While you may not have heard of Generative Engine Optimization, you probably have seen your website traffic drop and you are not sure if it is the economy, AI, or both. You can’t change the economy, but you can change how your business shows up online. In 2026 the new location is in AI search.
I’ve been using Claude — one of the AI tools — to research what’s changing in search and test strategies before I apply them to client sites. It’s been genuinely useful for knowing how to navigate the new technologies. Schildbach Design now has a Generative Engine Optimization Package for my clients. This is the most thorough package I’ve put together to date. Schildbach Design helps small businesses stay visible in the age of AI search.
How the Generative Engine Optimization Package Works
Search has fundamentally changed. Here’s what I can do to make sure AI recommends you:
GEO is the practice of structuring your content and digital presence so that AI-powered search platforms — including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot — can retrieve, cite, and recommend your brand when answering user questions. This isn’t radically different from good SEO — it’s an evolution of it.
FREE: AI Visibility Snapshot
I’ll run your business name through Google Gemini and Claude and show you exactly how — or whether — you’re showing up right now. No cost, no obligation. Just a clear picture of where you stand. You will find the AI Snapshot I provide of your website extremely revealing. But, this is only the first step. This will be enough to work on your site yourself, but I’ve studied and implemented the technical aspects to a site, like schema markup.
Step 1: I provide a GEO Foundation Audit ($300, one-time)
A review your site, GBP, and directory presence. Delivering a written report with prioritized recommendations. A full written review of your website, Google Business Profile, and directory listings, with a prioritized action plan. This alone will show you more about your current search visibility than anything you’ve seen before. The $300 is credited toward any implementation work.
Step 2: GEO Implementation Work ($1,200, project-based)
Schema markup, content rewrites, FAQ additions, GBP optimization. Schema markup is code that the AI reads, plus it helps SEO too. My assistant, Claude, suggestions rewrites to parts of your content, and we decide what rewrites to make. Frequently asked questions on a site is more important to AI than Google, I now recognize it’s importance. You will either need to give me access to your Google My Business (close clients have already given it to me), or you will need to add and change some of the content.
Step 3: GEO Monthly Maintenance ($200, optional recurring retainer)
Google Business Profile posting, monitoring and implementing ongoing observations from Claude, directory audits, quarterly content updates. There is an almost bottomless source of improvements that can be made ongoing with all the information that can be attained from Claude. This works especially well over a 6 month period.
Extra Step: For specific clients who depend on Referrals (optional)
This is not a part of GEO but indirectly improves GEO. We go out into your field and community to attain directories and links that showcase your business and bring referrals to you. This could include the old fashioned phone call because your number is located in a directory that advertises your services.
What if your traditional Search Engine Optimization is not good?
For clients with weak traditional SEO, GEO isn’t an add-on — it’s the reason to finally fix the foundation. Maybe you never acted on SEO advice because it felt abstract (“improve your rankings” is hard to visualize). But “right now, if you ask ChatGPT who to hire for what you do, and you’re not showing up, this is concrete evidence that further action needs to be taken with SEO, or acting on a task that maybe should have been taken a while back.
To Tacoma Small Businesses: The time is now to apply GEO to your site
Outside of the tech cities like Seattle, few small businesses are checking the schema on their site. For my Tacoma small businesses, an other smaller cities around Washington State, the window to establish AI citation authority is open right now, and businesses that build it in 2026 will be the ones AI systems default to recommending in 2027 and beyond. Generative Engine Optimization is the package that will accomplish this authority for your business.
