GEO & AEO Services
Generative Engine Optimisation Agency
Featured in Digital Reference's Best UK Digital Marketing Agencies 2026 - GEO and AEO services from a team already cited in AI Overviews
A generative engine optimisation (GEO) agency gets your brand cited and recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. We run GEO, also called answer engine optimisation (AEO), as a specialist service: citation acquisition, llms.txt, entity consistency and AI share of voice tracking. Senior specialists. No contracts.
Companies we've worked with
BullX: $1m+ in Organic Search Revenue in Six Months - From Zero
BullX is a crypto trading platform that engaged Visionary at ground zero - no rankings, no authority, no backlinks. Six months later, organic search was driving over a million dollars in attributable revenue, built through keyword research, technical SEO foundation, content production at velocity, and link building from a blank profile.
Organic revenue
Engagement window
Starting authority
Vertical
Overview
What Is a Generative Engine Optimisation Agency?
A generative engine optimisation agency increases how often AI systems - ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews - cite your pages and recommend your brand when they write an answer. The same service is sold as answer engine optimisation (AEO), LLM optimisation and AI search optimisation. Different labels, one discipline: become the source the engines retrieve, trust and name.
This is our specialist GEO service page, and it goes deep on method. How the engines select their citations. How we structure content so a model can lift it whole. What llms.txt and entity consistency work actually involve. How we measure AI referral traffic and AI share of voice, so the retainer answers to numbers rather than screenshots. For the umbrella view of how GEO sits alongside the classic ranking work that feeds it, our AI SEO agency page covers the full stack. If you searched for a GEO agency, an AEO agency or a generative engine optimisation agency, this page is the service itself.
AI Overviews and answer engines now resolve a growing share of UK commercial queries, and they cite a small, repeated set of sources. Our answer engine optimisation statistics report tracks coverage rates and citation patterns, updated for 2026.
Read the AEO data →Visionary Marketing delivers SEO for UK and international brands, with senior specialists on every account. We combine deep technical expertise with commercial strategy to deliver measurable organic growth.
Comparison
GEO vs SEO: What Changes When the Result Is an Answer
GEO and SEO pursue different outcomes with overlapping levers. SEO earns your pages positions in a ranked list. GEO earns your brand a place inside a generated answer, either as a cited source or a named recommendation. You need both, because generative engines retrieve most of their evidence from pages that already rank.
SEO
GEO
You compete for rankings on a results page
You compete for citations and mentions inside one composed answer
The query is a typed keyword
The query is a conversation, expanded by the engine into fan-out queries you never see
The unit of optimisation is the page
The unit is the passage, the entity and the evidence base around a claim
Your claims are weighed by the link graph
Your claims are weighed by corroboration across independent sources
Success is positions, clicks and organic traffic
Success is citation counts, AI share of voice and AI referral traffic
Failure is page two
Failure is absence: the answer is composed without you, and no rank tracker shows it
The practical consequence is that GEO work never starts from zero. We build it on the ranking asset you already have, then add the layers the engines check that classic SEO ignores: corroboration, entity resolution and passage structure.
Terminology
Answer Engine Optimisation, GEO, LLMO: One Service, Four Names
Generative engine optimisation, answer engine optimisation, LLM optimisation and AI SEO all describe the same buying decision: paying to be visible in AI-generated answers. The emphasis shifts slightly with each term, and we cover all of it in one engagement. You will also see the US spelling, generative engine optimization; same work.
GEO
getting generative engines to cite your pages and recommend your brand when they compose answers.
AEO
structuring content so answer engines can lift a direct answer and credit you as the source. The older term, rooted in featured snippets, and the one this page treats as a full synonym.
LLMO / LLM SEO
the plumbing: crawler access, Bing indexation and machine-readable files, so the models can fetch you at all.
AI SEO
the umbrella term for all of the above plus the traditional ranking work that feeds it.
If a vendor quotes these as separate line items, you are being sold the same work several times.
Mechanism
How Generative Engines Choose What to Cite: The Five-Stage Pipeline
Generative engines choose citations through a retrieval pipeline, and every stage of it can be influenced. Our methodology maps one workstream to each stage.
01
Query fan-out
What happens
The engine expands your buyer's question into a set of related sub-queries and runs them against a search index: Google's for AI Overviews and Gemini, Bing's for ChatGPT and Copilot.
What we do
Build query coverage for the whole fan-out set, not just the head term, so you stay retrievable however the engine rephrases the question.
02
Passage retrieval
What happens
The engine pulls passages, not pages. A 50-word block that answers one sub-question cleanly beats a long page that circles it.
What we do
Restructure priority pages into self-contained, liftable passages under question-shaped headings. The full standard is in the retrieval content section below.
03
Corroboration
What happens
Before a claim is used, the model weighs whether independent sources agree. A claim that lives only on your domain is an assertion; the same claim echoed by third parties is evidence.
What we do
Citation acquisition, covered in its own section below, because it is the highest-leverage stage.
