Get found on Google and in the answers the AI assistants give.
Customers stopped searching only on Google a while ago. They ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini for a recommendation and get three names back. I make sure yours is one of them: classic SEO for search, GEO for the answers the models give. For TattooAvenue the search work was enough for position one.
Type “good haulier in Hamburg” into ChatGPT today and you don't get ten blue links, you get two or three names in a sentence. Whoever isn't named doesn't appear — there is no second page. Visibility is now decided in two places at once, and each plays by different rules.
A good site is worth little if nobody lands on it.
Visibility isn't a question of more text and more keywords. It hangs on whether a machine — a search engine or a language model — understands what you offer, for whom, in which place, and whether it can pass that on in good conscience. That is work on structure, facts and technology, not on tricks.
The site is finished and looks good, but hardly anyone shows up.
You don't get found for your service in your own area.
An AI assistant names your competitors for your service, not you.
Ads are running, but the moment the budget stops, so does the traffic.
What I work on for visibility.
TOPICSFound in your own area
Google Business Profile, one page per service instead of a catch-all page, and copy in the words customers actually search with.
Getting the foundation right
Load times, a clean page structure, redirects, sitemap, indexable content. Without that, everything else only half works.
Showing up in AI answers
Language models cite what they can attribute clearly. That takes plain facts, named figures and a site that answers questions the way they get asked.
Being machine-readable
JSON-LD for services, prices, opening hours and reviews. So a machine knows what a fact is instead of guessing it out of prose.
Pages that answer a question
For every real customer question, one page that answers it fully. That ranks on Google and is at the same time what a model can cite.
Seeing whether it works
Rankings, local visibility and mentions in the AI systems get checked regularly, so the work hangs on numbers rather than on a feeling.
Your case isn't listed? Tell me what you want to be found for and in what radius. Drop me a line and you'll get an honest read on whether the effort is worth it.
What visibility works out to.
NUMBERSPut in your own numbers: search volume × click share × enquiry rate × job value. The difference from ads is that the effect stays once the budget stops — in exchange it takes three to six months to kick in.
The same search, before and after
| STEP | WITHOUT SEO/GEO | WITH ONGOING WORK |
|---|---|---|
| Google search | Second page of results | In the top three |
| Map result | Profile incomplete | In the local three-pack |
| ChatGPT recommendation | Not mentioned | Named by name |
| Google AI Overview | Competitor cited | Your own page cited |
| Effect without budget | Ends with the ad | Keeps running |
| Result | Traffic you rent | Traffic that stays |
How I approach visibility.
PROCESSTaking stock
Where do you stand today on Google, in the map results and in the AI systems? I ask the same questions your customers ask and record who gets named.
Analysis and plan
Technology, structure, content and facts all get checked. You get a list with an order: what makes the biggest difference, what can wait, what is a waste of time.
Implementation
Technical SEO, page structure, copy, structured data and the facts a model can cite. I do the work, not you.
Measuring again
After eight to twelve weeks we check what has moved. What works gets expanded; what doesn't gets dropped.
Visibility from someone who also builds the site.
With most providers, SEO and GEO end with a PDF full of recommendations that someone else is then supposed to implement. Here the implementation is part of the work, because I'm touching the technology anyway. The grounding page that makes this website readable for AI systems is one I built for myself first.
How you'll notice it working
IN PRACTICE“We ask our customers on the phone how they found us – more than half say our new website.”
A new studio ahead of studios with a ten-year head start
TattooAvenue started from zero: no reviews, no history, not a single link. After one to two months the site was at position one in its area, ahead of studios that had been around for ten years. Not because of a trick, but because structure, load time, business profile and copy all lined up — and because the competition had done nothing at exactly those four points.
Check your own visibility →The price is set before I start the work.
Not a list of recommendations for someone else to work through.
If visibility won't do anything in your market, I say so.
The ongoing work doesn't tie you in.
What does visibility cost?
Fixed price, agreed upfront.
ALL PRICES EXCL. VATVisibility audit
from €890The reality check: where you stand today, on Google and in the AI systems.
- Technical audit of the site
- Rankings and local visibility
- Tested in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini
- Compared against three competitors
- List of measures, in order
SEO & GEO implementation
from €3,490The audit plus the work that follows from it — for search and for AI answers.
- Everything from the visibility audit
- Technical SEO implemented
- Page structure and copy reworked
- Structured data and a grounding page
- Business profile set up
Ongoing visibility
from €590/monthFor anyone who wants to stay in front rather than tidy up once.
- Monthly check of the rankings
- Mentions in the AI systems watched
- One new content page per month
- Adjusted when the systems change
- Cancel monthly
The price depends on how many services and locations need to be found and what technical shape the site is in. Ad budget is not included and doesn't get billed through me — if ads make sense I'll say so, but you book them yourself.
When you can skip SEO and GEO.
Visibility isn't the right lever for every business. In these four cases I say no in the first call:
Nobody searches for what you offer
There are services nobody searches for, because customers arrive through referral or tender. Then the best optimisation achieves nothing and the money is better spent elsewhere.
You need customers next week
SEO and GEO take effect after three to six months. If it has to be faster, ads are the honest answer — you book those yourself and I earn nothing from them.
