GEO · Generative Engine Optimization · Chinese + English
More people now skip the results page and ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Doubao or Kimi directly. CiteSky helps Chinese-community businesses and Chinese brands going global get found, understood, cited and recommended by those AI systems.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of making your brand and content easier for generative AI search and answer engines to discover, understand, cite and recommend. It is also called AI search optimization or AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).
The term comes from a 2023 research paper, “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization”, by researchers including authors from Princeton University. It was later published at KDD 2024.
When someone asks an AI “Which dentist near Seattle speaks Chinese?”, they get a synthesized answer with a few source links, not ten blue links. Whether you appear in that answer, whether it is accurate, and which sources it relies on is what GEO is about.
Mechanisms differ by product, but there are roughly three layers. GEO works on all three:
From training data. Brand facts that are public, consistent and mentioned in many places are more likely to be “remembered”.
AI with search retrieves web pages before answering. Whether your pages can be crawled, state answers clearly and are machine-readable decides whether they get chosen as sources.
Encyclopedias, map listings, Q&A communities, media and review sites are often the main sources AI cites, and the basis for deciding who a brand is.
GEO does not replace SEO. It is a layer on top of it. If your site cannot be loaded or crawled, neither works.
| Dimension | Traditional SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank high on the results page and earn clicks | Be mentioned, cited and recommended inside AI answers |
| What users see | A list of links | A synthesized answer with a few sources |
| How content is written | Pages organized around keywords | Answer-first, quotable, clear facts |
| Key signals | Backlinks, keyword relevance, page experience | Consistent entity data across platforms, credible third-party mentions, machine-readable structure |
| Metrics | Rankings, organic traffic | Brand mention rate, cited sources, description accuracy, competitor presence |
| Pace | Usually months | Varies by engine: weeks to months, with fluctuation |
Restaurants, dental and medical clinics, law and accounting firms, real estate agents, education and tutoring, home renovation and services. Customers increasingly ask AI “Is there a Chinese-speaking … near me?”
Cross-border e-commerce, SaaS, manufacturing and consumer brands that want to be described correctly in English-language AI search, not ignored or misdescribed.
Brands serving Chinese-speaking users in North America, Southeast Asia and elsewhere that need to appear in both English and Chinese AI products.
Not sure what AI says about you? Start with an audit, see the facts, then decide whether to invest.
Six services you can buy separately or combine. Each has a concrete deliverable.
Each platform uses different sources and answers differently, so the audit tests with real questions instead of guessing.
We ask a set of realistic Chinese and English user questions on the 10 AI platforms above and record whether your brand is mentioned, how it is described, which sources are cited, and which competitors appear.
Deliverable: Baseline report + fix list
We rework your site so AI can read it easily: answer-first pages, complete FAQs, semantic HTML and schema.org JSON-LD structured data (Organization, Service, FAQPage, Person, BreadcrumbList and more).
Deliverable: Rebuilt pages and structured data
We add llms.txt and llms-full.txt and Markdown versions of key pages so AI agents can get complete information without parsing complex pages.
Deliverable: AI-readable file package
We help AI hold a consistent, accurate picture of who you are. Depending on your case, and within each platform's rules, we organize and improve brand information on Wikidata and Wikipedia (where notability criteria are met), Google Business Profile, Baidu Baike, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu and similar places.
Deliverable: Entity profile and platform listings
We first find out which sources AI actually cites for your category, then work to appear in those sources: trade media, industry directories, Q&A communities, genuine customer reviews. Only real, verifiable content.
Deliverable: Source list and execution plan
Every month we re-run a fixed question set and track change, so you know which actions work and what to adjust.
Deliverable: One report per month
Five steps, each with a checkable deliverable:
We learn your business, the questions customers ask, target cities and languages. We confirm scope and quote.
Deliverables: Scope note and quote
Test on 10 AI platforms to see the current state.
Deliverables: Baseline report, competitor comparison, fix list
Rework page content and structured data; deploy llms.txt and Markdown versions.
Deliverables: Updated pages, JSON-LD, AI-readable files
Unify brand information across platforms and seed worthwhile citation sources.
Deliverables: Entity profile, source execution plan
Re-test and report monthly; adjust based on results.
Deliverables: Monthly report and next actions
Typical reference timing for a project. Actual timing depends on your site and scope and goes into the quote:
Question-set design, test on 10 platforms, baseline report
Page and structured-data rework, llms.txt, Markdown versions
Unify platform profiles, seed citation sources
Re-test a fixed question set, report, adjust
These are estimates of common ranges, not promises. AI engines pick up changes at different speeds, from weeks to months, and results fluctuate.
