How to get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews: GEO explained to an SMB

Your customers have stopped searching “best X supplier in Biella” on Google and clicking 10 links. They ask ChatGPT or Perplexity, read one answer, and contact the 2-3 companies cited inside it.

The question is no longer “am I on page one?”. It’s: does the AI name me when a potential customer asks the right question? If the answer is no, you don’t exist in that channel.

In short:

• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is getting ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to cite your company as a source in their answers.
• It doesn’t replace SEO, it changes which signals matter. AI engines reward content that is self-contained, verifiable and citable verbatim, not just domains with the most backlinks.
• For a niche SMB, getting cited is often easier than ranking on Google: specificity wins, not budget size.
• The first step isn’t writing more, it’s figuring out whether you’re already citable. At Soraia it starts with a €2,000 audit.
• Real case: for ILTEC we rebuilt the site AI search optimized in 3 weeks, paired with a commercial AI agent.

What GEO is

Generative Engine Optimization is the set of editorial and technical practices that get a generative AI engine, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, to extract your content and name your company as a source when answering a question. The goal isn’t a slot in a list of links, but being the source cited inside the synthesized answer.

It’s a new channel, but an old funnel: someone has a problem, asks a question, gets some names, picks one. Only who hands out the names has changed.

SEO vs GEO: what actually changes

The basics overlap, clear content, fast site, clean structure, authority. But the signals that move the needle differ.

• SEO: you optimize for a ranking of clickable links. Success is a click on your site.
• GEO: you optimize to be extracted and cited inside an answer, often without a click. Success is your name in the answer.

In practice, GEO rewards:

• Self-contained answers: paragraphs that make sense out of context, because that’s exactly how an LLM lifts and reuses them.
• Verifiable, attributable data: your own numbers, dates, concrete cases. Vague content doesn’t get cited.
• Extractable structure: question-shaped headings, quotable bullets, FAQs, clean definitions up front.
• Consistency across sources: if you say the same thing consistently on your site, on LinkedIn, in case studies, the AI trusts you more.

Why it’s an opportunity for an SMB, not a threat

On classic Google an SMB competes on backlinks against huge players and usually loses. AI engines reason differently: they look for the most specific and verifiable source for that question, not the biggest one.

An SMB with documented real cases, its own numbers and well-structured content on a precise niche can get cited where the big names stay generic. Specificity beats budget size. This is the moment when being vertical pays off.

What GEO is NOT (and when not to do it yet)

Honestly, because Soraia doesn’t win selling audits where they’re not needed:

• It’s not a trick to “beat the algorithm.” There are no keywords to stuff to get named. If the content isn’t genuinely useful and verifiable, no engine cites you reliably.
• It doesn’t replace a site that converts. Getting cited and then sending traffic to a slow, confusing site wastes the opportunity. That’s why our AI Search Optimization includes a high-converting site rebuild, and when needed crosses into custom software.
• It makes no sense without a clear niche. If you don’t know which 5-10 questions you want to be the source for, there’s nothing to optimize. Define first, optimize second.
• It’s not instant. Perplexity and ChatGPT with browsing update in days; models’ internal indexes and Google AI Overviews more slowly. Realistic window: 2-4 months.

How we do it: from audit to citation

The first step isn’t writing more. It’s measuring whether you’re already citable and on what.

1. Audit (€2,000): we test the real queries in your field on AI engines, see who gets cited today and why, and map the content and structure gaps.
2. Content re-architecture: we reorganize or rewrite the key content in an extractable, citable format, with your own verifiable data.
3. AI-ready site: where needed, a site rebuild so it’s technically readable by AI crawlers and converts the traffic that arrives.

It’s exactly the path we took with ILTEC, a B2B office technology company in Biella: site rebuilt AI search optimized in 3 weeks, paired with a commercial AI agent activated via QR code on its installed machine base. The full sprint runs from €3k to €15k depending on scope.

The question to ask today

Open Perplexity and ask the question your ideal customer would ask. Do you see your name? If not, you have a growth lever many of your competitors aren’t touching yet.

Want to know how citable you already are by AI engines? Start with the AI Search Optimization audit, or let’s talk for 20 minutes, no pitch.