Blog Details
What Is Generative Engine Optimization and Why It Matters for Local Contractors
By Savvy Team • August 15, 2025
AI Search Demonstration
Generative Engine Optimization or GEO for short is the process of optimizing your digital content for chatGPT, Bing, Perplexity and other AI search answers.
Let's take a look at an example. I searched "Provide a list of Pest Protection Companies in Melbourne Florida" and got the following results:
Here are the five companies/website links chatGPT provided me:
🔍AI vs Traditional Search Analysis
Peeling the layers back to analyze with an Search Optimization tool like ahrefs, here were the findings on 5 July 2025:
🏢 HomeTeam Pest Defense Analysis
🛡️ Stark Exterminators Analysis
🐛 Slug-A-Bug Analysis
☀️ SunState Pest Analysis
🏭 Terminix Analysis
🌐Google Search Results Comparison
I dropped the "Provide a list of" and just searched "Pest Protection Companies in Melbourne Florida" and got the following results in Google:
As usual, the top is littered with Ads, then below I see the following results for the organic search results:
Google Search Results
The results are:
📈Key Performance Insights
Notice that Sunstate Pest and HomeTeam Pest Defense are ranked top five in search results. Lets take a look at the other three in ahrefs:
🎯 Akin Pest Analysis
🏆 Aptive Pest Control Analysis
🔄 Turner Pest Analysis
⚠️Critical Finding: Missing AI Opportunities
Looking at the findings, Akin Pest stands out as a company with no AI traffic. Based on these results, they currently get no AI Citations but still rank in Google Search results. They are missing out on a very large search opportunities because according to ahrefs AI search converts customers at a rate of 23x higher.
📊Root Cause Analysis
Reasons for no AI results are: low domain authority (0.2) for starters compared to the 44 and 46 of the two other companies. Additionally all of the back links are spam except for two:
🔧Website Structure Deep Dive
Besides the lack of back links, I looked at the website to analyze the html and review the structure of the website.
and here are my findings:
The Site is Too Conversion Focused for AI Citations
Riddled with quote forms, gorilla desk integrations, this is not what AI citation models look for
No Blog
AI Overviews and ChatGPT rely on "How to get rid of termites", "Best time to spray for mosquitoes in Florida"
FAQs
This includes questions and answers AI can cite that are semantically rich and speak from a position of authority
🎯Conclusion:
To get cited by AI, you need to have link authority and build good AI friendly content. Without this, you are out of luck.
