Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) in Dayton, OH: Get named in the answers AI assistants write.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of getting your business cited and recommended inside the answers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot write. We do it for businesses across the Dayton region from our base in Springboro, Ohio.
AI assistants write one answer. GEO is how your business gets into it.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your business and your content easy for AI assistants to find, trust and cite when they write an answer.
The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal and colleagues, later published at KDD 2024. It describes generative engines as systems that search for sources and then use a large language model to write a response grounded in them, with citations. That's how ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot describe their own search features today.
Our AI search optimization service covers the whole picture. This page goes deep on the GEO part: crawler access, the sources assistants pull from, quotable content, consistent business facts and measurement.
You work directly with the strategist, who has 20+ years of digital marketing experience, including work on Google's international expansion. No junior account managers and no handoffs.
What our GEO services include.
AI crawler access check
We check robots.txt, your CDN and your firewall for the search crawlers each company documents, like OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot. Training crawlers stay your call.
Prompt testing baseline
We run the questions your customers ask in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot, and record who gets named, how you're described and which sources get cited.
Source mapping
We list the third-party pages the assistants cite for your questions, from directories and review sites to local news, so we know where you need to show up.
Citable content
Answer-first pages with specific facts, named sources and real numbers, the kinds of changes the original GEO research found raised visibility in AI answers.
Entity consistency
One version of your name, address, phone, hours and services on your site, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and every listing, with structured data that matches what's on the page.
Third-party mentions
Real listings, real reviews, local coverage and association pages. No fake reviews and no planted posts.
Monitoring and reporting
The same prompts rerun on a set schedule, plus visits from AI assistants in Google Analytics, so you can see what changed and what didn't.
How ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot find and cite sources
AI assistants can only cite pages they're able to reach and find, so GEO starts with how each company says its system gets its sources.
None of them publish a full ranking formula. Here's what each one says about its own system. We work from these documents and test the rest.
Access can break without anyone noticing. OpenAI tells site owners to check that their host or CDN allows its search crawler's published IP addresses, and Cloudflare says its settings for blocking AI training also block crawlers that serve both search and training.
| Assistant | How it finds and cites sources | Crawler that matters |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT search | Rewrites a question into one or more searches it sends to search partners, can use your approximate location, and shows citations and a Sources list. OpenAI says placement isn't guaranteed. | OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites opted out of it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. GPTBot is for model training and is a separate choice. |
| Perplexity | Searches the web in real time, and each answer includes numbered citations linking to the original sources. | PerplexityBot, which Perplexity says surfaces and links sites in its results and isn't used for training. Perplexity-User fetches pages when a person asks and generally ignores robots.txt. |
| Gemini | Google says Gemini Apps sometimes show sources and related links within and below a response, and that not every response includes them. | Google-Extended, a robots.txt token that covers Gemini training and grounding. Google says it doesn't affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search. |
| Claude | Uses a search tool to ground responses in live web content, and Anthropic says responses that use web search include citations. | Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User. Anthropic says blocking either may reduce your visibility in Claude's search results. ClaudeBot is for training. |
| Microsoft Copilot | Grounds answers in web search results, centers the response on high-ranking web content, and lists hyperlinked citations below the text. | Not named in Microsoft's Copilot note. It works from top web search results, so regular search visibility matters. |
GEO vs SEO vs AEO: where generative engine optimization fits
SEO earns a ranking, AEO earns the single direct answer to a question, and GEO earns a mention or citation inside a longer response an AI assistant writes.
They share most of their foundations. Google says SEO best practices still apply to its AI features, and Microsoft says Copilot centers its answers on high-ranking web content. So GEO builds on SEO.
What GEO adds is a focus on being quoted. The original GEO study didn't measure a position in a list. It measured how much of an AI answer was tied to a source and how early in the answer it appeared.
See our AEO services →Read: what AEO is and how it compares with SEO →
| Discipline | What you're aiming for | Where it shows up | How we measure it |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | A high position in the list of results | Google and Bing results and the map pack | Rankings, Search Console clicks, calls and form fills |
| AEO | Being the one direct answer to a question | Featured snippets, People Also Ask, AI Overviews and voice assistants | Which tracked questions you answer on each surface |
| GEO | Being named, cited or recommended inside an AI-written response | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot | Share of tracked prompts that name you, sources cited and visits from AI assistants |
What the generative engine optimization study found, and its limits
The original GEO study found that adding citations, quotations from credible sources and statistics to a page raised its visibility in AI-generated answers by about 30 to 40 percent on its main measure, while keyword stuffing didn't help.
