In short
SEO gets your website ranked in Google's results. AEO, answer engine optimisation, gets your content picked as the direct answer to a question. GEO, generative engine optimisation, gets your business named and cited when ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews write an answer. LLM SEO is another name for GEO. For a trades or construction firm they share most of the same groundwork: clear service pages, reviews, accurate details and other websites mentioning you. In our audit of 50 UK construction and trades businesses, AI tools named the business in 30% of answers to buyer questions about its own work.
On this page
SEO gets your website ranked in Google’s list of results. AEO, answer engine optimisation, gets your words picked as the direct answer to a question. GEO, generative engine optimisation, gets your business named when ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews write the answer themselves. LLM SEO is another name for GEO. For a trades or construction firm, most of the work behind all four is the same.
We Are SMC sells AI search work to trades and construction firms, so weigh what follows with that in mind. You don’t need a new agency for every acronym, and a lot of what’s being sold as GEO is good SEO with a new label. This guide explains the terms, what has actually changed for a contractor or trades business, what hasn’t, and when it’s worth paying someone.
SEO, AEO, GEO and LLM SEO in one table
| Term | Stands for | What it aims for | Where it shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | Search engine optimisation | Ranking your pages in Google’s results and the map pack | Google search and Maps |
| AEO | Answer engine optimisation | Your content chosen as the direct answer to a question | Featured snippets, voice assistants, the answer box at the top |
| GEO | Generative engine optimisation | Your business named, and your site cited, in an AI-written answer | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode |
| LLM SEO | Large language model SEO | The same as GEO, named after the technology rather than the result | The same AI tools |
| AI SEO | Artificial intelligence SEO | An umbrella term most people use for GEO and AEO together | All of the above |
The name GEO comes from a 2023 research paper, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, which described AI tools that gather information from several sources and summarise it into one answer. The paper’s point was that website owners have little control over when and how their content appears in those answers. That’s still true, and it’s the honest starting point for anyone selling GEO.
What actually changes for a contractor or trades firm
The biggest change is that the buyer increasingly reads a summary before they see a list of firms, and the summary decides who gets mentioned.
This autumn I audited 50 UK construction, civils and trades businesses on Google and six AI tools for our UK Construction Visibility Report. When a buyer asked an AI tool to recommend a firm for the exact work one of those businesses does, in the area it does it, the tool named that business in 30% of answers. It varied by tool: ChatGPT named firms in 39% of answers and Google AI Mode in 20%.
Google’s own summaries were the bigger shock. On contractor searches, Google showed an AI Overview 71% of the time, but the Overview cited the contractor’s own website on just 4% of searches. The rest of the time it leaned on other sources: directories, trade bodies and other sites. Directories, trade bodies, job boards and social sites also took 42% of the top five ordinary results.
Two more findings change what the work looks like:
- AI tools get your details wrong. 35% of AI descriptions of a contractor got something wrong or left a gap, and size, meaning staff numbers or turnover, was the most common mistake. GEO starts with making sure the facts about you are stated plainly, in the same way, everywhere.
- Being talked about matters. About 14 times as many websites linked to the ten contractors AI named most often as to the ten it named least. Mentions on other sites, such as trade press, directories, suppliers and clients, carry more weight than they used to.
Our audit covered construction and civils firms as well as trades, but the lesson carries over to a local trades business. The tools build their answer from your Google profile, your reviews, the directories you’re listed on and what other sites say about you, not only from your own website.
What stays the same
This is the part that gets lost in the acronyms. Almost everything that wins in AI answers already won in ordinary search:
- Clear service pages. One page per service and area, saying plainly what you do, where, for whom, and what it costs where you can. AI tools quote pages that answer the question directly.
- A complete Google Business Profile with the right categories, services, photos and fresh reviews.
- Reviews. Lots of them, recent, on Google and the platforms your buyers use, with replies.
- Accurate, consistent details. The same name, address, phone number, accreditations and service list on your website, Google profile and directories.
- Other sites mentioning you. Trade bodies, suppliers, local press, clients, case studies on partners’ sites.
- Proof. Real case studies, real photos and named accreditations, not adjectives.
If those are weak, no GEO tactic will make up for it. If they’re strong, you’re most of the way there already.
Where AEO and GEO ask a bit more
There are a few habits that matter more now than they did:
- Answer first. Put the question as a heading and a short, direct answer straight under it. That’s AEO in practice, and AI tools lift it in the same way.
