The GEO agency that gets your brand cited in AI search — not just ranked in Google.
AI search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot — are now where millions of buyers research products, compare providers, and make decisions before ever visiting a website. Keyphrased is a specialist GEO agency helping UK businesses build the entity authority, structured content, and AI citation signals that make brands the cited source — not the invisible one.
Free GEO visibility audit · 48-hour delivery · No commitment · Covers all major AI engines
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) — what it is, why it matters now, and why most businesses are invisible in AI search.
GEO is the practice of building the signals that make AI search engines cite your brand, content, and expertise in their generated answers.
Understanding Generative Engine Optimisation in 2025
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of building the signals that make AI search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, Claude, and Gemini — cite your brand, content, and expertise in their generated answers.
Unlike traditional SEO, where the goal is a page-one ranking in Google’s blue links, GEO aims for something different: being the cited source in an AI-generated answer. When a buyer asks ChatGPT “best SEO agency for SaaS companies” or Perplexity “top healthcare marketing agencies UK”, the brands that appear in those answers did not get there by accident — they built the authority, entity clarity, and structured content signals that AI engines rely on.
Why most brands are invisible in AI search right now
Critical GEO failure factors your brand likely has
- ✗Entity ambiguity: AI engines cannot confidently identify what your brand does, who you serve, or where you operate
- ✗Poor content structure: Content is not structured as direct answers — AI engines prefer answer-first, question-structured content
- ✗Missing schema markup: Structured data helps AI engines understand and categorise content correctly
- ✗No third-party mentions: AI citations depend on editorial coverage, directory listings, and brand entity consistency
- ✗Traditional SEO alone insufficient: Ranking in Google’s blue links does not guarantee AI search visibility
GEO vs SEO — Different goals, complementary strategies
Traditional SEO optimises for ranking in Google’s blue links. GEO optimises for being cited in AI-generated answers. The signals overlap — authority, structured content, entity clarity — but the specific tactics differ significantly. The most effective approach combines both.
Why AI citations compound — Unlike rankings
A Google ranking can be lost overnight to an algorithm update. An AI citation is built on entity authority and editorial credibility — signals that compound over time and become increasingly difficult for competitors to displace.
AI search is already affecting your business
Buyers who start their research with an AI engine and get a brand recommendation often book or buy without visiting any other website. If your brand is not in that AI answer, you are invisible in their consideration set.
GEO is measurable — Not just theoretical
AI citation visibility is trackable. We monitor which AI engines cite your brand, for which query categories, and how citation frequency changes over time. GEO without measurement is guesswork.
The AI engines your buyers are using — and what each one rewards.
Each AI search engine has different training data, citation patterns, and content preferences. A GEO strategy that treats them all the same misses the nuances that determine which brands get cited in each platform. We build engine-specific strategies — not one-size-fits-all approaches.
How each major AI engine decides what to cite — and how we optimise for each one
What ChatGPT rewards
Key signals for citation
What Perplexity rewards
Key signals for citation
What Google AIO rewards
Key signals for citation
Every GEO and AI SEO service your business needs — from entity building to citation tracking.
Every service is designed around the specific signals that determine AI citation — entity clarity, content structure, authoritative sourcing, and schema implementation — not repurposed from a traditional SEO playbook.
The complete GEO service stack — built for AI citation, not just Google rankings
GEO audit & AI visibility report
Where you stand in AI search right nowA comprehensive audit of your current AI search visibility — testing your brand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot for your primary query categories. Entity clarity assessment, schema coverage review, content structure analysis, and competitor citation comparison — delivered as a prioritised GEO action plan.
Entity optimisation & knowledge graph building
Teaching AI engines who you are and what you doBuilding the entity signals that help AI engines confidently understand and categorise your brand — consistent NAP data, Wikipedia/Wikidata presence where appropriate, brand entity schema, knowledge panel optimisation, and third-party entity reinforcement across authoritative directories and publications in your category.
Answer-first content strategy & production
Content structured to be cited, not just readContent written with AI citation architecture in mind — answer-first structure, question-based headings, direct and confident language, specific data and named credentials, and comprehensive coverage of each topic from multiple angles. Every piece is designed to be the source an AI engine reaches for when answering queries in your category.
