GEO Casa · deck 3 of 4
GEO by business situation
New brand · wrong answers · local shop · regulated · choosing an agency
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Why doesn't AI mention a new brand yet?
In DATA17's sample of one software category, only 18 of 171 brands were mentioned at all.
Observation · 2026-08 · DATA17 AI Research Lab · 解数智能On "best cola" questions, major brands took 56.3% of ChatGPT's mentions and niche brands 12.3%.
Research · Chen, Wang, Chen and Koudas (University of Toronto), arXiv:2509.08919
If you aren't named yet, work out what is missing and build it.
Which questions should a new brand target first?
Win the question you are really the best answer to. Broad category questions come later, if at all.
Read the full guideFounders and marketing leads
New brand: the first five moves
- 1Let search engines and AI crawlers reach your site
- 2Publish one clear facts page about who you are
- 3Claim official listings: business profile, product feed, app store
- 4Target narrow questions you truly answer best
- 5Earn the first independent reviews
Start where you are the best answer.Read the full guide
Make AI know who you are
A new brand has few sources, so the ones you control must be clear and consistent.
Google builds Knowledge Panels automatically once there is enough information on the open web, from public sources, licensed data and content owners.
Official · Google Knowledge Panel HelpGoogle: organization structured data on your home page can help it understand your organization and tell it apart in search results.
Official · Google Search CentralOpenAI: without search, ChatGPT answers from training data up to a cutoff. With search, it can cite current web sources.
Official · OpenAI Help Center
One facts page, and the same name and description everywhere.
New brand: what to do, in order
The early steps take days. Outside coverage is the slow part, so start it early.
- Step 1Ask
- Ask assistants "What is [brand]?"
- Note any name you share with others
- Step 2Be reachable
- Fix crawler access, get indexed
- Submit sitemaps to Google, Bing, Baidu
- Step 3Be unambiguous
- Publish one facts page
- Add organization markup with sameAs
- Claim official listings
- OngoingEarn and measure
- First independent reviews and press
- 10–20 narrow questions, many runs each
Recognition by name usually moves before category mentions.Read the full guide
Myth: buy mentions everywhere
Get mentioned on as many blogs, forums and videos as possible and AI will recommend you.
Unsupported. Google says manufactured mentions help less than they seem, and its spam rules cover manipulating AI answers. Genuine coverage is part of what AI reads; seeded posts are what it tries to block.
Google: "seeking inauthentic 'mentions' across the web isn't as helpful as it might seem."Official · Google Search Central
Wrong answers: find them first
Run a short brand-fact question set every month and log each error by type.
OpenAI says ChatGPT can give incorrect or misleading answers and sound confident when wrong, including wrong facts, dates and made-up citations.
Official · OpenAI Help CenterA 2026 PR agency report sorts AI errors about brands into four types: invented facts, misattributed sources, contradictions, and outdated info shown as current.
Observation · 2026-05 · 万卓睿桥
Log each error by type, because the type points to the fix.
When AI gets you wrong, fix the source first
Most wrong answers can be traced to a source page. Platform feedback only reports a problem.
Read the full guide"AI says something wrong about us"
Walk through it in order: your pages, the cited source, then the platform.
1Are the facts on your own pages current?
Correct the page, add an updated date and a correction note, and fix the same fact in FAQs, PDFs and markup.
2Have you opened every page the answer cites?
The cited page is usually the cause. Check complaint sites, registries, old listings and press too.
3Have third-party sources been asked to correct it?
Ask the editor, use the listing's owner process, answer the complaint, or follow the encyclopedia's rules.
4Is it clear you aren't another company with a similar name?
Entity confusion. Tighten your facts page, organization markup and knowledge panel.
5Have you reported it in-platform, linking the corrected pages?
Use the feedback button after the source is fixed. It reports the problem; it doesn't edit the answer.
Re-check monthly and after each model update. If the errors look deliberate, keep evidence and involve legal counsel.
Correction channels and their limits
Each channel reports or requests. None lets you edit an AI answer directly.
| Channel | What you can do | Limit | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own site | Correct, date and note the fact | Search-based answers re-read it | Official |
| Google knowledge panel | Claim it, or send Feedback with proof links | Text changes when the source changes | Official |
| Google AI Overview | Thumbs-down, Report a problem | Reports only | Official |
| ChatGPT | Privacy portal correction request | Personal data about individuals only | Official |
| Baidu Baike | Submit with media reports or registry records | Key company facts need sources | Official |
| Chinese assistants | In-app feedback, plus fixing sources | No public brand-correction process found | Observation |
Chinese assistants row: one PR agency's client cases (observed 2026-05); its method was not disclosed.
Wrong answers: keep them from coming back
Most errors return through stale pages. A small routine stops that.
- One facts page you always update first
- Organization markup that matches it
- Prices, products, people or address change: update listings that week
- Retire or redirect old price and product pages
- Monthly brand-fact questions and an error log
- Never answer with mass rebuttal articles
Feedback buttons only report a problem. Correcting the source is what lasts.Read the full guide
Local shops: what must AI confirm before recommending you?
Google: local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity.
Official · Google Business Profile Help
Illustration; made-up shop.
One name, spelled one way everywhere, is the cheapest GEO work a shop can do.
What an assistant may read about your shop
Complaint and registry sites get cited too. Fix what others publish, not only your own page.
