GEO for brands: being recommended by AI assistants
Buyers increasingly ask AI assistants for recommendations: which agency can run a creator campaign, which brands sponsor a sport, which product suits a need. Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the work of making your brand clear and credible to the systems that write those answers.
How assistants build answers
Assistants draw on pages they can read and sources they consider trustworthy: your website, reputable publications, reviews and consistent business profiles. Vague, image-only or inconsistent information gives them little to cite.
The GEO playbook for brands
- **Describe yourself plainly.** One clear sentence on what you offer, for whom and where.
- **Be consistent everywhere.** The same name, description and services on your site, social profiles and directories.
- **Use structured data.** Organization, Service, Product, Article and FAQ schema reduce ambiguity.
- **Publish an llms.txt.** A short guide to your most important pages for AI crawlers.
- **Answer real questions.** Pages built around the questions buyers ask are easier to quote.
- **Earn third-party mentions.** Coverage in credible industry media strengthens how models describe you.
Keep it honest
Do not plant hidden instructions or exaggerated claims for models. Assistants are designed to discount manipulation, and false claims damage trust with people too.
Track your presence
Each month, ask the main assistants the questions your buyers ask and note whether your brand appears, how it is described and which sources are cited. Fix inaccurate descriptions at the source.
FAQ
**Does GEO replace SEO?** No. It builds on SEO foundations and adds clarity and consistency for language models.
**Can a small brand appear in AI answers?** Yes, especially for specific, niche or local questions where it is the clearest source.
Brandtrove helps brands present clear, consistent stories across search, social and AI assistants. Start at brandtroveglobal.com.
Image credit: charles cars (via https://www.flickr.com/photos/92622665@N08/14970419439)