Something has quietly changed about how people search — and most NZ small businesses haven't caught up yet. When someone asks Google "who's the best plumber in Napier?" or "recommend a café near Havelock North", they're increasingly not clicking through ten blue links. They're reading an AI-generated answer at the top of the page that names specific businesses directly.
That answer comes from one of several AI tools: Google's AI Overviews (built into Google Search), ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini. And the businesses it names were chosen — in large part — based on whether they'd done the work to be findable by those AI systems.
That work has a name: GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation.
What is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It's the practice of optimising your business's online presence so that AI search tools — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude — cite your business in their answers.
Traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is about ranking in Google's blue link results. GEO is about appearing in the AI-generated answers that now sit above those results — and in standalone AI tools that people use instead of Google entirely.
The difference matters because the dynamics are completely different. Google's blue links show many options and the user chooses. AI answers often name one, two, or three businesses — and the rest don't exist in that conversation. For the businesses that get named, the trust transfer is enormous. The AI is implicitly endorsing them.
How big is this, really?
In NZ, AI search adoption is still catching up to global trends, but the direction is clear. Google now triggers an AI Overview for roughly 40% of searches. ChatGPT has become a mainstream research tool. Perplexity is growing rapidly as an alternative to Google for people who want direct answers rather than a list of links.
More importantly, the demographic doing this is your next wave of customers. Younger customers, tech-forward customers, and people making considered purchase decisions (choosing a tradie, a physio, an accountant) are increasingly starting their search with an AI tool rather than a Google search box.
How do AI tools decide who to cite?
AI search engines build answers from a combination of sources. The main signals they look for:
- Structured data (schema markup) — JSON-LD code on your website that explicitly tells AI systems what your business is, what it does, where it operates, and what people say about it
- FAQ and Q&A content — content written to directly answer the questions people ask, in conversational language that mirrors how AI prompts are written
- Entity consistency — your business name, address, phone number, and description appearing consistently across your website, Google Business Profile, directories, and social profiles
- Authority signals — mentions on credible external sources, Google reviews, and backlinks that establish you as a legitimate, trusted business in your category
- AI crawler access — many NZ websites accidentally block AI crawlers like GPTBot and ClaudeBot through misconfigured robots.txt files, making them invisible to AI tools entirely
What can NZ businesses do right now?
The good news: the NZ market is early. Most of your local competitors haven't started thinking about GEO yet. That's a genuine first-mover advantage for businesses that act now.
Here are the highest-leverage starting points:
- Check your robots.txt — go to yourdomain.co.nz/robots.txt and make sure you're not blocking GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, or Google-Extended. Many NZ sites block these accidentally.
- Add schema markup — implement Organisation, LocalBusiness, or Service schema on your website. This is the single most important technical GEO signal.
- Write FAQ content — add a properly structured FAQ section to your homepage and service pages that answers the questions your customers ask AI tools. This is the content format AI engines pull from most consistently.
- Build entity consistency — make sure your business name, address, phone, and description are identical across your website, Google Business Profile, and all directory listings.
- Create an llms.txt file — this emerging standard (similar to robots.txt but for AI systems) lets you give AI tools a concise, accurate summary of your business in plain text.
How Mahi Digital approaches GEO
We're the only NZ agency currently offering GEO as a specific service at the SME price point. Our Authority plan ($749/month) includes GEO foundation work — schema markup, entity optimisation, and AI-crawlable content. Our AI-First plan ($1,149/month) includes full GEO strategy with monthly AI citation monitoring across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
We also offer a standalone GEO Readiness Audit ($499) if you want to understand where your business currently stands in AI search before committing to ongoing work.
The window to get ahead of your competitors on this is open right now. It won't stay open indefinitely.