Updated
This is part of our work on SEO & GEO, which we run as one discipline.
GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. It means getting AI engines such as Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to link your page or name your brand.
Our advice: write for the question. In our view, the goal is to appear in the answer. On Google, search must still find your page.
In our Hong Kong checks of Google, a keyword and its question shared about one website in their top ten. Google’s AI answer rarely linked a site that ranked for the keyword, though the gap was smaller in Chinese. A keyword ranking gave little assurance of appearing in Google’s answer, and ChatGPT mostly linked other pages.
In Google’s AI Overviews, an answer can link your page as a source or name your brand. Well-known brands appeared even when their own sites did not rank highly in regular search results. If your company is less familiar, make your pages findable and your business listings readable.
This is part of our work on SEO & GEO, which we run as one discipline.
Not reliably. For each business topic, we searched Google in Hong Kong using a keyword and a related question in English and Chinese. The results differed.
Take “commercial lease lawyer hong kong”, whose highest results were mostly law firms and a lawyer directory. We also searched this question:
“What should a Hong Kong cafe owner check before signing a three-year shop lease with a turnover rent clause?”
The keyword and the question shared no site in their top ten, and Google’s AI answer linked none of the keyword’s top ten.
| Keyword | Question | Websites shared in the top 10 | Sites the AI answer to the question linked (from the keyword's top 10 / from the question's top 10) |
|---|---|---|---|
| social media marketing | how should a hong kong restaurant use instagram and facebook to get more bookings | 0 | 11 linked (0 / 6) |
| inventory management software | what inventory software can a hong kong trading company use to sync stock across shops and warehouse | 0 | 4 linked (0 / 4) |
| commercial lease lawyer hong kong | What should a Hong Kong cafe owner check before signing a three-year shop lease with a turnover rent clause? | 0 | 6 linked (0 / 5) |
Across the searches, each keyword and its question shared about one website in their top ten, and many pairs shared none.
Google’s AI answers rarely linked sites from the keyword’s top ten. More than half of the links came from sites in the question’s top ten.
The gap was smaller in Chinese because, in our view, fewer Chinese pages cover these topics, so the searches share more sites. Still, a keyword ranking did not ensure a place in Google’s answer to the question.
A page still has to be findable: in our topic searches, most sites linked by AI Overviews ranked highly in regular results. Those searches included “what is agentic ai” and “geo vs seo”.
Google describes its AI features as “rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems”.
“From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”
“Still SEO” is Google’s phrase, but in our view it means more than choosing keywords and chasing rankings. A page needs to be findable.
Then focus on answering the question.
In Google’s AI Overviews, a brand can be named without its own site ranking. We searched for recommendations, including “best bank in hong kong” and “best smartphone 2026”. Most named brands had no own site linked or in Google’s regular results.
ZA Bank appeared in the bank answer; Samsung and Apple appeared in the phone answer. Lan Fong Yuen appeared for “best milk tea hong kong”, though we found no website of its own.
The AI Overviews also linked reviews, comparison sites, media and forums. When an answer linked a brand’s own site, that site usually ranked too.
Google’s AI Overviews named lesser-known companies too (under 500 monthly searches for their names), and most had no own site in Google’s regular results.
In the English answers, about half of the lesser-known companies appeared as Google business cards. In Chinese, some lacked both a site in Google’s regular results and a link to their own site, but all of those appeared on linked directories or lists, including HKTDC and InvestHK. Keep your Google business listing readable and check directories that list firms like yours.
These brands and companies were named without their own sites ranking. So, in our view, you need to know where others write about your brand. Our Brand intelligence work checks what people say, what they search for and what AI answers show.
Mostly not. We used ChatGPT search for the same questions, then compared its links with Google’s results. Most sites were in neither of Google’s top tens, and few were also linked by Google’s AI Overview. This held in English and Chinese, so the engines often linked different sites for the same question.
Write for the question, then check that each engine’s search crawler can reach your page. OpenAI says its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, surfaces sites in ChatGPT search. Most sites ChatGPT linked were outside Google’s top tens, so in our view GEO goes beyond Google.
Write for the question. Keep your page findable and your business listed.
Start with your buyer’s question and situation, then answer it on one page. In Google’s AI Overviews, a keyword page could rank yet be absent from the answer.
Make sure search engines can find your page: most sites linked by Google’s AI Overviews also ranked highly in regular results.
If your name is less familiar, check your Google business listing and relevant directories. Mentions by others take time to earn. Google says that seeking inauthentic “mentions” across the web “isn’t as helpful as it might seem”. In our view, reviews, articles and comparisons matter when others choose to write them.
Check whether AI answers link your pages and whether they name your brand when buyers ask for recommendations. See how we run SEO and GEO as one discipline.
We ran over 200 Google searches in Hong Kong, in English and Chinese, and recorded the AI answers. We counted all the regular results Google returned, up to 20 per search. We then used ChatGPT search for the same questions, in Hong Kong with web search on. Each check covers one day, so the results show one moment. They show which pages and names appeared, not why either engine chose them. We tested only those two, so we cannot say the same holds elsewhere.
Not reliably: our Hong Kong checks of Google compared keywords and questions in English and Chinese. The results shared about one website in their top ten. Google’s AI answers to the questions rarely linked sites that ranked for the keywords. Our advice is to answer the question and keep your page findable.
Not in the basics, according to Google. Its guide says “optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO”. In our view, that goes beyond choosing keywords and chasing rankings. In our Google checks, sites ranking for a keyword rarely appeared in the AI answer to its question. Google also advises making pages findable, original and useful.
In our view, it needs a findable page or a readable listing. In our Hong Kong Google searches, most lesser-known companies were named without an own site in Google’s regular results. Some appeared as Google business cards; others appeared on directories or lists the answers linked. Google says that seeking inauthentic mentions “isn’t as helpful as it might seem”.
We check whether ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews name your brand, then send you the report. It costs nothing.
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