The site itself is the problem
If the site is slow, breaks on a phone or has no clear next step, more visitors only means more people leaving. Then the site comes first.
You're at capacity
More enquiries aren't an end in themselves. If you're barely keeping up with current jobs, an automation behind you is worth more than position one.
SEO and GEO for small and mid-sized companies
By Chris Pump, developer since 2021Last updated: August 2026
Search engine optimisation gained a second arena over the past two years. Next to the classic list of results now sits the answer a language model gives, and that works differently: it names two or three providers instead of ten, it shows no ads, and it has no second page. What both places have in common is the foundation — a site that says clearly what it offers, for whom, and with which verifiable facts.
What separates GEO from SEO
SEO optimises for a ranking: a user sees several results and decides for themselves. GEO — generative engine optimisation — optimises for being named and cited inside one answer. A model does the choosing beforehand. It favours sources that are unambiguous: a clear link between provider, service and place, named figures instead of marketing language, and facts it finds confirmed in more than one spot. Ranking first on Google therefore doesn't automatically get you named by ChatGPT — but the technical and editorial foundation is largely the same, which is why the two are worth doing together and rarely apart.
Why local visibility comes first for most businesses
For a trade business, a studio or a haulier, visibility isn't decided nationally but within a thirty-kilometre radius. There the competition is manageable and the gap is often wide: a maintained Google Business Profile, a page of its own per service instead of a catch-all page, titles and copy in the customer's own phrasing, and a technically clean foundation. Those are four things nobody has usually done. That is exactly why one to two months were enough for TattooAvenue to reach position one against studios with a ten-year head start.
How a language model decides who to name
Put simply, a model looks for evidence. It reads pages it can retrieve and prefers the ones a statement can be taken from directly. A paragraph like “we offer tailored solutions for your success” contains nothing to take. “Automations from €990 excl. VAT, fixed price, first version in 48 hours” does. On top of that come structured data repeating the same details in machine-readable form, and a page that answers questions in the shape customers ask them. The grounding page of this website is built on exactly that pattern.
What visibility realistically costs and how long it takes
The most common disappointment comes from the wrong expectation about time. Technical fixes take effect within weeks, because they concern access to the site. Rankings for contested terms need three to six months, mentions in AI answers often longer still, because the models' training and retrieval cycles lag behind. Sit that out and you end up with traffic that doesn't stop when the budget does. If you can't sit it out, bridge the first months with ads — that's not competition for SEO, it buys the time until SEO takes hold.
Common questions about SEO and GEO.
What is GEO, exactly?
GEO stands for generative engine optimisation: the work of getting named in the answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews or Gemini. Classic SEO aims at a spot in a list of results, GEO at a mention in a sentence. Both build on the same foundation but differ in what ultimately counts.
How long until I see something?
Technical improvements show an effect in two to six weeks. Rankings for relevant search terms need three to six months. Mentions in AI systems sit somewhere between that and longer, because the models refresh their sources at different speeds. If you need faster results, bridge the gap with ads.
Do you guarantee position one on Google?
No, and anyone who does should make you suspicious. Google decides the ranking, not me. What I commit to is work on every point that demonstrably has influence, plus an honest read upfront on how realistic top positions are in your market.
Can't I do this myself?
Partly, yes. Maintaining the Google Business Profile and collecting reviews is something every business can and should do itself. Technical SEO, page structure, structured data and preparing content for AI systems is development work. What you can do yourself, I'll tell you in the audit.
Do I need a new website for this?
Usually not. In most cases an existing site can be put right technically and editorially. If the foundation is so old or slow that every measure has to fight against it, I'll say so — then a new site is cheaper than three years of optimising.
Do you work with backlinks?
Not bought ones. Links from industry directories, partners, suppliers and local portals make sense and get set up. Bought link networks are a risk that never pays off for a local business.
How do you measure visibility in AI systems?
With a fixed set of questions phrased the way your customers would ask them, put regularly to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. What gets logged is who is named and which source was cited. It isn't an exact science, but it reliably shows whether anything is moving.
What is a grounding page?
A page that gathers all the hard facts about a company in one place — services, prices, location, availability, the limits of the offer — in a form a language model can cite directly. This website has one, at /grounding. It is the core of the GEO work.
Isn't SEO just money spent when ads are faster?
Ads are faster and stop the instant the budget ends. Organic visibility is slower and stays. For most businesses the combination is right: ads for the first months, organic work for the years after.
Do I get a report?
In the ongoing plan, monthly and in short form: what moved in the rankings, what happened in the AI systems, what was done last month and what comes next. Not a 40-page PDF nobody reads.
Does this apply to an online shop too?
Yes, with different priorities. For a shop, category and product pages count, structured data for prices and availability, and whether your products show up in AI answers to buying intent. The audit is the same, the list of measures is a different one.
What happens if I stop the ongoing plan?
What was implemented stays and keeps working — technology, structure, content and structured data belong to you. Without ongoing upkeep you lose ground over time to competitors who carry on, but you don't fall back to zero.
Goes well with
MORE SERVICESTell me what you want to be found for and I'll tell you how realistic that is.
30 minutes, free and without obligation. Afterwards you'll know where you stand today, on Google and in the AI systems, and whether working on it adds up for you.
Usually answered the same working day.