. An emergency plumber gets most calls from maps and a Google Business Profile; clarity still helps, but the unit of competition is the listing. A structural engineer, an architect or a rewire specialist sells a considered purchase, and considered purchases involve questions that are increasingly typed into an answer engine before anyone searches for a supplier. Being the page that answers them is worth having.
What to do this quarter
- Write down the five questions your best customers ask before they enquire. Give each one a page, or a clearly headed section, that answers it directly in the first two sentences.
- Check that every service you want to be known for has its own page, with a title and H1 that match how people search.
- Add or fix structured data: Organization or LocalBusiness site-wide, Service on each service page, FAQPage only where there is a real FAQ, BreadcrumbList everywhere.
- Make your entity facts identical across your website, Google Business Profile, Companies House and the directories you appear in.
- Publish a plain "About" page naming the founder, qualifications and location, and publish
/llms.txt. - Make sure the main content loads as HTML without JavaScript; many engines read the raw page.
- Set up Search Console, and record how each enquiry found you. You will not get a GEO report; you will get evidence.
An honest caveat
Nobody can guarantee AI citations. Engines change weekly, sources vary from one run to the next, and many answers draw on a handful of high-authority pages. Anyone promising guaranteed GEO results is promising something they do not control. What you do control is whether your pages are the clearest, most factual and most consistent option on the topic, which is also what wins in conventional search and with the person reading the page.
Want your site to be the one worth citing? Automika builds websites, search and GEO infrastructure and custom tools for UK service businesses. Tell us what you need and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right build partner.
