---
title: "Generative engine optimisation for UK small business"
description: "What ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity cited across 20 UK buyer questions, and the practical steps a small business can take to be named in AI answers."
canonical: https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk
---

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# Generative engine optimisation for UK small businesses: how to get recommended by AI answers

**David Domingos** · 19 Oct 2026 · 10 min read

**In this article**

1. [What is generative engine optimisation?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#what-is-generative-engine-optimisation)
2. [How did I test it?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#how-did-i-test-it)
3. [What did each system cite?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#what-did-each-system-cite)
4. [Who got cited?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#who-got-cited)
5. [Where did Lucent appear?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#where-did-lucent-appear)
6. [What can a small business do about it?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#what-can-a-small-business-do-about-it)
7. [What should you not do?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#what-should-you-not-do)
8. [How do you check your own visibility?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#how-do-you-check-your-own-visibility)
9. [Where does Lucent fit?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/generative-engine-optimisation-small-business-uk#where-does-lucent-fit)

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In short I asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity 20 buyer questions about web design, local SEO and Google Ads. Here is what they cited, who they named, and what a small business can actually do about it.

To get recommended in AI answers, a small business needs the same things that earn ordinary search visibility, plus a few habits that make you easy to quote: pages that are crawlable and indexed, a complete Google Business Profile with real reviews, answers that open with the answer, facts that carry a source, and the same name and details everywhere you appear. There is no trick, special markup or paid placement behind it, and the evidence I collected for this guide shows why.

I'm David, and I run Lucent Digital Studio in Leeds. On 19 October 2026 I put 20 buyer questions in our own lanes, covering Google Ads, local SEO, web design for trades and website redesign, to four AI systems and recorded what they cited. This guide sets out what came back, how to read it fairly, and what to do next.

> **Key Takeaways**
>
> - Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is SEO for AI answers. Google says it needs no separate playbook, no special markup and no llms.txt.
> - The four systems behaved differently: Perplexity cited sources every time, ChatGPT's small model cited sources in about half of its answers.
> - For "best agency in town" questions, the cited pages were directories and listicles. Page quality cannot fix that, but reviews and listings can.
> - For cost and how-to questions, cited pages were plain posts with specific UK figures and a direct answer near the top.
> - Answers change between runs. Judge your visibility over a batch, never one answer.

## What is generative engine optimisation?

**Generative engine optimisation (GEO)**, sometimes called answer engine optimisation (AEO), means improving your chances of being cited or named when an AI system answers a question. The label is new; the substance is mostly not. [Google's guide to generative AI features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) says a site must meet normal Search technical requirements and be eligible for display, and notes that indexing and serving are never guaranteed. It adds that for local businesses, a Google Business Profile helps products and services be visible in AI responses as well as in ordinary results. It also says it is fine to maintain llms.txt files for other services that use them.

So the working definition for a small business is simple: make yourself easy to find, easy to understand and easy to quote.

## How did I test it?

I wrote 20 questions in the words a UK buyer would type, such as "How much do Google Ads cost for a small business in the UK?", "How do I redesign my website without losing my Google rankings?" and "Who is the best web designer for builders and trades businesses in Leeds?". I sent each one through [DataForSEO's AI Optimization API](https://docs.dataforseo.com/v3/ai_optimization/overview/) to four systems with web search on, using their low-cost models: GPT-5 mini for ChatGPT, Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Sonar for Perplexity. I added "I'm in the UK" to every prompt.

That produced 138 answers, because 58 of the 80 question-and-engine combinations were run twice. I recorded every cited URL and whether the text named Lucent Digital Studio.

Three limits apply. These are the cheaper models, not necessarily what a paying user sees. It is one day and one country. And 20 questions is a sample, not a market survey. Treat what follows as a measured snapshot.

