Get recommended by the AIyour customers already ask.
More Perth buyers are skipping Google’s results page entirely: they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overview “who should I hire for this?” and act on the answer. AI search optimisation — GEO, or generative engine optimisation — is the work of making your business the name those tools reach for.
It isn’t mysterious, and it can’t be faked for long. It rewards being genuinely legible to a machine, genuinely cited across the web, and genuinely the same business everywhere it looks. We build it into our SEO work as standard — and we practise it on this very site.
GEO (generative engine optimisation), AEO (answer engine optimisation) and “AI SEO” all describe the same goal: getting quoted by AI assistants, not just ranked by Google.
Traditional SEO wins clicks. GEO wins mentions — being the business ChatGPT names, the source Perplexity cites, the answer Google’s AI Overview reads back. You earn it with three things: pages a machine can actually read, answers written in the language people ask, and a consistent, well-reviewed presence across the sites the AI already trusts.
What AI search optimisation actually involves
Machine-readable pages
Real HTML the AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) can read — not a blank shell that needs JavaScript to fill in. Most sites fail here silently, and never find out.
A clear entity
Structured data that states who you are, what you do and where — so the AI treats “your business” as one confident, verifiable thing rather than a guess stitched from fragments.
Answer-first content
Pages that answer the real question in the first hundred words, in the exact phrasing people type into an assistant — because that’s the language it searches back with.
Citations it trusts
Presence on the review sites, directories and “best in Perth” lists AI assistants quote when someone asks who’s good. On-page words alone don’t win “best” questions — the machine pulls those from third parties.
Consistent details
The same name, area served and contact everywhere the machine looks. Inconsistency reads as uncertainty, and uncertainty doesn’t get recommended.
Crawler access
An llms.txt, a sane robots.txt and a clean sitemap that invite the AI crawlers in rather than accidentally locking them out of the very pages you want quoted.
Traditional SEO vs AI search
| Traditional SEO | AI search (GEO) | |
|---|---|---|
| The prize | Rank #1 on the results page | Be the name the assistant says |
| The unit | Clicks | Mentions and citations |
| Where it happens | Google’s blue links | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews |
| How you win | Keywords and backlinks | Readable pages, a clear entity, trusted citations |
| How you measure | Keyword rankings | Whether the AI names you when asked |
What happens, in what order
Ask the AI about you
We prompt ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini the way your customers would — “best [what you do] in Perth” — and record what they say today, including whether you appear at all.
Fix the foundation
Make the pages machine-readable, get the structured data right, make your details consistent, and welcome the AI crawlers. This is where our own site already lives.
Write what the AI reads
Answer the real questions in the AI’s own language, high up the page, in a format it can lift cleanly — clear headings, plain answers, honest specifics.
Earn the citations
Get you listed and reviewed on the sources these tools actually quote for Perth — the directories, industry lists and “best of” articles — with consistent details throughout.
Re-check monthly
Re-run the prompts and watch the answers move. GEO compounds like SEO: first mentions in a few months, then momentum as the trust signals stack up.
We eat our own cooking
This website
Every page here is prerendered to real HTML for GPTBot and ClaudeBot, carries Organization, Person, Service and FAQ structured data, ships an llms.txt, and is one of a 58-page answer-first build. We didn’t read about GEO — we run it on ourselves.
The honest version
There are tricks doing the rounds — fake “best-selling” press releases, keyword-stuffed titles — that game the AI for a while. We don’t sell those. They age badly and they’re the opposite of what we’re about. GEO done properly outlasts them.
GEO doesn’t replace SEO — it extends it
Anyone selling “AI SEO” as a brand-new discipline that makes normal SEO obsolete is overselling. The foundations are the same ones good SEO always rewarded — readable pages, clear structure, real authority — just applied more literally, for a reader that quotes instead of clicks. If your SEO house is in order, GEO is a short step. If it isn’t, that’s where we start.
And you genuinely can’t fake it for long. The assistants cross-check sources; a business that says one thing on its own site and can’t back it up anywhere else doesn’t get recommended twice. The durable way to be the answer is to actually be a good, verifiable answer.
How we price it
For most Perth businesses GEO isn’t a separate invoice — it’s built into the SEO work, because the foundations overlap almost entirely. Our SEO packages start at $400 for a one-off or $500 a month for ongoing work, and the AI-search foundations come baked in.
If you just want to know where you stand, an AI Visibility Check is a $400 one-off: we prompt the major assistants as your customers would, show you exactly what they say about your business today, and hand back a prioritised list of what would move it. No retainer required, and it credits toward ongoing work if you decide to go further.
Common questions
GEO is optimising your business to be mentioned and cited by AI assistants — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews — rather than only ranked in Google’s blue links. It’s also called AEO (answer engine optimisation) or “AI SEO”; they all describe the same goal.
Make your pages machine-readable, mark up who you are with structured data, answer real questions in the language people ask, keep your business details consistent everywhere, and get listed on the review sites and “best of” lists ChatGPT quotes. There’s no paid button — it’s earned, and it compounds over months.
No — it extends it. The same foundations that win Google rankings (readable pages, clear structure, genuine authority) are what win AI citations, applied for a reader that quotes rather than clicks. If your SEO is healthy, GEO is a short step from it.
Ask it the way a customer would — “best [what you do] in Perth”, “who should I hire for X in [suburb]” — across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and note whether you’re named and what it says. Repeat monthly to track movement. Our AI Visibility Check does this for you and hands back a plan.
Like SEO, months rather than days — typically first mentions within three to four months, building from there, and faster if your foundations are already sound. Anyone promising instant ChatGPT recommendations is describing a trick that won’t last, not a strategy that will.
For most businesses, yes — if you want to be recommended by AI, its crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) need to read your pages. We make sure they’re welcomed through robots.txt and an llms.txt while keeping anything genuinely private properly walled off.
Want to know what ChatGPT says about you?
Send your web address. We’ll ask the major AI assistants what they tell customers about your business today — and where the gaps are. First look is free.
Start a projectC4 Studios is a web design and automation studio based in Perth, Western Australia, working with businesses across WA and Australia-wide.