SEO AND GEO
Found on Google and cited by the AIs.
Organic search on two fronts: SEO for traditional search engines and GEO for answers generated by artificial intelligence. Technical structure, content and data that make the business show up without relying on ad spend.
We are Brickweb
Part of all searches no longer ends in a list of links. People ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's own AI, get a ready-made answer, and only click if that answer cites its source. A business that is not structured to be cited disappears from that step.
This does not replace classic SEO: search engines still bring most of the traffic, and they are where the models draw much of what they answer from. Both fronts rest on the same foundation, well-written content and a technically sound site, so we work on them together.
// What we deliver
- 01
Technical audit
A review of what keeps the site from ranking: indexing, URL architecture, redirects, duplicate content, titles and descriptions. The report names the problem, its impact and the order in which to fix it.
- 02
Technical SEO
Fixing what the audit found: semantic structure, heading hierarchy, canonical tags, hreflang on multilingual sites, sitemap and robots.txt. The foundation without which nothing else holds.
- 03
Core Web Vitals and performance
Optimizing loading, images and code. A slow site loses ranking in the search engine and loses the user before the page even opens.
- 04
Structured data
Schema.org applied to what the page actually shows: organization, services, articles, products and frequently asked questions. It is the format search engines and language models read without ambiguity.
- 05
Content strategy
Defining the topics the business needs to answer, based on what the audience searches for and what competitors already cover. Topics prioritized by search intent, not by raw volume.
- 06
Content production and optimization
Articles and pages written to answer the question directly, in a format search engines and AI can extract. We also review and restructure content that already exists.
- 07
Access for AI agents
Allowing and configuring AI crawlers in robots.txt, an llms.txt file describing the site, and consistent information across pages. Blocking these agents is the most common reason for not showing up in answers.
- 08
Measurement and reporting
Tracking rankings, organic traffic and conversions in Search Console and Analytics, with a report on what changed and what comes next.
// How we work
Diagnosis before recommendation, fixes before content.
- 01/05
Diagnosis
Technical audit, review of current content and of the competition in search. This produces the list of what to fix and in what order.
- 02/05
Strategy
Defining the topics, the pages that need to exist and the ones that need rewriting, with priority tied to the business goal.
- 03/05
Technical fixes
Adjustments to structure, performance and structured data. Good content on a broken site does not rank.
- 04/05
Content
Producing and optimizing the pages, written to answer directly and to be quotable.
- 05/05
Measure and adjust
Tracking rankings and traffic, adjusting what did not perform. Organic search is continuous work, not a one-off delivery.
// Why Brickweb?
The people writing the content have access to the code behind it.
Technical SEO done by the people who build
Most SEO recommendations need someone to touch the code to become real. Here the diagnosis and the fix happen in the same place, without depending on another vendor to apply them.
GEO with method, not promises
Nobody controls what a language model answers. What can be done is structuring content and data so the business is an easy source to cite, and tracking whether it is being cited.
No volume formula
We do not work with a monthly article quota or text written to stuff keywords. Content that does not answer a real question is not cited by any AI.
The work is documented
Every fix and every decision is recorded, so you know what changed on the site and why, including if you one day take the work to another team.
// Tools and standards
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
- Schema.org
- JSON-LD
- Core Web Vitals
- PageSpeed Insights
- Lighthouse
- robots.txt
- llms.txt
- XML Sitemap
- hreflang
- Bing Webmaster Tools
The tools change with the project; the method of diagnosis, fixing and measurement does not.
// The two fronts
SEO and GEO solve different problems on the same foundation.
SEO — traditional search engines
Optimization for Google and Bing: technical structure, content and performance so the site shows up in results consistently. Still the largest source of organic traffic for most businesses.
GEO — generative search
Structuring content and data so the business is cited in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI overviews. The market also calls it AEO, answer engine optimization.
// FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is GEO?
GEO, or generative engine optimization, is optimizing so the business is cited in answers generated by artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's own AI answers. It involves content structured as questions and answers, structured data, and consistent information across channels. The market also uses the term AEO, answer engine optimization, for the same practice.
What is the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO optimizes for appearing in a search engine's list of results, where the user chooses which link to click. GEO optimizes for being cited inside an answer that is already written, by an artificial intelligence. The technical foundation is the same, a fast, well-structured site with marked-up data, but the content format shifts: the direct answer and the question-and-answer block weigh more in GEO.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. Traditional search engines still bring most organic traffic, and language models draw on much of the same content the search engine indexes. A site that is not well structured for Google is unlikely to be cited by an AI. That is why both fronts are worked on together, on the same foundation.
Can you guarantee the first position on Google?
No, and anyone who guarantees it is selling what they do not control. Ranking depends on external factors, such as what competitors do and algorithm changes. What is possible is fixing what is within your control, tracking how rankings evolve and adjusting the work based on what the data shows.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will cite my company?
Also no. Nobody controls a language model's answer, and it varies between tools and over time. What we do is structure content, data and crawler access so the business is an easy source to find and to cite, and track whether the citation is happening.
How long until results appear?
Organic search is built, not switched on. Technical fixes can show within weeks, since they only require the search engine to reindex the site. Gaining position on competitive terms takes months and depends on the starting point, the competition and the volume of content published. When there is a short-term goal, the path is paid media sustaining the present while organic is built.
Do I need to publish content every week?
No. Frequency without purpose does not move rankings. What moves them is answering well the questions your audience actually asks, and keeping what is already published up to date. The cadence comes from the strategy, from the size of the subject and the competition, not from a fixed number of articles per month.
Do you work with a site you did not build?
Yes. The audit works on any site, and so do most of the fixes, regardless of the platform. When the limitation is the site's own structure, that shows up in the report: in some cases fixing is cheaper, in others rebuilding pays off, and that comparison is presented before any decision.
What is llms.txt?
It is a file at the root of the site that describes the business and points to the main pages in plain text, meant to be read by language models. It works as a summary the AI can consult without parsing the entire HTML. It is a recent standard and not yet adopted by every tool, but the cost of maintaining it is low.
How do you measure whether GEO is working?
Through three signals. The first is referral traffic coming from the AI tools themselves, which shows up in Analytics. The second is testing your industry's questions in those tools and checking whether the business is cited. The third is indirect: the same improvements to structure and content show up in traditional search rankings, which are measurable in Search Console.