GEO on Zero Budget: 5 Small Tasks in 30 Minutes a Week

You can do GEO without a budget. GEO is the work of getting AI answers, like those from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, to mention you. Set aside 30 minutes a week for 5 small tasks: ask AI the same questions in a private window and record the answers, check the AI reports in Search Console and Bing, update your Google Business Profile, add one answer to a customer question on your website, and test the pages you changed. What it costs you isn't money. It's showing up every week.

Five small tasks in 30 minutes a week is enough

Here's a weekly schedule. You can change the order, but do the same tasks every week so your records can be compared. The minutes are our estimates. The first time will take longer.

No website? Skip tasks 2 and 5 for now and spend that time on task 4, cleaning up your profiles on other platforms instead. If you don't qualify for a Google Business Profile (for example, you only work online), use task 3 to update your profile on the main platform in your field.

Each tool shows only part of the picture, so use them together

Each tool answers a different question. Know what each one measures so you don't draw conclusions from the wrong number.

• The Generative AI performance report (Search) in Google Search Console: shows how many times links to your site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode (impressions). You can group the data by page, country, date and device. The help page describes impressions only and doesn't mention clicks (Google's help page). Google first rolled it out to a subset of websites in June 2026. As of August 31, it's available to all websites worldwide (Google's announcement). Search Console itself is a free service from Google (About Search Console).
• The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools: shows how many times your pages were cited as sources in Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and some partner integrations. It also shows which pages were cited and a sample of grounding queries, the phrases the AI used when it pulled your content. It launched as a public preview in February 2026 (Bing's announcement). In October, Bing added Topics Portfolio (beta), which sorts those queries into topics (Bing's October announcement). Bing says its reports and tools are free (Bing Webmaster Tools). If you already use Search Console, you can import your site from there, and imported sites are verified automatically (Bing's import guide).
• Google Business Profile: free to create and list (Google Business Profile). Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results, and it recommends replying to reviews (Tips to improve your local ranking). Google's guide to generative AI search adds that a Business Profile can help your services show up in its AI responses (Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features).
• Rich Results Test: paste in a URL or code, and it lists the structured data it found and any errors. It also shows whether a robots.txt rule blocks Google from crawling the page (Rich Results Test help).
• Asking AI yourself in a private window: the most direct method, because you see exactly how AI answers. If you ask while signed in and ChatGPT's Memory is on, ChatGPT can use preferences and details from your chats to personalize its answers (OpenAI: Memory in ChatGPT). Then you're not seeing what a stranger would see. For the full method, see how to track AI answers by hand.

Set up the tools once so the weekly routine stays quick

Before the schedule can run, you need to spend some time on setup. Do it in this order:

1. Add and verify your site in Search Console.
2. Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools and import your site from Search Console.
3. If you qualify, create or claim your Google Business Profile. Fill in your services, hours and service area.
4. Write down 10 questions customers really ask that don't include your brand name. Pick 5 to ask every week. Save the exact wording and don't change a word later.
5. Start a spreadsheet with these columns: date, platform, question, mentioned or not, your page cited or not, and which URLs were cited.
6. Run your homepage and your most important service page through the Rich Results Test, and note where they stand today.

The reports may be empty at first. Google's help page says that if you can't see the Generative AI performance report, it's usually because your site hasn't had enough impressions in generative AI features on Google Search. It can also mean your site has been excluded from those features.

llms.txt, bought reviews and mass-produced AI articles aren't worth your 30 minutes

llms.txt is not a magic fix. It's a text file at the root of your website. The proposal's own site calls it a proposal, meant to help AI agents use your site when they need information to answer a question. It doesn't claim to affect search rankings (llms.txt proposal). Google says you don't need to create LLMS.txt or similar AI text files. Google Search ignores them, so they neither help nor hurt, and it's fine to create them for other services (Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features). Add one if you like, but treat it as a side tool. It won't replace a clear service page.

Buying reviews breaks Google's rules. Google Maps' content policy says reviews that were paid for, directly or in kind, count as fake engagement and get removed. Businesses also can't offer payment, discounts, free goods or services to get customers to post reviews (Google Maps user-generated content policy). If you want reviews, invite every customer the same way after the job is done, with nothing attached.

Mass-producing AI articles that add nothing for readers is what Google calls scaled content abuse. Google's spam policies say scaled content abuse “is when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.” One of the examples is “using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users” (Google spam policies). Using AI to help with a draft is fine. But writing one good answer to a real customer question each week, task 4 on the schedule, is a better use of your time than generating a hundred posts at once.

To see progress, use the same questions and watch the trend over several weeks

AI answers change on their own. When we asked the same 14 questions a second time, the mention rate was 31.5% in one run and 41.7% in the other (how we measure). The questions didn't change, yet the number moved by about 10 percentage points. So one week's rise or drop doesn't mean much. Keep your records this way:

• Fixed questions: the same set, word for word. Record the date and the platform every time.
• Mentions and citations kept apart: you're mentioned when AI says your name, and cited when it links to your page as a source. Track them as two separate numbers.
• Each platform on its own: in our tests we often see very different results from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Don't add them up into one score.
• The direction over several weeks: being mentioned week after week tells you more than showing up once.
• A check against the two reports: Search Console shows your impressions in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Bing shows how often you're cited as a source. Put them next to your own records.

If your numbers drop one week, don't rush to change things. First check whether the questions changed, whether you were signed in, or whether the AI just answered differently that time.

Common questions

Before you start the schedule, if you want to know whether ChatGPT can read your website today, run a free quick scan. It checks ChatGPT only, needs no sign-up and takes about 1 to 2 minutes. It checks your website and runs 2 live ChatGPT questions, and you can leave your email to get a PDF. Then follow the schedule above and build up your records 30 minutes at a time.