GEO: being cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google in Belgium

More and more people no longer type a search: they ask a question to ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI summary. The answer is not a list of links: it names a few businesses, sums up what they do and recommends. If you are not in that answer, you do not exist for that client.

GEO — generative engine optimization — is the work of being readable, credible and citable by these engines. It is not a break with SEO, it is its extension: the same fundamentals, with a higher demand for clarity.

What AI engines read. First, pages that make sense at a glance: a clear title, subheadings phrased as questions, short sentences, an answer in the first lines. An engine that has to guess your trade will not cite you.

Then the FAQs. Your clients' real questions — “do I need a prescription?”, “how long is a session?”, “do you work at home?” — deserve a written answer, in text, not only in a video or an image.

Structured data. LocalBusiness, Service and FAQPage markup explicitly states who you are, where you are, what you do and which questions you answer. It is invisible to the visitor and decisive for the machine.

Third-party sources. An AI engine is more willing to cite a business it finds traces of elsewhere: local press, professional directories, associations, partners, reviews. A claim on your own site weighs less than an independent mention.

Reviews. Their number, freshness and content feed the summary the AI will make of you. A rating of 4.8/5 from 49 reviews does not only say you are good: it gives the engine precise material to quote.

Consistency of name and address. If your Google profile, your site and a directory give three different versions, the engine hesitates — and an engine that hesitates cites someone else.

What a Belgian SME can do alone: rewrite service pages as questions, add an FAQ, complete the Google profile, align directories, ask for reviews after every job and publish clear answers to common objections. That is already most of the work.

What needs help: correct structured data, bilingual consistency, citation measurement, regular content production and correcting the errors engines repeat about you. These are technical, ongoing tasks that are hard to sustain alone in a small structure.

FR/NL bilingualism is a considerable Belgian advantage. An AI answers in the language of the question. A French-only site is invisible to a Dutch speaker asking for “kinesist Charleroi”; a properly translated site appears in both conversations. That is not decoration, it is market coverage.

Beware of promises. No one can guarantee a citation in ChatGPT: answers vary by day, wording and user. What can be guaranteed is verifiable work: readable pages, correct data, consistent sources. A provider who promises first place in ChatGPT is selling a certainty no engine gives. Ask instead what will be measured, how often, and on which precise set of questions.

How to measure. Every month, ask the same questions to several engines, in French and Dutch, and note whether you are cited, where, and with which errors. Add brand searches and incoming enquiries. Without measurement, GEO becomes an opinion. A simple table is enough: the question asked, the date, the engine, the answer received.

A starting point example: Centre Vital, whose profile generated 742 clicks from Google for 43,823 impressions in three months, with an average position between 4 and 5 on its main queries. That is the kind of clear base citation work can build on.

Wondering what the engines currently answer about your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call: we test the questions your clients actually ask, in both languages, and show you where you appear — and where you are missing.