How does AI find your business? A guide to AI search visibility (GEO)
AI finds you by reading your website, understanding it with structured data (schema), and citing you when someone asks a question you can answer well. If your site lacks clear structure, schema markup, and AI crawler access, you are practically invisible to these engines. Optimising for this is called GEO (generative engine optimization).
Search is moving from Google to AI
Your customers increasingly ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews first, and only then (if at all) open classic Google. Instead of a list of ten blue links, they get a single answer, often with the names of two or three businesses. If your name isn't among them, the customer doesn't know you exist.
That is a big shift. With Google, you competed for a place on the first page. With AI engines, you compete to be cited as a source at all. One slot, two businesses, and that's it.
How an AI engine actually finds and chooses a business
AI answer engines (ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) work in three steps: they access websites, understand them, and compose an answer with citations. You can drop out at any step.
- Access: AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, OAI-SearchBot) need permission via robots.txt. If you block them, they cannot read you. Surprisingly many sites do this by accident.
- Understanding: structured data (schema.org markup) tells the engine who you are, what you offer, and where you operate. Without it, the engine has to guess from plain text.
- Citation: engines cite pages with clear structure, concrete answers, and content that directly addresses the question. Thin, generic pages rarely make it into answers.
What specifically increases your AI visibility
The good news is that the levers are concrete and measurable. The single biggest is structured markup (schema), because it gives the AI engine meaning, not just words. Next come crawler access, a clear heading structure, and content that actually answers your customers' questions.
- Schema markup (Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, FAQPage): the single biggest lever.
- Open crawler access in robots.txt.
- One clear H1 heading and an organised heading hierarchy.
- Question-and-answer content targeting real customer queries.
- An llms.txt file with a short, clear business description for AI engines.
How to check where you stand now
Do not guess. Your current AI visibility can be measured. Volent offers a free tool that reads your site and scores how well AI engines find you, with specific fixes. It is a solid starting point before you change anything.
// frequently asked questions
- Is GEO the same as SEO?
- Not quite. SEO optimises for rankings in classic search engines like Google. GEO (generative engine optimization) optimises for AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews) to understand and cite you. Many foundations overlap (clean structure, schema), but the goal is different: not a ranking, but a citation.
- Do I need to be on ChatGPT for it to find me?
- No. You do not publish on ChatGPT. ChatGPT and similar engines read the public web. Your job is to make sure your site can be read, understood, and cited. You do that with technical settings on your own site, not with an account at an AI provider.
- How long does it take to improve AI visibility?
- Technical changes (schema, robots.txt, structure) start working once AI engines revisit your site, which takes days to a few weeks. Building content authority (being cited regularly) takes longer, but the foundation is quick and has an immediate effect.
// check your ai visibility for free
Paste your URL and see in seconds how well AI engines find you, with specific fixes.
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