How to get your business cited by ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers

To get cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google’s AI answers, you need two things. The first is pages that answer your customers’ questions clearly. The second is consistent, reliable information about your business everywhere these systems look.

The work behind it is called GEO, generative engine optimization, which means optimizing for engines that write answers instead of listing links. It doesn’t replace SEO but builds on it. Nobody decides what an AI assistant says, yet you can work on becoming one of the sources it draws on.

Why AI answers matter even for a small business

More and more people ask an AI assistant before they choose a supplier. They don’t type two keywords. They ask a full question, the way they would ask a friend. They might type “Can you recommend an accountant in Padua who works with startups?” or “Who builds custom e-commerce sites in the Veneto region?”

The answer they get is short, usually a paragraph with a few names and sometimes a list of three or four options. There is no second page to scroll through. If your name isn’t there, your business doesn’t exist for that person, even if your site ranks well on Google.

In Italy, Google’s AI answers, called AI Overviews, arrived in March 2025, and AI Mode, its conversational search, followed in October 2025, both in Italian. Google says AI Mode has passed a billion monthly users. ChatGPT and the other assistants have been searching the web for a while, and they show the sources they take their information from.

What’s the difference between GEO and SEO

SEO works to get your site into the list of search results. GEO works to get your business named, or your site cited as a source, in the answer the AI writes. The term comes from a 2023 academic paper and caught on fast.

The two overlap far more than some vendors let on. In its guidance for site owners, Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in its AI answers. The page just has to be indexed and eligible to show in regular results, so in Google’s view optimizing for AI answers means optimizing for search.

The other assistants start from the web too. OpenAI, for example, states that sites blocking its search crawler won’t be shown in ChatGPT’s search answers.

So the foundation stays the same, which is a site that search engines can read and understand. Two things change. The goal is no longer just the click but being named with the right information, and the sources that matter reach well beyond your own site.

If you’re seeing fewer visits from Google, I cover that in another article.

What AI looks at when choosing who to cite

Nobody outside these companies knows the exact criteria, and they change often, but what the companies themselves say is enough to get your bearings.

• Pages that answer straight away give the AI something to cite. If it is looking for someone who does a certain job in a certain area, it needs to find written down what you offer, where, for whom and how you work. A home page full of slogans and short on facts gives it nothing.
• Consistent information everywhere keeps the AI from getting confused. Your Google Business Profile, industry directories, trade associations, social profiles and partner sites should all say the same things. If your name, address or services differ from one place to the next, the AI may pick someone else. Google itself recommends keeping your Business Profile up to date, because it helps you show up in AI answers too.
• What other people say carries more weight than what you say about yourself. Genuine reviews, press coverage and mentions on respected sites in your field all count.
• Structured data describes your business in a format machines read without ambiguity, such as who you are, where you are, what you sell and which questions you get. Google notes there is no special markup for AI. Structured data does help search engines understand a page, though, as long as it matches what is visible on it.
• Up-to-date information matters because AI repeats what it finds. Old opening hours, a service you no longer offer or an outdated price can all end up in an answer.
• Real, signed expertise beats a generic text. Google asks content to show first-hand experience and encourages bylines. An article identical to a thousand others has nothing worth citing, while your own experience, your own data or the view of someone who does the job every day does.

AI cites businesses that are easy to understand and that others speak well of.

How to check where you stand yourself

You don’t need a paid tool to get a first picture. Think of the questions your clients actually ask before they contact you, because five or ten are enough. Put them to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, and search for them on Google too, looking at the AI answer at the top and at AI Mode.

Then check four things. See whether you appear, who appears instead, whether the information about you is right and which sources get cited. The sources deserve attention because they often show you where you’re missing, for example a directory your competitors are listed in and you aren’t, an article or a review site.

Answers vary from person to person and from day to day, so one test is a snapshot and not a measurement. Repeat it every few months with the same questions and compare the results.

Since the end of August 2026 Google has been showing every site owner, in Search Console, how often their pages appear in its AI answers. It’s a useful way to see which pages get used.

What to ask a provider and what to avoid

If you’re thinking of handing this work to someone, these are the questions I’d ask.

• How will you check whether and where I appear, and how often will you repeat the check?
• Which pages will you change, and why those ones?
• What will you do outside the site, for example on my Google profile, in directory listings and with reviews?
• Can AI search engines read my site today, or is it blocking them without anyone knowing?

A few shortcuts are best avoided too. Articles mass-produced with AI don’t help, because Google treats churning out pages that add nothing for readers as spam. And a text that repeats what’s already out there gives nobody a reason to cite you.

The same goes for bought reviews, which Google’s rules forbid and which Google removes. In the EU, posting or commissioning fake reviews is also an unfair commercial practice. Google further says that chasing inauthentic “mentions” across the web isn’t as helpful as it might seem.

Be most wary of anyone who guarantees citations. Nobody controls an AI’s answers, and Google states that no third-party tool has access to its systems, so anyone guaranteeing a result is selling you a promise.

Even the llms.txt file isn’t a shortcut. It’s a proposal from 2024 meant to help AI read a site, not a standard. Google says its search doesn’t use it and you don’t need it to appear in its AI answers. This site has one because it costs next to nothing, but I don’t count on it.

How I build sites with SEO and GEO in mind

When I design a site, SEO and GEO aren’t a package bolted on at the end but choices made from the start. The pages are fast and reach search engines and readers already complete. Structured data describes the business, its services and its common questions, and the copy says right away what you do, where and for whom. Every service that matters gets its own page, instead of one generic page that covers everything.

On LaCurvaDesign, the e-commerce store I rebuilt from scratch in five languages, SEO and GEO were part of the project from day one. If you already have a site and want to know how AI talks about you today, I can go through it with you. I’ll tell you what’s missing, on the site and beyond it. Get in touch and we’ll start from the questions your clients ask.