Assistants answer questions about companies based on what they can find: the search index, the website, map listings, directories and mentions. So getting into the answers means being accessible to their search crawlers, giving concrete facts on your site that can be quoted, and keeping the same company data in every source. There are no secret settings: Google states plainly that AI Overviews have no additional requirements beyond ordinary search optimization. Nobody can guarantee a place in an answer — you can work on the factors and measure the trend.
Contents
Where an assistant learns about a company
When a customer asks “who builds websites in Almaty” or “recommend a dentist nearby”, an assistant with search does not recall the answer — it looks it up: it queries a search index, opens suitable pages and assembles an answer with links. The model's own knowledge goes out of date, so for questions about specific companies it is search that decides.
- 01Customer question
- 02Search index
- 03Site, maps, directories
- 04Answer with links
Hence a simple conclusion: GEO — visibility in assistant answers — stands on the same foundation as ordinary SEO. If the site is not indexed, no amount of work on texts will help.
The technical minimum
- Key pages are in the Google and Bing indexes — check in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
- robots.txt does not block search crawlers, including OAI-SearchBot, which OpenAI uses for search in ChatGPT
- Bot protection on your hosting or CDN does not block search crawlers
- The main page text is in the HTML, not only rendered after scripts run
- The Schema.org markup for the company matches what is visible on the page
- New and updated pages go into the sitemap; Bing and Yandex can be notified of changes via IndexNow
If you do not want your site's texts used to train OpenAI's models, you can block the GPTBot crawler — this does not prevent appearing in ChatGPT search, which OAI-SearchBot handles. They are different crawlers with different jobs.
Content that can be quoted
An assistant builds its answer from facts. Generic phrases cannot be quoted — only skipped. Compare:
Nothing to quote
- An individual approach to every client
- Affordable prices and high quality
- We work all over Kazakhstan
- An experienced team of professionals
Can be quoted
- Landing page — 150,000–250,000 ₸, 2–4 weeks
- Office in Almaty: Taugul-3 microdistrict, 13B, Mon–Fri 10:00–19:00
- A free draft of the main screen in 2–3 days
- Integrations with 1C and the Kaspi API
The second rule is answer first. The first paragraph of a service page or article should directly answer the question the person came with: what it is, what it costs, how long it takes, who it is for. Details go below. This is easier both for people and for systems that look for a short answer on the page.
The same data in every source
Assistants combine information about a company from different places. If the name, address, phone number or opening hours differ, the company's data looks less reliable to any system that reconciles it.
Website
- What to check
- Name, address, phone, opening hours, Organization markup
Google Business Profile
- What to check
- The same data, business category, website link
Yandex Business and 2GIS
- What to check
- The same data, the exact brand name
Directories and social media
- What to check
- Description, website link, current contacts
We check this on our own company too. In October 2026, when reconciling our own listings, we found that the opening hours on the maps and on the website differed, and brought them in line. Such discrepancies appear unnoticed — so it is worth repeating the check at least once a quarter.
Why there are no guarantees and how to measure results
Assistant answers are probabilistic: the same question in different wording, on different days and for different users gives different answers. So a promise of “guaranteed top 3 in ChatGPT” is a reason to be wary. What can honestly be promised is work on the factors and transparent measurement.
Control questions
Write 10–20 questions the way your customers ask them: “who in Almaty…”, “how much does … cost”, “recommend…”.
Baseline
Ask the assistants and save the answers with a date: who they name and which sources they cite.
Regular measurement
Repeat the same set of questions once a month and compare with the baseline.
Visits and leads
Look in your analytics for visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and other assistants — and, above all, whether they lead to requests.
GEO is a process, not a one-time setup.
