Your next customer is asking AI a question.
Will it mention you?
Not long ago, a person wondering whether they were a good candidate for laser eye surgery would type a few words into Google, scan ten links, and click on a couple.
Now they’re just as likely to ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI a full question, in plain English, and get one neat answer back. A few sources get mentioned. The rest of the internet doesn’t get a look in.
The question for any established business is simple: when someone asks AI a question in your field, are you one of the sources it trusts?
That’s what GEO is about.
So what is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It’s a clunky name for a simple idea: making your website a reliable, authoritative source that AI-powered search tools can draw on when answering your customers’ questions.
It doesn’t replace SEO. It builds on it. SEO is largely about being found. GEO is about being trusted and used.
What’s changing right now
A few themes keep coming up in what’s shaping GEO in 2026:
- Topics matter more than keywords. It used to be about stuffing the right phrase into a page. AI tools look for sources that cover a subject thoroughly from every angle. Depth beats repetition.
- Clear, structured content wins. AI tools favour content they can easily understand and lift an answer from: clear questions, direct answers, sensible headings. Your content has to be easy to read for people and easy to quote.
- Being mentioned beats being ranked. Success is shifting from “where do I rank?” to “does the AI cite or recommend my business?” Measuring that is a whole new skill, and the metrics are still maturing.
- It’s not only text anymore. AI tools increasingly process images, video, tables and structured data together, so your supporting material matters too.
- People pick favourites. Customers tend to settle on the AI tool they like best, which means you want to be visible across several, not just one.
What this looks like in practice
I’ve been working through this with a client, a laser eye clinic. The starting point isn’t “write more blog posts”. It’s choosing one question their patients are genuinely asking: “Am I a candidate for LASIK?”
From there, the plan is:
- One main “pillar” article that answers the question broadly and clearly.
- A set of supporting articles that tackle the related questions: eligibility (age, prescription, dry eyes, thin corneas), what happens at an assessment, how LASIK compares with other procedures, and the practical stuff like local screening and medical aid.
- Supporting social posts.
- Opportunities for other reputable websites to link back.
Together, that builds a connected body of knowledge on one topic, which is exactly what AI tools look for when deciding who to trust.
The plot twist: AI isn’t impressed by AI
Here’s the part I find genuinely funny.
The obvious shortcut is to ask AI to churn out fifty articles on your topic and publish the lot. Plenty of businesses are doing exactly that. The result is a web full of articles that all say the same thing, in the same tone, with the same “in today’s fast-paced world” opening.
And the AI tools doing the answering? They’re after sources with something new to say. Generic, mass-produced content gives them nothing they don’t already know. It’s the equivalent of showing up to a job interview and reciting the job description back to the interviewer.
What stands out is what a machine can’t make up: real experience, specific detail, genuine expertise and a clear point of view. Research on GEO has found that adding specific statistics to content increases the likelihood of being cited by roughly a third, and that’s before you get to the expert quotes and first-hand knowledge a good writer knows how to draw out of a subject-matter expert. llmpulse
In a medical field like laser eye surgery, there’s an even bigger reason: the content has to be medically accurate and reviewed by the right experts. You can’t outsource that to autocomplete.
So the irony is delicious. In the age of AI search, talented, experienced copywriters and content specialists aren’t going extinct. They’ve never been more valuable. AI is a brilliant assistant. It makes a poor author.
Where to from here?
If you’re wondering whether AI tools would currently recommend your business, or what you’d want to be known for, let’s have a conversation. No packages, no pressure. We’ll look at what’s working, where the opportunity is, and what makes sense as a next step.