## What did each system cite?

| System | Answers | Answers with at least one citation | Average citations per answer |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ChatGPT (GPT-5 mini) | 35 | 17 | 3.4 |
| Claude (Haiku 4.5) | 35 | 29 | 4.0 |
| Gemini (3.5 Flash Lite) | 34 | 26 | 5.2 |
| Perplexity (Sonar) | 34 | 34 | 10.0 |

The practical point is that the cheaper ChatGPT model often answered from memory, with no sources at all. For roughly half its answers, there was nothing to be cited in. When I repeated a question, the cited domains overlapped by about 71 percent on average, and in 2 of the 58 repeated pairs one run cited sources while the other cited none.

**Want to know why you are not ranking?**

Send your site. David records a personal video naming at least seven fixes, in plain English.

[Get your free review](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/website-review)

## Who got cited?

Across all answers, the most cited domains were not household names. They were UK agency blogs with direct answers, such as luxbranding.co.uk and podiumdesign.co.uk, plus Reddit, which appeared in 8 answers, and Google's own help pages. Directories also appeared on the "best agency" questions: DesignRush, Bark, Sortlist and The Manifest. For the three "who" questions, covering Google Ads managers and web designers in Leeds, 11 of 22 answers cited a directory or a list site.

That tells you two different things:

- **Comparison and "who is best" questions** are answered from third-party listings and reviews. A page rewrite will not move that. Reviews, directory profiles and a complete Business Profile will.
- **Cost, process and how-to questions** are answered from plain pages that give a direct answer with specific UK figures. That is within your control.

## Where did Lucent appear?

Lucent was cited in 4 of the 138 answers, all from Perplexity. Three different journal posts were cited: the guide to Google Ads for builders and contractors, the guide on agency versus freelancer versus in-house Google Ads, and the guide on why a website is not getting enquiries. The business was named in the text of none of the 138 answers.

I do not read that as "AI never cites us" or as "AI cites us". It is a baseline: four of 138, on one platform, on one day. The useful lesson is which pages earned it, because each opens with a direct answer to the question a buyer asks. I will rerun the same 20 questions later and publish the comparison.

## What can a small business do about it?

In order:

1. **Make sure the pages can be cited.** A page that is not indexed or crawlable cannot be quoted. Check Search Console for pages marked discovered or crawled but not indexed, and fix the cause rather than resubmitting repeatedly.
2. **Decide your crawler policy deliberately.** [OpenAI](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) says OAI-SearchBot is used to surface sites in ChatGPT search, while GPTBot collects content that may train models. [Anthropic](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler) lists ClaudeBot for training, Claude-User for user-initiated visits and Claude-SearchBot for search quality, and says its bots honour robots.txt. [Perplexity](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots) says PerplexityBot surfaces sites in its search and is not used for training. Blocking a training crawler does not block the same company's search crawler, so set each policy against what you want.
3. **Fix the Business Profile and reviews first if you serve a local area.** For local questions the answers lean on listings and reviews. [Google's own page](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en-GB) says local results rely on relevance, distance and prominence, and that prominence includes review count and ratings.
4. **Open each page with the answer.** The posts that earned a Lucent citation begin with a direct answer in the first two sentences. Keep each section self-contained, so a passage makes sense when lifted out.
5. **Put sources on facts.** If you quote a cost, a rule or a time, link the source and say when you checked it.
6. **Keep your name and details identical.** Business name, address, phone and the person behind it should read the same on your site, your profile and your directory listings.
7. **Be present where AI looks.** Reddit and directories appeared repeatedly. Take part honestly, with your real name and no self-promotion dressed up as advice.
8. **Optional: publish an llms.txt.** Google says it is fine to do so for other services. Treat it as housekeeping, not as a lever.

For the underlying work, see [SEO services](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/seo-services) and [local SEO services](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/local-seo-services). The question of whether search is changing is covered in [Is SEO dead?](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/is-seo-dead), and the fundamentals in [how to improve your Google ranking](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/how-to-improve-google-ranking).