Advanced schema implementation for AI
The technical language AI engines speakComprehensive schema markup that gives AI engines unambiguous signals about your brand, content, and credentials — FAQPage, HowTo, Article, Organization, Person, Product, Service, LocalBusiness, and entity-specific types relevant to your sector. Schema is the most reliable way to control how AI engines understand and categorise your content.
Authoritative citation building & digital PR
Third-party mentions that AI engines trustAI engines cite brands they find consistently referenced across authoritative sources — not just your own website. We build editorial mentions in industry publications, trade press, and high-authority news sites; expert commentary placements; and citation profiles across the specific directories and databases that AI engines use to verify brand authority.
LLM citation tracking & performance reporting
Measuring what most agencies claim is unmeasurableMonthly AI citation monitoring across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot — testing brand citation frequency, query category coverage, competitor citation comparison, and sentiment of brand mentions in AI-generated answers. GEO without measurement is guesswork; we make it data-driven.
E-E-A-T authority building for AI search
The credibility signals both Google and AI engines needExperience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness signals are the foundation of both Google’s quality assessment and AI citation decisions. We build named author credentials, expert credentials pages, verified accreditations and awards, and the transparent trust signals that make AI engines confident citing your brand as an authoritative source.
Citable resource creation
Original data and research that AI engines are trained to citeOriginal research, industry surveys, data studies, and proprietary insight reports — the content assets that AI engines are specifically trained to prefer as sources because they contain unique, verifiable data. A well-designed industry report can generate AI citations across all major engines simultaneously and maintain citation authority for years.
GEO + SEO integrated strategy
Traditional SEO as the foundation GEO builds onGEO without SEO is a house without foundations — Google AI Overviews primarily cites pages that already rank in organic search. Our integrated GEO + SEO strategies build traditional ranking authority alongside AI citation signals, ensuring your content performs in both blue-link results and AI-generated answers simultaneously.
GEO and SEO are not the same thing — and you need both.
Understanding the difference between Generative Engine Optimisation and traditional Search Engine Optimisation is essential for any business planning its search strategy for 2025 and beyond. They share some foundations — but their goals, tactics, and success metrics are fundamentally different.
The key differences — and why an integrated approach outperforms either alone
Optimising to be cited by AI engines
Goal: appear as a cited source in AI-generated answers. Success metric: citation frequency and query category coverage across major AI engines.
What GEO focuses on:
Optimising to rank in blue-link results
Goal: rank on page one of Google’s organic results. Success metric: keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversion from search clicks.
What traditional SEO focuses on:
The integrated approach: GEO + SEO together
Google AI Overviews primarily cites pages that already rank in organic search — which means SEO authority is the foundation GEO builds on. The most effective strategy integrates both: traditional SEO builds the ranking authority and topical depth, while GEO optimises the content structure, entity signals, and citation assets that convert those rankings into AI citations across all major engines.
Five reasons your brand is invisible in AI search — and how we fix each one.
These are the issues we find in almost every GEO audit. They are consistent, fixable — and increasingly expensive to ignore as AI search market share grows.
The most common GEO failure patterns
If your brand name is ambiguous, your category unclear, or your entity signals inconsistent across the web, AI engines will not confidently cite you — even if your content is excellent. Entity clarity is the prerequisite for all other GEO work.
Most website content is written for human readers scanning a page. AI engines prefer answer-first structures, direct Q&A formats, and confident, specific statements. Content that buries the answer three paragraphs down rarely gets cited.
Schema markup is how websites communicate structured information to both search engines and AI engines. Brands without schema are invisible to AI comprehension systems — their content exists but cannot be categorised, verified, or cited with confidence.
AI engines validate brand authority through third-party references — editorial coverage, directory listings, expert citations, and academic or industry sources. A brand that only appears on its own website is treated as unverified and rarely cited.
Most businesses have no idea whether they appear in AI search answers. Without systematic citation monitoring, there is no baseline to improve from, no way to identify what is working, and no data to justify continued GEO investment to leadership.
