How to Optimise for AI Search

What is GEO, LLMO, AIO and AEO? Why Are There So Many Acronyms?

Why does AI search optimisation have so many different names?

This is a genuine source of confusion, and it’s worth addressing directly. The field of optimising your online presence for AI search tools is new enough that the industry hasn’t settled on standard terminology. You’ll encounter several different acronyms, often used interchangeably, sometimes meaning subtly different things. Here’s what each one actually refers to:

• GEO – Generative Engine Optimisation. This is the most widely used term for the practice of optimising your content to be cited and recommended by AI-powered search tools. However, it’s worth noting that GEO has an older meaning in traditional marketing – geographic targeting and localisation. This creates genuine confusion: a “GEO strategy” in a paid media context means something entirely different from a “GEO strategy” in the context of AI search. When you see GEO in discussions about AI search, it refers to optimising for generative AI tools, not geographic targeting.
• LLMO – Large Language Model Optimisation. This term refers specifically to optimising your content for the large language models that power AI tools – ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others. It emphasises the technical dimension: how these models read, process, and draw on your content when generating responses. LLMO and GEO are often used interchangeably, though LLMO sometimes implies a more technically focused approach to content structure and data formatting.
• AIO – AI Optimisation. A broader term sometimes used to cover the full range of AI-related optimisation activities, including both AI search visibility and AI-assisted content creation. Less precisely defined than GEO or LLMO, and used inconsistently across the industry.
• AEO – Answer Engine Optimisation. This term focuses specifically on optimising for AI tools that function as answer engines rather than traditional search engines – tools like Perplexity, which is explicitly designed to give direct answers with citations rather than a list of links to follow. AEO emphasises the importance of structuring content as direct, citable answers to specific questions.

In practice, most reputable agencies – including Greyturtle – use these terms to describe the same fundamental discipline: ensuring that AI tools can find, read, understand, and confidently recommend your business when someone asks a relevant question. The terminology will likely consolidate over time. For now, if you encounter any of these acronyms, treat them as broadly synonymous unless the context makes a specific distinction clear.

It’s also worth understanding where Google’s AI Overviews fit into this picture. AI Overviews are the AI-generated answer panels that appear at the top of Google search results – they’re not a standalone tool you choose to use, but something Google serves automatically to users conducting relevant searches. Unlike ChatGPT or Perplexity, which users actively open and query, AI Overviews are embedded directly into the search experience most UK users already have, making them the AI surface with the broadest reach. All four acronyms above apply to AI Overviews optimisation just as much as to standalone AI tools – the same principles of comprehensive, well-structured, authoritative content govern whether Google chooses to cite your website in an AI Overview or recommend a competitor instead.

Find out how Greyturtle approaches AI Search Optimisation for UK SMEs →

Which AI Tools Should UK Businesses Be Optimising For?

Which AI search tools are most used in the UK?

The UK market has a specific profile that differs from global averages, and UK-specific data should inform where you focus your efforts. According to IAB UK’s AI Usage Statistics, which tracks UK online audiences aged 15+ across PC, laptop, smartphone, and tablet, the picture in 2025 is:

1. Google AI Overviews – not a separate tool but the AI-generated answer panels appearing at the top of Google search results. These are powered by Google’s Gemini models and reach more people in the UK than any standalone AI tool simply because most people in the UK still begin their searches on Google. You may not even realise you’re encountering AI-generated content when you use Google, but increasingly the answer to your query appears before the traditional search results. Google AI Overviews now appear for an expanding range of queries, including commercial ones – making them the AI search surface that most directly affects how businesses are discovered through everyday search behaviour.
2. ChatGPT – the dominant standalone AI tool in the UK, with 16 million monthly UK users as of September 2025 according to IAB UK data. ChatGPT is 2-3 times more popular than any other standalone AI tool in the UK market, across all age groups. It’s the tool most UK users think of when they think of AI, and it’s increasingly being used for product and service research as well as general questions.
3. Microsoft Copilot – the second most widely used standalone AI tool in the UK, with approximately 2.5 million monthly UK users. Copilot’s significance for UK businesses is disproportionate to its user numbers because it’s deeply integrated into Microsoft 365 – the productivity suite used by the majority of UK businesses. Many UK professionals encounter Copilot through Outlook, Teams, Word, and Edge without specifically choosing to use an AI tool. For B2B businesses, this enterprise penetration makes Copilot a meaningful channel.
4. Claude – Anthropic’s AI assistant, which has grown faster than any other AI platform in recent months and is now ranked second globally by Cloudflare traffic data. Claude has particular strength in business and professional contexts, where its focus on accuracy and careful reasoning resonates with users making considered decisions.
5. Google Gemini – the standalone Gemini chat interface, distinct from the AI Overviews embedded in Google search. Gemini’s web traffic share has grown significantly, from around 6% of generative AI web traffic in early 2025 to over 25% by March 2026 according to SimilarWeb data. It benefits from Google’s deep integration across Android, Google Workspace, and Chrome.
6. Perplexity – positioned explicitly as an AI-native search engine rather than a general chatbot, Perplexity is particularly important for research and comparison queries. It cites its sources directly alongside its answers, making it the AI tool most analogous to traditional search for commercial research purposes. Smaller in user numbers than the platforms above, but highly relevant for B2B discovery as its users skew towards research-intensive queries.

