How to get your business cited by ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

A growing share of buying research now happens inside an AI answer, not a search results page. Someone types "best renovation contractor in Penang" or "reliable bookkeeper for a KL startup" into ChatGPT or Google's AI Overview, reads a short synthesised answer, and contacts whoever gets named. If your business is not in that answer, you were never in the running. Optimising to be cited by AI engines is called Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, and it is a different game from classic SEO.

Why GEO is not just SEO with a new name

Classic SEO competes for a ranking position. GEO competes to be quoted. An AI engine reads many sources, then assembles one answer and attributes a few of them. You are no longer fighting for a click. You are trying to be the sentence the model decides is the most quotable, factual, and trustworthy on the topic.

That changes what you optimise. Keyword density barely matters. What matters is whether a machine can read your page cleanly, extract a clear claim, and trust the source enough to repeat it.

The foundations that have to be right first

Models cannot cite what they cannot read or reach. Before any clever tactic, these have to be in place:

• Server-rendered HTML. If your content only appears after JavaScript runs, many crawlers see a blank page. The text must be in the initial HTML.
• Open AI crawlers. Check that your robots rules and firewall do not block bots such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google's extended crawler. Blocking them is the most common own-goal.
• Clean structured data. Schema markup for your organisation, services, and FAQs gives the model labelled facts instead of guesses.
• An llms.txt file. A short plain-text map of your key pages, served at the site root, helps AI tools find what matters.

Write claims, not vibes

This is the lesson that surprised me most when I audited my own site. AI engines prefer passages that open with a specific, self-contained claim. "In Malaysia, WhatsApp is the dominant business messaging channel" is quotable. "We pride ourselves on understanding the local market" is not. The first is a fact a model can lift and attribute. The second is filler it will skip.

Lead each section with the answer, then support it. Use concrete numbers, named places, and dates. Avoid the plural "we" on a one-person business, because the mismatch reads as inflated and erodes the trust signal. I wrote a whole piece on that in the 'we' to 'I' problem.

Structure pages so a machine can extract them

• One clear question per heading, phrased the way a person would ask it.
• A direct answer in the first sentence under that heading.
• Short paragraphs and lists instead of dense walls of text.
• A real FAQ section with schema, since AI answers love a clean question-and-answer pair.

Build trust signals the model can verify

Models lean on signals of credibility, the same E-E-A-T ideas Google has used for years: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. For a small Malaysian business that means a few practical things:

• A named, real author with a genuine bio, not "admin" or "the team."
• Consistent business name, address, and phone across your site, Google Business Profile, and directories.
• Specific case studies with real outcomes rather than stock testimonials.
• Citations and outbound links to reputable sources where you make a factual claim.

Get mentioned where models read

AI engines do not only read your site. They read what others say about you. Being listed in credible local directories, quoted in an industry article, or reviewed on Google all add corroboration. One business saying it is the best means little. Several independent sources agreeing is what a model treats as fact.

How to check whether it is working

You cannot see AI citations in a normal rank tracker, so test directly. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overview the exact questions your customers ask, in the way they would phrase them, and note whether you appear and what the engine says about you. Repeat monthly. The goal is simple: when someone asks an AI for a business like yours, your name is in the answer.

GEO rewards the same honesty that good SEO always has, just read by a stricter audience. If you want your site set up to be quoted by AI search rather than ignored by it, see how I approach SEO and GEO or start with a quick call.