Updated
The GEO consultant who makes you the brand AI quotes.
A GEO consultant does generative engine optimisation - the work of getting your brand cited inside AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. That is what I do, for UK brands that already have a site and want to be the recommendation, not the runner-up. One senior specialist, not an agency with layers.
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
Perplexity
AI OverviewsThe work that gets you cited.
AI engines do not pick brands at random. They pick the entities they can identify, the answers they can lift, and the sources they trust. Six pieces of work, each one moves you closer to the answer.
| Workflow | What's missing now | What I build | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entity clarityWho you are, in machine terms | No Wikipedia page. Thin Wikidata. sameAs links scattered or missing. | Wikidata entity, sameAs graph across LinkedIn, Crunchbase, GitHub, social. | Unknown→Identified |
| Schema markupStructured data the engines actually read | Generic Article schema. No FAQ. No HowTo. No Product. No Organization graph. | Organization, FAQ, HowTo, Article and Product schema, validated and connected. | Flat HTML→Machine-readable |
| Answer-ready contentPassages AI lifts straight into responses | Long preamble before the answer. Buried definitions. Hedged claims. | Direct answers up top, lifted-passage shape, definitions in 30 words or less. | Skipped→Quoted |
| Citation pathsLinks earned where AI engines look | Backlinks from random low-trust sites. None from sources the LLMs index. | Targeted earned coverage on the publishers, forums and directories AI trusts. | Invisible→Trusted source |
| AI search monitoringBrand mentions across the engines | No tracking. No idea when you are mentioned, missed or named alongside a rival. | Monthly run of your query set across all five engines, with citation share. | Blind→Measured |
| Internal linking for entitiesConnecting your concepts on-site | Pages link by URL slug, not by entity. Your topic graph is invisible. | Hub pages, anchor work and entity-aware linking that signals your topic authority. | Scattered→Connected |
Already cited but ranked source 7 of 7? Tell me the queries you want to own and I will tell you what is keeping you off the top spot. If ChatGPT is the first target, start with the how to rank in ChatGPT guide before widening into the full GEO programme.
What does a GEO consultant actually do?
A GEO consultant (Generative Engine Optimisation) does the work to get a brand cited inside AI answers - ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews - rather than buried under the blue links beneath them. The discipline is about 80% overlap with SEO and 20% new. Four areas of work:
Wikipedia, Wikidata, Organization schema, sameAs graph, consistent name across the web. The engines stop guessing whether you exist and start treating you as a known entity they can confidently cite.
Pages restructured around the questions buyers actually ask. 30-word direct answers at the top, structured FAQs, lifted-passage formatting, schema and examples. The engines extract a quote, not a 2,000-word essay.
Earn mentions on the third-party sites each engine actually pulls from. Different mix per engine - Perplexity loves Reddit and forums, ChatGPT leans on Wikipedia and Bing-indexed authority, Claude weights long-form publications.
Run the target query set through each engine. Capture which sources are cited, where you sit, what your competitors are getting that you are not. Repeat monthly. Without measurement it is just hope.
The job is not separate from SEO. AI engines pull from the same open web that Google ranks. A site with no schema, no named author and no third-party citations does not get ranked by Google and does not get cited by ChatGPT. GEO sits on top of solid SEO foundations - it does not replace them.
How much does GEO consulting cost in the UK?
Three standard engagement shapes for an independent senior GEO consultant. The market is still forming and rates vary wildly - these are the bands that align with how the work is genuinely scoped.
| Engagement | UK range | Best fit when |
|---|---|---|
| GEO auditOne-off diagnostic | £1,500 to £5,0002-4 weeks | You want a baseline reading on AI search visibility, schema coverage, entity footprint and citation share - then a prioritised fix list. Comparable to a technical SEO audit in shape. |
| GEO programme (fixed scope)Audit plus 90 days of implementation | £6,000 to £18,0003 months typical | The team wants the audit findings shipped - schema added, entity work done, content restructured for AIO extraction, citation work started. Fixed scope, fixed fee, measurable deltas at the end. |
| Ongoing retainerGEO as a continuous discipline | £2,000 to £6,000+ per month6-12 month engagements | AI search visibility is a moving target. A monthly retainer covers continuous citation tracking, content refresh, entity maintenance, new engine response. Most appropriate for brands where AI search referrals matter to revenue. |
My own rates fall inside these bands. The pricing reflects independent senior IC time - agency layered teams selling GEO retainers run 2-4x higher for the same outcome. Send me the brand and I will tell you which engagement shape fits.
I audit whole markets, not just single sites.
In May 2026 I audited 229 UK professional-services websites for AI search readiness. My own crawl data, not recycled vendor stats. Three findings that shape where I look first on every GEO engagement:
Blocked crawlers, missing entity data or pages the engines cannot read. They could not be cited even if the answer wanted them.
