Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Consultant for Small Businesses
A generative engine optimization (GEO) consultant gets your business cited and recommended inside AI answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. I am Memona, a GEO consultant in Dubai working remotely with small businesses worldwide. I test the prompts your buyers ask, fix what AI reads about you, and report what changes in citations and leads.
By Memona · Updated October 2026
What does a generative engine optimization consultant do?
A GEO consultant makes your business the source a generative engine quotes when a buyer asks it for a recommendation. In practice that is six tasks, repeated on a cadence. If the acronyms are new to you, start with my plain guide to what GEO, AEO, LLM SEO and AI SEO each mean.
- Prompt baseline: I write the questions your buyers ask AI, run them in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and log who gets named and which sources are cited.
- Entity facts: I make your business name, category, description, location and services read the same on your site, your Business Profile, LinkedIn and the directories AI reads.
- Answer-first pages: I rework the pages that matter so each opens with a short, direct answer a generative engine can quote without rewriting.
- Schema and crawler access: I check that AI search bots can reach your pages and that structured data describes your business, people and services accurately.
- Sources and mentions: I list the directories, publications and review sites the engines cite in your market, and plan how you earn a place on them.
- Re-test: I rerun the same prompts on a set cadence and show you what changed, in citations and in enquiries through your own form.
GEO vs AEO vs SEO: what is the difference?
The term generative engine optimization comes from a 2023 research paper, “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” by Aggarwal and colleagues (opens in a new tab), written by researchers at Princeton University and partner institutions. The authors introduced GEO as a framework to help content creators improve how visible their content is in generative engine responses. They built a benchmark of queries across many domains to test it, reported visibility gains of up to 40% in their experiments, and found that the methods that worked best varied by domain.
Answer engine optimization (AEO) grew up separately, in the marketing industry, around answer boxes and voice search. Today GEO and AEO describe the same goal from two angles: GEO from the AI engine that writes the answer, AEO from the answer the buyer reads. I do both, as one piece of work. If you know this work as AEO, my answer engine optimization (AEO) consultant page covers the same service in those terms. You will also hear “LLM SEO”, which names the same goal after the technology underneath.
| GEO | AEO | SEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the term comes from | A 2023 research paper on generative search engines | The marketing industry, from answer boxes and voice search | Classic web search |
| The goal | Be cited inside answers written by AI | Be the answer an engine gives, AI or not | Rank in the list of links |
| Where it shows | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews | The same, plus featured snippets and voice assistants | Google and Bing results pages |
| How progress is checked | Prompts that name or cite you | Prompts and answer boxes that name you | Rankings, clicks and leads |
SEO is still the foundation: generative engines that search the web lean on pages they can find and trust. That is why my AI search optimization services always start with the SEO basics before the GEO layer.
Is GEO worth it for a small business?
Sometimes, and not always yet. A small business has a real advantage here: fewer pages to fix, one owner who knows the facts, and a market where the engines often have little to go on. But GEO is not the right first spend for everyone. Here is how I decide with a small business owner. If you want one person for your Google rankings and your AI answers together, see my page for an AI SEO consultant for small business.
Worth it now if
- Your buyers ask AI before they choose: “who is the best accountant for a small business in Leeds?” is now a normal question to type into ChatGPT.
- You have a working website, a Google Business Profile and real reviews. A generative engine needs true, consistent facts to cite.
- A competitor is already named in AI answers for your service, and you are not.
- One new client is worth a lot to you, as in professional services, clinics, B2B and high-value trades.
Not yet if
- Your website is broken, slow or has no page for your main services. Fix the SEO basics first; GEO builds on them.
- You have few reviews and nobody else mentions you online. Earn those first, because AI has nothing to back up a recommendation.
- Nearly every sale is a walk-in impulse buy. An AI answer is unlikely to change that decision.
- You need enquiries this month. GEO work compounds over months; your Business Profile or paid ads are faster.
On the first call I tell you which column you are in. If it is “not yet”, I say so and tell you what to fix first, in order.
How do you vet a GEO consultant?
Eight questions to put to any GEO consultant, agency or freelancer, including me. Ask them on the first call. The answers tell you quickly whether the person understands the work or is selling a new label for old tactics.
The first one matters most: a promise of guaranteed AI placement is the clearest sign to keep looking.
- Ask whether they guarantee a placement in ChatGPT or AI Overviews. If they do, walk away. Nobody controls what a generative engine writes, and there is no paid slot inside its answers.
- Ask for the prompts they will test, in writing, before you sign. A GEO plan starts with the questions your buyers actually ask. I share mine on the first call.
- Ask how progress is measured. You should be able to rerun every test yourself. Be careful with a proprietary visibility score you cannot check.
- Ask what they will change in the first month. A real answer names pages, facts and listings, not just “content”.
- Ask how your robots.txt and firewall treat AI search bots such as OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. A GEO consultant should know.
- Ask what the GEO research actually found. A good consultant can explain what the paper tested and where its findings stop, without overselling it.
- Ask who does the work. Through an agency or a marketplace it may be someone you never speak to. With me, the person on the call does the work.
- Ask what happens if GEO is not right for you yet. An honest consultant tells you, even when it costs them the job.
What does working with me include?
Every engagement is scoped on a call, not sold as a package. I look at your site and your market first, then tell you plainly what is worth doing. When GEO is worth it, this is what the work looks like.
Deliverables
A written baseline with the prompts, the engines tested and what each one said. A prioritised fix list for your site and listings. Answer-first rewrites of your key pages. Schema and crawler-access changes, done or handed to your developer. A sources and mentions plan for your market.
Cadence
A kickoff call, then a written plan within the first two weeks. After that a monthly cycle: changes shipped, prompts re-tested, next priorities agreed with you.
Reporting
One short monthly report in plain English: which prompts now name you, what changed on your site, and the enquiries that came through your own form. No invented scores.
Not ready for an ongoing engagement? Start with a one-off AI visibility audit: I check what each engine says about you, work out why, and hand you a written fix list. Or request a free audit to see where you stand before you commit to anything.
Hiring a GEO consultant, answered
Prefer the AEO term? The same questions are answered on my AEO consultant page.
What is a GEO consultant?
Is GEO the same as AEO?
Can a GEO consultant guarantee my business appears in ChatGPT?
Do I still need SEO if I invest in GEO?
How long does GEO take to show results?
Do you work with small businesses outside Dubai?
Want to know whether GEO is worth it for your business?
Book a free strategy call. I will run your first buyer prompts before we speak and tell you plainly whether GEO is the right next step, or what to fix first.
Book a free strategy call