One system · GEO
Be found when buyers ask AI who can solve their problem.
GEO, short for generative engine optimisation, strengthens the content, authority and footprint AI search uses to understand and cite your firm.
01Why this matters now
Buyers already ask an AI before they ask you.
-
94%
use AI during buying, and validate what it says with trusted human sources.
Source Forrester, "The State of Business Buying, 2026".Base: nearly 18,000 global business buyers. Not services-only.
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975
follow-up searches AI engines ran to answer 86 buyer questions.
They went looking for proof: case studies, benchmarks, reviews and official sources. If your site does not answer the question, a named site that does gets read instead.
Source Our own AI search tracking, 6 to 8 October 2026.Base: 86 tracked buyer questions. Our sample, not an industry figure.
It's like giving AI a blank book and then expecting it to know who you are.
Cathleen Vermaak-Nisbet, co-founder and CEO, Fimiliar
02The checklist
Make your firm easy for AI to understand.
Five jobs, one goal. The same list we work through on our own site.
- 01
Identity Say who you are, the same way everywhere.
- One “who we are” paragraph, word for word on your site, LinkedIn, directories and bios.
- The firm's name never travels alone: always with what you do and who for.
- 02
Access Let AI reach and read it.
- robots.txt lets the AI crawlers in.
- Answers in the page text, not only in images, PDFs or animation.
- 03
Answers Answer what buyers actually ask.
- A page or section for each question your buyers put to AI, with the answer first.
- Specifics AI can repeat: who it was for, how long it took, what changed.
- 04
Mentions Get named by someone other than you.
- Listed in the directories and review sites your buyers check.
- Quoted in the press, podcasts and publications they read.
- 05
Experts Put real names on the expertise.
- A named author, with credentials, on every article.
- One bio everywhere, each expert on distinct topics.
Nothing you write counts if the AI can't actually get to it.
Cathleen Vermaak-Nisbet
Every item, step by step, with the before and after: how to get your consulting or professional service firm recommended by AI.
What we work on.
03Bigger than one website change
GEO is bigger than one website change.
Your brand needs to make sense across the web.
AI checks a firm against five readings: who you are, what you do, what you know, who says you know it, and whether credible sources support it. So the same true description has to hold wherever AI reads about you, not only on your own site.
It's like telling your friends at a braai that you do this one week and then next week you do something else.
Cathleen Vermaak-Nisbet, on changing how you describe yourselfA braai is a South African barbecue.
04What we track
What we track.
Seven readings. Where we are not confident of one, we leave it empty rather than guess.
- Citation visibility
- Query coverage
- Brand mentions
- Sources
- Share of voice
- Referral activity
- Commercial outcomes
GEO is maintenance, not a project you finish. Answers move, competitors move, and AI sometimes gets a fact wrong that needs correcting. We run the same tracking on Fimiliar.
05Questions
What partners ask about GEO.
Short answers about generative engine optimisation.
What is generative engine optimisation?
Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the work of making sure AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews understand your firm correctly and name it when buyers ask who can solve their problem. It covers what you publish, how consistently the facts about you and your experts appear across the web, and what credible third parties say about you.
How do I get my consulting firm recommended by ChatGPT?
Make your firm easy for it to understand, check and cite. Keep the facts about your firm and its people consistent everywhere an AI reads them, publish specific expert answers to the questions your buyers ask, and earn mentions from credible third parties, so the people who already know you say so in places a model can find. Nobody can guarantee a recommendation; this makes one more likely. Fimiliar makes it easier: we keep your firm's facts consistent, publish your experts' answers and earn the third-party mentions, as one system.
GEO vs SEO: what's the difference?
SEO works to earn a ranked link on a results page; GEO works to get your firm named inside the answer an AI writes. SEO leans mainly on your own site. GEO also depends on how the rest of the web describes you: who you are, what you know, who says you know it, and whether credible sources support it. Good SEO still helps, because many AI assistants search the web before they answer.
What does a GEO agency do for a professional service firm?
At Fimiliar, it works on the material AI search systems use to understand and cite a firm: expert-led content, citation-friendly pages, authoritative articles, comparisons, FAQs, original research, case studies, founder and expert authority, entity consistency and third-party mentions. It runs as part of one system with content, outbound and engagement, so what an AI says about you matches what your buyers hear everywhere else.
How do you measure visibility in AI search?
By tracking how often, and how, AI answers mention your firm for the questions your buyers ask. Fimiliar tracks citation visibility, query coverage, brand mentions, the sources AI answers draw on, share of voice, referral activity and commercial outcomes. These are what we track, not a promised result, and where we are not confident of a reading we leave it empty rather than guess.
Next step
Make your expertise easier for AI to understand, trust and cite.
Thirty minutes on your firm and the clients you want to win, to see if you qualify.