GEO for small business: how to show up in ChatGPT and Google AI as a small brand

AI engines answer in two different ways, and for a brand that is still growing the difference is large.

• Chat (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Meta AI when they answer without searching) uses what the model learned. If your brand had little presence on the web when the model was trained, it is hard for the model to name you.
• AI search (Google AI Overviews) searches the web at that moment and summarizes what it finds. If your pages, or third-party pages that mention you, show up for that question, the engine can name you even if the model doesn't know you.

That is why Refractia reports chat and AI search separately. An average of the two can show mediocre visibility when there are actually zero mentions in chat and several in AI search: two different problems, with two different fixes. AI search is worked through your website and through third-party sites that rank for the question; chat, through sustained presence in the sources models read.

Refractia reads your website, builds your brand profile (category, market, traits and suggested competitors, all of which you can edit) and asks the five engines category, comparison and purchase-intent questions, in your language and with your country named. With that you see:

• Whether you are named, and in which questions, with the sample in view ("k of n answers"), and which competitors appear when you don't (Share of Voice).
• How you are described: sentiment from 0 to 100, the adjectives each engine uses, and whether they match the traits you want to be known for (AI Perception).
• Which sites are cited when engines talk about you. In Refractia's data, a brand's own site is between 0.5% and 2.8% of what AI cites; the rest are third parties (Influence Sources).
• Whether your site is readable by AI: the technical audit runs 56 checks and detects, for example, when your CDN or firewall blocks AI crawlers even though your robots.txt allows them.
• Meta AI included: we measure Muse AI, the model behind the assistant in WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.

1. 01

   Write down your customers' questions

   List what someone would ask AI before buying from you, with your country and, if it applies, your city: "What's a good accounting firm for a small business in Monterrey, Mexico?" These are category questions, not the ones that include your name.

2. 02

   Try them in several engines

   Ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google and note who appears. One answer is a sample of one; that is why Refractia asks many questions per engine and shows each rate with its denominator.

3. 03

   Check that your site says what you do

   AI needs to read, in text rather than in images, what you sell, where and for whom. It is the same thing Refractia reads to build your profile: if the site doesn't say it, the profile comes out vague.

4. 04

   Confirm that AI crawlers can get in

   A robots.txt that allows the bots isn't enough if your CDN or firewall blocks them. Check it before you write a single line of content.

5. 05

   Earn presence on third-party sites

   Industry directories, local media, comparisons and reviews. Because AI cites third parties far more than your own site, one well-placed mention can weigh more than a new page on your website.

6. 06

   Don't spend on llms.txt

   Google says no llms.txt file or special markup is needed to appear in its AI features (Google's guide).

7. 07

   Measure before and after

   Keep a first measurement and repeat it after the changes. Evolution shows the trend across scans for your brand and for each competitor.

Refractia doesn't publish prices or sell online: plans are quoted. FUNDACIONAL is the plan for small businesses and challenger brands; CRECIMIENTO and ENTERPRISE are for larger companies. The scope of each plan is set in the quote.

The diagnostic is what costs nothing: we show you what the five engines answer about your brand and your competitors, with no commitment, and we reply within one business day.