AI search optimisation for UK businesses

AI search optimisation, often called GEO, is the work of making a business easy for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity to find and name in their answers. At Padon it is part of the Search package, £1,274 a month, for UK businesses in any sector. Each month we check what those AI answers say about you and put it in a monthly report.

What AI search optimisation (GEO) means

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. The term comes from a 2023 research paper of that name, which tested ways of making web content more visible in AI-generated answers and found the results varied by subject area.

For a business, the test is whether you come up when someone asks an AI tool for a solicitor in Bristol or how to fix a leaking radiator, and whether what it says about you is correct.

Google’s own page on hiring an SEO lists optimising for generative AI among the services SEOs offer. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google says there are no additional requirements and no special optimisations needed. A page has to be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. Google also says these features may run several related searches across subtopics to build one answer, a technique it calls query fan-out.

Why AI answers matter for UK businesses

Ofcom’s 2025 Online Nation research found about 30% of searches in the UK now show AI overviews, and just over half of adults say they often see these summaries. It also found ChatGPT had 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million in the same period of 2024.

In a Pew Research Center study of 900 US adults’ browsing in March 2025, people clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when it didn’t. They clicked a link inside the summary in 1% of visits. These are US figures.

What’s included

It comes with the rest of Search: four posts a month on what your customers search for, the technical fixes and schema, and the monthly AI check and report. If you want the SEO side explained in more detail, it’s on the SEO services page.

One technical point specific to AI answers is robots.txt, because ChatGPT and Perplexity each use their own search crawler, which a site’s robots.txt file can allow or block.

• OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot is used to show websites in ChatGPT’s search features, and sites that opt out of it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. GPTBot, its training crawler, is a separate setting. You can block one and allow the other.
• Perplexity says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in its search results, is not used to train AI foundation models, and recommends allowing it in robots.txt.

The schema added as part of Search is standard schema.org structured data. Google says there is no special schema.org structured data needed for its AI features, and that structured data should match the visible text on the page.

The four monthly posts are relevant to AI answers because Google’s advice on AI search starts with unique, non-commodity content. For a dentist in Bath, that means a page on what a private check-up at that practice includes, which only that practice could have written.

What AI search optimisation costs

It isn’t sold on its own; you pay £1,274 a month for Search. There’s a one-off setup fee, quoted for your business, then it runs a month at a time with 30 days’ notice.

How it works week to week

First we look at your website and your analytics. We fix what’s broken and agree what a good week looks like for you.

Every week we read what people searched for and what they clicked, then keep what works and stop what doesn’t. Each month the four posts go up. Search Console counts clicks from Google’s AI features inside its overall Web figures in the Performance report, so we check the AI answers directly each month.

Then we report once a month, showing where you stand in Google and in AI answers.

What we need from you to start

Access to your website and analytics, given through each platform’s own user tools, so nobody shares a password.

A fact sheet, confirmed by you before we start. We publish only facts you’ve confirmed and never invent facts, figures, reviews or testimonials.

Which businesses it suits

AI search optimisation suits any business whose customers might ask an AI tool before they get in touch. That includes a family law solicitor in Manchester, an independent café in Norwich, an estate agent in Guildford and an e-commerce shop selling across the UK.

How long AI search optimisation takes to show results

Nobody can promise a mention in AI answers, in the same way Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. We track your Google rankings and your mentions in AI answers, and show where you stand in every report.

Google’s SEO Starter Guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others take several months. OpenAI says its systems can take about 24 hours to adjust after a robots.txt update. Our note on getting your business into AI answers goes through the steps in more detail.

For a first look, the free check compares your business with its competition nearby, and we email a short report within two working days.