Find a local
GEO specialist

It's the work of getting your business surfaced and cited when people ask an AI tool a question, the same way SEO gets you ranked in Google. More customers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews for a recommendation instead of scrolling search results. GEO shapes your content, your structure and your wider web presence so those AI answers mention you, and ideally link to you, rather than a competitor.

SEO optimises for a ranked list of blue links. GEO optimises to be the answer itself. Search aims for clicks; AI engines often answer the question outright and cite a handful of sources, so the goal shifts to being one of those cited sources. They share a lot of groundwork (clear content, solid structure, a credible site), but GEO leans harder on being quotable, factually tight, and mentioned across the web the AI has read. Most businesses want both running together, not one instead of the other.

A typical gig starts with an audit of how the AI engines currently answer questions in your category and whether you show up. Then the freelancer reshapes your key pages to be clear and quotable, adds structured data and FAQ-style content the models can lift cleanly, tightens the facts and entity details about your business, and works on the mentions and citations across the web that AI tools draw from. You get a report on where you stand and a plan for holding the ground.

The ones your customers actually use: ChatGPT (and its search mode), Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude. Each weighs sources a little differently, so a freelancer checks how your business is answered across the main ones rather than chasing a single tool. Google's AI Overviews matter most for local businesses, since they sit right at the top of the search a lot of your customers already run.

It's early, and anyone promising guaranteed placement in an AI answer is overselling it. What's real is that these tools now sit between a lot of customers and their decision, and they do favour content that's well structured, factually clear and credibly mentioned elsewhere. The honest framing: GEO improves your odds of being surfaced and cited, it doesn't buy a guaranteed slot. A good freelancer will tell you that up front and measure what changes.

The on-page and structural work can be done in 2 to 4 weeks, but the AI engines need time to recrawl and reflect it, so allow 1 to 3 months before you reliably see your business turning up in more answers. Building the off-site mentions and citations that move the needle most is slower again. It's closer to SEO's timeline than a paid ad's, so treat it as a steady play, not an overnight switch.

By tracking whether you show up. A freelancer runs the questions your customers ask across ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews on a regular basis, notes when your business is named or cited, and watches referral traffic from those tools in Google Analytics. A few GEO-specific tracking tools are emerging too. It's less precise than a keyword rank, so agree up front what counts as progress, like appearing in answers for your top ten questions.

You can make a start. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity the questions a customer would and see whether you appear, then tidy your key pages so they're clear, factual and easy to quote. Where a freelancer earns their keep is the structured data, the entity and citation work across the web, and knowing which of these levers actually shifts an AI answer versus which just feels productive. They build it once and hand it back so you can keep it current.

A one-off GEO audit and optimisation in Australia typically runs $1,500 to $4,000, depending on how many pages and how much off-site citation work is involved. Ongoing GEO, often bundled with SEO, sits around $1,000 to $3,000 a month. Because it's a newer discipline, scope and price vary a fair bit between freelancers, so post the gig and compare a few bids rather than taking the first number.

Look for someone who can show you, live, how the AI engines answer questions in your category and explain exactly what they'd change. Be wary of guarantees of a top spot in AI answers, no one can promise that yet. Strong GEO freelancers usually have real SEO and content chops underneath, since the fundamentals carry over. Check their verified reviews on Unjumble and ask how they'd measure whether it worked.

Post a GEO gig in under five minutes. Describe the work, set your budget and timeframe, and choose whether it's time-based or outcome-based. Local freelancers send a bid with a quote, you compare their profiles, portfolios and verified reviews, then pick the one that fits. Posting is free, so you only pay for the work.

Every gig is split into stages you both agree on up front. You fund each stage before the work starts and it's held securely through Stripe, then released once you sign off. No chasing invoices, and no paying for work that's not done.