Aggarwal et al. built a 10,000-query benchmark called GEO-bench, rewrote one source per query with nine methods, and measured how much of the answer each source earned. Their test engine answered from the top five Google results using GPT-3.5 Turbo. On Perplexity, adding quotations improved the main measure by 22 percent.
Read the numbers with the paper's own caveats. Visibility in the study means how much of the answer was tied to a source and how early it appeared, plus an AI-judged impression score. It doesn't measure clicks, calls or recommendations. The authors say their methods may need to adapt as generative engines change, they didn't test effects on search rankings, and 80 percent of the benchmark queries were informational. With that in mind, here's what it found:
- Citing sources, adding quotations and adding statistics did best: 30 to 40 percent relative improvement on position-adjusted word count, and 15 to 30 percent on a subjective impression score.
- Keyword stuffing offered little to no improvement. On Perplexity it did 10 percent worse than leaving the page alone.
- Rewriting in a more persuasive, authoritative tone showed no significant improvement overall.
- Lower-ranked sources gained the most. Citing sources raised the fifth-ranked result's visibility by 115.1 percent, while the top-ranked result's visibility fell 30.3 percent.
- The best method depended on the topic. Citing sources did best on statements, facts and law and government questions. Statistics did best on law and government, debate and opinion questions. Quotations did best on people and society, explanation and history.
AI visibility depends on what the rest of the web says about you
AI assistants build answers from several sources at once, so your visibility depends on the pages that come back when they search, not only on your own site.
ChatGPT sends rewritten searches to search partners, and Copilot works from top web search results. For a question like “best roofer in Kettering,” the pages that come back can include directories, review sites, local news and best-of lists. If you're missing from them, the assistant has less to go on.
Consistency matters too. OpenAI warns that search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect, so we make your business facts match everywhere. Google says complete and accurate business info makes you more likely to show up in local results.
We earn mentions the honest way. Google's own guide says that chasing inauthentic mentions across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem. Here's where we focus instead:
- Google Business Profile and Bing Places, complete and matching your website
- Industry directories and association member pages
- The review platforms your customers already use
- Local news, chamber and community pages that mention your real work
Read: How to get your Dayton business recommended by ChatGPT →
How our GEO process works
AI answers can be tested even though they can't be predicted. We measure first, fix what's in our control, and measure again.
- 01
Test
We run your customers' questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot and log who's named and which sources are cited.
- 02
Open access
We check robots.txt, CDN and firewall settings so the search crawlers each company documents can reach your site.
- 03
Map sources
We list the third-party pages the assistants cite and note where you're missing or described wrong.
- 04
Fix the facts
Name, address, phone, hours and services made identical across your site, profiles and listings.
- 05
Make pages citable
Answer-first copy with specifics, sources and real numbers on the services and places you want to be known for.
- 06
Retest and report
The same prompts rerun on a schedule, with a plain-English report on what moved.
What's in your monthly GEO report
Each month you see the prompt log, what changed and what we're doing next, in plain English.
- Which tracked prompts named your business, on each assistant
- Competitors named for the same prompts
- Sources the assistants cited, and which of them mention you
- Anything an assistant got wrong about your business, and the fix
- Visits from AI assistants, grouped in a Google Analytics custom channel
- Work completed and the plan for next month
How GEO pricing works
GEO is priced by scope and quoted after the free audit, which includes an AI search readiness check. Every retainer is month-to-month, with no long-term contract.
Scope depends on how many prompts and assistants we track, how much content needs rewriting, how many listings need fixing, and how competitive your category is. Many businesses run GEO alongside SEO, because clear content and accurate listings help both.
Get my free audit →Listed first by ChatGPT
On October 21, 2026, ChatGPT's answer to “answer engine optimization dayton ohio” listed 4 Eyes Creative first among Dayton-area agencies offering AEO and AI search optimization. AI answers change by person, place and day, so this is a dated snapshot, not a guarantee.
Cited by Perplexity
On October 21, 2026, Perplexity's answer to the same question named 4 Eyes Creative among Dayton-area AEO providers, citing our site and describing us as a Springboro-based agency serving greater Dayton. A dated snapshot, not a guarantee.
Questions about generative engine optimization
What are generative engine optimization services?
Generative engine optimization services help your business get cited and recommended in answers written by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot. The work covers crawler access, quotable content, consistent business information, third-party mentions and tracking how often you're named.
What does a GEO agency do?
