Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) are the practice of making your business the source that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews cite when people ask about your category. Cognova AI audits how AI engines currently describe you, fixes the technical and content gaps, and builds a publishing system that earns citations over time.
- For
- B2B companies, professional firms and local businesses
- Timeline
- Audit and technical fixes in 2–4 weeks; content and citation programme runs monthly.
- Engagement
- Consulting plus hands-on build
Signs you need this
- Buyers ask ChatGPT or Perplexity for recommendations and your company is not mentioned.
- AI answers describe your business inaccurately or cite a competitor’s comparison page.
- Your site renders with JavaScript, blocks AI crawlers, or has no structured data, so engines cannot read it reliably.
- You publish content, but it is not structured the way answer engines extract and quote information.
How we work
- Step 1
AI visibility audit
We test the questions your buyers actually ask across major AI assistants and record who gets cited, what is said about you, and which sources the engines rely on.
- Step 2
Technical foundation
Crawler access, server-rendered HTML, llms.txt, schema markup, entity data and Bing/IndexNow coverage, so every engine can read and trust your site.
- Step 3
Answer-first content system
Pillar pages and listicles structured for extraction: direct answers, question headings, comparison tables, cited statistics and visible expertise.
- Step 4
Citation building
Consistent entity profiles and earned mentions on the third-party sources AI engines lean on for your category.
- Step 5
Measure and iterate
Monthly tracking of citations, AI referral traffic and crawler activity, with the next quarter’s content plan built from what is working.
What you get
- AI visibility baseline report across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and AI Overviews
- Technical GEO fixes (crawlers, schema, llms.txt, rendering, indexing)
- Topic map with prioritised questions and content briefs
- Answer-first templates for pillar pages and listicles
- Monthly citation and AI-traffic reporting
GEO & AEO Consulting: common questions
What is the difference between GEO, AEO and SEO?
SEO focuses on ranking pages in traditional search results. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) focuses on being the direct answer in featured snippets, voice assistants and AI answers. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) focuses on being cited inside responses generated by large language models such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. In practice the three overlap, and a strong GEO programme is built on solid SEO.
How long does GEO take to show results?
Technical fixes such as unblocking AI crawlers and adding structured data can change how engines read your site within weeks. Earning consistent citations for competitive questions usually takes several months of publishing and third-party mentions.
Can you guarantee my business will be cited by ChatGPT?
No one can guarantee citations, because AI engines choose sources independently. We focus on the factors that measurably increase your chances and report on citation progress every month.
Do you write the content too?
Yes. We can run the full content programme or train your team on our answer-first templates and review process.