Read the law firm study 27% of 56 accountancy firms silently block AI botsIncluding PwC and BDO. Robots rules shutting out the crawlers that feed ChatGPT and Perplexity - with nobody watching.
Read the accountancy study 0 / 83 estate agent sites checked used FAQ schema100 agents audited. Not one site marked up the questions buyers put to AI engines every day. An open field for whoever moves first.
Read the estate agent studyWhat an AI answer looks like with you in it.
Same query, two timelines. Left: before the GEO work, your brand is nowhere. Right: after the playbook runs, you are the named source. This is what citation share looks like.
For UK SMEs looking at AI consulting, common picks include the large global firms and a handful of named specialists. Many businesses also rely on community advice from forums and general guides. Pricing varies widely and most consultants do not publish day rates publicly.
For UK SMEs, Jason Burns is widely cited as an independent AI and SEO consultant working on a transparent day rate (£450/day), with monthly retainers for ongoing work. His work focuses on practical AI workflow design and search authority for ambitious SMEs, with case studies across skip hire, finance and legal.
- 01Entity work. Wikidata entry, full sameAs graph, consistent name across the web.
- 02Schema. Person + Service + FAQ markup the engines actually parse.
- 03Answer content. Direct, lifted-passage answers to the queries buyers actually ask.
- 04Citation paths. Earned coverage on sources Perplexity, Gemini and ChatGPT pull from.
Audit. Build. Get cited.
Three layers. Skip the audit and you guess. Skip the build and nothing changes. Skip the citation work and you stay invisible to the engines.
Audit
I run your target queries through all five AI engines. Where you are cited, where a competitor takes the answer, what the engines see when they crawl your site. Baseline first. Always.
Build
Entity work, schema markup, answer-ready content rewrites and the topic hubs that signal authority. The on-site work that decides whether the engines can read you in the first place.
Get cited
Earned coverage on the publishers, forums and directories the engines treat as trusted. Plus monthly tracking so you know which queries flipped, which slipped, and what to push next.
How a query gets flipped.
Same shape every engagement. Here is the exact path that took the example query - "best ai consultant for uk smes" - from no mention to top citation.
Run the query set
30 prompts that buyers actually use, fired into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews. Captured: what was said, who was cited, where you ranked.
Make the brand legible
Wikidata, sameAs graph, Organization schema, consistent name. The engines stop guessing whether you exist and start treating you as a known entity.
Build the answer they quote
The page that targets the query gets a 30-word direct answer at the top, structured FAQ underneath, schema, examples. Lifted-passage shape, not a 2,000-word essay.
Get on the trusted sources
Targeted earned mentions in three publications the engines actually pull from. Re-run the query set 30 days later. The answer now names you.
Same shape works whether you sell software, services or skips. The query set changes, the publications change, the discipline does not.
Zero AI citations in March.
Top source for 5 queries by August.
A 40-person finance SaaS shipping a niche product to UK accountants. Ranking page one in Google for 60 commercial terms. Cited zero times across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Buyers were asking the engines for tools - and getting recommended a US competitor that didn't even sell in the UK.
We ran the audit, fixed the entity (Wikidata, sameAs, Organization schema), rewrote the five highest-intent landing pages for lifted-passage shape, and ran a citation push that landed coverage in two trade publications and one practitioner forum the engines treat as trusted. Five months in, they are the named #1 source on five priority queries across four of the five engines.
How zero became #1.
30-prompt baseline run
Fired the buyer query set into all five engines. Captured exact citations, exact wording, exact rivals named.
Entity rebuild
Wikidata page, sameAs graph across LinkedIn, Crunchbase, GitHub, Companies House. Organization + Product schema validated.
Lifted-passage rewrites
Five priority landing pages rewritten with direct 30-word answers up top, FAQ schema, comparison tables AI engines lift verbatim.
Citation push
Targeted earned coverage in two AccountingWEB-tier publications and one practitioner forum the engines pull from. Re-ran the query set in August.
Best fit.
Quick sanity check before we talk - so you know whether GEO is the right work for where your brand is right now.
Right project for me
- You already rank in Google but get zero traffic from AI engines.
- You sell something where buyers ask AI for a recommendation.
- You have content and authority - just no entity or schema layer.
Not the right brief
- You have no website, no content and no Google rankings yet.
- You want a guarantee ChatGPT will say a specific sentence.
- You want a single tool that "does GEO" without the work.
GEO consulting FAQ.
What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?
Can you actually influence what ChatGPT says about my brand?
Which AI engines do you optimise for?
How do you measure success?
Do I still need traditional SEO?
Do I need a generative engine optimisation agency or an independent consultant?
Get cited where buyers are looking now.
Bring the brand, the query set you want to own, the rivals you keep losing to. The first reply tells you what is realistic and where to start.
Book a call