What is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It is the practice of optimising your business's digital presence so that AI-powered search engines — ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and others — mention and recommend your business in their generated responses.
GEO is not a trend. It is the next phase of how people find and choose businesses. Just as SEO changed the game in the 2000s, GEO is changing it now. Businesses that ignore it are becoming invisible to a new generation of consumers who use AI to ask for recommendations.
How Does AI Search Work?
When someone asks an AI assistant a question — “What are the best restaurants in Marbella Old Town?” — the AI generates a response. That response is not pulling from a ranked list of websites. It is drawing on training data and real-time sources to construct an answer that names specific businesses.
The question is: does it name your business? And if it does, what does it say?
AI search engines decide what to recommend based on a different set of signals from traditional SEO:
- Entity recognition — Does the AI understand what your business is, categorically?
- Structured data quality — Is your business data machine-readable and consistent?
- Citation patterns — Are other authoritative sources mentioning and describing your business accurately?
- Authority signals — Does your digital presence as a whole support your claims?
- Direct web data — Some AI platforms browse the web directly for up-to-date information
Why GEO Matters for Hospitality Businesses
Tourist market businesses — restaurants, hotels, bars, spas, tour operators — are uniquely exposed to AI search. Their customers are often visitors or newcomers who do not have personal recommendations to draw on. They ask AI for suggestions. If your business is not mentioned, it effectively does not exist for them.
The competitive stakes are high. In markets like Marbella, the South of France, Cornwall, and Dubai, the difference between being recommended by ChatGPT or being invisible can represent hundreds of thousands of euros in lost revenue per year.
The 7-Step GEO Framework
Here is the framework we use with every client:
- Claim and verify all entity records. Your business needs to exist as a verified entity on Google, Bing, Apple Maps, and major AI knowledge bases.
- Implement comprehensive structured data. Schema markup tells AI what your business is, what you offer, your prices, location, and hours.
- Build consistent citations across 50+ directories. NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency is foundational for AI entity recognition.
- Generate authoritative third-party mentions. Press coverage, industry publications, and local guides build the signals AI uses to assess your authority.
- Create GEO-optimised content. Content written for AI consumption — clear entity descriptions, direct answers to common questions, structured information.
- Monitor your AI presence monthly. Track how and where you appear across AI platforms and adjust your strategy based on what you find.
- Monitor and iterate. Track your AI visibility monthly and adjust your strategy based on what is working.
If this sounds complex — it is. GEO done properly requires significant expertise and ongoing effort. That is why businesses in competitive tourist markets are choosing to work with specialists like SUBIDA rather than trying to do it themselves.
The Future of GEO
AI search is not a trend. It is the next phase of how people find information and make decisions. The shift from ten blue links to AI-generated answers is already well underway — and it will only accelerate.
Businesses that invest in GEO now are building a compounding advantage. AI models will increasingly rely on the quality of the data they have about businesses to generate recommendations. The businesses with the strongest, most consistent, and most authoritative data will win the AI recommendation game — and they will keep winning as AI adoption grows.
The businesses that ignore GEO are not just missing a trend — they are becoming invisible to a growing segment of their target customers. In tourist markets like Marbella, Dubai, and the South of France, where the cost of invisibility is measured in empty tables and unbooked rooms, this is not a risk you can afford.