48%
of local queries got completely different answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. They fully agreed on only 4%.
Yext, 491,972 local queries, Feb to Aug 2026
93%
of the unique domains cited in local AI answers were business websites, making up 42% of all citations.
BrightLocal, 200,085 searches, Sept 2026
32%
of consumers who use AI for local search care about pricing clarity when they choose.
BrightLocal consumer decisions, July 2026
A generative engine writes the answer. Your site is the raw material.
A generative engine does not return your page. It reads your page, and several others, and writes something new. Whatever it says about you is assembled from what it could find and understand on that pass.
Across local searches, business websites are the domains these engines cite most. So the engine's answer about you is mostly your own words, or the absence of them. When a price, a coverage area or an opening is missing, the engine has nothing to repeat, and it repeats someone else.
Four engines, four different answers
Yext ran nearly half a million local queries through four engines. They agreed completely only 4% of the time. The share each engine takes from business websites differs too, from Gemini at 41.9% to OpenAI at 26.9%, with OpenAI leaning hardest on directories.
That is why a single score is misleading. We run each question through the engines your customers use and read each answer on its own. A fix that wins Gemini can do nothing for ChatGPT if the directory ChatGPT trusts still lists your old hours.
“Being cited is an input. Being picked for the job is the outcome. We only report the outcome as success.”
How we do generative engine optimization
- 01
Write the questions buyers ask
"Emergency plumber open now near 85016", not "best plumber". Each question carries a place, a need and often a deadline.
- 02
Run them against you and your competitors
Through ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini first, then Meta Muse, Grok and Instinct. Repeated, because a single run can be luck.
- 03
Keep the engine's reasoning
What it opened, what it quoted, why it named the others. That tells us which missing fact cost you.
- 04
Put that fact where the engine reads
On your own service pages in plain text, on your Google profile, and in the directories each engine cites, so every source says the same thing.
- 05
Measure the pick again
Monthly, on the same questions. Named, not named, and the reason, in a report you can read in five minutes.
What we leave out
We do not sell volumes of articles written to be quoted, or buy placements on list sites. Those can raise citation counts. In local service questions they rarely change who the engine tells the customer to call, and we would rather spend the month on the page that does.
Typical GEO vendor vs Picked by Agents
| Typical GEO vendor | Picked by Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | More citations and brand mentions | Named as the one to call on a real buying question |
| Prompts | Broad category prompts written by a marketer | Your customers' questions, with ZIP code and need |
| Engines | Blended into one visibility score | Read one by one, because they disagree |
| Deliverable | Content built to be quoted | The missing fact on your pages, profile and cited directories |
| Reporting | Citation share trend | Picks, reasons, and three numbers kept separate |
| Guarantee | Rarely offered | Named within 90 days or we work free |
Questions we get asked
- What is generative engine optimization?
- Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is shaping how generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity describe and recommend you. Those tools write a new answer instead of listing pages, so GEO is about what they can find, trust and repeat about your business.
- How is GEO different from answer engine optimization?
- In practice very little. GEO grew out of research on getting cited in generative answers. Answer engine optimization is the older marketing term for the same shift. We care about neither label. We care whether the engine names you when a customer is ready to hire.
- Why not just track citations?
- Because a citation can come from a listicle answer nobody acts on. A local customer asking who can come today is about to spend money. We measure the answer to that question, and we save the engine's reasons so the fix is obvious.
- Do you work on all generative engines?
- We run the ones your customers use. That is usually ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini first, since ChatGPT reaches 44% of US adults and Google's AI summaries are read by 60% (Pew, Feb 2026). We add Meta Muse, Grok and Instinct because they can act for the customer.
- Will GEO replace my SEO agency?
- No. Keep them. Engines still search the web, so ranking helps. We handle the layer after that, whether the page the engine reads answers the buying question, and we will tell your agency what we find.
Find out what the engines write about you.
Your first report is free. It shows each engine's answer to your customers' questions, who it named, and why.
Or write to Greg at greg@gregmiller.ai.