Nobody can guarantee your business gets recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI answers, and Google says there are no special extra steps to appear in its AI features. What does help is the same unglamorous work that helps in regular search: clear pages that answer real questions, accurate business details, and real reviews and mentions. Here’s what that means for a small service business.
What people mean by AEO and GEO
AEO stands for answer engine optimization. It means writing your pages so tools that give direct answers, like featured snippets, voice assistants and chatbots, can easily pick up what you say. GEO is generative engine optimization, which is the same idea aimed at AI-written answers such as ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews.
They’re marketing labels more than separate skills. In practice, the work overlaps with good SEO more than most agencies, including us, would like to admit.
What Google actually says
Google’s guidance for site owners says the best practices for SEO still apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in them. It also says that meeting every best practice doesn’t guarantee your page will be crawled, indexed or shown.
That’s Google. Other tools like ChatGPT don’t publish a how-to for site owners, so treat any “secret formula” for them with suspicion.
What we’d do anyway
1. Answer the question plainly, at the top
Put the question your customer would ask as a heading, then answer it in the first sentence or two, then add detail. “How much does it cost to replace a water heater?” followed by a straight answer and what changes the price beats three paragraphs of warm-up. If you won’t give exact prices, give a range and say what moves it.
2. Say who you serve and where, in plain text
Name your services, your towns and your hours in normal text on your site, not only inside images, PDFs or a logo. If a person can’t find it in ten seconds, a machine probably can’t either.
3. Keep your details identical everywhere
Business name, phone number, address and hours should match on your website, your Google profile, Facebook and the directories. Conflicting information is a good way to get described wrong.
4. Earn reviews and mentions
These tools pull from the open web, so the places that talk about you matter: your reviews, local directories, local news, and the “find a pro” pages of suppliers or manufacturers you work with. Ask for reviews after every job, and say yes when a local group or supplier offers to list you.
5. Use FAQ sections where they genuinely fit
A short FAQ with real questions your customers ask is useful to people first. Marking it up with structured data also helps search engines read the page. It isn’t a trick, and Google says no special markup is required for its AI features, but it’s good housekeeping.
6. Make sure you’re not blocking yourself
It happens more than you’d think. In WordPress, check that “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is not ticked under Settings, then Reading. If search engines can’t see your site, nobody else can either.
7. Keep key pages current
Update your prices, hours and service area when they change. An old page with the wrong phone number does more harm than no page.
How to check where you stand in ten minutes
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google things your customers would ask, such as “who’s a good roofer near [your town]?” or “how much does it cost to [do your job] in [your area]?” Write down who shows up and what they have that you don’t. Often it’s more reviews, a clearer page or a better listing.
Results change by tool, location and day, and AI tools sometimes get things wrong, including about you. If one shows an old phone number, fix the source it probably came from, like your Google profile or an old directory listing.
What to be skeptical of
- Anyone who guarantees you’ll show up in ChatGPT.
- Anyone selling a special file or markup as the fix. Google says its AI features don’t need it.
- Anyone who says SEO is dead. The fundamentals are what Google points to.
Common questions
Is AEO different from SEO?
Mostly it’s SEO plus writing in a way that answers questions directly. Google says SEO fundamentals apply to its AI features, so you aren’t starting over.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
We’re not aware of a way to pay for a spot in the normal answers, and we’d be skeptical of anyone selling one.
Will AI replace Google for finding local services?
Nobody knows yet. For now people still use Google Maps and search to find local help, and AI tools draw on much of the same information. Getting your basics right helps in both places.
How long until I show up in AI answers?
There’s no fixed timeline, and no way to promise it. Fixing your pages and details can help within weeks, but reviews and mentions build over months.
If you want help with this, see our AEO and GEO service, or book a free strategy call and we’ll check how your business shows up today.