A project by Ben Adler, founder of Starworks
founder’s
brief
AI search belongs on the business agenda.
Customers are already asking ChatGPT, Claude and Google for help choosing a business. This is a practical way to decide what deserves attention first.
The decision
GEO is the work of making your business understandable in generative answers.
Generative engine optimisation means improving the information a system can find, interpret and cite when it helps a person make a choice. It is not a separate universe from good search, a clear website or a sound reputation. It asks whether those basics agree with each other.
Start with the questions customers actually ask: “Who offers this near me?”, “Which provider handles this problem?” and “What should I compare?” Then look at the evidence your business gives a search engine or AI system. Search crawling, indexing, citations and leads are different things. No one can promise every AI recommendation.
For a founder, this is a prioritisation exercise. A detailed service page may matter more than a new tool. A stale address in three listings may be more urgent than a clever piece of copy. Take the time to see the business as a customer sees it: on a phone, in a map result, in a comparison search and in the source pages an answer chooses to cite.
Useful GEO work turns that observation into maintained information. It should leave staff with a clearer way to update a service, publish a location change, answer a review and decide which profile is worth keeping current.
Start here
The business checklist
- Make identity exact.Your name, address, phone and category should match wherever customers encounter you.
- Describe useful specifics.State the services, locations, constraints and expertise people need to make a sensible choice.
- Inspect real sources.Search the queries that matter and follow cited pages. Learn what is present, thin or out of date.
- Keep reviews honest.Build a reliable process for asking and responding, without scripting praise or filtering feedback.
Before you hire help
Choosing GEO help in Australia.
- Which queries?
- Ask for a small, named set tied to services, places and customer intent. You should be able to recognise why each one matters.
- What is the baseline?
- Ask what can be observed today across your site, profiles and cited sources. A baseline should name the source, not hide behind a single score.
- What will change?
- Ask for specific improvements to information, pages or operating habits, with owners. Good work makes it clear what your team will need to maintain.
- What counts as an outcome?
- Separate better source quality and visibility from traffic, enquiries and sales. Agree on what can be measured and what remains a useful signal.
The person behind it
I’m Ben Adler.
I’m a Melbourne-based founder of Starworks. I work on how Australian businesses are found in search and AI answers. Starworks began as a reputation and review platform, then expanded into business directories.
I approach this as business communication rather than a bag of search tricks. The useful question is usually what a capable customer still cannot understand about the business, and whether the public information gives them a fair answer. That makes a calmer, more useful starting point for a founder deciding where to spend attention.
My experiments with AI recommendations were covered by SmartCompany. You can also read my research or visit my personal site.
Contact Ben