Complete beginner to GEO. What should I actually do first? The guides online are overwhelming

Perfect timing to start! Here’s the simplest possible day-one playbook:

Day 1: Establish Your Baseline (2 hours)

1. Open ChatGPT and Perplexity
2. Ask 10-15 questions your target customers would ask
3. Document:
   • Do you appear in any responses?
   • Which competitors appear?
   • How are they described?

This baseline tells you where you stand and what you’re competing against.

Day 2: Technical Quick Wins (3 hours)

1. Check your robots.txt - make sure you’re NOT blocking:

   • GPTBot
   • ClaudeBot
   • PerplexityBot

2. Check if you have Organization schema on your site (Google Rich Results Test)

3. If missing, add it (or ask your developer)

Day 3-5: Content Audit (5 hours)

Look at your top 5 pages by traffic:

• Do they answer questions directly in the first paragraph?
• Do they have clear headings as questions?
• Do they have FAQ sections?

Week 2: First Optimizations

Pick your single most important page. Restructure it:

• Put the answer in the first sentence
• Add an FAQ section with schema
• Include data/statistics
• Add expert quotes if relevant

That’s it for month 1.

Don’t try to do everything. Start small, measure, learn.

Coming from SEO background - here’s what transfers and what doesn’t:

What DOES transfer from SEO:

1. Quality content matters - Still foundation of everything
2. Technical accessibility - Site needs to be crawlable
3. Backlinks matter - Authority signals still important
4. User intent - Understanding what people search for
5. Keyword research - Understanding topics (though applied differently)

What DOESN’T transfer:

1. Ranking position focus - GEO is about being cited, not ranking #1
2. Click-through rate optimization - Different metric entirely
3. Meta description focus - Less relevant for AI extraction
4. Exact keyword matching - AI understands semantics better

Key mental shift:

SEO: “How do I rank higher than competitors?” GEO: “How do I become a source AI trusts enough to cite?”

Practical difference:

For SEO, you optimize a page to rank for a keyword. For GEO, you optimize content to be extractable and citable by AI.

Same foundation, different application.

The single simplest thing you can do today:

Restructure one page.

Pick your most important product/service page and make these changes:

Before (typical page): “Welcome to [Company]. We’ve been providing [service] for 15 years. Our mission is to help businesses succeed through innovative solutions…”

After (GEO-optimized): “[Service] is [direct definition in 15 words]. [Company] provides [specific benefit] for [target audience]. Here’s what you need to know…”

The formula:

Paragraph 1: Direct answer to “What is this?” Paragraph 2: Key benefits/features Paragraph 3: Who it’s for Rest: Supporting details

Why this works:

AI extracts information from the beginning of content. If your key information is buried after 200 words of intro, AI might not cite it.

Time investment: 30 minutes to restructure one page

Potential impact: That page becomes citable by AI

Do this for one page today. You’ll learn more from doing than reading.

Tools you need to get started (some free):

Free tools:

1. ChatGPT - Test queries manually (free tier works)
2. Perplexity - Another AI to test (free tier)
3. Google Rich Results Test - Check your schema
4. PageSpeed Insights - Check page speed
5. Schema.org Validator - Validate structured data

Paid tools worth considering:

1. Am I Cited - Monitor AI visibility systematically
2. SEMrush/Ahrefs - Still useful for keyword research and backlinks
3. Screaming Frog - Technical audits

What you DON’T need yet:

• Expensive enterprise platforms
• Complex AI monitoring suites
• Custom-built tools

My recommendation for beginners:

Start with free tools. Do manual testing for the first month. You’ll learn more about how AI works by testing queries yourself than by looking at dashboards.

When you’re ready to scale, THEN invest in monitoring tools.

Don’t let tool paralysis stop you from starting.

Priority matrix for GEO beginners:

Do First (High Impact, Low Effort):

1. Check robots.txt for AI blockers
2. Add Organization schema (if missing)
3. Restructure top 3 page intros
4. Add FAQ schema to existing FAQ content

Do Second (High Impact, Medium Effort):

1. Content restructuring for key pages
2. Create Wikidata entry
3. Add FAQ sections to top pages
4. Implement author bios with credentials

Do Third (Medium Impact, Higher Effort):

1. Build comprehensive pillar content
2. Link building for authority
3. Original research/data creation
4. PR for brand mentions

Skip for Now:

• Complex technical implementations
• Multi-platform optimization
• Advanced schema types
• Competitor deep analysis

The principle:

80% of your results will come from 20% of efforts. Focus on that 20% first.

For a beginner with 10-15 hours/week:

• Week 1: Technical quick wins
• Week 2-3: Content restructuring
• Week 4: FAQ additions
• Then assess and iterate

How to know if GEO is working (simple version):

Weekly Check (15 minutes):

Same queries you tested in week 1:

• Do you appear now?
• Any change in how you’re described?
• Any change in citation position?

Keep a simple spreadsheet:

What to track:

• Mentioned: Yes/No
• Position: 1st, 2nd, etc.
• Sentiment: Positive/Neutral/Negative

Timeline expectations:

• Technical fixes: May see impact in 2-4 weeks
• Content changes: Usually 4-8 weeks
• Authority building: 3-6 months

The reality:

AI visibility changes slower than you want but faster than traditional SEO. Be patient but persistent.

Common beginner mistakes to avoid:

Mistake 1: Trying to do everything at once GEO guides list 50 things to do. You have 15 hours/week. Pick 3-5 high-impact items and do them well.

Mistake 2: Obsessing over tools You can start GEO with zero paid tools. Manual testing teaches you more initially.

Mistake 3: Ignoring existing SEO work Good SEO is a foundation for GEO. Don’t abandon what’s working - build on it.

Mistake 4: Expecting instant results AI systems don’t update in real-time. Give changes 4-8 weeks before judging.

Mistake 5: Only optimizing for ChatGPT There are multiple AI platforms. What works for ChatGPT may not work for Perplexity or Gemini.

Mistake 6: Copying competitors blindly Just because a competitor is visible doesn’t mean everything they do is right. Understand WHY something works.

Mistake 7: Neglecting content quality No amount of optimization fixes bad content. AI rewards helpful, accurate, well-structured content.

Focus on fundamentals. Be patient. Measure consistently.

This thread gave me exactly what I needed - a simple starting point instead of analysis paralysis.

My Week 1 Plan:

Day 1 (Today):

• Test 15 queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity
• Document baseline in spreadsheet
• Check robots.txt for AI crawler blocks

Day 2:

• Check for Organization schema (Google Rich Results Test)
• If missing, create ticket for developer

Day 3-4:

• Audit top 5 pages for structure
• Note what needs restructuring

Day 5:

• Restructure one page (most important product page)
• Put answer first, add clear structure

Week 2 Plan:

• Continue restructuring 2-3 more pages
• Add FAQ schema to existing FAQ content
• Retest same 15 queries

What I’m NOT doing yet:

• Complex tools
• Comprehensive competitor analysis
• Advanced schema implementation
• Multi-platform optimization

Key insights that helped me:

1. Start with baseline testing before optimizing anything
2. Technical quick wins (robots.txt, schema) come first
3. Content restructuring is the biggest lever I can control
4. Measure weekly with same queries
5. Be patient - expect 4-8 weeks for changes to show

Thanks everyone for making GEO accessible to a complete beginner!