GEO explained: getting named by ChatGPT, Google AI and Perplexity in 2026

The 11pm search that doesn't show your phone number

Last week a Cardiff homeowner had a leaking radiator and typed 'best plumber Cardiff' into Google on her phone. She didn't see a list of blue links. She saw a short four-line answer at the top of the page, with three plumbers named in it. She called the first name in the list.

The other plumbers on page one didn't get a call. They didn't get a click. They didn't even get a glance. Same thing happens now for 'family solicitor Cardiff', 'wedding photographer Pontcanna', 'private physio Roath'. Two out of every three of those searches end with an AI answer naming two or three businesses — and that's all the customer reads.

That's what GEO is. It's the work that makes sure when an AI answers your customer's question, your business is one of the names it gives.

Why Google now answers the question instead of listing your website

Two years ago Google gave you ten blue links and a map. Today, roughly three out of every ten UK searches end with a short AI-written answer at the top of the page. Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity the same question and you get the same shape of reply — one paragraph, two or three businesses named, no list. The map and the blue links are still there, but they're below the answer, and on a phone that means they're below the fold. Most customers never scroll.

If your business isn't named in that paragraph, the customer never knows you exist for that search. It doesn't matter how good your website is. The customer never sees it.

The old way of writing for Google doesn't work for the new way

Old Google rewarded long pages with the right keywords scattered through them. The new AI answer rewards something different — and the things that used to work can quietly stop working without you noticing the leak.

The biggest shifts in plain terms:

• The AI is looking for a short, clean answer at the top of the page — not a long page with the right words buried in it.
• The AI happily names two or three businesses in one answer — not one winner. You don't have to beat the field, you have to be in the trusted three.
• The AI counts mentions of your business on other Cardiff websites — even when those mentions don't include a link.
• The AI works out who you are from the whole picture (your address, your reviews, your photos, what other sites say about you) — not just whether you used the exact phrase 'plumber Cardiff' on your homepage.

You don't have to choose between the old way and the new way. The same page can do both. But if it only does the old way, your phone has already started ringing less.

The four things that get your business named in the answer

1. Put the answer at the top of every page

The AI doesn't read your homepage the way a customer does. It scans for a short paragraph that answers the question, and it lifts that paragraph straight into its reply. If your homepage opens with 'Welcome to Smith Plumbing, established 1987, family-run business serving Cardiff for three generations' — the AI has nothing useful to lift.

What works is 60–120 words right at the top of the page that answer the question the page is about, in plain English. For a Cardiff plumber's homepage it might read:

Cardiff plumber. Emergency call-outs across Roath, Cathays, Pontcanna, Cardiff Bay and Penarth — usually on site within 90 minutes. Boiler repairs, leak detection, bathroom installations. £80 call-out, no charge if we can't fix it. Phone 029 ... or book a slot online.

That's the paragraph the AI will quote — and your phone number is in it.

2. Give the AI a clear map of your page

The AI uses the bold lines that break up your page (the headings) to work out what the page covers. A page that's one long block of text is hard for the AI to read. A page with five clear headings — 'Boiler emergencies', 'Bathroom fits', 'Where we work', 'What we charge', 'Reviews' — is easy.

You don't need anything technical here. You need each heading to be honest about what's underneath it, and you need it to use the words a real customer would actually say. 'Boiler emergencies' beats 'Reactive maintenance services'. 'What we charge' beats 'Our investment tiers'.

3. Put a real person's name on the page

When two businesses look equally good, the AI tends to name the one with a real human behind the page over the anonymous one. A page that says 'Written by Sarah Jones, Gas Safe registered plumber, 14 years in Cardiff' performs better than the same page with no name on it. Same idea for solicitors, accountants, photographers, anyone who's selling judgment as much as service.

This is the cheapest fix on the list. Add your name and a real photo to the About page. Sign your homepage. The AI reads it, and so does the customer — who'd rather hire Sarah than 'the team'.

4. Get mentioned on other Cardiff websites

The AI weighs mentions — your business named on another Cardiff website — almost as heavily as it weighs links. A blog post on a Cardiff school thanking you for fixing their boiler, a Cardiff trade group newsletter listing you as a member, a Wales Online piece quoting you on the winter freeze: each of those tells the AI your business is real, it's in Cardiff, and other Cardiff people trust it.

You can't buy mentions. You earn them, slowly. The two routes that actually work:

• Sponsor one local thing each quarter — a school sports kit, a charity 5k, a neighbourhood event — and ask for a mention on their website. Four of those a year, over two years, quietly builds an AI footprint your competitors can't catch up with.
• Be quoted by your trade body, your local chamber, or a Cardiff news site. One quote on a high-trust local site is worth more than fifty links from a directory.

What this means if you sell to Cardiff customers

Two changes worth watching out for.

Fewer customers click through to your website. They read the AI's answer, see your phone number named in it, and call. That means your phone number, your service area, and what you do all need to be in the first paragraph of every page — not buried halfway down. If a customer never lands on your site, the only thing that matters is whether you were named.

When customers do click through, they've already been told something about you. The page they land on needs to confirm what the AI told them and give them a clear next step — phone this number, book this slot, fill in this form. Don't start the sales pitch from scratch; they didn't come here to read your history.

The good news: none of the four fixes need a developer. Three of them are an afternoon of editing your existing pages. The fourth — earning mentions — is slower, but it's the kind of work you'd be doing anyway as part of running a real local business.

How to tell if it's working

You won't see this in Google Analytics the way you used to. AI-driven traffic often shows up as 'direct' — the customer read the AI answer, picked up the phone, and called. The two signals worth tracking instead:

• Ask new callers how they found you for one month. Anyone who says 'I asked ChatGPT' or 'it was the top thing on Google' is GEO traffic.
• Search your own business name in ChatGPT and Perplexity once a month. Type 'best plumber in Roath' or 'family solicitor near Cardiff Bay' and see whether your business is named, and whether what the AI says about you is accurate.

If you're not named and you should be, that's the next thing to fix. If you are named but the AI gets a detail wrong — wrong service area, old phone number — that's a homepage rewrite.