AI search is changing how your future customers find you. Here’s how to check your visibility and where to start.
Since 2018, my team and I have been helping local businesses with their online visibility. We’ve seen our share of upheavals: Google updates that shook up rankings overnight, the forced move online during the pandemic, then the arrival of ChatGPT at the end of 2022. Each time, the same worry came back among our clients. And each time, the ones who kept a cool head and adjusted quickly came out stronger.
Artificial intelligence is the next upheaval. No need to panic. But this isn’t the time to look the other way, either.
Take someone who has just been arrested for impaired driving. Two years ago, they would have typed “impaired driving lawyer” into Google and gone through the top results. Today, they can also write to ChatGPT: “I got arrested last night. Am I going to lose my licence, and which lawyer can help me?” The answer comes back in seconds. It may explain the process, then name a few firms. A short selection, rather than a long list of links.
If your business isn’t in that answer, you’re not just losing a position in Google. You’re missing at the exact moment the customer decides who to call. That’s what GEO (short for generative engine optimization) aims to fix.
What has changed in the past year
Twelve months ago, GEO was still a marketing-conference topic. Two changes have brought it into the daily reality of local SMEs.
Google’s AI Mode speaks French. Since October 2025, Quebecers have been able to use Google’s AI Mode in French. According to Google, the questions people ask there are two to three times longer than a traditional search. People no longer type keywords: they describe their situation and expect a recommendation.
Advertising is coming to ChatGPT. OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in February 2026, then expanded the rollout. These ads are labelled as sponsored and kept separate from the answers. According to OpenAI, they don’t influence the organic answer: buying an ad and being recommended in an answer remain two separate things.
SEO and GEO: not quite the same game
SEO is about getting your site to appear in a list of results. The customer sees ten links, compares and clicks. GEO is about getting your business named in the answer itself, often with no list to compare.
| Compared | SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| What the customer sees | A list of links | A written answer, with a few names |
| The goal | A good position in the results | Being named and cited as a source |
| The levers to work on | Keywords, links, technical quality of the site | Online reputation, clear answers, consistent information everywhere on the web |
| How it’s measured | Rankings, clicks, traffic | Mentions in AI answers, visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini |
An important point: GEO doesn’t replace SEO, it builds on it. A fast, well-structured, well-optimized site remains the foundation. Google’s AI answers draw from the same index as traditional search. The next step is making your expertise clear, accessible and corroborated elsewhere on the web.
A real case: Riendeau Avocats
Riendeau Avocats practises criminal law. Together with the firm, we worked on its presence for search intents related to impaired driving: the questions people ask in the hours after an arrest.
Today, about 20% of the firm’s clients come through conversational AI like ChatGPT. That’s not a hunch: it’s measured.
Now imagine the loss if the AI had recommended another firm. One client in five, sent elsewhere, without anyone noticing.
The five-minute test
Before you invest a dollar, try the exercise yourself. Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and ask the questions a customer would ask:
- “What’s the best [your trade] company in [your city]?”
- “I’m looking for a [service] on the South Shore. Who do you recommend?”
- “Is [your company name] a good company?”
Then note three things. Are you named? Who is named instead of you? And when someone asks about you by name, is the information accurate: address, services offered, service area?
This little test often holds surprises. An old address that’s still floating around, a service you dropped years ago, or a competitor smaller than you that consistently comes up first.
Five levers to get AI to name you
1. Identical information everywhere
Engines that consult the web can come across several versions of your information. If your Google listing says one thing, your website another and an old directory a third, you increase the risk of inaccurate answers. Clean it up: your Google Business Profile, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Facebook and your industry’s directories should all show the same name, address and phone number.
2. Answer the real questions, in black and white
AI tools build their answers from clear passages that make sense without the rest of the page. A page that directly answers “How much does it cost to repair a foundation crack?” provides information that’s easier to reuse than a page that only says “Contact us for a quote.” A good FAQ, with precise answers (starting prices, timelines, service area), is one of the most profitable projects you can take on. Put the essentials in the first lines of every page.
3. Content nobody else can produce
A video shot on one of your job sites, a podcast with your team, a case study with real numbers, before-and-after photos. This content sets you apart from the thousands of generic texts circulating online, and it gives AI concrete facts to report about you.
4. Get talked about beyond your own website
What others say about you carries a lot of weight: Google reviews, articles in local media, mentions by an association or a chamber of commerce, partner pages. An analysis of ChatGPT recommendations published this month observes that brands with little presence on the web and in the media have very little chance of being recommended when a customer asks for “the best company for…”
5. A website AI crawlers can read
Check that your robots.txt file doesn’t block AI search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT) or PerplexityBot. Use structured data suited to your business and consistent with the visible content of your pages. It helps describe your business, without guaranteeing a citation. Google specifies that no special markup is required for its AI features. Finally, also present your prices, services and contact details as readable text, even if they already appear in an image.
How to tell if it’s working
- Repeat the test every month, with the same questions, and keep a record of the answers. It’s the simplest way to see your progress.
- Isolate AI traffic in Google Analytics 4 : visits coming from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com or copilot.microsoft.com. This tracking doesn’t capture every interaction with AI. Also look at the leads and sales generated, not just the number of visits.
- Ask your new customers how they found you, and add “ChatGPT or another AI” to the answer choices on your form.
Where to start
GEO takes several months of work. The trust an AI places in a business is built through consistent signals, accumulated one by one. That’s exactly what makes the lead so hard to catch up on for those who wait.
That’s why, at Gamache Média, every GEO engagement starts with an assessment. My team queries the main AI tools about your market, notes who gets named and why, then hands you a clear action plan, ranked by priority.
Olivier Gamache, founder of Gamache Média
Sources
- Google, AI Mode is now available in French (October 2025, in French)
- OpenAI, Testing ads in ChatGPT (first published February 2026; updated August 2026)
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website
- GPO, September 2026 State of Search & AI (September 2026)
