AI search optimisation (GEO and AEO)

Tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot answer questions directly, often with a short summary and a few sources, instead of only listing links. Some search the web while they answer and show where the information came from. Others answer mainly from what they learned in training. Either way, a buyer can form an opinion about your brand without ever visiting a results page.

GEO and AEO are names for the practice of making your brand and website easy for AI models and answer engines to find, understand and cite. Where classic SEO targets traditional results pages, GEO and AEO focus on engines that write an answer. The terms overlap and the field is still settling, so I describe the work by what is actually done: clear pages, consistent details, crawl access and measurement.

It builds on SEO. Clear pages, consistent details and crawl access matter for both. The difference is how results are checked: besides reading rankings, I ask AI tools the same questions repeatedly and record what comes back. Good technical SEO and clear content are the base, and AI search work adds a way to see how your brand is described.

The set is agreed with you. It usually includes ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot, which is up to six tools. Each one behaves differently, so each is recorded separately rather than blended into a single number.

With a fixed list of questions about you or your brand, asked on each tool more than once. For every answer I record three things: whether you were mentioned, whether your website was linked, and whether the description was correct. The first run is your baseline, and later runs are compared with it, so you can see movement against your own starting point.

AI answers are generated fresh each time, and they can change with the wording of the question, the version of the tool and the settings used. That is why the same questions are asked several times. One answer proves very little, while a pattern across runs says more.

No. Nobody controls what an AI tool says, so I do not promise mentions, citations or recommendations. What I can do is make your content clear and accurate, keep your details consistent, check that crawlers can reach your pages, and measure what changes. The result is a clearer picture, not a guarantee.

I cannot give a date. AI tools update at different times, some do not refresh their knowledge often, and answers vary between runs. The repeat runs show whether anything has moved, and I will tell you plainly if it has not.

Typically: page openings that state the answer first, consistent names and descriptions across your site and profiles, structured data that matches what is visible on the page, and crawl access for search and AI crawlers. I do not add claims that are not true, or markup that does not match the page. The list of changes is agreed with you before anything is touched.

Yes. The AI Search Lab applies the same method to my own name, with the data published as it is collected. It shows the baseline, the repeat runs and the limits of what can be concluded, including when a change cannot be explained.

Your name or brand name, your website address and links to your LinkedIn and other profiles. I will propose the list of questions and the tools to check, and we agree it before the baseline run.