How to Get ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude to Mention Your Business: A GEO Guide for SMBs in Eindhoven

The search landscape is shifting faster than you think

Imagine a potential customer in Eindhoven opens ChatGPT and types “What’s a reliable optician in Eindhoven for my 78-year-old father?”. Instead of a list of ten blue links, she gets three specific names, with reasoning. One of them books an appointment right away.

If your business isn’t in that answer, you don’t exist for that customer.

This isn’t a hypothetical future. According to recent research, around 30% of search queries are already being answered inside AI chats — especially by younger users and B2B searchers. Google’s own AI Overview and Gemini in Search are accelerating the trend further.

For SMB owners in and around Eindhoven, this means classic SEO is no longer enough. A new discipline joins the playbook — GEO.

What exactly is GEO?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the systematic process of making your content, technical setup, and authority signals suitable for Large Language Models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, so they cite your business in their answers.

The parallel to SEO is clear, but there are three essential differences:

Aspect	SEO (Google)	GEO (AI chats)
Output	Clicks to your site	A mention inside the answer
Ranking	Top 10 blue links	Top 3 to 5 cited sources
Optimization	Keywords, backlinks, speed	Quotability, definitions, structured data
Measurability	Google Search Console	Manual testing + tools like Profound

In practice, the tactics overlap by about 60%. A solid SEO foundation helps your GEO. But without GEO-specific adjustments, you stay invisible inside AI answers.

Why this is urgent for SMBs in Eindhoven right now

Three reasons to start now, not in a year:

1. First-mover advantage is real. Most of the Eindhoven SMB market is doing nothing with GEO yet. Whoever starts now builds authority that will be hard to catch up to in 12 months.

2. Local queries are cheaper to win. Competing on “best plumber in the Netherlands” is nearly impossible. Competing on “plumber Eindhoven Strijp for a leak in pre-war housing” is achievable — and exactly those specific questions are increasingly being asked to AI.

3. AI mentions work as social proof. When ChatGPT tells a customer “Beeks Zien en Horen has a good reputation for senior eyewear in Eindhoven,” that carries more weight than an ad. It’s implicit endorsement, not paid promotion.

The 6 tactics that work right now

1. Write to be quoted — not to get clicks

LLMs grab discrete factual claims out of your text. The cleaner and more compact the claim, the higher the chance it gets reused.

Do: “SiteOptima has worked with SMBs in the Eindhoven region since 2024 and offers SEO audits starting at €0.”

Don’t: “At our company the customer is central and we strive for excellence in SEO services…”

Rule of thumb: one fact per sentence, with specific numbers or names wherever possible.

2. Add explicit definitions

LLMs love the structure “X is Y”. Open an important paragraph with the term, then a sharp definition, then the explanation.

An SEO audit is a systematic analysis of the technical, content, and authority factors that determine a website’s Google visibility.

This structure often gets quoted verbatim by ChatGPT and Claude. It takes half a sentence of extra effort and pays off for months.

3. Use Schema.org structured data

Schema.org is JSON code you place in the header of your page that explicitly says “this is an article, here is the author, here is the date, here is a FAQ section.”

For SMBs, the minimum:

• Article on your blog posts
• FAQPage on pages with question-answer blocks
• LocalBusiness on your homepage (essential for local mentions)
• Product or Service on your service pages

Pages with correct Schema.org get cited 3 to 5 times more often in AI answers than pages without.

4. Publish an llms.txt

A new standard file — /llms.txt in your website’s root — tells LLMs in summary form what your site is and which pages are relevant. Anthropic, Vercel, and Mintlify all publish one, and more European companies are following.

It’s simpler than a sitemap, but specific to AI crawlers. A good llms.txt for an Eindhoven optician contains:

• Business name, location, specialties
• Top 10 most important pages with a short description each
• Link to llms-full.txt for the full content

5. Build authority via mentions on trusted sites

LLMs use the web as source material — primarily through Google’s search index and Common Crawl. The more often your domain is mentioned on authoritative Dutch sites, the higher the chance of citation.

Concrete sources for the Eindhoven region:

• KvK (Chamber of Commerce) listings and trade registers
• Local media: Studio040, Eindhovens Dagblad, ED.nl
• Industry associations (NOG for opticians, BNO for designers, etc.)
• Partners and suppliers with domain authority above 30

Avoid so-called “link-building packages” from shady SEO agencies. A dozen real mentions weigh more than a hundred fake ones — and you avoid the Google penalty risk.

6. Answer specific, long-tail questions

AI chats receive more specific questions than Google. People don’t type “glasses” but “which glasses suit a round face and a high prescription?”.

Make a list of 20 to 30 questions your customers actually ask. Make one central question the H1 of each page. Add at least five related questions as a FAQ section at the bottom, with FAQPage Schema.org markup.

This alone can produce visible results within three months.

How do you measure if it’s working?

GEO measurement is still young. Three practical ways:

1. Manual testing. Every two weeks, open ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and ask ten questions your customers would ask. Note whether your business is mentioned. A simple spreadsheet is enough.

2. Specialized tools. Profound, OtterlyAI, and BrandRank.ai monitor AI mentions automatically. Pricing ranges from €50 to €500 per month — overkill for most SMBs, but interesting once you commit seriously to GEO.

3. Indirect signals. A rise in searches for your brand name (visible in Google Search Console) is often the first sign that AI chats are mentioning you. People hear your name in a ChatGPT answer and then specifically Google your business name.

The practical next step

Don’t try everything at once. The sequence that works for our clients:

1. Week 1: Rewrite one core service page using tactics 1, 2, and 6.
2. Week 2: Add Article, LocalBusiness, and FAQPage Schema.org.
3. Week 3: Publish a first llms.txt.
4. Week 4 onwards: Land one relevant external mention per month.

Within three to six months you should see your first AI mentions.

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Want help with these steps? SiteOptima offers GEO and SEO optimization as an ongoing service for SMB owners in and around Eindhoven. Request a free audit — within 48 hours we send a report with the three most impactful improvements for your site.