Is my business recommended by ChatGPT? The new SEO frontier (GEO)
ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity already recommend local businesses by name. Understanding GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and how to prepare.
A traveller asks ChatGPT: "find me a good fish restaurant in Essaouira". The assistant replies with two or three specific names. Is yours one of them? This is the new SEO battle: GEO, Generative Engine Optimization.
SEO alone isn't enough anymore
For twenty years, good SEO meant appearing on Google's first page. Today, a growing share of searches go through AI assistants — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude — which don't return a list of links but a direct answer naming a few businesses.
How do these AIs choose who to mention?
AI models rely heavily on the same signals as traditional SEO, with some nuances: structured data (schema.org), consistent information across the web, customer reviews, and content freshness.
Why this is an opportunity right now
Most small local businesses, including in Essaouira, haven't made any specific effort toward GEO yet — most don't even know it exists. That's a window of opportunity that's hard to catch up on once the practice becomes mainstream.
Conclusion
GEO isn't a passing trend — it's the natural extension of SEO in the generative AI era. Businesses that start structuring their digital presence now to be "readable" by AI will get ahead of competitors.