04
Answer assembly and citation selection
What happens
The engine composes the answer and attributes a handful of sources. Attribution favours clear authorship, dated updates, consistent entity signals and pages the engine has cited before; citation begets citation.
What we do
Harden the attribution signals on every page we want cited, then defend the ones that win.
05
Model memory
What happens
Recommendations inside answers that cite nobody come from the model's training-time association between your brand and your category. This layer moves slowest and compounds longest.
What we do
Sustain the entity and corroboration work over months, so the association survives the next model update rather than resetting with it.
Highest leverage
Citation Acquisition: Building the Corroboration Engines Check
Citation acquisition is the work of earning your claims and your brand on independent sites, because generative engines treat cross-source agreement as truth. It is the single highest-leverage GEO workstream, and the one most agencies skip because it is slow.
The mechanics are specific. First we isolate the claims that must be corroborated: what category you belong to, what makes you different, and the first-party data only you hold. Then we place those claims where the engines actually gather evidence:
Outreach runs in-house. Every placement is a real page a human can visit: no link networks, no widgets, no placements you would be embarrassed to show a client.
Statistics roundups and data citations
We publish first-party data other sites quote, produced with our SEO content services team. Every quote puts your brand next to your category on someone else's domain.
Trade and industry press
Earned commentary and coverage in the publications the engines already trust on your topic.
Comparison and listicle pages
The "best X" roundups engines lean on when a prompt asks for recommendations. Absence from those pages is absence from the answer.
Knowledge bases and profiles
Consistent entries on the directories, review platforms and profile pages engines resolve entities against.
Content standard
Content Structured for LLM Retrieval
Content is retrievable by an LLM when each section answers one question, in one place, in language a model can lift without editing. Most commercial pages fail this test not because they lack the information, but because the information is smeared across the page.
Before: how most pages read
- ×The key claim sits in paragraph four.
- ×The answer is split across three sections.
- ×The heading says "Why choose us".
- ×The company is "we" throughout, so the passage names nobody when quoted alone.
After: retrieval-ready
- ■A question-shaped H2 that matches a fan-out query.
- ■A direct 40-70 word answer first, nuance second.
- ■One idea per passage.
- ■The brand and product named in full, not by pronoun.
- ■A visible dateModified.
The working rules
- Question-led headings that mirror how the engine rephrases the query.
- Tables for anything comparative, because models parse them cleanly.
- Entities named in full on every liftable passage.
- Supporting schema that matches the visible copy.
We rebuild priority pages to this standard through our on-page SEO service, without flattening the copy human buyers still need.
Technical layer
The Technical Layer: llms.txt, Crawler Access and Entity Consistency
The technical side of GEO is small, specific and frequently broken. Three checks decide whether the engines can fetch and resolve you at all.
Crawler access and Bing indexation
Robots.txt must allow GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot, or you are invisible to those systems by your own choice. Key pages must be indexed in Bing, because ChatGPT and Copilot retrieve through Bing's index. Content must render server-side, because AI crawlers execute little or no JavaScript. We verify all three and submit changed URLs through IndexNow.
llms.txt
A plain-text file at your site root that lists your canonical pages with one-line descriptions, so models with limited crawl budget find your best explanations first. We write it, keep it current as pages change, and pair it with clean, descriptive titles worth pointing at. It takes an hour to add and most sites still do not have one.
Entity consistency
Your brand name, services, locations and descriptions must match across your site copy, your schema, your profiles and the third-party mentions we earn. Engines resolve entities by cross-referencing; every mismatch weakens the link between your brand and your category. We reconcile the record: Organization and Service schema, profile audits, and fixes for the naming drift every brand accumulates.
Where the audit finds deeper crawl or indexation problems, our technical SEO agency team fixes them inside the same retainer.
Measurement
Measuring GEO: AI Referral Traffic and Share of Voice
We measure GEO with four numbers, reported monthly next to your organic rankings: AI referral sessions, AI Overview citations, AI share of voice and enquiries sourced from AI engines.
01
AI referral sessions
Sessions by AI source
Analytics referrals from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com, segmented into a dedicated AI channel so they never disappear into generic "referral".
02
AI Overview citations
Cited pages, month on month
Which of your pages Google cites and how that set changes month on month, tracked with Ahrefs Brand Radar alongside manual checks on your money terms.
03
AI share of voice
Prompt panel results
A fixed panel of commercial prompts, re-run monthly across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. We log whether each answer names you, names a competitor, or answers generically, and report the trend.
04
Sourced enquiries
Enquiries from AI engines
Leads that arrive with an AI referrer, or tell you "ChatGPT recommended you", attributed honestly rather than claimed twice.
Volumes are smaller than organic search; intent is higher. The measurement exists so you can see whether the retainer pays, not to flatter the channel.
Proof
We Run This Methodology on Our Own Site
The proof we lead with is our own visibility. This site is cited in Google AI Overviews on several commercial terms in our market, and two of our enquiries in July arrived through ChatGPT referrals. Everything on this page is the process that produced those citations, applied to your site.
