If ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google's AI Overviews skip you, it is usually because the public web does not give them a clear, consistent, first-hand page to lift. It is not because you missed a secret GEO file. Fix the site you own, then the handful of third-party pages those systems already cite.
Why does ChatGPT name a competitor and not you?
Because those systems answer from pages and mentions they can retrieve.
If a competitor has the comparison article, the review profile, and a clear entity, and you have a homepage that only sells, they get the name-drop.
We see this in audits as a Search & AI Visibility finding: the assistants recommend two rivals and not the client. Most owners have never asked.
Is GEO a separate product from SEO?
No. Google's own 2026 guidance is that AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same ranking systems and the same index as Search.
If a page cannot rank, it will not be the passage they lift. Semrush's official line in mid-2026 is the same: AI search optimisation is still SEO, plus the off-site record Google does not control.
Do not buy a "GEO tool" to replace crawl, titles, internal links, and one honest article per question you want to own.
What on your own site actually matters?
Pages that answer a real question, in language a human would say, with a visible who-wrote-this and when it was updated.
Clear headings. The first sentence under a heading is the answer. Internal links so a crawler can move from the offer to the method to the proof. Schema that matches the visible copy (organisation, service, FAQ, article). A robots file that does not block retrieval.
llms.txt does not make Google rank you. It can help other crawlers, and our own audit method still looks for the file, so we publish one ourselves. It has to match the HTML. A cute file that contradicts the page is worse than none.
What off your site actually matters?
The pages AI already cites in your category: reviews, communities, press, directories, comparison write-ups.
Semrush's 2026 work keeps repeating that those sources get cited more than corporate marketing. That does not mean fake Reddit threads. Google tells publishers not to use inauthentic mentions. It means a real profile, a real sample, and being described the same way everywhere: independent, nine domains, no retainer, one fee.
If the assistants describe you as an SEO agency, that is an entity problem. About and methodology exist so the official description is boring and stable.
What does Outerview measure that a crawl tool does not?
A crawl tool will tell you titles and indexation.
We still ask the assistants the buyer questions and record whether you appear, who appears instead, and what public evidence would have to change. That sits next to the other eight domains so you do not "fix AI" in isolation. The sample shows the shape of that finding.
What should you do this month?
Publish one first-hand page per question you care about.
Make sure it is in the sitemap and not blocked. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google the same buyer questions you care about and write down the names they use. If you want that done as a scored baseline against competitors, order the audit. If you want the method, it is public.