A lead found me last week, ChatGPT recommended me when they asked for an AI consultant in Zurich.
During the last year I haven't paid for one ad or campaign to find clients. I've spent months rebuilding parts of my site for this. GEO, generative engine optimization, basically: is ChatGPT or Gemini citing me when someone asks a question, instead of just ranking me on Google.
I speak on my website the way I speak to my clients, an actual FAQ, real questions my clients have asked me, instead of a vague "about" page and of course, the client names, the companies I've worked with, the people I've worked with.
Turns out LinkedIn plays into this more than I expected 😉 Recent data on AI citations shows LinkedIn is now one of the most cited sources across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode, ahead of Wikipedia and most news sites. And it's not the posts with the most likes that get picked up. It's the ones with specific details, real names, real situations. Engagement barely matters. Specificity does.
The truth is, there's still no real playbook. No Semrush, no dashboard that tells you exactly what's working. I know basic SEO, structure, keywords. GEO is mostly search, try, see what happens, then adjust based on what little data exists.
What I've noticed so far: clarity beats polish. A plain sentence saying what you actually do gets pulled by these tools more than three paragraphs of "strategic positioning." Direct answers matter more than narrative pages, because we need to answer the actual question someone asked!
None of this is proven on its own. It's a year of trying, improving, mixing technical knowledge with expertise, something I recently connected to Neil Patel's E-E-A-T framework: experience, expertise, authority, trustworthy.
If you ignore this, your competitors quietly become the answer AI gives when someone asks for what you do. You won't know until a lead casually mentions it, like mine just did.
I test this on my own business before I bring it to a client. It takes TIME and patience but if you're a good professional, it gives real results.
If this is something you're navigating for your own company, happy to compare notes.
PS: I don't have all the answers on GEO but the proof that most of my clients now find me through AI, inbound, no ads, proves something 😏