From invisible to cited — four stages.
GEO is not a one-time fix — it is a systematic process of building the entity signals, content architecture, and citation authority that AI engines rely on. We do not start with tactics. We start with understanding exactly where you stand in AI search today.
How a Keyphrased GEO engagement runs from audit to active citations
Initial assessment
We test your brand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot for your primary query categories — assessing entity clarity, schema coverage, content structure, and citation footprint. Delivered as a prioritised GEO action plan with competitor comparison.
Strategic planning
A complete GEO strategy — entity optimisation roadmap, content architecture redesign for AI citation, schema implementation plan, citation building campaign design, and LLM tracking setup. Every element prioritised by its projected impact on citation frequency across your target AI engines.
Execution phase
Schema markup deployed, entity signals built and reinforced, answer-first content produced and published, digital PR and citation campaign launched, and LLM monitoring configured. All foundational work completed within the first 30 days where possible — with early citation testing within 6–8 weeks.
Ongoing optimisation
Monthly citation testing across all major AI engines, citation frequency tracking, competitor comparison, query category coverage report, and strategic recommendations — with a plain-English summary of what changed and why. GEO measured as systematically as traditional SEO.
Brands we have made visible in AI search — with citation data, not just anecdotes.
Results from active GEO clients. Names anonymised — full case study walkthroughs available on request.
From AI invisible to AI cited — across sectors
ChatGPT, Perplexity & Google AIO citations active — 34% of demo requests now trace to AI search first-touch
An HR tech SaaS was entirely invisible in AI search. We built their entity signals from scratch — brand entity schema, Wikipedia-adjacent data sources, and consistent NAP across 30+ directories. We restructured their solution pages as answer-first content, implemented FAQPage and SoftwareApplication schema, and ran a digital PR campaign targeting tech HR publications. Within 5 months, the brand was being cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews for HR software recommendation queries. 34% of inbound demo requests now report AI search as their first discovery touchpoint.
Google AI Overviews citation for “private dermatologist London” — driving direct bookings bypassing OTAs
A private dermatology clinic had strong Google rankings but zero AI search presence. We implemented MedicalOrganization and Physician schema for all practitioners, built answer-first condition content aligned to E-E-A-T requirements, secured editorial mentions in health publications (Patient.info, NHS-adjacent), and created a citable skin conditions resource library. The clinic now appears in Google AI Overviews for dermatology queries and in ChatGPT answers for “best private dermatologist London”. Bookings attributed to AI search first-touch grew from zero to 28 per month within 7 months.
Cited in ChatGPT & AI Overviews for “sustainable jeans UK” — direct revenue from AI-influenced buyers
A sustainable fashion brand was spending heavily on paid social while being invisible in AI search. We built brand entity schema with sustainability certification data, restructured their materials content as answer-first guides, secured editorial coverage in Vogue and Elle, and created a proprietary sustainability benchmark report that became citable across AI engines. The brand now appears in ChatGPT answers for sustainable fashion queries and in Google AI Overviews for specific product category searches. Monthly revenue influenced by AI search first-touch grew to £34k within 8 months.
What clients say about our GEO services — with the citation data to back it.
Founders, CMOs, and marketing leads across SaaS, healthcare, e-commerce, and professional services.
“We had invested heavily in traditional SEO and ranked well in Google. But we were completely invisible in ChatGPT and Perplexity — where our buyers were actually doing their research. Keyphrased fixed that. Our brand now appears consistently in AI answers for our category, and the quality of inbound leads has noticeably improved.”
“Patients are now coming to us and saying they found us through ChatGPT. That was genuinely unthinkable 18 months ago. The GEO work Keyphrased did — the schema, the structured content, the editorial placements — has made us a visible brand in AI search for dermatology queries we care about most.”
“The citable research report was the breakthrough. Once we had original data that AI engines could reference, citations started appearing across ChatGPT and Perplexity within a few weeks. Our sustainability credentials are now being surfaced in AI answers that our competitors simply do not appear in.”
GEO & AI SEO — questions answered plainly.
