For years the target was a rank: get to page one, collect the click.

That target has moved. When a buyer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews for a shortlist, the result that pays off is not appearing somewhere inside the answer. It is being the brand the model names and explains.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) works at exactly this layer: raising the odds that a brand gets cited inside an AI answer. Not ranking in a classic list of results.

This reframing also changes what you are buying. Brands in Türkiye do not need a definition of GEO or Answer Engine Optimization (AEO); those definitions are already free. What they need is a method for evaluating the provider. Because the work spreads across all of this:

• Website setup
• Structured content
• Entity consistency across Turkish and English pages
• Profile settings
• Yandex visibility alongside the AI assistants

Timing matters too. The general observation across the industry: first citation signals can show up within one to three months, while durable visibility takes three to six.

The sections that follow cover what AI optimization actually includes, how provider types differ and what needs to be verified before you sign.

GEO is best read as work on citation probability. That is, the likelihood that an assistant pulls your pages into its answer and names your brand while doing it.

This is a different target from ranking blue links. The unit of success is not a position on a results page but a sentence inside an answer.

AEO sits next to it and deals with the mechanics of inclusion. It asks three things: is the question answered clearly on the page, does the entity behind the brand carry ambiguity and is the source one the model is willing to pick?

These are the headings AI engines weigh when they decide which brand to recommend:

• Content depth
• Citation history
• Consistency across sources
• Freshness
• Structured content signals
• Use of the brand name in context

Timing also helps when you assess a proposal. First citation signals can surface within one to three months; durable visibility usually takes three to six. Anyone promising a ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews recommendation within weeks is selling something else.

For brands targeting Türkiye, three more items belong on the same list: Turkish entity consistency, correct website setup and Yandex visibility.

Before you compare proposals, split the work into three layers: strategy, implementation and governance. A provider who cannot show all three is selling only one of them.

Strategy starts with an audit. Ask for the baseline state of your entity signals: how do your brand name, address, founders and service descriptions resolve on your site, on your LinkedIn profile, in directories and in open data records? Add a structural review of your content and a record of how you currently appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews when your category is asked about.

Without that baseline record, later gains cannot be tied to anything.

Implementation is unglamorous and concrete. Website setup, schema markup and clean internal structure come first. Then profile settings on the platforms where an assistant can verify you.

For brands selling into Türkiye there is one more discipline: Turkish and English pages that state the same facts, and Yandex indexing checked alongside Google. So a model reading either language reaches the same conclusion.

Governance decides whether the work lasts. Name who will update the content, agree how changes get logged and ask for handover documentation that stays with you.

AI tools speed the work up. They do not replace that maintenance.

Most proposals still sell traffic. The better test: can the provider make your brand one of the options an assistant actually names?

Five checks separate a serious consultant from a repackaged content plan.

1. Ask them to explain source selection. A credible consultant should be able to explain why an engine prefers one brand over another. If the presentation keeps returning to keyword rankings, the frame is not there.

2. Check the scope beyond writing. Being ready to be recommended depends on website setup, structured data and profile settings on the platforms that define you: company pages, LinkedIn profiles, directory listings. Ask how the Turkish and English versions will be kept consistent; conflicting entity information weakens the signal.

3. Demand a split between strategy, implementation and governance. Who decides the entity and message model, who ships the technical changes and who reviews the output every month? Unclear ownership is where AI optimization work quietly stops.

4. Confirm that local surfaces are covered. Buyers in Türkiye do not live only in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Ask how the plan handles Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews and, if your category calls for it, Yandex visibility.

5. Ask for measurable delivery language. What will change, what will be reviewed, what will be reported and how often? Treat the timelines as claims to be verified. First citation signals one to three months, durable visibility three to six. Any promise faster than that carries a question mark.

When an assistant decides which brands to mention, it weighs source quality, not ad budget.

Use the six criteria as an evidence list with a consultant: content depth, citation history, consistency across sources, freshness, structured content signals and use of the brand name in context.

Ask the candidate provider to show which of these they can actually affect on your site, and how.

These signals matter because they change commercial outcomes, not impression counts:

• Depth and citation history decide whether you make the shortlist the assistant offers.
• Consistency across your website, your corporate profiles and your directory listings decides whether the answer treats you as reliable.
• Use in context decides the quality of the inquiries you get. Being named for the work you actually do, rather than as generic “digital services”, makes the difference.

Expect differences between surfaces. Google AI Overviews leans on indexed pages and structured data. Perplexity shows its citations openly. ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude blend training data with different retrieval behaviour.

A brand recommended on one can be absent from another. That is why a credible report shows the engines separately instead of as a single blended score.

The honest frame: being mentioned is the lower threshold. An AI optimization budget earns its place when the mention happens in the context of the queries your buyers actually type. And when keyword work, profile settings and multilingual pages agree with each other.

An audit only works if it turns into a dated plan.

Ask for two sets of milestones:

• Early signals. The brand starting to appear in AI answers for a defined set of prompts.
• Durable presence. This one builds more slowly.

Early citation movement takes roughly one to three months, steadier visibility three to six. Treat a proposal that promises faster with caution.

Post-audit delivery should be documented, not just described. Expect a change log that covers:

• Content that was rewritten or restructured
• Entity signals (consistent company name, addresses, author identities, structured data)
• Profile settings on the platforms the brand controls, Turkish and English versions included

Reporting should answer three questions in every period: where the brand appeared and on which engines, what made that happen and which gaps stayed open.

AI tools mainly add speed and efficiency. The decision about what gets published and what gets fixed still belongs to the consultant and the client.

Assess candidates on four things:

1. How well they explain the criteria AI systems use to select sources (depth, freshness, consistency, citation history, structured signals)

2. Whether they actually implement it

3. Whether they handle the Türkiye-specific setup (Turkish consistency, website configuration, Yandex coverage)

4. Who manages the data and the reporting

Ask for a realistic time horizon too: early citation signals one to three months, durable visibility three to six.

Suit Your Job runs this work as a process: entity audit, content structure, profile settings, Turkish and English consistency, local surfaces including Yandex, and monthly measurement reporting. Handover documentation and a change log are part of the job.

To get an assessment for your own situation and see which layer holds the gap, contact Suit Your Job.