When a customer asks AI for the best in your trade,
is it saying your name?
GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation — is the work that gets your business cited by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini. It's included in our Local Growth plan, and standalone GEO work is quoted fixed-price per project.
What does GEO stand for?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It's the practice of making your business visible in the answers generated by AI tools — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude.
You'll also see it called AI search optimisation or AI SEO. (Worth noting: in some older marketing contexts "geo" was shorthand for geographic targeting. That's a completely different thing — this page is about the AI kind.)
Traditional SEO gets you into Google's list of blue links, where a customer picks from ten options. GEO gets you into the AI-written answer that now sits above those links — and that answer usually names one, two or three businesses. Everyone else may as well not exist in that conversation.
That's the whole reason GEO matters. Being named by an AI isn't just visibility, it's an implied recommendation. The customer didn't scroll a list and choose you; something they trust handed you over as the answer.
For the full background, read our explainer: What is GEO and why does it matter for NZ businesses?
Five things that decide whether AI can see you.
There's no secret to this and no algorithm to game. AI tools cite businesses they can read, verify and understand. Most NZ small business websites fail on at least three of these.
AI crawler access
Plenty of NZ sites block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended in robots.txt without realising — often a leftover default from a theme or a developer. If the crawlers can't read you, nothing else on this list matters.
Structured data (schema)
JSON-LD markup that states plainly what your business is, where it operates, what it sells and what people say about it. This is the single strongest technical signal — it removes the guesswork for an AI trying to describe you.
Question-shaped content
AI answers are assembled from content that already reads like an answer. FAQ sections and plain-language Q&A pull far more citations than brochure copy, because they match the shape of what someone typed into the prompt box.
Entity consistency
Your business name, address, phone and description identical across your website, Google Business Profile, directories and socials. Mismatches make an AI less confident it's describing one real business — and confidence is what gets you cited.
Authority signals
Google reviews, credible mentions elsewhere on the web, and being referenced by sites the AI already trusts. This is the slowest part to build and the hardest for a competitor to copy.
Citation monitoring
Asking the AI tools now and then whether they name you for the prompts your customers use, and who they name instead. Answers change from one run to the next, so treat it as a sense check, not a score.
Do I need this if I already do SEO?
They share a foundation but they're not the same job. Here's the honest split.
| Traditional SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you appear | Google's blue links | Inside the AI-written answer above them, and in ChatGPT / Perplexity / Gemini |
| How many win | Ten results, customer chooses | Usually one to three businesses get named |
| Main levers | Keywords, backlinks, page speed, content depth | Schema, crawler access, question-shaped content, entity consistency |
| Typical timeframe | 3–6 months to move meaningfully | 4–8 weeks for early visibility changes |
| How you measure it | Rankings, impressions, clicks in Search Console | Whether AI tools cite you for real customer prompts |
If your SEO foundations are already decent, GEO is usually a modest add-on rather than a rebuild — much of the technical groundwork overlaps. If your site has never had schema or a proper FAQ, you're starting both jobs at once, which is actually the cheaper moment to do it.
We go deeper on the differences here: GEO vs SEO — what's actually different, and which you need first.
The NZ market is early. That won't last.
Around 1 in 5 Google searches now returns an AI-generated answer, and the share is climbing. ChatGPT has become an ordinary research tool rather than a novelty. Customers making considered choices — picking a tradie, a physio, an accountant, a transport company — increasingly start there rather than in a search box.
Here's the part that matters commercially: most of your NZ competitors haven't done any of this yet. Very few agencies here sell GEO at all, and fewer still at a price a small business would actually pay. Being early is a genuine, temporary advantage — the same way being early to Google Business Profile was a decade ago.
The businesses getting named by AI today are mostly getting named by accident, because their site happens to be well structured. Doing it deliberately isn't hard. It just has to be done before everyone else catches on.
No separate GEO retainer. It's in the plan.
Most agencies that sell GEO sell it as another monthly line item. We don't. AI search visibility is part of the work you're already buying:
- Local Growth ($249/month) — GEO is included: AI-crawler access, schema and consistent business details across your Google Business Profile and NZ directories, alongside backlinks from trusted sites. Month to month.
- Website Refresh ($499) — when we refresh your existing site, we set up the basics AI search needs: clean structure, schema markup, and making sure AI crawlers aren't blocked.
- Standalone GEO project — for businesses with a site they're keeping, we quote a fixed-price piece of work: technical fixes, schema and content restructuring, scoped and priced before we start.
- Not sure where you stand? — run the free AI search check first. It shows whether AI tools can read your site. If GEO isn't your best next spend, we'll say so.
Project work comes with a written brief and a fixed price before we start. Plans are month to month. No lock-in, no acronym soup. See full pricing.
GEO questions, answered straight.
What does GEO stand for?
How much does GEO cost in New Zealand?
Do I need GEO if I already do SEO?
How long does GEO take to work?
Can you prove my business appears in AI search?
Do you only work with Hawke's Bay businesses?
GEO & AI Search
Find out what AI says about your business.
Start with the free AI search check, or get a quote and we'll tell you straight what's worth fixing. No pitch deck.