The questions founders and marketing leads ask us most about GEO, AI search visibility, and how to get cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
Ask us anything → Usually replied to within 2 hoursGenerative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of building the signals that make AI search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot — cite your brand in their generated answers. Traditional SEO optimises for ranking in Google’s blue links. GEO optimises for being the cited source in AI-generated answers. The two disciplines share some foundations — authority, content quality, entity clarity — but their specific tactics and success metrics differ significantly. The most effective approach combines both: SEO builds the authority foundation GEO needs, while GEO builds the entity and citation signals that convert authority into AI visibility.
Schema implementation and entity clarity fixes show impact relatively quickly — Perplexity citations in particular often appear within 6–10 weeks of content restructuring because Perplexity fetches live web content. Google AI Overviews citations typically follow existing Google rankings, so improvement depends on both GEO work and traditional SEO authority — usually visible within 3–5 months. ChatGPT citations are influenced by training data and current web content, with active citations typically achieved within 3–6 months of comprehensive GEO implementation. Timeline varies by brand authority baseline and category competitiveness. Our free audit includes a timeline estimate specific to your situation.
Yes — GEO is measurable, though it requires different tracking infrastructure from traditional SEO. We monitor AI citations by systematically testing your brand across target query categories in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot — testing citation frequency, position in the AI answer, sentiment, and the specific context in which your brand appears. We also track AI-influenced traffic in GA4 (sessions with ChatGPT and Perplexity referral sources), and first-touch attribution surveys from inbound leads. Monthly GEO reports include citation frequency trends, competitor citation comparison, and query category coverage — the same rigour as traditional SEO reporting.
An AIO agency (AI Overview agency) specialises in getting brands cited in Google’s AI Overviews — the AI-generated summaries that appear above organic results for many search queries. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the broader discipline that encompasses AIO optimisation alongside optimisation for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bing Copilot, and other AI engines. So AIO is a subset of GEO. Other related terms include Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) — optimising for voice search and direct answer formats — and LLM SEO — optimising specifically for large language model citation. All of these sit under the GEO umbrella, which is the most widely used term for the complete discipline of optimising for AI search visibility.
GEO and traditional SEO are largely complementary — most GEO activities either directly improve or do not negatively affect traditional SEO. Schema markup improves both AI citation potential and traditional rich result eligibility. Answer-first content structure improves both AI citation likelihood and featured snippet eligibility. Entity building and digital PR improve both AI visibility and domain authority. The one nuance to be aware of: Google AI Overviews can reduce click-through rates on queries where your brand is cited in the AI answer rather than a blue-link result. However, AI citation in Google AIO is still brand visibility — and often leads to branded searches and direct navigation that convert at higher rates than typical organic clicks.
GEO is viable for businesses of all sizes — and in many ways, smaller businesses in specific niches have an easier GEO path than large generalist brands. AI engines frequently cite specific, authoritative niche experts over large, generic brands. A specialist clinic, a niche SaaS tool, or a category-specific retailer can achieve AI citations in their specific query category faster than a large generalist brand trying to be cited across many categories simultaneously. The foundation requirements are the same regardless of size: entity clarity, structured content, and third-party citation authority. Our free audit includes a realistic assessment of your citation potential and the timeline specific to your category and competitive landscape.
GEO services are available as a standalone add-on or integrated into our SEO retainer packages. Standalone GEO add-ons (schema implementation, entity building, content restructuring) start from £500/month on top of an existing SEO retainer. Integrated GEO + SEO retainers that include GEO strategy, content production, citation building, and monthly monitoring start from £1,199/month on our Growth tier, and are standard in our Authority tier at £1,699/month. A GEO-only audit and strategy document (no ongoing retainer) is available from £1,500 as a one-time engagement. Every engagement begins with a free GEO audit — no commitment required.
Ready to become the brand AI search engines cite in your category?
Get a free GEO audit — we test your brand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot for your primary query categories, assess your entity signals and schema coverage, and compare your citation profile against your top competitors. Delivered in 48 hours.
48-hour delivery · No credit card · Covers all major AI engines · No commitment