What is the difference between GEO and SEO?

SEO addresses visibility in search results. GEO addresses how a business appears in generative answers and their citations. They share work on useful content, accessible pages and reliable business information. Provider-specific retrieval and answer checks show where extra work is needed.

What is the difference between GEO and AEO?

AEO (answer engine optimisation) is about being the single extracted answer to a specific question. GEO (generative engine optimisation) is broader, covering every technical and content signal that influences whether a generative model trusts and cites your brand. In practice the two overlap heavily, and most agency briefs use the terms interchangeably.

How do AI models decide which businesses to recommend?

There is no single published rulebook across providers. An answer can draw on model training, search results or retrieved pages, depending on the product and query. We make business facts clear and accessible, then test what each system actually retrieves and cites. Schema or a knowledge-graph entry alone does not secure a recommendation.

Do I need GEO if I already have SEO?

A useful first step is to check whether the searches and assistants your buyers use can find and represent your business accurately. Existing SEO may already support that. We address evidenced gaps in access, content and identity, then monitor the relevant AI answers separately.

Which AI platforms does generative engine optimisation target?

We assess relevant search and retrieval routes for ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews separately. Their behaviour differs. Clear HTML and accurate structured data are useful foundations, but neither guarantees a citation or the same result across providers.

How long does generative engine optimisation take to work?

There is no reliable timetable for a citation or recommendation. We can check a technical repair as soon as it is live, then monitor dated searches and referrals over time. Results vary by provider, query, competition and the sources available to the assistant.

How much does a generative engine optimisation agency cost?

Our standard GEO retainer is £500 per month with a £750 one-time setup, covering ongoing schema maintenance, entity work, citation tracking and monthly reporting. A full AI-first website rebuild, if your site blocks AI crawlers, is priced as a project — use the quote calculator at /pricing.

GEO Agency

GENERATIVE ENGINE OPTIMISATIONBE THE CITED SOURCE.

When AI picks sources to cite, your business should be one of them.

Search changed. People ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity for answers, and the model picks a handful of sources to cite. Generative engine optimisation is the technical discipline of being one of them. If you are still untangling the vocabulary, start with the difference between GEO, SEO, and AEO— three related disciplines with different success metrics.

As a specialist generative engine optimisation agency, we engineer the structured data, entity signals and server-rendered HTML that AI models actually read. Rankings are not citations. You do not want a blue link on page one. You want the recommendation — the outcome we unpack in how to get recommended by ChatGPT in 2026, alongside what it takes to earn the same on other generative engines.

We also run the closely related disciplines: our AI SEO agency work covers the broader stack, our AI SEO services page lists each deliverable, answer engine optimisation is the content-side sibling of GEO, and our AI visibility scanner measures the lot.

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WHY YOU ARE NOT IN THE ANSWER

AI models pick a small, specific set of sources to cite. Everyone else is invisible. Here is why you are probably the everyone else.

JavaScript Walls

If a page depends on JavaScript to expose its content, some retrieval tools may miss it. We check the delivered HTML and the access rules for the relevant search and user-requested bots.

Unknown Entity

You are not in Wikidata, not in the Google Knowledge Graph, and not linked to the people and places that define you. AI has no confidence to recommend you.

Unstructured Facts

A buyer should be able to find the service, location and supporting evidence without digging through vague claims. Clear answers also make those facts easier for retrieval tools to extract.

Ranking Without Citation

You can hold position one on Google and still be absent from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini answers. Different engines, different rules.

HOW GENERATIVE ENGINE OPTIMISATION WORKS

Citation Engineering

We engineer the specific signals AI models use when deciding which brand to cite in an answer.

Structured data & facts

Deep structured data covering every service, price, review, FAQ and credential on your site.

Entity Disambiguation

Wikidata entries, Google Knowledge Graph signals, sameAs links and consistent NAP data.

Content Architecture

Short, factual, extractable statements organised by question and by entity.

THE GEO PROCESS

Three phases. No guesswork. Every phase produces measurable output you can audit.

Measure

We start with an AI visibility scan across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity to see exactly how the models describe you, which competitors they cite instead, and which technical blockers are getting in the way.

Re-engineer

We rebuild your technical foundation where needed: server-rendered HTML, deep structured data, robots.txt and llms.txt, entity profiles in Wikidata and Knowledge Graph, and content restructured for citation eligibility.

Monitor

Citations are not a one-off project. We track your AI visibility monthly, adapt to algorithm shifts in each model, and update your schema and entity signals as your business evolves.

WHAT A GEO RETAINER INCLUDES

The specific work that turns a website from invisible to cited.

AI visibility GEO audit

Citation baseline across 4 AI platforms
Competitor citation benchmarking
Schema validation and gap analysis
Crawler access and rendering checks

Technical Foundation

Server-rendered HTML delivery
Optimised robots.txt and llms.txt
.well-known/ai-context.json setup
Strong Core Web Vitals and speed scores

Entity & Schema Work

Deep structured data for services and FAQs
Speakable markup for voice assistants
Wikidata and Knowledge Graph signals
sameAs and NAP consistency

Citation Monitoring

Monthly AI citation tracking
Brand mention reporting
Schema maintenance
Algorithm adaptation

WHAT WE CHECK

HTML

Readable content

Check what the initial page response contains.

Schema

Accurate facts

Validate the markup and compare it with the visible page.

Access

Provider checks

Distinguish search, training and user-requested retrieval.

Sources

Evidence of results

Record actual answers and citations separately from technical scores.

“ScopeSite took us from being completely invisible to ChatGPT, to being the number one recommended provider in our sector nationally in under 4 months.”

— Hear 4 The Long Term

H4TLT

Case study

H4TLT case study

Read about our work with H4TLT, a workplace hearing surveillance provider.

Read the H4TLT Case Study

GENERATIVE ENGINE OPTIMISATION FAQS

Generative engine optimisation is the practice of structuring your website, schema and content so that generative AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity) cite your business when someone asks a question in your field. Traditional SEO targets a list of ten blue links. GEO targets the one or two sources the model actually names in its answer.

READY TO BE CITED?

Check the technical evidence your website exposes, then assess actual AI answers separately. Start with a website scan or discuss a scoped audit.

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