Fact
Cited in Google AI Overviews on commercial terms
Fact
ChatGPT-referred enquiries, July 2026
Behind that sits the agency record: 200+ companies worked with since 2011, 50+ active clients, and a founder, Chris Coussons, with 15+ years in search. We publish our AI search research openly and update it as the engines change.
Novidea: Top of Search for "Insurance Software" UK + US in 3 Months
Novidea had serious indexability issues keeping its insurtech SaaS platform out of Google's index. We led the site migration to fix the technical foundation - crawl architecture, canonicalisation, render path, hreflang for dual-market - then layered topical content depth and link signal alignment around the primary commercial keyword.
Of search
Post-migration to ranking
"Insurance software"
Real SERP
"Chris is a real master of SEO and PPC. I'll never forget the time he discovered what could have been a catastrophic SEO issue, prior to a new big website launch that would have cost the business £100,000s (that every other so-called SEO expert we'd engaged had missed)."
What's Included
What Our Expert SEO Services Include
Fully managed campaigns
From strategy development to implementation, we handle everything while keeping you informed through regular updates and collaborative planning sessions.
Learn moreTechnical SEO
We start with a thorough technical SEO audit to uncover and address any underlying issues that could hinder your site's performance. Regular checks ensure your site stays optimised and resilient against algorithm updates.
Learn moreOn-page SEO
We optimise every element of your website, from meta tags and headers to image alt texts and URL structures. Our goal is to ensure every page is primed for search engines and offers a seamless experience for users.
Learn moreContent strategy
Great content is at the heart of SEO. We create compelling, user-focused content that answers your audience's questions, builds trust and converts. Whether it's blog articles, landing pages or product descriptions, we ensure your content performs.
Learn moreLink building
We earn high-quality backlinks from relevant, authoritative publications through strategic outreach, digital PR, and content partnerships. Every link is manually vetted for quality and relevance.
Learn moreLocal SEO
Our local SEO strategies help your business dominate local search results. We optimise your Google Business Profile, target location-specific keywords and enhance your visibility in local search packs to drive nearby customers to your door.
Learn moreMobile SEO
We ensure your site is fully optimised for mobile-first indexing. From responsive design to improving site speed and user experience, we make sure your site is ready to perform on every device.
Learn moreAI-powered SEO
We leverage AI tools and machine learning insights to identify opportunities faster, automate repetitive tasks, and deliver data-driven optimisations that keep you ahead of competitors.
Learn moreSEO migration
Changing platforms or restructuring your site? We manage the entire migration process to preserve your rankings, traffic, and authority without the usual drops that come from poorly handled migrations.
Learn moreOur Process
How We Deliver GEO
- 01
AI visibility baseline
We audit where you stand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews, check crawler access, Bing indexation and your entity records, and fix the blockers before anything else.
- 02
Retrieval restructure
Priority pages are rebuilt into liftable passages with question-led headings, matching schema and visible dates, so the engines can quote you cleanly.
- 03
Corroboration
We publish citable first-party data and earn placements that repeat your claims on independent sites, building the consensus signal engines check before naming a brand.
- 04
Measure and compound
The prompt panel, citation tracking and AI referral channel run monthly. What gets cited gets reinforced; what does not gets rebuilt.
Why Us
Why Visionary for GEO
Capped pricing
Retainers from £1,300 per month, capped at £2,500. Published UK GEO retainers start where ours stops.
Cited ourselves
The methodology is proven on our own AI visibility, not presented from a slide deck.
One retainer
GEO, AEO and the ranking work that feeds them run in a single engagement. No AI surcharge.
Senior only
The people on the call do the work. No account-manager relay.
Our People
Meet Our Specialists
Chris Coussons
Founder & Senior SEO Specialist
Google Ads & SEO Specialist
15+ years in search. Leads every GEO engagement personally, from the AI visibility baseline to the monthly prompt panel.
Pricing
Generative Engine Optimisation Pricing
GEO is delivered inside our standard SEO retainers: from £1,300 per month, capped at £2,500 per month, with no separate GEO surcharge and no contracts. Specialist GEO agencies in the UK publish retainers from £2,500 per month, and market guides quote £2,500 to £7,000 for standalone GEO. Our cap sits where that pricing starts.
£2,500
Monthly price cap
Where you sit in the £1,300 to £2,500 band depends on the size of the prompt panel, the volume of citable content, and how much technical and entity work the baseline audit finds. Compare tiers on our SEO packages page.
For clients who also run paid search, Google Ads management is £850 per month or 10% of ad spend, whichever is greater, with a minimum ad spend of £1,000 per month.
FAQ
Generative Engine Optimisation FAQs
Start Here
Your Revenue. Our Obsession.
Tell us about your business and we'll show you exactly where the opportunities are - no obligation, no sales pitch.
■ Senior specialists only
■ No long-term contracts
■ Free audit included