A GEO strategy is a plan for getting AI assistants to understand your business and mention it in their answers. Over 90 days, I'd do five things in order: see what AI says about you now, fix your facts, write answer-first pages for your buyer's questions, earn mentions on sites AI already trusts, and measure every month. Skipping the order is how most plans stall.
Most GEO advice is a list of tactics. Add schema, write an FAQ, publish an llms.txt file. Every one of those is sound advice, but a list isn't a strategy, because it doesn't tell you what to do first or how you'll know it worked.
Here's the order I'd follow for a small business or a marketing lead with limited time. It's a 90-day plan, and you can run it with a very small team.
| Phase | Weeks | What you do | What you check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Baseline | 1 to 2 | Ask AI assistants the questions your buyers ask, and record what they say about you and your competitors | Are you mentioned, and is it accurate? |
| 2. Entity and facts | 3 to 4 | Fix your name, description, services and contact details everywhere they appear | Do your site and profiles all say the same thing? |
| 3. Answer-first pages | 5 to 8 | Write or rewrite pages that answer your buyer's real questions in the first sentence | Does each page answer its question in the opening lines? |
| 4. Earn mentions | 9 to 12 | Get named on sites and publications that AI tools already draw on | Are new, accurate mentions appearing? |
| 5. Measure | Weeks 4, 8 and 12 | Repeat the baseline questions and review your analytics | What changed since the last check? |
Phase 1: find out what AI says about you today
Write down ten questions a buyer might ask before hiring you. Put each one into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers. Record who gets named, what's said about them and what's said about you.
This will sting a little. You might find you aren't mentioned, or that an assistant gets your services wrong. That's useful. It's your starting line, and it tells you which of the next phases matters most. Save the answers in a simple spreadsheet with the date, the assistant, the question and the result, because you'll want to compare them later. Try a few different wordings of each question too, since people ask the same thing in different ways.
Phase 2: fix the facts AI relies on
AI tools build a picture of your business from many places. If those places disagree, the picture is fuzzy. Pick one business name, one short description and one list of services, then make your website, LinkedIn page, Google Business Profile and directory listings match.
Add a clear sentence on your About page that says what you do and who for. This is dull work, and it's the foundation. I'd do it before writing a single new page. It also gives every later page a consistent voice to build on. If you sell more than one service, give each its own short description and use it the same way each time.
Phase 3: build pages that answer your buyer's questions first
Take the questions from phase 1 and match each to a page. If you've no page for a question, write one. Put the answer in the first two sentences, then explain, give an example and say who it isn't for.
Keep the pages honest and specific. Assistants favour passages that make a clear claim and back it up. A short example from your own work usually does more than a paragraph of general advice. So does a plain statement of who the service isn't for, because it shows you know your limits. If you're unsure how this differs from ordinary SEO writing, my guide to GEO versus SEO shows where the two overlap and where they don't.
If you'd like someone to take this phase on with you, that's the core of my generative engine optimisation help.
Phase 4: get mentioned where AI already looks
Assistants don't only trust your own site. They weigh what other credible sources say about you. Look at which sites keep appearing in the answers from phase 1, such as industry publications, directories and review sites, and work out how you could be named there honestly.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
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That might mean contributing expert comments, being listed accurately in a trade directory, or speaking on a podcast. It takes longer than editing your own pages, which is why it comes last. Pick two or three targets and do them well. A single accurate mention on a respected site is worth more than a dozen scattered ones, and it keeps the work manageable.
Phase 5: measure monthly, not daily
Repeat your baseline questions every month and note the changes. AI answers vary from one run to the next, so look for a pattern, not a single result. Pair that with your analytics to see visits from AI assistants. I've explained how in how to track your AI visibility.
Mistakes that waste months
- Starting with tactics before you've checked what AI says about you.
- Rewriting pages while your name and description still differ across profiles.
- Writing about what you want to say instead of what your buyers ask.
- Chasing mentions on any site that will have you, rather than ones AI already draws on.
- Judging success on one prompt run on one day.
- Treating GEO as a one-off project instead of a monthly habit.
Why I trust this order
I've followed this approach on my own site. Between January and September 2026, my average Google position improved from 27.2 to 16.5. Visits from ChatGPT grew from 29 a month to 3,267 over the same period.
That isn't a promise of your results, because every site starts somewhere different. If you want the detail, my AI SEO case study lays it out.
If a 90-day plan sounds right but you'd rather not run it alone, let's have a chat. Here's what working together involves.
Frequently asked questions
What is a GEO strategy?
A GEO strategy is a plan for making your business easy for AI assistants to understand and recommend. It covers your facts, your pages, your mentions elsewhere and how you measure progress.
How long does a GEO strategy take to work?
There's no honest fixed answer. I plan in 90 days so you can check progress at set points, but results depend on where you start and how competitive your market is.
What's the difference between an AEO strategy and a GEO strategy?
AEO means answer engine optimisation and GEO means generative engine optimisation. In practice they describe nearly the same work: making your content clear and trustworthy so AI tools can use it in answers. I'd plan them together.
Do I need to stop doing SEO to follow a GEO strategy?
No. Good SEO and good GEO share the same foundations: clear pages, accurate facts and trusted mentions. A GEO strategy builds on your SEO rather than replacing it.
