Show up when your customers ask an AI instead of a search engine. Description Customers increasingly ask a question of an AI assistant rather than typing keywords into a search box. Instead of ten links they get an answer — often naming two or three businesses. If you're not among them, they may never see a list of alternatives at all. Here's the uncomfortable part. In a traditional search result you write your own description. In a generated answer, the assistant writes it, from whatever it can find about you across the web. If that information is thin, outdated or contradictory, the description will be too. This toolkit is deliberately sceptical. Roughly eighty per cent of what makes you visible to an assistant is the same work that makes you visible in ordinary search — and anyone selling you a separate "AI optimisation" retainer is charging you twice for it. The remaining twenty per cent is real, and that's what the guide concentrates on. It also shows you how to find out what assistants currently say about you, which most businesses have never checked. The worked example is a bookkeeping practice that was being described as an accountancy firm, with a four-year-old phone number, because of a single stale directory listing nobody had looked at. What's inside What GEO is, and the eighty per cent that's just good search practice Where generated answers actually appear — including the ones your customers don't think of as AI How assistants find, read and cite your information Being unmistakably clear about facts — the highest-value work available Structuring pages so they can be quoted, and the structured data to add Building credibility off your own site, which counts far more than your own claims Six questions to ask an assistant about your business, and what to do with the answers Common mistakes — including some being actively sold right now A worked before-and-after example Self-audit, ranked quick wins, 90-day plan, quiz, worksheets, glossary Who it's for Businesses with considered purchases — professional services, trades, equipment, B2B — where customers research before deciding. Who it's not for If most of your work is urgent and local, ordinary search and maps still dominate. Nobody asks an assistant to compare plumbers while water is coming through the ceiling. Start with the SEO toolkit.