A GEO agency tests what AI assistants say about your business today, fixes what keeps you out of their answers, and tracks the change over time. That covers crawler access, the sources assistants cite for your customers' questions, pages rewritten with specific, sourced facts, and accurate listings. A good one reports what changed and doesn't promise placements.
Is generative engine optimization real or just SEO with a new name?
It's real, and it overlaps heavily with SEO. The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal et al., published at KDD 2024, that measured how content changes affect a source's visibility in AI-generated answers. Google says SEO best practices still apply to its AI features, so GEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it. What's new is measuring mentions and citations inside answers instead of positions in a list.
Will GEO replace SEO?
No. GEO depends on SEO. Google says its AI features use the same core ranking and quality systems as Search, and OpenAI says ChatGPT sends rewritten queries to search partners. If search engines can't find you, AI assistants have much less to work with.
What's the difference between AEO and GEO?
GEO is about being named and cited across the longer answers AI assistants write, while AEO is about being the one direct answer to a specific question. AEO covers featured snippets, People Also Ask, AI Overviews and voice. The terms overlap and many people use them interchangeably, and we run both together as part of our AI search optimization work.
What does LLM optimization (LLMO) mean?
LLM optimization, or LLMO, is another name for GEO: improving how tools built on large language models, like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, find, describe and cite your business. You'll also see it called LLM SEO or AI visibility work. The tactics are the same, and so is the caution, because no one controls how a model answers.
How do ChatGPT and other AI tools decide which businesses to recommend?
None of them publish a full formula, but their documentation gives the outline. OpenAI says ChatGPT ranks search results on multiple factors meant to surface relevant, reliable information. Microsoft says Copilot centers its answers on high-ranking web content. What you can influence is how well your business is represented on the pages those searches return.
How do I get my business mentioned in ChatGPT?
Start by letting ChatGPT's search crawler in, then make your business easy to verify. OpenAI says a site must allow OAI-SearchBot and its published IP addresses to be eligible for ChatGPT search. After that, keep your business facts identical everywhere, answer your customers' questions with specifics, and get listed on the sites that come up for your category and town.
Should I block AI crawlers like GPTBot?
It depends on which crawler. OpenAI and Anthropic separate training crawlers (GPTBot and ClaudeBot) from search crawlers (OAI-SearchBot and Claude-SearchBot). Blocking a training crawler is a business choice, but blocking a search crawler can keep you out of that tool's answers. Check your CDN too, since Cloudflare says its AI training blocks also catch crawlers that serve both purposes.
Does llms.txt help with GEO?
Not for Google. Google says Search ignores llms.txt files, so creating one will neither help nor hurt your visibility there, and it says no special AI text files or markup are needed for its AI features. The crawler documentation from OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic that we reviewed doesn't say they use it either. We put crawler access and clear content first.
How is AI visibility measured?
AI visibility is measured by running a fixed set of prompts in each assistant on a schedule and recording whether your business is named, how it's described and which sources are cited. Answers vary with wording and location, so a dated log beats a single screenshot. We add visits from AI assistants in Google Analytics and Google's own numbers in Search Console.
How much does generative engine optimization cost?
GEO cost depends on how many prompts and assistants you want tracked, how much content needs work, how many listings are wrong or missing, and how competitive your category is. At 4 Eyes Creative it's a month-to-month retainer quoted after a free audit, which includes an AI search readiness check. You see the scope in writing before you commit to anything.
How long does GEO take to work?
There's no fixed timeline. Some fixes register quickly: OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search, and Perplexity says changes can take up to 24 hours. Getting named in answers depends on how your content and listings compare with everyone else's, so we track it monthly and report what moved.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No, and be wary of anyone who says they can. OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search isn't guaranteed, and Google says indexing and serving in its AI features isn't guaranteed either. What we commit to is the work, the tracking and honest reporting on what changed.
Do you offer GEO services in Dayton, Ohio?
Yes. 4 Eyes Creative is based in Springboro, Ohio, about 20 minutes south of Dayton, and provides generative engine optimization to businesses in Dayton, Centerville, Kettering, Miamisburg, Springboro and across the region. You work directly with the strategist, and we respond within one business day.
Guides from our blog
AI Ranking Agency in Dayton, OH: Get Found in ChatGPT
Read the article →AI Search · November 7, 2025How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT (Dayton Guide)
Read the article →AI Search · June 16, 2026What Is AEO? Answer Engine Optimization vs SEO (+ Checklist)
Read the article →Find out what AI assistants say about you.
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