What is GEO? How local businesses get recommended by AI

Last updated: 11 November 2026

GEO stands for generative engine optimization. It means making it easier for AI assistants to find, understand and recommend your business. When someone asks an AI assistant "who's a good accountant near me?", the answer is built from sources the AI can read. GEO is the work of making sure your business appears in those sources and is described correctly.

It is close to SEO (search engine optimization), but the goal is different. SEO aims to get your page ranked in a list of links. GEO aims to get your business named in an answer.

The 8 things that matter for a local business

• 1. Your Google listing basics. AI tools lean heavily on Google's business data. Claim your listing, choose the right main category, and fill in your hours, website, phone number and services. An unclaimed or half-empty listing is the most common gap.
• 2. A consistent name, address and phone number. Your business should be described the same way everywhere: same name, same address (including the suite number), same phone number. When sources disagree, AI tools get less sure about which details are right, and an unsure tool tends to leave a business out.
• 3. Listings beyond Google. Google is not the only place AI looks. Bing's business listings, Apple Maps, Yelp and the directories for your own profession all feed the answers people get. Being correctly listed in several places makes you easier to verify.
• 4. AI crawlers can read your website. Some websites block AI crawlers in a file called robots.txt, often by accident. Others keep their key information inside images or scripts that a crawler cannot read. If an AI system cannot read your site, it cannot learn what you do.
• 5. Business structured data. This is a small block of hidden code on your website, usually called schema markup. It states your name, address, hours and services in a form machines understand. Visitors never see it, but crawlers do.
• 6. "Best of" lists that AI cites. When an AI assistant recommends businesses, it often points to local roundups, association pages and chamber of commerce directories. Being named on the lists it cites matters, and so does knowing which lists you are missing from.
• 7. How AI describes your business. Ask an AI assistant about your business and read the answer closely. It may be right, partly right (outdated services or the wrong town) or silent. Each case calls for a different fix.
• 8. Reviews that say what you do. Star ratings help, but the words in reviews matter too. Reviews that mention your services and your town give AI tools something specific to repeat. "Great service" says little; "fixed our furnace the same day" says a lot.

What to expect

No one controls what an AI assistant says, and answers change over time. What you can control is giving AI clear, consistent and correct information to work with. Most fixes are one-time housekeeping, not a monthly retainer.

Can you check this yourself?

You can get a first impression by asking an AI assistant "best [your profession] in [your town]". A reliable picture takes more: many fresh chats (answers vary), noting every business and source AI cites, checking whether you appear on those sources, and comparing your listings and website against all eight points. That's exactly what an INQAIRY check does for you, in one report.

Where INQAIRY fits

INQAIRY checks these eight areas for one specific business and delivers a private, one-time report: what AI says today, the likely reasons it skips you, and a step-by-step plan marking each fix as do-it-yourself or for a web developer. No subscription, no account. Request your check or see an example report.