Automatic GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the ongoing, scheduled work that makes your website easy for AI assistants like ChatGPT to find, read and quote. At Auto-SEO we check that AI crawlers can reach your site, publish answer-first articles every week, and test whether AI actually recommends your business.
More of your customers are asking ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews who to call before they ever scroll through a list of search results. The assistant replies with a handful of names. If yours isn't one of them, that enquiry goes elsewhere, and you never knew it existed.
Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the work of giving those assistants good reasons to mention you. Most of it is unglamorous, repeatable and easy to forget, which is exactly why we automate it. This article explains, plainly, what automatic GEO means at Auto-SEO, what we actually do each week, and what no honest provider can promise you.
What is automatic GEO?
Traditional SEO aims to rank a page in Google's list of results. GEO aims to make your business the source an AI assistant trusts enough to cite, summarise or recommend when someone asks a question in your field. The two overlap heavily, because AI tools that search the web lean on the same pages, the same structure and the same signals of trust that search engines do.
"Automatic" is the important word. GEO is not a one-off fix. Assistants re-read the web constantly, competitors keep publishing, and a site that was easy to read last spring can quietly start blocking a crawler after a plugin update. Automatic GEO means the core tasks happen on a schedule, week after week, without you having to remember them.
How ChatGPT and Google's AI decide what to cite
No AI company publishes a full recipe, so be wary of anyone who claims to have one. What the platforms do publish is useful, though, and it shapes everything we do.
- ChatGPT search has to be let in. OpenAI explains that its OAI-SearchBot crawler is used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features, and that sites which opt out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. It also notes that a robots.txt change can take around 24 hours to be reflected. (Source: OpenAI's overview of its crawlers.)
- Google's AI features build on normal search. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet, and the usual SEO best practices still apply. (Source: Google Search Central on AI features.)
Put simply, an assistant can only recommend you if it can reach your pages, understand them and find a clear, trustworthy answer in them. That gives us three jobs: open the door, give it something worth quoting, and check the result.
What we do to help you get cited by ChatGPT
Here is what happens once your website is connected to Auto-SEO. Everything below runs from the same dashboard as your SEO, so there is nothing extra to log in to or manage.
1. We check that AI assistants can actually reach your site
It is surprisingly common for a website to block AI crawlers without the owner knowing, usually through a robots.txt rule added by a security plugin, a theme or a developer years ago. Our AI Readiness Check scores your site out of 100 against 12 technical signals that AI assistants rely on, including:
- whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and PerplexityBot are allowed in by your robots.txt rules
- llms.txt, a newer plain-text file that tells AI assistants what your business does
- Schema.org structured data, semantic HTML and a clear H1/H2 heading structure
- meta descriptions, image alt text, Open Graph tags, HTTPS, page speed and your XML sitemap
You receive a score and a prioritised list of fixes by email. If you would rather not touch the technical side yourself, we can make the changes for you. The check is included free with every plan after your first payment.
2. We publish answer-first articles every week
AI assistants favour content that answers a question clearly and early. Every article our engine produces is built that way:
- A direct answer at the top. A short, featured-snippet style summary box, like the one at the top of this page, that an assistant can lift as a clean answer.
- Clear H2 and H3 structure. Each section covers one idea, so a machine can tell exactly where the answer to a particular question sits.
- An FAQ section. The questions your customers really ask, answered in plain English.
- Researched keyphrases. We research the phrases people use to search for what you do, and plan topics around them.
- Labelled images. Every image is given descriptive alt text, so it can be understood as well as seen.
Articles are researched, written, optimised and published to your website automatically: one a week on Starter, two on Growth and four on Pro. Over months, that builds the depth of coverage on your subject that makes you a more credible source, both to Google and to the assistants that draw on it.
3. We write from your facts, not guesses
An AI assistant is far more likely to repeat information that is specific and consistent. Generic copy gives it nothing to hold on to. When you sign up, we scan your website to understand your services and the areas you cover, and use that to shape your keyphrases. Your dashboard also includes a Knowledge Base where you can add notes and upload documents about your business: what you offer, where you work, and anything you never want said. Our writer treats it as the authoritative source for every article, which keeps the details accurate and consistent across your site.
