The steek blog
Honest, evidence-backed writing on GEO, AEO and getting recommended by AI answer engines. Every external statistic is attributed to a named source; every number that could be noise carries its interval. If we aren't sure, we say so or leave it out — that's the whole point of the brand.
GEO for small business: how to actually show up in AI answers (2026)
A practical, evidence-backed guide to generative engine optimization for a small business — the four things that move whether ChatGPT and friends recommend you.
AEO vs SEO: what changes when the answer IS the result
Answer engine optimization is not SEO with a new hat. What changes when the answer replaces the ranked link — and why that flips how you write.
Why we built steek honestly: confidence intervals over vanity metrics
AI visibility is noisy, and most tools report a single confident-looking number anyway. Why we put a confidence interval on every metric and refuse to fabricate data.
New to the vocabulary? Start with what GEO and AEO mean, or jump straight to the step-by-step guide to ranking on ChatGPT. To compare the tools that measure this, see the best AI-visibility tools and all our honest comparisons.
FAQ
What is GEO for a small business?
GEO — generative engine optimization — for a small business means getting AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini to mention and recommend you when a buyer asks “what's the best [thing] for X?” You don't need an enterprise program: make your pages readable to AI crawlers, answer the real questions your customers ask in clear self-contained sections, earn mentions on the third-party sources models trust, and keep your facts consistent. Our post on GEO for small business walks through the four things that move whether the engines recommend you.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization is the practice of structuring your content so an answer engine can lift a clear, correct, self-contained answer straight from your page — the AI Overview at the top of Google, the direct reply in Perplexity, a featured snippet, or a voice response. It leans on structure: state the question plainly, answer it in the first sentence or two, keep each answer self-contained, stay factually precise, and support it with schema markup. Read AEO vs SEO for how it differs from classic search optimization.
Can a small business show up in AI answers without a big budget?
Yes. The levers that move AI visibility — crawlable pages, clear self-contained answers, consistent facts, and mentions on trusted third-party sources — are mostly work, not spend. On the tooling side you don't need an enterprise contract either: steek is built for small businesses and ecommerce at a flat rate from €19/mo (billed annually; €29.90 month-to-month) with every major engine included and a 10-day free trial, and its free AI-visibility checker needs no signup.
How is GEO different from SEO for a small business?
SEO wins a clickable link on a results page; GEO wins a mention inside the AI answer, where there may be no list of links to rank in at all. The fundamentals overlap — crawlable, authoritative, accurate, well-structured pages help both — but good rankings don't guarantee the AI names you. For a small business the practical takeaway is to keep doing the SEO basics while also making your pages easy for AI engines to read, quote and recommend.
How do I track whether ChatGPT recommends my business?
Regular rank trackers can't see AI answers, so you need an AI-visibility tool that prompts the engines the way your customers would and reports how often they mention and recommend you. Because those answers are noisy from one run to the next, steek puts a 95% confidence interval on every number so you can tell a real change from sampling noise — and you can run its free checker first to see where you stand with no signup.
See where AI answers put you today
Run steek's free checker with no signup, or start the 10-day trial — every number with its confidence interval.