A page of ten blue links
The customer scanned a list, opened three or four tabs and compared businesses on their own.
ProximityRanker
AI Search Optimization
AI Search Optimization: Be the Business ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Perplexity Name
People now ask ChatGPT and Google AI which dentist, lawyer or gym to trust. I make your business the name the answer gives.
Get your free auditNo cost, no obligation, no lock-in contract.
who is the best orthodontist near me for adult Invisalign, and what should I check before booking?
ChatGPT answer
CitedYour Business · Adult InvisalignYour Business · Meet the orthodontist
Illustrative. The tabs cycle through how each engine answers. A real business is named and cited the same way.
What it is
What is AI search optimization?
AI search optimization is the work of getting a business named and cited inside the answers that ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot give when someone asks which business to use. It goes by AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization), and it comes down to three things: one consistent, verifiable identity for the business everywhere online, pages that answer real questions in a form an engine can quote, and the third-party sources these engines trust mentioning you the same way.
- Baseline: what the engines say about you today
- Identity and entity work
- Quotable pages
- Credentials and proof
- Reviews and outside sources
- Monthly checks and reporting
Why this matters now
How customers search has changed
Search is moving from a page of links to a single answer that names a few businesses. Whether you sell legal help, dental care or home repairs, this is the shift your business is being sorted by, whether or not anyone is optimizing for it.
One answer that names a few businesses
For a dental implant, choose a practice that places and restores implants in house and lists the dentist's credentials. Practices near you that do this include:
Your businessCitedA competitorA directory listing
The engine picks the names. A business it cannot verify, or cannot quote, is not in the answer at all.
Illustrative. The comparison shows how the shape of a search result has changed, not figures about any client or market.
One unambiguous identity
The same business name, address, phone, categories and people on your website, your Business Profile, the directories and the professional listings. An engine that finds two versions of you cites neither.
A page it can quote
A real page per service or question, with the answer stated plainly near the top in a form a model can lift: what it is, who it is for, what it costs, how it works. Thin service pages and clever headlines give the engine nothing to quote.
Credentials it can verify
Named people with licenses, specialties and experience that match the public record. For clinics and law firms this is the signal that decides it, because the engines are cautious about medical and legal answers and prefer sources they can check.
Structure it can read
Schema for the business, each location, each person and each service, mirrored to the visible text. Clean headings, real paragraphs, FAQs that stay open on the page. The engines read code and copy together and reward agreement between them.
Reviews that say what you do
A steady flow of genuine reviews that mention the service, the person and the outcome in the customer's own words. Engines read reviews as evidence, and 'great Invisalign experience with Dr. X' is evidence in a way 'five stars' is not.
Freshness and outside mentions
Pages updated when prices, rules or staff change, and mentions on the directories, associations and local sources the engines already trust for your industry. A business the wider web talks about is a business the engine is willing to name.
What we do
What AI search optimization includes
Baseline: what the engines say about you today
- Your customers' real questions asked in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with the answers recorded
- Who is named instead of you, which pages are cited, and what those pages have that yours do not
- Where your identity is inconsistent or missing across the web, listed source by source
- A ranked plan: the gaps that will move citations first
Identity and entity work
- One canonical name, address, phone, category set and description applied everywhere you appear
- Organization, LocalBusiness and Person schema tied together with stable identifiers
- Professional listings and directories claimed and corrected, so the engines find one version of you
- Your people named consistently, with credentials that match the public record
Quotable pages
- A page per service or question, with a plain answer near the top an engine can lift cleanly
- Pricing, process, eligibility and what-to-expect content written the way a customer asks
- FAQs that stay open on the page, matched word for word to the FAQPage schema
- Existing pages restructured rather than rewritten where the substance is already good
Credentials and proof
- License numbers, specialties, memberships and experience surfaced where the engines look
- Author attribution on medical and legal content, approved by the professional who signs off
- Case types, procedures and conditions you handle named explicitly, not implied
- Disclaimers and compliance language kept where your profession requires them
Reviews and outside sources
- A review routine that produces reviews mentioning the service and the person
- The directories, associations and local sources the engines cite for your industry, claimed and consistent
- Mentions earned from real sources, never bought, because the engines discount what looks bought
- Your best reviews surfaced on the site in the reviewer's words, with review schema
Monthly checks and reporting
- Your top customer questions re-asked in each engine every month, with the answers compared to last month
- New citations, lost citations and competitor movements reported in plain words
- Pages updated when prices, rules, staff or services change, so the engines never quote a stale fact
- AI referral traffic and leads separated out in your analytics, so you can see this work paying
Meet the founder
AI search optimization, done by the founder himself
I’m Ashikur Rahman, founder of Proximity Ranker. I have worked in SEO since 2017, and AI search is where I have spent the most time since the answer engines arrived: testing what ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity actually cite for clinics, law firms and local businesses, and building the pages and identity signals that get a business named.
The work is hands-on. I run your money questions through the engines, read what they cite today, then write the quotable pages, fix the entity data and build the review and citation signals myself. You see the before and after in the engines, not on a slide, and you work with me from the first call to the monthly check.
