When someone asks ChatGPT “best café in Brooklyn”, whose name comes up?
That answer is decided by 5-7 signals AI looks at — and most businesses get less than half of them right. Here’s what actually works, what doesn’t, and how to tell when an agency is overcharging you.
What is GEO, in plain English
When ChatGPT (or Perplexity, Claude, Google AI) answers a question, it doesn’t just look at one website. It checks multiple signals and picks businesses that show up consistently across them. For a hotel in Boston, the AI is checking:
| Source | What AI looks at |
|---|---|
| The hotel’s own website | Clear <title>, schema.org Hotel structured data |
| Google Business Profile | Reviews, photos, hours, address |
| TripAdvisor / Booking.com | Ratings and reviews |
| Wikipedia / travel blogs | Third-party mentions |
| Local news / tourism media | Editorial citations |
| /llms.txt file | Few sites have one — AI prefers ones that do |
A business that “wins” in AI answers has these 5-6 sources all aligned — same name, address, phone; consistent description; structured data on the website. That’s GEO.
What actually moves the needle
Ranked honestly by how much each action actually changes AI behaviour. Stars = AI impact.
- 1.Google Business Profile, complete & updated⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Easy · 1 hour
- 2.Schema.org LocalBusiness markup on your website⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Medium · needs a developer
- 3.Mentions on 5-10 real third-party sites (news, Wikipedia, TripAdvisor)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Hard · takes time
- 4.NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistent across all platforms⭐⭐⭐⭐Medium · tedious but doable
- 5.FAQ section on your site (“What are your hours?” etc)⭐⭐⭐⭐Easy · 1 hour
- 6.Working sitemap.xml + robots.txt⭐⭐⭐Easy
- 7./llms.txt file (the new “robots.txt for AI”)⭐⭐⭐Easy
Honest fact: 80% of small businesses haven’t even done step 1. If you’re paying an agency for “AI SEO” and they haven’t finished your Google Business Profile, you’re being overcharged.
Why agencies charge $5,000+ for $500 of work
Nothing against agencies — we just believe in transparent pricing. A typical $4,000–7,000/year “AI optimisation” package usually breaks down like this:
| What they do | Real hours | Actual value |
|---|---|---|
| Add schema.org markup | 1-2h | High |
| Submit to 50-100 directories | ~10h | Low (most directories are dead) |
| Write 5-10 generic blog posts | 5-15h | Low (AI ignores self-promotion) |
| Send monthly dashboard reports | automated | Low (hard to verify) |
| Wikipedia / press outreach | 0-5h | High (but rarely actually done) |
Real cost of delivery: ~$1,000–1,800. They charge $4,000–7,000 because most clients can’t evaluate what they got. We do the same work, transparently, on Pro for $588/year.
Convinced? See pricing.
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