Getting found in AI search starts with making reliable information about your business available and understandable. Your website needs to explain what you do, who you help and why the information deserves attention.

There is no setting that guarantees ChatGPT will recommend your business. Google also says there are no special additional optimisations required for its AI Overviews or AI Mode. Established SEO foundations still matter.

For a business owner, the useful question is what to improve now, rather than which new acronym to buy.

SEO, AIO and GEO: what do they mean?

SEO is search engine optimisation: helping people and search engines find and understand your website. AIO is used inconsistently, sometimes for AI optimisation and sometimes as shorthand for AI Overviews. GEO usually means generative engine optimisation, or work intended to improve visibility in AI-generated answers.

The labels overlap, and providers do not always use them the same way. If someone offers an AIO package, ask what they will actually change, where they expect it to help and how they will measure the result. A renamed report is not a different service.

Make the business clear before adding more content

Check the pages a potential customer would use to understand you. Do they describe the service, the customer it suits, the work included and the next step? Are contact and business details consistent?

Use language a customer would recognise. Specific information gives a reader more to work with than a page of claims about being innovative or leading the industry. Relevant projects, accurate service descriptions and genuine customer feedback also help people judge the business.

For M8, that means explaining the connection between strategy, websites, creative and campaigns, and showing the work behind it. Another business needs its own evidence. Do not invent awards, reviews or location pages to fill a template.

Make sure the content can be reached

For Google’s AI search features, a page needs to be indexed and eligible to appear with a search snippet. Google does not require a special AI text file or separate AI schema.

For ChatGPT search, OpenAI advises allowing OAI-SearchBot to access the site. This search crawler is distinct from GPTBot, which relates to potential training use. Crawl settings and hosting security both deserve a check; allowing a bot does not guarantee inclusion.

Your developer can check this without redesigning the site around a crawler. Keep the experience useful for the person reading it too.

Publish answers with something of your own in them

An article should help someone make a decision. Explain the factors, show a worked example and give a recommendation with reasons. Link to the service or project that helps the reader go further.

A website cost guide is stronger when it explains a real scope and the price behind it. A channel comparison is stronger when it identifies the situations where each choice makes sense. Repeating a platform’s documentation adds less than explaining how a business can use the information.

We would rather publish a smaller set of useful, maintained articles than an enormous library of near-identical answers. There is no need to turn every paragraph into a keyword variation.

How do you measure AI visibility?

Keep a record of a few realistic questions customers might ask. Check which businesses and sources appear, and note the date and platform. Treat this as a sample, not a permanent ranking: answers can differ by question and context.

Then look for visits and enquiries. OpenAI says ChatGPT search referral links include a source parameter that analytics can identify. Google includes its AI search features within Search Console’s Web reporting, rather than supplying a separate complete AI ranking report.

Check whether the people arriving read relevant pages and make contact. Being mentioned is interesting. Helping a suitable customer find and choose you is the business reason for doing the work.

What should you do first?

Review your core service pages, fix inaccurate business information and confirm search access. Then answer the buying questions your customers actually ask, using examples you can stand behind.

Paid placements are a separate route. ChatGPT advertising does not purchase influence over organic answers. Keep content, technical work and paid media understandable as distinct parts of the plan.