(A no-BS guide to GEO / AEO for real businesses)
I used to sell SEO.
Back then, people asked me one thing:
“How do I rank higher on Google?”
Today, nobody asks that. They ask:
“How do I show up in ChatGPT?”
And here’s the truth nobody else will tell you:
Showing up in ChatGPT has almost nothing to do with the old SEO playbook.
Google ranks pages.
AI assistants pick sources.
If your website isn’t structured in a way an AI can understand, trust, and quote—you’re invisible.
This article is the straight, clean, non-fluffy version of what it actually takes to get your business to appear inside generative-AI answers.
Let’s get into it.
1. The Big Shift: Google = Links, AI = One Answer
Traditional SEO was about one thing:
climb the list of blue links.
AI search does something completely different:
It reads thousands of pages
It extracts the most trustworthy chunks
It blends them together
And gives the user one answer
Your website isn’t competing for a “rank.”
It’s competing for inclusion in the answer.
Two real-world examples:
Stack Overflow → Lost traffic
Developers stopped clicking the website. They got answers directly from ChatGPT.
NerdWallet → Won big
Even though traffic dipped, they kept showing up in AI Overviews because their content is clean, structured, factual, and trustworthy.
New game, new rules:
If your content isn’t “machine-ready,” it won’t get used.
2. The New Vocabulary (Simple, Not Academic)
There are really only three terms that matter:
AI SEO
Optimizing your content so AI systems understand it, trust it, and use it.
AEO – Answer Engine Optimization
Structuring your content so it can be extracted as a direct answer
(Q&A, FAQ schema, concise answers, clear headings).
GEO – Generative Engine Optimization
Optimizing your website so ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini use you as a source in their synthesized answers.
If you want the one-sentence summary:
SEO = ranking
AEO = answering
GEO = being quoted
3. What “Showing Up in ChatGPT” Actually Means
Let’s reset expectations.
You cannot “submit” your site to ChatGPT.
There is no form.
There is no feed.
There is no “ChatGPT Console” like Google Search Console.
Instead, AI assistants rely on:
Bing indexing (for ChatGPT + Copilot)
Google indexing (for Gemini + AI Overviews)
Your site’s clarity
Your schema/structured data
Your authority across the web
Your consistency (name, address, services)
The real goal is NOT:
“I want ChatGPT to say my business name every time.”
The real goal is:
“When someone asks AI a question about my niche, my content is part of the answer.”
4. The 5 Website Changes That Actually Move the Needle (Your GEO/AEO Checklist)
This is the part that actually matters.
Do these 5 things and your AI visibility jumps ahead of 99% of small businesses.
1. Rewrite Your 5–10 Core Pages Into Answer-First Content
Your homepage, service pages, about page, and 2–3 key blogs must be rewritten so an AI can instantly understand:
Who you are
What you do
Who you serve
Where you operate
Rule #1:
Put the answer at the top.
No fluff intros, no “welcome to our website” nonsense.
Rule #2:
Add 3–6 explicit Q&A blocks inside each page.
Example:
H2: “How does First-Rate Tech help small businesses in NYC?”
Followed by a crisp, 40–80-word answer.
AI assistants love these.
Rule #3:
Every page should be skimmable by a human and a machine.
If you bury key info halfway down the page, AI will never find it.
2. Build One Flagship Q&A Hub (Your GEO Power Page)
This is the most underrated GEO tactic.
Create one page that answers every major question in your niche.
For example:
CPAP Testing FAQ (Sleep Clinic)
Invisalign NYC FAQ (Dental)
“How Does Outsourced IT Support Work?” (First-Rate Tech)
This page should have:
20–50 questions
Each one its own H2/H3
A tight answer under each
FAQ schema at the bottom
This becomes your AI magnet.
Assistants love well-structured knowledge hubs.
A quick real-world example
On a recent project for NY Metro Sleep Center, a multi-location sleep clinic in the NYC area, we didn’t start by “doing SEO.”
We started by rewriting their core pages so an AI (and a human) could instantly see:
what they do (sleep studies, CPAP, etc.),
who they serve (patients referred by physicians across NYC), and
where they operate (multiple locations, clear address and contact info).
Then we built out sleep-study FAQs that answer real patient questions like:
“What is a sleep study?”
“Will I actually be able to sleep with all those wires?”
“Does insurance cover this?”
To an AI assistant, that page is now a clean, structured knowledge source instead of a vague marketing brochure.