The practical implication is that you cannot optimise specifically for each individual tool in the way you might optimise for Google versus Bing. These tools all draw on similar signals – your website content, your authority signals, your online presence – and the same optimisation approach generally improves your visibility across all of them.

How AI Tools Decide What to Recommend

Where do AI tools get their information about businesses?

This is the most important question for any business trying to improve its AI search visibility, and the answer is simpler than most people expect.

AI tools primarily get their information about small and medium-sized businesses from those businesses’ websites. Unlike a large brand with extensive Wikipedia coverage, news mentions, and third-party review profiles, most SMEs exist online almost exclusively through their own web presence. If your website doesn’t clearly and comprehensively explain what you do, who you do it for, where you operate, and what differentiates you, an AI tool either won’t recommend you or will describe you inaccurately.

This has a significant practical implication: your website is your most important AI search asset. Not your social media following, not your review score, not your paid advertising spend. An AI tool asked to recommend a Manchester-based HR consultancy for a mid-sized manufacturing business will draw primarily on the websites of HR consultancies that have clearly described their service, their sector experience, their geographic coverage, and their client types. A business whose website says “we provide HR support” is competing against a business whose website says “we provide HR support for manufacturing businesses across the North West, including employee relations, compliance, and TUPE support for businesses with 50-500 employees.” One of those websites will be recommended. The other may not feature at all.

The Most Important Optimisation: Your Website as Your AI Encyclopedia

What should your website cover to perform well in AI search?

Think of your website as the encyclopedia entry that AI tools consult when deciding whether to recommend you. It should leave no reasonable question about your business unanswered. In practical terms, this means ensuring your website covers:

Your services in detail. Not just a list of what you offer, but what each service involves, what problems it solves, who it’s for, and what the process looks like. AI tools are increasingly asked specific questions – “what does digital marketing cost for a small business?” or “what does an SEO audit include?” – and they’ll draw on the websites that answer these questions clearly over those that are vague about their deliverables.

Your geographic coverage. Where do you operate? Which towns, cities, or regions do you serve? A business that never mentions geography on its website is invisible to queries like “IT support Manchester” or “employment solicitor Cheshire.” This is especially critical for service-area businesses – plumbers, consultants, marketing agencies – that travel to clients or serve specific regions. Your website should mention your coverage area naturally throughout, not just on a contact page.

The industries and sectors you work in. AI tools use sector context heavily when making recommendations. “A PPC agency experienced in ecommerce” and “a PPC agency experienced in B2B professional services” are effectively different businesses from an AI recommendation perspective. If you have sector experience or specialisms, your website should make this explicit.

Your customer types. Are you working with SMEs or enterprises? With business owners or marketing managers? With consumer brands or industrial suppliers? Describing your typical clients helps AI tools match your business to relevant queries.

Answers to common customer questions and hesitations. FAQ sections, detailed service descriptions, and blog content that addresses the questions prospects commonly ask – about costs, timelines, processes, results – are all signals that AI tools can draw on when generating answers. A business that has published a clear answer to “how long does SEO take to show results?” is more likely to be cited by an AI tool answering that query than a business that has never addressed it.

Your credentials and social proof. Client testimonials, case studies, industry accreditations, years of experience, and notable clients all contribute to the authority signals AI tools use when evaluating whether your business is worth recommending.

If your website isn’t covering these areas comprehensively, you’re likely invisible to AI search tools that could be sending you enquiries. We can show you the gaps.

The SEO and AI Search Connection

Is AI search optimisation the same as traditional SEO?

Not identical, but deeply connected – and the overlap is more significant than the differences. The businesses that rank well in Google and have genuinely comprehensive, well-structured websites are the same businesses AI tools are most likely to cite. This isn’t coincidence; both Google’s ranking algorithm and AI language models are trying to do the same fundamental thing: find the most credible, relevant, and comprehensive answer to a user’s query.

Traditional SEO still drives more commercial search traffic in the UK than AI search today, and this is unlikely to change suddenly. But the signals that improve your traditional SEO rankings – quality content, authoritative backlinks, clear site structure, relevant keywords, comprehensive topic coverage, fast load speeds – are the same signals that improve your AI search visibility. Investing in one improves the other.