Book a call and you talk to me directly, not an account manager.
How it runs
The first 90 days of AI search optimization
No lock-in contract. AI search is new enough that anyone promising a guaranteed citation is guessing, so I promise the work and show you the engines' answers every month instead.
- Day 0
Ask the engines your customers' questions
I ask ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot the questions your customers really ask, record who is named and what is cited, and compare those sources with your site and listings. You get the baseline and a ranked plan, free.
Engine baselineWho is citedIdentity gapsRanked plan - Month 1
Make your business one unambiguous entity
The same identity everywhere, the schema tied together, the directories and professional listings corrected, and your people named with credentials that match the record. This is the foundation the engines need before they will name anyone.
IdentitySchemaListingsCredentials - Month 2
Build the pages worth quoting
A quotable page per service and question, FAQs that stay open, pricing and process content in the customer's words, and the review routine that produces evidence in the customer's words too.
Quotable pagesFAQsPricing contentReview routine - Month 3
Re-ask, compare, report
The same questions asked again in every engine, with new and lost citations, competitor movements and AI referral traffic reported in plain words. From here it is a monthly routine, and the pages get updated whenever a fact changes.
Re-checkCitationsAI trafficMonthly routine
What is the difference between AI search optimization, AEO and GEO?
They are names for the same job. AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) both mean getting your business cited inside AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, rather than only ranked in the blue links. Some agencies also say LLM SEO or AI SEO. Whatever it is called, the work is the same: one verifiable identity, pages an engine can quote, and the outside sources it trusts mentioning you.
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
By being the easiest business for it to verify and quote. ChatGPT pulls a small number of sources per answer and favors pages that state a clear answer, name credentialed people and agree with what the rest of the web says about the business. Fix your identity everywhere, build a real page per service with the answer near the top, keep your reviews flowing, and get listed on the sources ChatGPT already cites for your industry. Then ask it your customers' questions every month and adjust.
How do I show up in Google AI Overviews?
AI Overviews draw on pages that already rank well for the question and that state the answer plainly in a form Google can summarize. So the foundation is ordinary good SEO: a page that ranks for the question, with a clear answer near the top, structured data that matches the visible text and a business identity Google trusts. Then the specifics: FAQs that stay open, named authors with credentials, and content kept current. I build for both at once because they are the same pages.
Is AI search optimization worth it for a small local business?
Yes, and it is cheaper now than it will be. Most local competitors have done nothing about it, so a business with one clean identity and a few genuinely quotable pages can become the name the engines give for its services in its city while the field is still open. The same work also improves your ordinary Google rankings, because the engines and Google reward the same clarity.
How much does AI search optimization cost?
Agencies have started selling AEO and GEO as a separate retainer at a premium, often on top of SEO. I do not split them, because the pages, the schema and the identity work are the same work. The free baseline comes first, then I quote one all-in program against what your business actually needs. No lock-in.
How long does it take to get cited by AI engines?
Identity fixes and quotable pages can start appearing in answers within a few weeks to a few months, depending on how often the engines refresh their sources and how crowded your market is. Lower-competition services and questions move first. I re-ask your customers' questions in every engine monthly and show you the answers, so you see the movement rather than take my word for it.
Does AI search optimization replace SEO?
No, it sits on top of it. The engines lean heavily on pages that already rank, on Google Business Profile data and on the same directories and reviews that drive local SEO. A business with weak SEO will struggle to be cited no matter how well its pages are structured. I run them as one program because they are built from the same parts.
Can you guarantee my business will be cited by ChatGPT?
No, and anyone who says they can is guessing. The engines change how they pick sources and nobody outside those companies controls it. What I can guarantee is the work and the visibility: every signal the engines are known to use, built properly, and your customers' real questions asked in every engine every month so you can see exactly what they say and how it changes.
Which industries does AI search optimization matter most for?
Any business a customer researches before choosing, which is almost every local business, and especially clinics and law firms, where people ask the engines whether they need a professional at all and which one to trust. Dental, medical specialties, legal and higher-value local services see the clearest effect because the question is high-stakes and the engine is cautious about who it names.
Who writes the content, and is it reviewed?
I draft it and you approve every word before it publishes. For medical and legal content a clinician or an attorney signs off, because the engines are cautious about those topics and because the professional judgment has to be yours. My degrees are in law, an LL.B and an LL.M in International Law, which helps me read the rules a page is built on, but I am not a licensed US attorney and give no legal or medical advice.
Do you lock clients into a long contract?
No. Nothing is locked in and you can leave at any time. The pages, the schema and the listings are yours and keep working.
What does the free AI search baseline include?
Your customers' real questions asked in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with the answers recorded: who is named, which pages are cited, and what those pages have that yours do not. Plus every place your identity is inconsistent across the web, and a ranked plan. Returned inside 24 to 48 hours, at no cost and with no obligation.
Free audit
See what ChatGPT says about your business today
I ask the engines your customers' real questions and show you what they say today: who is named, which pages are cited, and where you are invisible. Back with you in 24 to 48 hours, at no cost.
Get your free auditNo cost, no obligation, no lock-in contract.