How to Get Your Business Found Inside ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews
More buyers now start their search inside an AI. If the AI recommends a competitor instead of you, you never even reach the results page. Here’s how to be the answer.
For 20 years “getting found” meant ranking on Google. That’s still true — but search is splitting in two. A growing share of buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or read Google’s AI Overview and never scroll a results page. Two new disciplines decide whether you show up there: AEO and GEO.
AEO vs GEO, in plain English
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) gets you cited by AI assistants when someone asks a question you can answer. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) shapes your content so it surfaces inside generative results for your highest-intent queries. Together they’re the new page-one — and almost no SMB agency offers them yet.
1st-moverAEO/GEO is a 12–24 month window where being the AI’s answer is wide open in most local markets.Source: industry analysis of AI Overviews / zero-click search growth.
How to become the answer
- Structure your authority. Clear, well-marked answers to the exact questions buyers ask, backed by schema markup AI engines can read.
- Earn citations. AI assistants quote sources they trust — consistent, factual, well-referenced content wins.
- Own your entities. A complete, consistent presence (Google Business Profile, reviews, mentions) tells AI who you are and where you operate.
- Match intent, not keywords. Write to resolve the question completely — generative engines reward the most useful answer, not the most stuffed one.
Classic SEO still matters — you need both. See our SEO·AEO·GEO service →
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