GEO optimization: what it is, how it works and what it costs

GEO optimization (generative engine optimization) means setting up a company so that AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Mode name it and use its pages as a source when someone asks for a provider. It is measured on a fixed set of buyer questions, once before and once after the work, with the same questions on the same platforms.

How AI assistants choose providers

An assistant rarely answers a buyer question from memory. In the background it runs several searches, reads the pages it finds and builds an answer with sources from them. For AI Mode, Google calls this method "query fan-out": one question becomes several sub-searches [1].

What counts for the recommendation itself is what can be found about a provider. In our measurement of 105 answers to ERP buyer questions on 27 October 2026, Perplexity read the website of a Business Central partner as a source and then recommended three other partners. The page was good enough for the technical answer. It did not tell the assistant which companies this partner is the right fit for.

This leads to the three areas GEO optimization works on: pages that answer buyer questions directly, consistent company data on the website and profiles, and mentions in the external sources the assistants read for an industry.

GEO optimization and SEO: the difference

The two are connected. An assistant can only cite what its search finds, so a good ranking remains the foundation. A place in the top ten does not yet bring a mention, though: whether a provider is named depends on the answer to the sub-question the assistant is asking at that moment.

How a GEO project runs

1. 1Measure: the questions your buyers search with are asked on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, from the regions where you sell, in several runs. The answers vary from day to day. Only several runs show which gap remains.
2. 2Record the sources: for every answer that does not include your company, we note which pages the recommendation relied on.
3. 3Implement: pages that answer the buyer questions (for whom, in what situation, at what price, with what evidence), consistent company data and entries in the sources the assistants read for your industry.
4. 4Re-measure: the same questions in the same setup after four weeks. You see, word for word, which questions moved and which did not.

How fast GEO optimization works

A single new page can work quickly if it answers a question that has few good answers. On 29 October 2026 we published a page that answers a buyer question directly. On 5 November 2026, Perplexity named us first on exactly this question, citing this page. External sources take longer because the assistants first have to find them and read them again.

Individual answers are not a reliable yardstick. An analysis by Sistrix shows that measuring a single question typically deviates from the true value by around 34 percentage points, and by around 4 points with 100 questions [2]. That is why serious GEO optimization works with a fixed set of questions and several runs.

What GEO optimization costs

The price depends mainly on the number of buyer questions, the number of platforms and languages, and the work on external sources. A project that measures once costs less than one that re-measures every month and closes the gaps itself. Our programme and its price are below, in the section "How Grovia Digital works".

How to recognise serious GEO optimization

A fixed set of buyer questions, measured the same way before and after the work, raw data instead of screenshots, and no guarantee of mentions, because nobody can honestly give one. How to check providers in a first call is covered in detail in our article on choosing a GEO agency. Which levers work best according to the research is described in the article on the levers of AI visibility.

How Grovia Digital works

Grovia Digital is a GEO agency for AI search visibility in Business Bay, Dubai, for companies in the DACH region and the Gulf states. We make sure ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini name your company when buyers ask for a provider. We prove the result with the same measurement we publish for ourselves.

• Month 1: measurement on your buyer questions. 35 questions, each asked five times on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, 525 answers. You get every measurement as an Excel file, a report and a prioritised plan.
• Months 2 and 3: we close the most important gaps on your website, in your company data and in the external sources the assistants read for your industry.
• Every month: a re-measurement with the same questions. You see every question, including the ones that did not move.
• Price: $2,100 (AED 7,700) net per month for months 1 to 3, fixed. After that $2,750 (AED 10,100) net per month, cancellable monthly with 30 days notice.

Our own track record: in September 2026, none of the 525 answers in our baseline named us. On 22 October 2026, ChatGPT named Grovia Digital six times on questions about agencies in the UAE. On 5 November 2026, Perplexity named us first on an agency question. Its source was an answer page that had gone live seven days earlier.