- State the facts once, plainly. Turnover band, staff numbers, years trading, areas covered, accreditations with numbers. If you leave a gap, the tool fills it from somewhere else, and that’s how the wrong figures in our audit got there.
- Let the tools read your site. Make sure your website isn’t blocking AI crawlers by accident, and that key information isn’t locked inside images or PDFs only.
- Track prompts, not just rankings. There’s no rank tracker for AI answers, so the measure is a fixed set of buyer questions asked every month.
How to check if ChatGPT mentions you
You can do this yourself in half an hour: ask the questions your buyers ask, in their words, with your town or region, in a few different tools, and note who gets named and which sources are quoted. Do it again next month with the same wording. Our guide to ChatGPT SEO sets out the prompts to use and how to log them, so I won’t repeat it here. For construction specifically, our guide to AI SEO for construction companies covers what gets a contractor named.
We run the same kind of test on ourselves. In November, ChatGPT named us first when asked who can help a construction company show up in ChatGPT answers, and first again for the best AI SEO agencies for construction companies in the UK, citing our own service page. For the best marketing agency for tradesmen in the UK, it didn’t name or cite us at all. Same firm, same month, different question, different answer. That’s why one screenshot proves very little, and why the test has to be repeated.
When to pay for it, and what it costs
Pay for GEO help when the basics above are in place and you want someone to do three things properly: test the prompts your buyers use every month, fix the facts and gaps the tools get wrong, and earn the mentions on other sites that tip the answer your way. If your reviews are thin and your website lumps every service onto one page, spend on those first. That’s still SEO, and it’s cheaper.
We don’t publish a standalone price for AI search work yet, so there’s no number for it here. The prices we do publish are for our two programmes: the Booked Solid System for trades at £1,500 + VAT a month, and the Preferred Contractor Programme for civils and construction at £2,500 + VAT a month, both on a 12-month minimum term. What our AI SEO agency work includes is set out on the service page.
Whoever you speak to, treat a guaranteed position in AI answers as a warning sign. Nobody controls what a model says. What a good provider can do is give the tools good reasons to name you, measure the same prompts every month, and report honestly on what moved.
I’ve watched trades and construction owners chase tactics for twenty years, and GEO is the newest one on the list. Most of them never gave any single tactic long enough to learn whether it worked. The firms that do well in AI answers are usually the ones that did the boring groundwork properly and kept doing it.
Where to start
If you want to know where you stand before spending anything, our free Website & AI Readiness Audit checks your website, your Google presence and what AI tools say about you, then gives you a 90-day plan. It’s the same starting point we use with every client.
Sources: Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024); We Are SMC, UK Construction Visibility Report 2026 (50 audits, 2,717 AI answers, 408 Google searches, October and November 2026); our own ChatGPT prompt checks, 9 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?
GEO is the work of getting your business named, and your website cited, in answers written by AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. The term comes from a 2023 research paper of the same name. For a trades or construction firm it mostly means clear pages about what you do and where, accurate details everywhere, reviews, and other trusted websites mentioning you.
Is GEO different from SEO?
The goal is different, the groundwork is mostly the same. SEO aims for a ranking in Google's list of results. GEO aims for a mention inside an AI answer, which may not link to anyone. Both reward clear service pages, a complete Google Business Profile, reviews and links from other sites. GEO puts more weight on facts being stated plainly and consistently, because AI tools repeat what they read.
What does AEO stand for?
Answer engine optimisation. It means writing your pages so a search engine or assistant can lift a direct answer from them: a question as a heading, a short clear answer underneath, then the detail. It started with Google's featured snippets and voice search, and the same habits now help with AI Overviews and chatbots.
Do I need a GEO agency?
Not necessarily. If your website, Google profile and reviews are weak, fix those first, because GEO builds on the same foundations. Paying for it makes sense when the basics are in place and you want someone to test the prompts your buyers use each month and close the gaps. Be wary of anyone promising a guaranteed position in AI answers. Nobody controls what a model says.
How can I tell if ChatGPT recommends my business?
Ask it the questions your customers would ask, in their words and with your town or region, and note whether you're named and which sources it quotes. Repeat the same questions each month in a few tools, because answers change. Our guide to getting found on AI sets out the prompts to use and how to log the results.