We currently quote per project and have no public fixed prices. The three packages below illustrate scope; the quote is what counts.
See where you stand
Price TBD · contact for a quote
Billing: One-time
Build the base, keep tracking
Price TBD · contact for a quote
Billing: Project + monthly
Multiple brands or markets
Price TBD · contact for a quote
Billing: Custom
Package names and scope are examples and will be adjusted in the quote. All pricing is quoted after a conversation.
Suppose there is a (fictional) Sichuan restaurant in Bellevue. Here is how we would approach it:
Ask the way customers do, for example “Where can I get good Sichuan food in Bellevue?”, “Chinese restaurants near Seattle for a family dinner”, “Bellevue Sichuan Xiaohongshu recommendations”, one set in Chinese and one in English.
Ask on 10 platforms. Record whether the restaurant is mentioned, whether hours and address are right, and whether AI cites Google Maps, a review site or Xiaohongshu.
For example: the Chinese and English names are written inconsistently; the Google Business Profile has no menu; the website menu is an image AI cannot read; there is no FAQ.
Unify the name; complete the business profile; turn the menu into text HTML with Restaurant structured data; add a bilingual FAQ; invite real customers to leave reviews.
After a month or two, ask the same questions again, compare, and decide the next step.
GEO (generative engine optimization) is the practice of making a brand and its content easier for generative AI such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Doubao to discover, understand, cite and recommend. It focuses on whether you appear in AI answers, whether the description is accurate and which sources are cited.
SEO aims to rank on the results page and earn clicks. GEO aims to be mentioned and cited in AI-generated answers. GEO builds on SEO: the site must be crawlable and clear, so you need both.
Six services: AI visibility audit, content and structured-data rebuild, llms.txt and AI-readable layer, entity and knowledge-graph building, citation-source seeding, and monthly monitoring reports. They can be bought separately or combined.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Doubao, Kimi, Tongyi Qianwen and Tencent Yuanbao. Each platform uses different sources and answers differently, so we test with real questions.
No, and nobody honestly can. AI answers are determined by each company's models and retrieval systems and keep changing. What we can do is make your brand information clear, consistent and machine-readable, then monitor and adjust.
In a typical project the audit takes 1–2 weeks, the rebuild 2–6 weeks, and entity and source work 4–12 weeks. AI engines pick up changes at different speeds, from weeks to months, and results fluctuate. These are estimates, not promises.
We quote per project and have no public fixed prices yet. Price depends on your current site, the number of brands, languages and market scope. Contact us for a quote.
Yes. For local businesses, AI answers rely mainly on Google Business Profile, review sites, Xiaohongshu and how clear your own site is. The audit first checks the current state of these.
Yes. We help brands be described correctly in English-language AI search, and we handle entity information on Chinese platforms too.
No. We only do real, verifiable content and processes, such as inviting genuine customer reviews. Fake reviews, hidden text and prompt injection violate platform rules and risk penalties.
llms.txt is a proposed convention: a Markdown file at your site root that summarizes the site for AI agents and points to key pages. Not every AI product reads it and there is no guaranteed effect, but it is cheap, harmless and helps AI agents get information on their own.
It depends on whether the brand meets each platform's notability standards. Wikipedia requires significant independent coverage, and we will not use rule-breaking methods to create entries. We start with entity information that is easier to establish, such as Wikidata, Google Business Profile, Zhihu and Xiaohongshu, and pursue encyclopedia entries when criteria are met.
We re-run a fixed set of Chinese and English questions on each platform periodically and compare brand mention rate, cited sources, description accuracy and competitor presence, in a monthly report. If your site has analytics, we can also look at visits coming from AI platforms.
A description of your business, target cities and languages, the questions customers ask, access to or edit rights on your website and platform accounts where needed, and the competitors you care about.
Part of it, yes: organizing FAQs, completing your Google Business Profile, unifying brand naming. Structured data, multi-platform audits and ongoing monitoring take more time, and that is where we add value.
Contact us to book a free intro call. We learn your business first, then explain a suitable scope and quote.
CiteSky (名映星河) is a bilingual GEO provider based in the Seattle area, Washington, USA.
“名映星河”: 名 is the brand's name; 映 is to be reflected and seen; 星河 is the galaxy of information that AI answers draw from.
Contact details coming soon. We learn your business first, then explain a suitable scope and quote.
Everything about the service is on this page.