AI search optimization, explained
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is where Local SEO was in 2012 — early, unregulated, and very high leverage. Here is what we actually recommend measuring.
The question every buyer asks us first is whether AI search matters yet. For local-service businesses, the answer is: it matters for citations, not yet for volume. ChatGPT and Perplexity do not drive meaningful direct traffic to HVAC contractors. They do drive indirect visibility that increasingly shows up in the local-pack trust score and in branded-search volume two or three quarters after you start appearing.
The measurable output is simple: when a prospective customer in your service area asks an answer engine a question relevant to your offering, does your brand appear in the cited sources, and — a harder bar — in the synthesized answer itself? This is trackable today. Rank-tracking tools have partial support; manual audits fill the gap.
What moves the number. Schema depth matters more here than for classic SEO. Entity completeness matters a lot — organization markup, sameAs cross-links, consistent NAP across structured data, and an author-style ownership signal on pages that contain your substantive claims. Content format matters too: the answer engines preferentially cite pages that answer specific questions cleanly in the first 100 words.
What does not move the number: keyword density, AI-generated filler content, and backlink volume. The systems that built their entire business on ranking factors are mostly irrelevant here, which is part of why the agency category is so chaotic right now.
Our recommendation for most local operators is modest: claim and complete your entity across Google, Bing, Apple, ChatGPT Connectors, and Perplexity's publisher settings; publish three to five authoritative answer-style pages per quarter on your highest-value service topics; and track monthly whether your brand is cited. Everything else is noise at this stage.