Generative engine optimization · GEO

Generative engine optimization (GEO): be one of the names ChatGPT gives

Generative engine optimization is the work of getting a business named or cited inside the answers that ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity generate when someone asks for a recommendation. Unlike Google's AI Overviews, which cite pages that already rank, chat engines lean on what other sources say: Reddit threads, LinkedIn, reviews and directories produce about 6.5 times more citations than a business's own site. Velour Web's GEO work therefore has two halves: the site half (answer-first pages, entity markup, crawlers allowed, Bing indexing for ChatGPT) and the presence half (a review routine, directory profiles, the owner on LinkedIn, useful answers where threads ask). It runs on growth plans from $500 a month, after a fixed-price audit, for businesses in San Diego County and Los Angeles.

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How a chat engine picks a business to recommend

Ask ChatGPT for a web developer in San Diego and it runs a search, usually against Bing's index, reads the pages and the threads it finds, and names the businesses that appear in more than one trustworthy place with a consistent description. It weighs a Reddit thread where three locals recommend the same name, a Clutch or Yelp profile with detailed reviews, a LinkedIn profile with real work on it, and a site that states plainly what the business does, where and for how much. A business that exists only on its own website is rarely named. A business that exists consistently in four places usually is.

That is why GEO is different from classic SEO in emphasis. Ranking still matters, because retrieval is a search. But the deciding signal is corroboration.

The site half

The engine has to be able to read the site and to understand who the business is in one pass.

Answer-first pages: the service, the city, the price and the outcome in the first 100 words, in definitive language. 44% of ChatGPT citations come from the first 30% of a page.
Entity markup with sameAs: LocalBusiness or subtype linked to the Business Profile, Yelp, LinkedIn and trade directories, so the four places are known to be one business.
GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot allowed; llms.txt published.
Bing Webmaster Tools submission and indexing, because ChatGPT search retrieves from Bing. A page Bing has not indexed cannot be cited by ChatGPT.
Speed: under one second, server-rendered, so live fetches read the whole page.

The presence half

This is the half most SEO providers skip, and the half that decides chat citations.

Reviews that name the service and the city, requested by text after each job, answered by name. Reviews that describe the job are quoted; ratings are not.
One complete profile on each of the three or four directories that appear for 'best [trade] [city]', with identical details, added to sameAs.
The owner's LinkedIn, one real project a week. LinkedIn is the most-cited domain for professional queries in 2026 and its citation rate doubled in three months.
Reddit, as a person: one genuinely useful answer a month in the local or trade subreddit where someone asks, with a one-line disclosure. Reddit is the most-cited domain across every engine. Self-promotion gets banned and becomes a negative citation.
One local story or association listing a year, linked from the about page.

What we report

A fixed panel of recommendation prompts ('best [trade] in [city]', 'who should I hire for [service] in [city]') run monthly in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, logged with whether you are named, in what position, which source is cited, and who else is named. Alongside it, branded searches from Search Console and leads. One page a month, three actions at the bottom.

Pricing and fit

GEO is part of every growth plan: Growth 500 covers the site half and the review routine; Growth 1000 adds the directory and LinkedIn program and the monthly call; Growth 2000 adds citation and link work and AI-answer monitoring across categories. The fixed-price audit comes first and shows where you stand today, engine by engine. Categories our competition check rates red do not get a GEO plan; we build the site and tell you why.

Related service

Local SEO Websites

A local SEO website is a site structured to rank for the searches your customers actually type: one page for each service you offer and one for each city you serve, with FAQ and local-business schema, cost guides and a linked Google Business Profile. For San Diego service businesses it costs $8,000 to $25,000 and up depending on how many pages are needed, and takes 4 to 8 weeks.

Full details on local seo websites →

Read the guides

The research behind this service

Every claim on this page comes from a guide with its sources named, and from our own 76-site audit of San Diego business websites.

FAQ

Common questions

What is generative engine optimization?

Getting a business named or cited in the answers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity generate. It relies on corroboration across trusted third-party sources as much as on the business's own site.

Is GEO different from SEO?

In emphasis. Retrieval is still a search, so ranking matters, but chat engines weigh third-party mentions heavily: about 6.5 times more citations come through other sources than a business's own website. GEO adds the presence work that classic SEO ignores.

Why does Bing matter for GEO?

ChatGPT search retrieves from Bing's index. A page not indexed by Bing cannot be cited by ChatGPT, however well it ranks on Google. We submit and verify in Bing Webmaster Tools as part of the site half.

Will you post about my business on Reddit?

No, and neither should you. We help you answer real questions usefully, as yourself, with a one-line disclosure, where a thread asks. That gets cited. Promotion gets banned.

How is GEO measured?

A fixed monthly panel of recommendation prompts across four engines, logged with named, position, cited source and competitors named, plus branded searches and leads. Named share is the headline number.

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Tell us what your business does and what the website needs to do. You get a written estimate within one business day, or call now and we will talk it through.

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