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Callum
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AEO & GEO
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ChatGPT SEO describes work intended to help a business be discovered and accurately represented in ChatGPT's answers. A practical starting point is clear service information, evidence customers can assess and public pages that search tools can access. There is no guaranteed position or universal prompt that proves a business has “ranked”.
For Australian business owners, the useful question is whether prospective customers can understand what you offer, where you work and why you may suit their needs. This guide shows how to review those foundations and measure progress without confusing a mention with a new client.
Understand what appearing in ChatGPT means
A business can appear in several ways. An answer may name it among possible providers, describe it in response to a direct question or cite an article from its website. These are different outcomes. A citation to an educational page does not necessarily recommend the company's services.
ChatGPT can search public web information, but discovery is not a fixed results page shared by every user. The wording and context of the question matter. Test the situations your customers face rather than asking only whether ChatGPT knows your company name.
OpenAI's crawler documentation explains the role of OAI-SearchBot in ChatGPT search. Allowing access makes content available for consideration; it does not guarantee selection.
Choose a small set of useful customer questions
Start with enquiries you want more of. Identify the service, location and buying constraints a genuine prospect might mention. A specialist business should include the type of customer it serves, rather than testing only a broad industry label.
For an illustrative commercial interiors business, relevant questions might include “What should I compare before choosing an office fitout designer?” and “Which designers work on small office fitouts in Melbourne?” The first asks for advice; the second asks for suppliers.
Build your list from real sales conversations. Do not add your company name to every question. That tests recognition after prompting, rather than whether someone could discover you independently.
A practical information audit for AI discovery. A preparation checklist, not a guaranteed ranking formula.
Audit the information customers can find
Area to review | What a customer should be able to establish | Useful improvement |
|---|---|---|
Service pages | What you do and who it suits | Explain scope, suitability and next steps directly |
Location information | Where you operate and how the service is delivered | Correct outdated details and clarify genuine coverage |
Project evidence | What you have actually delivered | Add approved examples with context and your role |
Team information | Who is responsible for the work | Keep relevant experience and qualifications accurate |
External profiles | Whether important business facts agree | Correct old names, URLs and service descriptions |
Enquiry journey | How to discuss a suitable project | Test the contact path on mobile and desktop |
Record each issue, its source and the person who can fix it. Start with inaccurate information and important gaps before commissioning a large quantity of new content.
Give clear answers with enough context
Begin a page section with the answer a customer needs, then explain the conditions. If your price depends on scope, describe what changes the scope. If a service is unsuitable for certain projects, say so. These details help people make a decision and reduce ambiguity.
For example, a photographer's service page could explain whether the engagement includes planning, the shoot, image selection and retouching. The actual inclusions must come from that business; generic claims about “complete solutions” leave the buyer guessing.
Keep explanations readable and useful. Do not distort them into repetitive keyword passages or tiny fragments for an imagined AI formula. A standalone buying guide is worth creating when it answers a substantial question that does not fit naturally on a service page.
Support claims with genuine evidence
A project story can explain the client's starting point, the constraints, your contribution and what was delivered. Share client names, images and feedback only with permission. If there is no measured business result, describe the work without inventing one.
Useful evidence does not need a dramatic percentage. A clearly explained design decision, an approved before-and-after example or a practical account of a project constraint can help a prospective client assess your judgement.
Keep relevant external profiles current too. Genuine industry listings and independent coverage can give customers more information to assess. Do not treat a purchased batch of unrelated mentions as proof of expertise or a guaranteed route into AI recommendations.
Ask your developer to check access
Give your developer a focused brief: review the important public pages, check crawler permissions and security restrictions, and confirm that essential information is available as readable text. Investigate unintended restrictions rather than opening private content.
OpenAI documents different crawlers and their purposes in its crawler documentation. Search access and model-training access should be considered separately. Do not broadly change every bot rule simply because the business wants better search visibility.
For Google, established SEO fundamentals remain relevant. Check its current AI optimisation guidance rather than assuming Google's requirements map directly to ChatGPT.
Record each outcome without assuming the next. Use dated question logs and keep attribution limitations visible.
Measure mentions, citations and enquiries separately
Use a consistent testing log. Record the date, exact question, location context, whether web search was used, the answer and any cited sources. Save enough detail to compare like with like and investigate inaccurate statements.
Observation | What to record | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
Business mention | How the business is described and in what context | A website visit or sales recommendation |
Website citation | Which page is linked and what claim it supports | That the person clicked or became a prospect |
Referral visit | Available analytics source and landing page | The visitor's full discovery journey |
Qualified enquiry | Customer fit and stated discovery source | That one specific content change caused it |
Repeat the same question set on separate occasions and investigate patterns. One missing mention is not enough to diagnose a technical fault. One favourable answer is not proof of a lasting ranking.
Ask new prospects how they found you, with an optional opportunity to mention AI tools. Some people may read an answer, search your business later and contact you through another route. Keep that uncertainty visible in reporting.
Build a practical ChatGPT visibility plan
Begin with an information audit, agree the most useful page improvements and assign responsibility for technical checks. Then establish a baseline for the customer questions you want to track. This gives you something concrete to review instead of chasing every new optimisation claim.
Creato's AEO and GEO service focuses on AI visibility, alongside our SEO work and design-led website foundations. Share your website and priority services so we can discuss the information, evidence and enquiry journey your business needs. The goal is relevant discovery and a clear representation of your business, assessed with realistic measures rather than guaranteed recommendations.
