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GEO & AEO · AI search optimization

GEO and AEO in Ottawa: get your business named when people ask AI.

More people now ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot “who is a good plumber in Ottawa?” instead of scrolling through links. GEO and AEO are the work that makes your business one of the names in the answer. AdVelocity does this work for Ottawa businesses, alongside SEO.

What it is

What GEO and AEO mean

GEO (generative engine optimization) is making your business visible inside answers written by AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. When someone asks one of them for a recommendation, it names a few businesses and often links to where it found them. GEO is the work of being one of those names, and one of those sources.

AEO (answer engine optimization) is shaping your content so it can be used as the answer: the featured snippet at the top of Google, the reply a voice assistant reads out, the paragraph an AI tool quotes. It means answering real customer questions directly, in plain sentences, on pages that machines can read.

Both grow out of SEO. AI tools lean on search indexes, business listings and reviews to decide what to say, so a business that is invisible in search is usually invisible in AI answers too.

How AI picks businesses

What AI tools look at before they name you

No AI company publishes its exact rules, but the signals that matter show up consistently in which businesses get named and which pages get cited.

  • Search visibility. AI answers draw heavily on search results. Pages that rank and are indexed by Google and Bing get cited far more often.
  • A clear, consistent identity. The same business name, address, phone and description on your website, Google Business Profile, social pages and directories.
  • Reviews. How many, how recent, and what customers say about the specific service.
  • Direct answers. Pages that answer a question in the first sentence or two are easier to quote than pages that circle around it.
  • Mentions elsewhere. Lists, directories, local news and other sites that name your business.
  • Pages machines can read. Text that is in the page itself, structured data, and nothing blocking the AI crawlers.

How AdVelocity helps

What AdVelocity does for GEO and AEO

The work is practical and checkable. Here is what it covers.

Your identity

  • Entity consistency. One name, one description, one phone number, matched across your site, Google Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram and directories.
  • Structured data. Organization, service, review and FAQ markup that states plainly who you are, what you do and where.
  • Disambiguation. Making sure AI tools do not confuse you with a business that has a similar name.

Your content

  • Answer-first pages. Service pages rewritten so each common question gets a direct answer near the top.
  • FAQ built from real questions. The questions your customers actually ask on the phone, answered on the page.
  • Guides worth citing. Useful, specific articles that AI tools can quote and link to.

Technical access

  • Crawler access. Your site open to the crawlers behind ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, not blocked by accident.
  • Bing and Google indexing. Pages submitted to both, because several AI tools lean on Bing’s index.
  • An llms.txt file. A plain summary of your business for AI tools that read it.

Checking it works

  • AI visibility checks. Each month we ask the main AI tools the questions your customers ask, and record whether you are named and which pages are cited.
  • Reviews and mentions. A steady review routine and a list of directories and local sites worth being on.

From question to call

How an AI answer turns into a customer

  1. 01Customer asks AI“Who does furnace repair in Ottawa?”
  2. 02AI checks sourcesSearch results, listings, reviews, your pages.
  3. 03Your business is namedWith a link to your site or profile.
  4. 04They check you outReviews, service page, phone number.
  5. 05Call or bookingTracked like any other enquiry.

Educational illustration only. AI tools decide for themselves which businesses to name, and their answers change over time and from one person to the next.

Side by side

SEO, AEO and GEO compared

SEO

Rank in search results

Earn a place in Google’s map pack and unpaid results. The goal is the click to your site or the call from your profile. About SEO

AEO

Be the direct answer

Structure content so Google, voice assistants and AI tools can lift your answer word for word, in snippets and spoken replies.

GEO

Be named by AI

Be one of the businesses ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews recommend, and one of the sources they cite.

Who it can help

Businesses that need to show up in AI answers

Any business whose customers ask for recommendations: trades, clinics, salons, restaurants, lawyers, accountants and agencies. It matters most where people compare before choosing, because that is exactly the question they now put to AI.

GEO and AEO are done together with SEO, since the same foundations drive both. For an example of answer-first writing, read our guide on how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT.

  • Trades and home services
  • Dentists and clinics
  • Salons and spas
  • Restaurants and cafés
  • Lawyers and accountants
  • Real estate
  • Fitness studios
  • Other local businesses
Hypothetical example

A dental clinic that AI keeps leaving out

A family dental clinic in Barrhaven asks ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode for “a good family dentist in Barrhaven”. Three other clinics are named. Theirs is not, even though it has good reviews.

The clinic’s website lists services in one long paragraph, its hours differ between the site and its Google profile, and its old name is still on two directories. The work is to make the details identical everywhere, give each service its own page that answers common questions in the first lines, add structured data, and make sure the site is indexed by both Google and Bing.

Each month the same questions are put to the main AI tools, and the answers are recorded, so the clinic can see whether it is being named and which pages are cited.

This illustrates how GEO and AEO work can be structured. It is not a client result, and no one can promise what an AI tool will say.

Questions

GEO and AEO questions

Next step

Find out what AI says about your business

Book a free strategy call. We will ask the main AI tools about your business and your service, and show you who they name instead.

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