## What should you not do?

- Do not buy "AI ranking" guarantees. The answers vary by run and nobody controls them.
- Do not mass-publish AI-written pages in the hope of coverage. Google's guide asks for helpful, original content, and thin pages are exactly what wastes crawl time.
- Do not invent reviews, statistics or credentials. AI systems repeat what they find, and a fabricated claim that gets quoted is a liability you cannot recall.
- Do not hide text or instructions for AI on your pages.

## How do you check your own visibility?

Pick 10 questions your customers ask. Run each in two or three assistants with web search on, on two different days. Record in a spreadsheet whether your domain is cited, whether your name appears in the answer text, and which competitors are cited. Repeat monthly. In Search Console, look at which queries and pages bring clicks. The aim is a trend over a batch of answers, not a single screenshot.

## Where does Lucent fit?

I run local SEO, Google Ads and websites for UK service businesses, and the order of work above is the order I follow: indexable pages, then the Business Profile and reviews, then answer-first pages with sourced facts. If you want a second opinion on where your business stands, [book a free 30-minute review](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/contact). I will tell you what is worth fixing and what is not.

## Sources

1. [Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)
2. [Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en-GB)
3. [OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)
4. [Anthropic, Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler?](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler)
5. [Perplexity, Perplexity crawlers](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots)
6. [DataForSEO, AI Optimization LLM Responses API](https://docs.dataforseo.com/v3/ai_optimization/overview/)

**David Domingos** Founder of Lucent Digital Studio. Runs the design, build, SEO and Google Ads work himself, from Leeds.

[About David →](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/about)

## Questions people ask about this.

**Not answered here?** Ask David directly. He replies himself, usually within one working day.

[Ask David](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/contact)

**01 What is generative engine optimisation?**

Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the practice of making your pages and business details easy for AI answer systems to find, understand and cite. Google's own guidance treats it as ordinary SEO applied to AI features: crawlable, helpful, accurate content, plus a complete Business Profile for local businesses. There is no separate playbook that Google requires.

**02 Do I need an llms.txt file to be recommended by AI?**

No. Google's guide to generative AI features says it is fine to create and maintain llms.txt files for other services that use them, but it does not list one as a requirement for Google. Lucent publishes one, but I do not claim it changes which pages get cited.

**03 Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT or Gemini?**

Not in answers that are generated from web search and sources. Be wary of anyone selling guaranteed placement in AI answers, because the answers vary from run to run and no provider controls them.

**04 Should I block AI crawlers on my website?**

That depends on your goal. OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity each publish separate crawlers for search, for training and for user-triggered visits. Blocking a training crawler does not block the same company's search crawler. If you want to appear in AI answers, allow the search crawlers and decide separately about training.

**05 How do I check whether AI mentions my business?**

Ask the engines the questions your customers ask, in the same words, several times and on different days. Record whether your site is cited and whether your name appears in the text. Treat the result as a sample, not a ranking, because answers are not identical from one run to the next.

**06 Does this replace normal SEO?**

No. Pages that are not indexed or crawlable cannot be cited. A Business Profile, helpful pages and real reviews still do most of the work, for AI answers as well as for ordinary results.

## Keep reading.

**[SEO for electricians in the UK: getting found for the jobs you actually want](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/seo-for-electricians)**: SEO 9 min read 19 Oct 2026

**[How to choose an SEO company: questions to ask and red flags](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/how-to-choose-an-seo-company)**: ![Two cups of coffee and an open notebook on a cafe table beside a rainy street window.](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/how-to-choose-an-seo-company.webp) SEO 8 min read 10 Oct 2026

**[How to promote your business locally: what actually gets the phone ringing](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/how-to-promote-your-business-locally)**: ![A market-town high street at golden hour, with shop awnings, a parked van and a noticeboard of blank cards.](https://lucentdigital.co.uk/journal/how-to-promote-your-business-locally.webp) SEO 8 min read 10 Oct 2026

## Tell David what you need.

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