4. We connect your content and build authority
Each new article includes internal links to relevant pages on your website, which helps search engines and AI crawlers see how your pages relate and which ones matter most. Every plan also includes website backlinks each month (two on Starter, three on Growth and four on Pro), because links from other websites remain one of the ways search engines judge whether a business is genuine and worth trusting.
5. We test whether AI actually recommends you
Technical readiness is only half of AI search visibility. The question that really matters is simple: when a customer asks AI who to use, does your name come up? Our AI Visibility Check puts five real customer questions, such as "best [your service] near me", to AI search live. Your report shows:
- your AI Visibility Score out of 5
- the exact questions we asked, word for word
- which businesses were recommended when you weren't
- your "biggest threat": the competitor AI recommends most often instead of you
The check costs £9.99 on its own and is included free on the Pro plan after your first payment. If you want to track progress over time, the Visibility Monitor re-runs the check every month and tracks your score: £15.98 for the first three months, then £7.99 a month.
What automatic GEO can't do
We would rather be straight with you. Nobody controls what ChatGPT or Google's AI says, and any provider promising guaranteed citations is promising something they cannot deliver. What we can do is remove the reasons an assistant might overlook you, and steadily add reasons to include you.
A few things also sit outside any software:
- Your reputation. Reviews, word of mouth and how you treat customers all feed into what is said about you online.
- Consistency. If your business name, address and services differ between your website and your other listings, assistants are left with conflicting facts. Keep them aligned.
- Time. Crawlers need to revisit your pages, and new content needs to be indexed before it can be cited. Treat it as a steady build rather than a switch.
Which plans include automatic GEO?
GEO is included with our Growth plan (£79 a month) and Pro plan (£129 a month) at no extra cost. Starter (£49 a month) is our SEO-only plan, although it still includes weekly articles written in the answer-first format described above, plus the AI Readiness Check after your first payment. You can compare everything side by side on our pricing page, and read more about how GEO and SEO work together on our GEO page.
Every plan starts with a 7-day trial for £1, which includes a free website audit worth £49. There are no contracts, and you can cancel at any time.
Three things you can check on your own site today
- Look at your robots.txt file. Visit yourwebsite.co.uk/robots.txt and look for rules naming OAI-SearchBot or GPTBot, or a "Disallow: /" line under "User-agent: *". If AI crawlers are blocked, that is the first thing to fix.
- Ask ChatGPT yourself. Type the question a customer would ask, such as "who is the best [your service] in [your town]?", and note who gets named. Try a few different wordings.
- Read your homepage like a stranger. Could someone tell, within one paragraph, what you do, where you do it and why people trust you? If not, an AI assistant will struggle too.
FAQs
What does GEO stand for?
GEO stands for generative engine optimisation: optimising your website so that AI tools which generate answers, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews, can find, understand and cite your business.
Is GEO different from SEO?
It builds on SEO rather than replacing it. SEO targets the ranked search results; GEO targets the AI-generated answer. Much of the groundwork is shared, which is why we run both from one dashboard. Google itself says normal SEO best practices still apply to its AI features.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No, and you should be cautious of anyone who says they can. We make your site easier for AI to reach, read and quote, publish answer-first content every week and test the results. That helps you get cited by ChatGPT and other assistants over time, but the final choice is always the assistant's.
How long does GEO take to work?
Technical fixes, such as unblocking a crawler, can be picked up quickly; OpenAI says robots.txt changes take around 24 hours to be reflected in ChatGPT search. Building the depth of content that gets a business cited consistently takes longer, typically a few months of steady weekly publishing.
Do I need to change my website platform?
No. Auto-SEO works with WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Joomla, Webflow and most other website platforms, so you can keep the site you already have.
Want to see where you stand? Try Auto-SEO for 7 days for just £1, including a free website audit worth £49, and let the Auto-SEO team start making your business easier for AI to find, trust and recommend.
