Search has split in two
For twenty years, "being found online" meant one thing: ranking on Google. You'd build a website, do some SEO, and hope to show up when someone searched for your kind of business in your area.
That still matters. But it's no longer the whole picture.
A growing share of searches now go through AI-powered tools - Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and others. These tools don't show a list of links. They read the web, synthesise an answer, and present it directly. The user gets what they need without clicking through to any website at all.
If your business isn't part of that synthesised answer, you're invisible to an increasing number of potential customers.
What GEO actually is
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It's the practice of structuring your online presence so that AI search engines cite, mention, or recommend your business when someone asks a relevant question.
Where SEO focuses on rankings (position 1, 2, 3 on a results page), GEO focuses on citations - whether an AI mentions you at all in its generated answer.
Think of it this way:
- SEO question: "Does my website rank for 'guesthouse Riebeek Valley'?"
- GEO question: "When someone asks Perplexity 'where should I stay near Riebeek-Kasteel?', does it mention my guesthouse?"
Both matter. But if you're only doing one, you're missing half the picture.
A note on terminology: Google says it's all just SEO
It's worth being upfront about this. In May 2026, Google published an official guide on optimising for AI features in Search. Their position is clear: "From Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO."
Google has explicitly retired GEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) as separate disciplines. Their view is that the same foundational SEO work that earns traditional rankings is what earns AI citations in Google's systems.
We agree - for Google. But Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI search tools have their own discovery mechanisms. They crawl the web independently, they read structured data, and they respond to signals that Google doesn't control. So while the foundation is always good SEO, there are additional practices that help your business get cited across the full ecosystem of AI search - not just Google's version of it.
That's what we mean when we talk about GEO on this site.
The numbers behind the shift
This isn't a future prediction. It's happening now.
- Over 60% of all search interactions now involve an AI-generated component
- Google AI Mode has over 1 billion monthly users, with query volume doubling every quarter
- Perplexity processes over 1 billion queries per month, growing at 800% year-over-year, with 45 million active users
- Google AI Overviews appear on a majority of search results, pushing traditional links below the fold
- AI Overviews are already causing 20-40% traffic declines for informational queries
For a wine farm or a country restaurant, this shift is particularly significant. When someone planning a trip asks an AI "recommend restaurants in Robertson with good local wine", the AI pulls from websites with clear, structured content. If your website is well-built, you're in the answer. If it isn't - or if you only have a Facebook page - you're not.
How to get cited by AI search engines
AI search engines decide what to cite based on several factors:
Clear, specific content
AI tools favour content that directly answers questions. A page that says "We're a 4-bedroom guesthouse in Riebeek Valley, 90 minutes from Cape Town, with rates from R1,200 per night including breakfast" gives an AI something concrete to cite. A page that says "Experience our unique hospitality offering" gives it nothing.
Structured data
Schema markup - the technical code that tells search engines what your business is, where it is, what it offers, and what it costs - helps both Google and AI tools understand your business at a glance. Google's guide says structured data isn't required for AI features, but it's still valuable for rich results and helps non-Google AI tools parse your content.
Brand mentions across the web
AI tools cross-reference multiple sources. If your business is mentioned on review sites, local directories, tourism boards, and your own website, the AI has more confidence citing you. If your only presence is a Facebook page, there's less for it to work with.
Google's guide does warn against inauthentic mentions - fake reviews, paid placements disguised as editorial, manufactured citations. These don't help and may hurt.
Technical soundness
Fast-loading pages, mobile-friendly design, proper heading structure, and clean HTML all affect whether AI tools can effectively crawl and understand your content. A slow, poorly-built site gets read less thoroughly - or skipped entirely. We cover this in more detail in our article on why your site needs to be technically sound.
Unique, non-commodity content
This is Google's strongest recommendation: create content that an AI couldn't easily generate itself. First-hand experience, original analysis, expert perspectives, real case studies with real outcomes. Generic "7 tips for..." articles add no citation value because the AI can write those itself.
What you can do right now
If you're a small business in the Western Cape and you want to be found by both Google and AI search engines, here's where to start:
- Have a proper website with clear, factual content about what you do, where you are, and what you charge
- Add structured data (Schema.org markup) so search tools can understand your business at a glance
- Claim and update your Google Business Profile - it feeds into both Google search and AI answers
- Get mentioned legitimately - local directories, tourism sites, review platforms, industry listings
- Keep your content current - outdated menus, old prices, and stale content reduce your credibility with both human visitors and AI
- Create genuinely useful content - not keyword-stuffed articles, but real information your customers actually need
All of this is part of what we build into every website we deliver. If you want to know how visible your business is to AI search engines, get in touch and we'll give you an honest assessment.