The short answer
Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the work of making a business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity to find, understand, and name when someone asks for a recommendation. For a home-service company that means being described the same way across your website, listings, and the sources those tools read.
Why owners are hearing about it
BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, the source for this figure, reports use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations "rising from 6% last year to 45%." That is a survey of consumers, not a measure of how many jobs come from assistants, but it explains why owners are asking.
What a business controls
Access is the first lever, and the major tools split it into separate crawlers. OpenAI states that "Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers," while GPTBot is a different crawler tied to model training. Perplexity says PerplexityBot is "designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity."
A blanket block in robots.txt can therefore remove you from the places a customer might look. Beyond access, the work is identity: the same business name, services, and service area described consistently on your site and elsewhere, which is what our entity audit checks.
How GEO sits beside AEO and AI Overviews
GEO sits beside answer engine optimization, which shapes your own pages, and the Google summaries covered under AI Overviews. Our entity building and citations service covers the off-site side. Ask for the free 100-point audit to see how your site reads to these tools, or browse the glossary.
Questions about GEO
Is GEO different from SEO?
- They share a foundation, since an assistant can only recommend what it can find and understand. GEO adds attention to how you are described off your own site, to crawler access for assistants, and to whether your business details agree everywhere. It extends local SEO instead of replacing it.
Does blocking GPTBot hide my site from ChatGPT search?
- Not by itself. OpenAI treats the two crawlers separately: OAI-SearchBot controls whether a site is shown in ChatGPT search answers, and GPTBot relates to training use. Check your robots.txt rules for each name so a training choice does not remove you from search.