AI search optimization that gives ChatGPT a reason to bring you up

Google began rolling out AI Overviews in Canada on October 28, 2024, in English (Google Canada), and for many questions the summary is now the first thing people read. Being one of the sources it links to is part of being found.

Some people who learn about you this way never open your site: they read the answer, then search your name or call. Nearly all of this work helps your regular SEO as well. The free audit includes what AI tools say about your business today.

For local questions (“a good family lawyer in Ottawa”), AI tools lean on map listings and directories, so local SEO basics come first: the same name, address, postal code and phone on your site, your Business Profile, Bing Places (Copilot draws on Bing), Yelp, Yellow Pages and the directories your trade uses.

Google launched AI Overviews in Canada without French support, so English and French questions can get very different answers; if you serve Quebec, we check both. We also confirm your site lets in the crawlers of the AI tools you want to appear in (OpenAI's list of its crawlers).

Generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO), AI SEO and LLM SEO all describe the same job: preparing your business so the systems that write answers (ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode) can find, understand and cite you. There's no secret switch.

The difference from SEO services is what the searcher gets. On Google they see a list of links and pick one; in an AI answer they get a written reply that mentions a few sources, or none. So it matters more that each page answers in its first lines, that your details match off your site and that other sites talk about you. The foundation doesn't change: if your site has no page for a service, no AI tool has anything to pull from.

We start with what people ask before they call an accountant: “accountant for small business taxes in Hamilton”, “how much does a corporate tax return cost in Ontario”, “accountant near me who handles HST filings”. Between 50 and 100 questions, depending on what you offer, how many cities you cover and whether you serve clients in French.

We run them in ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Perplexity, and save every answer.

Google is explicit about its side: there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special file or schema to add; a page just has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet (AI features and your website). Google also says these features may run several related searches to build one answer, which rewards pages that cover a topic's follow-up questions.

ChatGPT searches with OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot, and OpenAI says sites that block it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers (its crawler docs). Perplexity uses PerplexityBot to surface and link sites in its results (its docs). Copilot runs on Bing, so your site needs to be in Bing too.

What's known to help: a site search engines can find and OpenAI's search crawler can reach, pages that say plainly what you do, where and for whom, and other sites (reviews, directories, local press) that back it up. What isn't known is the exact weight of each piece, because nobody has published it.

For local questions (“photographer near me who does elopements”), answers lean heavily on Google Business Profiles and their reviews, so local SEO matters as much as your site. We walk through it step by step in how to get your business on ChatGPT.

Google counts visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode inside the Search Console Performance report, mixed in with the rest of your web search traffic. Since February 2026, Bing shows how often Copilot cites your site in its AI Performance report. ChatGPT and Perplexity don't offer any report.

That's why we track the same questions every week: it shows whether you come up more, get cited more and whether what's said about you has changed. Answers vary by day and by who's asking, so we show you the trend, not a single snapshot. Visits from chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai are counted in your analytics.

A serious AI SEO agency does things you can check: questions saved before and after, pages rewritten, details fixed on other sites and AI referrals measured in your analytics. What it shouldn't sell you is a magic file, a list of tricks or a promise that ChatGPT will recommend you.

If your site has technical problems that stop Google from reading it, an SEO audit comes before any work for AI. And if you don't have a page for each service yet, we start with your website.

It's a fixed monthly price set in your quote after the audit, because it depends on your business: how many questions need tracking, in English or French, how many services and cities you cover, and how much needs fixing on your site and across the web. That covers the setup (the starting audit and those fixes) and then each month: new questions answered on your site, listings and mentions kept current, weekly tracking and the report. No setup fee and no contract term; cancel with 30 days' notice.

Your first invoice comes once the setup is live and you've checked it. If we also handle your SEO, the audit shows what the two share and your quote spells it out. How every quote is built is on our pricing page.