GEO Agency: Generative Engine Optimization Services for B2B and Local Companies
A GEO agency runs the full program that gets your business named when buyers ask AI assistants who to hire. Leedly builds generative engine optimization programs for B2B and local service companies doing $500K to $2M and up, and we measure the result every month across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity.
I sold my elearning company to private equity in an eight-figure exit. The search asset we built was a material part of what the buyer paid for. Before that I served three deployments in the US Navy. I built Leedly to do for other owners what that search asset did for me, and AI answers are now the biggest part of it.
What generative engine optimization is
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of getting your business cited and recommended inside answers written by AI systems like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity. The goal is to be one of the two or three names the assistant gives when a buyer asks for a recommendation in your category.
GEO vs SEO
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you show up | A ranked list of links | Inside the answer the AI writes |
| What winning looks like | Position 1 to 3 | Named first, most of the time |
| What the engine reads | Your pages and links to them | Your pages, profiles, reviews, directories, and what other sites say about you |
| How you measure it | Rankings and clicks | Presence rate, rank inside the answer, AI referral sessions |
They share a foundation. The pages that rank in Google are usually the same pages the assistants quote. So we run both together and report both.
What our GEO program includes
1. Baseline and measurement. Month one starts with the questions your buyers actually ask, run many times across every major assistant. We record how often you get named and where you land in the list. That baseline is the number every later month gets compared against. I explained the four numbers in what “cited by ChatGPT” actually measures.
2. Answer-ready pages. Service pages, city pages, and FAQs rewritten so the first sentence answers the question and the rest backs it with prices, timelines, and named outcomes. This is the answer engine optimization layer of the program.
3. Entity and citation footprint. Your business described the same way everywhere a model looks: directories, industry listings, “best of” lists in your category, and third-party mentions. Consistent facts give the model confidence to say your name.
4. Local signals. For any business with a service area, Google Business Profile fields and review text feed Google’s AI answers directly. We align categories, services, and review language, and post twice a week. The detail is in GBP is an AI trust signal.
5. Technical access. Schema on every priority page, AI crawler access checked at the host, and clean metadata. We also publish an llms.txt file because it costs almost nothing. No major AI engine has confirmed it uses one, so we never sell it as a ranking lever.
The first 90 days
Days 1 to 30. Baseline across four assistants. Audit your pages, profiles, and directory listings for gaps and contradictions. Fix the facts that disagree.
Days 31 to 60. Rewrite and build the pages your buyers’ questions point to. Claim and correct the directories that already show up in AI citations for your category. Start the review-language work.
Days 61 to 90. Re-run the same questions. Compare against the baseline. Put the next quarter’s effort where the numbers moved and cut what did not.
Why one engine is never enough
Each assistant reads different sources, so a program built for one leaves money on the table in the others.
On one medical courier account we run, same business, same question, same week: Google AI Mode named them in 93.9% of answers on “medical courier.” ChatGPT named them in 75.5%. That is an 18-point gap on identical input.
Google’s AI answers lean on Maps and the local index, and this client holds 67% share of local voice in Tampa, 69% in Clearwater, and 65% in Brandon. That strength flows straight into the Google number. ChatGPT weighs third-party mentions and quotable text, which takes longer to build. A GEO program has to work both sides.
Results from live accounts
Medical courier, 30 metros across 8 states. On “stat medical courier,” ChatGPT names them in 87.8% of answers at an average position of 1.05. One account that found them through a city page is approaching $3,000 a week in receivables, roughly $150,000 a year, and pulled them into two new markets where pages were already built and ranking. The full structure is in multi-location SEO.
National property tax appeal firm. ChatGPT cites them as one of only two sources on “best property tax appeal service.” They logged 146 AI referral sessions in July, counted in analytics. Google clicks grew 52% to 7,836 in the same month, with click-through rate rising from 0.92% to 1.20%. Comparison pages and county-level coverage did the work.
A family orthodontic practice in Glen Allen, Virginia. In the baseline, ChatGPT recommended the practice first to a parent asking for the best orthodontist for their teenager, drawing on their directory profiles and review scores.
What GEO costs
Leedly GEO programs start at $1,500 a month, flat rate, no long-term contract. That includes the monthly measurement across four assistants, page work, profile and directory alignment, technical access, and a monthly report with presence rate, rank inside the answer, platform split, and AI referral sessions.
GEO sits inside our AI SEO agency work, so classic rankings and AI answers run as one engagement.
Who GEO is for
GEO pays off fastest for companies whose buyers research before they call: B2B services, healthcare operators, professional firms, and local service businesses with a real market footprint. If one new account is worth $20,000 or more a year to you, the math works on a handful of AI-sourced leads.
It is a poor fit for a business that needs leads this week. The baseline takes a month, and the off-site work compounds over quarters.
This is the job of my AI Visibility Agent, one of six AI marketing agents I run for clients. See how all six work together →
FAQ
What does a GEO agency do?
A GEO agency gets your business named and cited in answers from AI assistants. The work covers your own pages, your profiles and reviews across the web, technical access for AI crawlers, and monthly measurement of how often you get named.
What is the difference between GEO and AEO?
GEO is the full program. AEO, answer engine optimization, is the page-level part of it: writing content so an assistant can lift a clean answer. Our AEO page covers that layer in detail.
How long does GEO take to work?
We set the baseline in month one and re-measure at day 90. Google AI Mode tends to move first because it reads Google’s own index. ChatGPT usually moves slower because it weighs what other sites say about you.
Can you guarantee my business will show up in ChatGPT?
No. Nobody can, and an agency that promises it is guessing. We guarantee the measurement: you will see your presence rate before and after, on the same questions.
How much do generative engine optimization services cost?
Leedly starts at $1,500 a month, flat, with no long-term contract.
See where you stand today
The free AI visibility scan runs your buyer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI results. It shows whether you get named, which competitors get named instead, and which gaps to close first.