Someone is looking for "accountant for freelancers in Madrid", but they no longer type it into Google: they ask ChatGPT. The AI hands back three names with a short summary and a link. If your business is not one of those three, you do not exist for that person. That is what GEO answers, short for Generative Engine Optimization: optimising so generative engines mention you in their answers.
GEO is not SEO with a new name
Classic SEO fights for a spot in a list of ten blue links. GEO fights for something different: being one of the sources the AI picks to build its answer and, ideally, cites by name with your link. There are no ten slots, there are one or two openings per answer. And the user often keeps whatever the AI says without clicking anything.
The other difference is where each assistant drinks from. They do not all look at the same place, so it pays to know this before you touch anything.
Where each AI gets its sources
ChatGPT and Copilot lean heavily on the Bing index. If your site is well indexed in Bing, part of the job is done, and it is a search engine plenty of small firms ignore entirely. Gemini and Google's AI Overviews drink from Google's index and, for local businesses, from your Google Business Profile: opening hours, address, reviews and a correct category carry real weight. Perplexity uses its own index and puts a lot of value on recency: it rewards content published or updated recently.
The practical takeaway for a small Spanish business is a comfortable one: you do not need to reinvent anything, you need to look after the usual foundations across all three fronts at once.
What moves the needle so you get cited
From what we can see so far, four things make the difference. First, structured data (schema): stating who you are, what you sell and where you are in a language the machine reads without hesitation. Second, clear entities: your brand, services and location always written the same way, so the AI recognises you as an entity rather than a loose piece of text. Third, reviews and freshness: genuine opinions and updated content tell the assistant you are still alive and that others trust you. And fourth, perhaps the most important, offering something the AI cannot summarise on its own: your own data, real experience, a price, a concrete case. If your page repeats what a hundred others already say, you give it no reason to cite you.
Watch the hype: llms.txt is not the answer
An idea has spread that simply creating an llms.txt file in your site's root will make AIs read you better. Let us be honest: it is not a citation lever. Google has said outright that this file does not influence how your content shows up in its AI results, and no major search engine uses it as a signal today. Keep it if you like, but do not expect it to move anything. Anyone selling you GEO built on llms.txt is selling smoke.
Where to start tomorrow
You do not need a six-month project. Claim and tidy your Google Business Profile, check that your site is indexed in Bing (not just Google), add basic schema for your company and services, and make sure your name, address and phone are written identically across your whole online presence. Then publish content that answers your customers' real questions with data only you have. That is real GEO, and it does not rely on any trick.
If you are not sure how to tackle your own case, at Social Digital we set it up with you, step by step and with no magic promises.