Read the full guideLocal shop: one name, spelled one way
Google requires a Business Profile name to reflect the real-world name. Adding unnecessary information can get the profile suspended.
Official · Google Business Profile HelpIn a Hefei study, one Pilates studio was recommended under three names (81, 60 and 17 times), and Qwen said it was guessing two names were one studio.
Observation · 2026-08 · 合肥图灵象人工智能科技有限公司
Before recommending a shop, an assistant needs to confirm it exists and its details match.
Local shop: the listings AI reads
Map and review profiles matter, and so do pages few shops look after.
| Where | What to do | Why | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Fill every field, keep it current | Complete, accurate info shows up more | Official |
| Dianping, Meituan, Amap | Claim and complete the listing | Review platforms: 324 citations | Observation |
| Local classifieds | Correct old prices and addresses | Most cited: 28% of citations | Observation |
| Complaint platforms | Resolve and record the outcome | 23.9% of DeepSeek's citations | Observation |
| Business registry | Show the current name and address | With complaint sites: 201 citations | Observation |
| Your own website | Answer niche customer questions | Niche questions: in 34% of answers vs 77% | Observation |
Observation rows: one vendor study of Pilates studios in Hefei, 3,469 citations, observed 2026-08.
Local shop: earn reviews, never buy them
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking.
Official · Google Business Profile HelpGoogle Maps removes paid or incentivised reviews, and bars merchants from discouraging negative reviews or asking only happy customers.
Official · Google Maps HelpChina's revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law, in force from 15 October 2025, forbids misleading claims about user reviews and organising fake reviews.
Official · 上海市市场监督管理局
Ask every customer the same way, and reply with facts and what you changed.
Local shop: monthly routine
Six things, none of which needs an agency.
- Claim and complete map and review listings
- Same name, address, phone and hours everywhere
- Earn real reviews and reply; never buy them
- Fix classifieds, registry and complaint pages
- Write customer FAQs as plain text on your site
- Ask assistants real customer questions each month
Where should the money go? Into work you can re-test, not into a rank.Read the full guide
Health, money, law: compliance comes first
China's Advertising Law bans superlatives such as "best" and bars medical ads from guaranteeing efficacy or citing cure rates.
Official · 国家市场监督管理总局Investment ads must carry risk warnings and must not promise returns.
Official · 国家市场监督管理总局
If you couldn't say it in an ad, don't put it in an article.
Health, money, law: the publishing workflow
In health, money and law, being cited wrongly is worse than not being cited at all.
Read the full guideHealthcare: keep education and ads apart
China bans disguised medical, drug and health-food ads presented as health knowledge. Such pages must not show the provider's contact or purchase link.
Official · 中国政府网（国务院公报 2023年第16号）IQVIA authors report that Doubao and DeepSeek often add competitor information or risk warnings when citing one-sided drug content.
Observation · 2026-06 · 艾昆纬（IQVIA）· 上海零假设信息科技In one case, DeepSeek left out a cancer drug's new first-line indication and cited subgroup data from two years earlier.
Observation · 2026-06 · 艾昆纬（IQVIA）· 上海零假设信息科技
A disease explainer that ends with your booking link is the pattern Article 8 targets.
Law firms: show who stands behind the advice
Law is a YMYL topic. No badge or markup makes a page trustworthy; these signals help.
- Author's name, qualification and licence number
- A named reviewer and the date of review
- Citations to statutes and official sources
- Who runs the site and how to reach them
- Who a service is for, and who it is not for
- Fees and conditions next to the benefits
Write it as a careful professional would explain it to a client.Read the full guide
Finance: compliance in from day one
Analysys's finance GEO report advises bringing legal and compliance in at the diagnostic stage, to agree red lines before content work starts.
Observation · 2026-03 · 易观分析Google gives even more weight to strong E-E-A-T on YMYL topics, which could significantly affect health, financial stability or safety.
Official · Google Search Central
Agree a standing list of approved facts, such as rates, fees and conditions.
Choosing an agency: spot the red flags
Tap a pitch to see why it's a red flag.
CCTV's 2026 3·15 show found a GEO tool got two AI models to recommend a fitness band that did not exist.Observation · 2026-03 · 第一财经
Choosing an agency: ask how they measure
Miaozhen found results reach basic stability only at 30 or more runs per prompt. Low-visibility brands need 60 or more.
Observation · 2025-09 · 中国商务广告协会AI营销应用工作委员会 · 秒针营销科学院A provider saw one client studio's recommendation rate move between 10% and 68% within two months, ending at 40%.
Observation · 2026-08 · 合肥图灵象人工智能科技有限公司NBD's GEO Red Book says GEO should not promise fixed recommendations, set short-term sales, or single-run screenshots as proof.
Observation · 2026-06 · 每经AI智库
Single results swing. Look at the trend over several rounds.
Choosing an agency: pilot, rerun, decide
Start with a paid pilot, not a year-long contract.
Read the full guideChoosing an agency: put it in the contract
Write these terms in before you sign.
- A baseline measured before work starts
- The question set and sampling rules (30+ runs)
- Named deliverables: pages, fixes, coverage
- Raw answer data belongs to you
- Banned tactics: fake reviews, mass posting, poisoning
- You rerun the same questions before renewing
You should be able to re-run the agency's numbers yourself.Read the full guide
What do the five situations share?
In each, do only work you can check. Each slide condenses a full guide. Read the guide for the evidence behind it.