GEO Audit
A scored audit of your AI visibility against the leverage hierarchy, with baseline measurement across engines and a prioritized roadmap — quick wins separated from strategic work.
Fixed scope · 1–2 weeksGEO — Generative Engine Optimization by Travis Zhang, Vancouver
Generative Engine Optimization — Vancouver, BC · Remote worldwide
When AI answers,
make it name you.
People no longer just search — they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI which product to use and whom to hire. GEO is the discipline of becoming the brand those answers cite. I audit, implement and measure it — with an open methodology and no hype.
(01) — The one idea most checklists miss
On-site work makes you eligible. Off-site citations are what make AI recommend you.
Schema, llms.txt and answer-first content matter — but the dominant lever, by far, is how many trusted places across the web cite or mention you: Reddit threads, "best-of" listicles, Wikidata, journalist and data mentions. My engagements lead with that lever, and every recommendation is graded by evidence strength.
(02) — Method
Five phases, open source
The full methodology is published as geo-engine — an open-source engagement kit distilled from real builds. You can read exactly what I do before hiring me to do it.
00
Scope & baseline
Pick your archetype, define the target prompts real customers ask, and record where AI ranks you today — the honest starting line.
01
Audit
Score the site against the leverage hierarchy. You receive a prioritized roadmap: quick wins first, strategic work labelled as such.
02
On-site
AI-crawler access, structured data, answer-first content, original-data assets — everything that makes you extractable and eligible.
03
Off-site
The real lever: Reddit presence, original-data outreach to journalists, best-of listicles, Wikidata — trusted third-party corpora that AI engines actually draw from.
04
Measure & report
The same target prompts, re-run monthly across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini — plus Qwen and Kimi for the Chinese market. Mention rate, citations and share of voice, tracked on a live dashboard.
(03) — Case studies
The method, applied to real sites
CanPay Insights
Data / tool product · canpayinsights.ca
A free Canadian take-home-pay and payroll calculator. The original-data and off-site playbook in geo-engine came from this build — provincial tax comparisons designed to be the statistic journalists and AI answers cite.
Visit the site →Travis Zhang Photography
Service / local business · traviszhang.com
This very site. The on-site and entity playbook — schema graph, Wikidata entity, bilingual service pages, llms.txt — was developed and applied here for the Vancouver architectural-photography market.
Visit the site →An honest note: GEO compounds over weeks to months, and AI answers are non-deterministic — anyone promising "guaranteed AI placement" is selling you weather control. What I promise instead: the highest-leverage work first, and measurement you can verify — the same prompts, re-run monthly, results on a dashboard you can log into.
(04) — Services
Three ways to engage
Implementation
I execute the roadmap: on-site structure, schema and answer-first content, then the off-site citation work that actually moves recommendations.
Most popular · 4–8 weeksMonthly Retainer
Ongoing off-site building plus monthly measurement and reporting. Your target prompts re-run across engines every month; you watch mention rate move on a live dashboard.
Ongoing · individuals & companies(05) — Questions
Asked often
What is GEO, in one sentence?
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work that makes AI assistants name and cite your brand when people ask for recommendations — combining on-site structure with citations across trusted third-party sources, the dominant lever.
Can you guarantee my brand shows up in ChatGPT?
No — and nobody honestly can. AI answers are non-deterministic and personalized. What I do is systematically raise the probability of being mentioned and measure it monthly, so you see the trend instead of taking my word for it.
How long until results?
GEO compounds over weeks to months. On-site fixes make you eligible quickly; off-site citations — the lever that moves recommendations — build over one to three months and keep compounding after that.
How is this different from SEO?
SEO optimizes for ranked links; GEO optimizes for being the answer. AI engines synthesize from sources they trust, so third-party mentions, original data and extractable structure matter more than keyword positions. Good GEO usually helps SEO too — the reverse is not always true.
Do you cover the Chinese market?
Yes — I work bilingually (English / 中文) and measure Chinese AI engines (通义千问 Qwen, Kimi) alongside the Western ones, for brands targeting either or both markets.
(06) — Contact
Let's make AI
recommend you.
[email protected]
Tell me your site (or brand), your market, and the three questions you most want AI to answer with your name. I'll reply within a day with whether GEO can honestly help — and if it can't, I'll say so.