95% of businesses vanish the moment someone asks ChatGPT for a recommendation. They simply do not exist in the answer. That is the new reality.
AI visibility is the degree to which your business is recommended or cited when users ask an AI for advice, options, or vendors. It has nothing to do with where you rank on Google. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) are two names for the same discipline: getting cited by AI.
ChatGPT recommends 1.2% of locations. Gemini 11%. Perplexity 7.4%.
Compare that to Google's local pack at 35.9%. AI visibility is three to thirty times harder than traditional ranking. Less than 1-in-100 chance two identical AI lists appear when the same query runs 100 times. 25% drop in traditional search by 2026.
| SEO | AI Visibility | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary goal | Rank #1 on results page | Become the cited recommendation |
| Success metric | CTR | Top-3 rate across LLMs |
| Method | Keywords and backlinks | Entity richness and verifiable facts |
| User intent | Browsing/researching | Deciding/buying |
Research shows the right mix of citations, entity clarity, and expert-style language can lift visibility by up to 40%. The levers: verifiable facts, consistent presence in high-authority directories, and content that AI can quote without risk.