That’s GEO/AEO in practice.
3. Add Schema and Fix Your “Entity”
Schema markup isn’t an SEO trick.
It’s AI fuel.
Use:
LocalBusinessOrganizationServiceFAQPageArticle(for blogs)
Your website should explicitly tell machines:
Your business name
Address
Phone
Hours
Service area
Service categories
If AI has to guess what you do, you lose.
Schema removes all guessing.
4. Prove You’re Real (E-E-A-T on the Page)
AI systems prioritize content from people with real-world experience.
Show it.
Add:
Author bios (“Chris Hobbick — 20+ years technical leadership, hands-on infrastructure, AI architecture, and SMB operations.”)
Real photos
Case studies
Testimonials
Certifications
“Why People Trust Us” panels
Links to places you’ve been mentioned (LinkedIn, news, etc.)
This is how you build machine-visible credibility.
Not by stuffing keywords.
Not by sounding academic.
By being verifiable.
5. Do a Before/After AI Visibility Check
This is simple and powerful.
Before changes:
Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask questions like:
“Best small business IT partner in NYC for AI and automation”
“Who helps NYC small businesses modernize their tech stack?”
“How can a sleep clinic in NYC get more patients from AI search?”
See if you appear.
See if the answers sound like the kind of work you actually do.
Take screenshots.
After changes (4–8 weeks):
Run the exact same prompts.
You’ll start to see:
Better descriptions of your industry
More accurate summaries of your services
Sometimes brand mentions
Sometimes citations
Sometimes quotes from your FAQ blocks
This is what progress looks like in the AI era.
5. Who This Helps the Most (And Who It Doesn’t)
You should absolutely do this if you are:
A local business
A niche service provider
A B2B specialist with expertise
A healthcare, dental, legal, finance, IT, or consulting business
A business with real knowledge, real experience, real content
You should NOT focus on this yet if:
You have a one-page website
Your business information is inconsistent everywhere
You don’t have any real content or FAQs
You haven’t even set up your Google Business Profile
Fix your basics first.
GEO comes after.
6. Tools (Kept Minimal on Purpose)
You don’t need nine tools.
You need three categories:
1. A content brief + draft tool
(Surfer, Frase, Scalenut, Jasper, or the one built into ChatGPT Pro)
2. A technical audit tool
(Semrush, Ahrefs, or even free Lighthouse reports)
3. A schema helper
(RankMath, Yoast, Schema.app, or technical help from someone like me)
That’s it.
No need for a “mega stack.”
7. What “Success” Looks Like (Realistically)
Not every improvement shows up as:
“ChatGPT recommends First-Rate Tech.”
(And anyone promising that is lying.)
Real success looks like:
AI answering questions in your niche more accurately
Your content being summarized or referenced inside generated answers
Perplexity citing your pages occasionally
More branded search (“First-Rate Tech,” “Chris Hobbick NYC IT,” etc.)
More direct traffic
Your service pages being recognized as authoritative sources
Visibility in AI is directional, not binary.
8. Quick Recap: 5 Things to Change This Month
If you skimmed, here’s the short version of what actually matters:
Rewrite 5–10 core pages so they answer real questions fast, in plain language.
Build one flagship FAQ/Q&A hub for your niche with 20–50 tight Q&As.
Add schema and clean up your “entity” so machines know exactly who you are, where you are, and what you do.
Make your expertise visible with real bios, case studies, proof, and third-party mentions.
Run before/after AI tests with real prompts and track how answers change over time.
Do those five and you’re already in a different league than almost every small business in your market.
9. Want Help? This Is Exactly What I Do
If you want someone to clean this up for you so you don’t have to think about any of it, here’s what I actually offer:
AI Visibility Audit (GEO/AEO)
A 30-day sprint where I:
Rewrite 5–10 key pages into answer-first content
Build your flagship Q&A hub
Add schema + entity fixes
Clean up your service pages
Improve your Google Business Profile
Run the before/after ChatGPT/Perplexity tests
Deliver a clear improvement snapshot
This is the same work I do for my clients across NYC—simple, practical, and built for the way AI search works today.
If you want this done right, I can help.
Final Thought
SEO isn’t dead.
It’s evolved.
You don’t need hacks, tricks, or a giant content farm.
You need clarity, structure, authority, and answers.
If you can make your website:
easy for people to read
easy for machines to parse
and easy for AI to trust
—you’re already way ahead of everyone else still chasing keywords.
Welcome to the new visibility game.