There are some additional dimensions that AI search emphasises relative to traditional SEO:

Conversational content structure. AI tools parse content that’s structured as questions and answers more easily than dense prose or bullet-point lists. Incorporating Q&A sections, FAQ pages, and direct answers to specific questions improves both your chance of featuring in Google’s AI Overviews and your citability by standalone tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Entity clarity. AI tools need to be confident about what your business is, what it does, and where it operates. Schema markup – structured data added to your website code – helps AI systems understand the entities (businesses, services, locations, people) your content refers to. Google’s structured data documentation explains the most relevant schema types; for most businesses, Organisation, LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQPage schema are the starting points.

Topical authority. AI tools favour businesses that have demonstrated expertise across a topic area rather than those with a single relevant page. A business with a comprehensive blog covering multiple angles of their specialism – case studies, how-to guides, sector-specific insights, FAQ content – is more likely to be cited than one whose website is essentially a brochure.

Find out more about how SEO and AI Search Optimisation work together →

Social Media as a Supporting Signal

Does social media activity affect AI search visibility?

Yes, though as a supporting signal rather than the primary one. AI tools index and reference a wider range of online sources than traditional search engines, and an active, consistent social media presence contributes to the breadth of online information about your business. A business that posts regularly on LinkedIn, maintains an active Google Business Profile, and has a visible presence on relevant platforms is simply better represented across the web than one that doesn’t – and that broader representation means AI tools have more data points to draw on when forming a view of your business.

This doesn’t mean you need to be producing elaborate social media content across multiple platforms. The bar for AI search purposes is consistency and presence rather than high production values. Even outsourced or AI-assisted social media activity – regular, factually accurate posts about your services, clients, and sector – is significantly better than no presence at all. AI tools need to know about you, and the only way they can do that is through your online footprint.

Google Business Profile posts deserve particular attention here. They’re free, they appear in Google search results, they feed directly into the AI Overview signals Google uses, and they’re consistently underused by SMEs. If you’re already posting on social media, repurposing those posts to your GBP takes minutes and contributes to both local SEO and AI search visibility simultaneously.

A Practical AI Search Optimisation Checklist

What should a business actually do to improve its AI search visibility?

In priority order, the most impactful steps for most UK SMEs:

1. Audit your website for comprehensiveness. Does it clearly describe every service you offer, in sufficient detail? Does it mention the locations you serve? Does it describe your typical clients and sectors? Does it answer the questions a prospect would commonly ask? These gaps are almost always the biggest factor limiting AI search visibility for small businesses.
2. Add or improve your FAQ content. FAQ sections on service pages and a dedicated FAQ page covering common questions about your business give AI tools clear, extractable answers to cite. Structure them as genuine questions followed by direct, specific answers – not vague reassurances.
3. Implement basic schema markup. At minimum, Organisation or LocalBusiness schema on your homepage, Service schema on service pages, and FAQPage schema on any FAQ content. Most website platforms have plugins or built-in tools to help with this; Google’s Rich Results Test lets you verify it’s working correctly.
4. Build topical authority through blog content. Regular, genuinely useful content on topics relevant to your services and sectors extends your authority signals and gives AI tools more to work with. Each blog post is another opportunity to be cited for a specific query.
5. Maintain a consistent social media presence. It doesn’t need to be extensive – consistent and factual is sufficient. Keep your Google Business Profile updated and post to it regularly.
6. Build your review presence. Reviews on Google Business Profile, Trustpilot, or sector-specific platforms contribute to the trust signals AI tools use when evaluating businesses. The volume and recency of reviews matter.
7. Earn quality backlinks. Links from credible, relevant websites remain a significant authority signal for both traditional search and AI tool citation. Digital PR, industry directories, supplier pages, and professional association listings are all valuable.

How Quickly Does AI Search Optimisation Show Results?

How long does it take to see results from AI search optimisation?

This varies, but the honest answer is that it’s faster than traditional SEO for some changes and similar timescales for others. Structural improvements to your website – adding comprehensive service descriptions, implementing schema markup, adding FAQ content – can influence how AI tools represent your business within weeks of those changes being crawled and indexed.

Building topical authority through content takes longer, as it does with traditional SEO – typically three to six months to see meaningful improvements from a content programme. Review acquisition and social media presence build gradually over time.

The most important thing is to start with the foundations. A business that doesn’t yet have comprehensive website content describing its services, sectors, and locations is unlikely to see meaningful AI search visibility regardless of what other optimisation work is done.

AI Search Traffic Is Already More Valuable Than Most Businesses Realise

AI search referral traffic converts at 14.2% compared to 2.8% for traditional organic search traffic, according to recent data. This makes intuitive sense: someone who has asked an AI tool a specific question and received a direct recommendation is significantly further along in their decision-making than someone who has clicked a search result and is still researching. The quality of leads arriving from AI search citations is consistently higher than most other digital channels.

The businesses building their AI search presence now are positioning themselves for a channel that is growing rapidly and delivering high-quality traffic. The businesses that wait until AI search is fully mainstream will be competing against those who have already built their authority and presence.