FREQUENTLY ASKED.
Everything about Surfaced Analytics, AI traffic, GEO/AEO and agency support — including multilingual markets.
What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO for short, is the targeted optimization of a website so that AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI name and recommend the company in their answers. When someone asks an AI a question, it names 2–5 specific companies or experts. GEO ensures your company is among those recommendations. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and AI Visibility describe the same discipline from slightly different angles — Surfaced covers all three.
How does GEO work technically?
AI systems cite websites when they provide certain signals: an llms.txt file explaining what the company does; schema markup (structured data) describing the company machine-readably; a clear answer to the core question in the first 200 words; FAQ pages with direct answers; and a robots.txt that explicitly allows AI crawlers. Surfaced checks all these signals in monitoring and implements them fully in the AEO Premium package.
What is AI Visibility and why does it matter?
AI Visibility describes whether and how correctly AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI present a company in their answers. In an analysis of 2,089 companies, 77% were below an AI visibility score of 5 out of 100 (PRWEB, 2026). With 900 million people using ChatGPT weekly and 60% of Google searches showing AI Overviews, AI Visibility increasingly decides which companies are recommended to potential customers.
What's the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) optimizes for classic Google results (the blue links). AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) optimizes for AI systems to name the company directly in their generated answers — without a user having to click a link. The organic click-through rate has already dropped 58% due to AI Overviews (Ahrefs, December 2025). AEO and SEO complement each other but use different optimization signals.
What does AI Visibility Monitoring cost at Surfaced?
Surfaced offers three standard packages for agencies, B2B service providers & online providers, bookable monthly or quarterly — all prices excl. VAT: AI Visibility Monitoring (€99/month or €199/quarter), AI-Visibility + Anleitung (€250/month or €499/quarter) and AEO Premium (€499/month or €990/quarter). All packages: 3-month minimum term, then cancellable anytime.
What does doing nothing cost?
Usually more than any package. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI for your service, the AI recommends 2–5 companies — if you're missing, exactly that inquiry goes to the competition, month after month. Do the math with your own numbers: at a customer value of e.g. €1,500, a single lost job pays for more than a year of AI Visibility Monitoring (€99/month, that's €3.30 a day). On surfaced.at, 12% of visitors already arrive via AIs — measured as a lower bound with our own tool. The ROI calculator on the homepage runs the numbers with your figures.
How fast are first results visible?
After the first optimization, AI-visibility improvements are typically measurable within 4–8 weeks, once the changes have been picked up by AI crawlers. The monitoring package shows the current state from the first month — as a baseline for all further measurements.
Is there a minimum term?
Yes. All packages are bookable monthly or quarterly and have a 3-month minimum term, then cancellable anytime. The reason is technical: AI visibility can't be changed in a single month. After each optimization it takes 4–8 weeks for crawlers like GPTBot or PerplexityBot to pick up the change, and the picture shifts again with every model update. Only over several months does a snapshot become a solid, rising visibility trend.
Why is monthly monitoring necessary?
AI models update constantly: OpenAI ships new GPT versions every 3–6 months. Also, ChatGPT and Perplexity only cite 19% of the same domains (Frase.io, 2026) — being visible on one platform often doesn't mean you're present on the other. Without regular monitoring, you only notice months later that a model update or a catching-up competitor has changed your visibility.
Who is Surfaced for?
Surfaced works with several audiences — none is the only one: agencies, B2B service providers, coaches and course creators in DACH and the EU; B2B companies with a complex digital footprint via AEO Premium; and, as an audience in its own right, companies in multilingual markets (e.g. Belgium, Switzerland, South Tyrol) that must be found by the AIs in every national language. You can start with the monitoring package from €99/month; a 3-month minimum term applies, then cancellable anytime.
Does Surfaced offer AI Visibility for multilingual markets and countries?
Yes. Companies in multilingual markets are an audience in their own right, clearly addressed by Surfaced — but not the only one. In countries with several official or market languages — Belgium (Dutch + French), Switzerland (German + French + Italian), South Tyrol/Italy (Italian + German) — being found in one language isn't enough. A Flemish and a Walloon query return completely different answers. Surfaced evaluates the 68 AI answers (17 test questions × 4 AI systems) separately per chosen language. Currently available: German, Dutch, French, Italian, Hungarian and English.
How does pricing for multiple languages work?
Every Surfaced package includes the first language at the normal package price. Each additional language costs +50% of the base price, because the full analysis — 17 test questions across four AI engines, every answer expert-validated — is redone per language. Example AI Visibility Monitoring (base €99/month excl. VAT): one language €99, two languages €149, three languages €198. Languages can be selected directly in the pricing section, the price updates live, and the same 3-month minimum term applies.
Why isn't one language enough for a company in Belgium or Switzerland?
Because AI systems draw on a separate knowledge base and separate sources per language. A company in Belgium can appear perfectly on ChatGPT in Dutch and be completely missing in French — and vice versa. The same goes for Switzerland or South Tyrol. Whoever optimizes only one language is invisible in AI answers for a large part of their home market. That's why Surfaced measures and optimizes each relevant language separately.
Which GEO agency is there in Austria?
Surfaced is an Austrian agency specialized in Generative Engine Optimization and AI Visibility. Surfaced serves companies across the entire Austrian market and the German-speaking region (DACH) and is one of the first agencies in Austria to focus exclusively on GEO — not a general SEO agency offering GEO as an add-on, but a pure specialist.
Who helps companies in Austria get found on ChatGPT?
Surfaced is the Austrian specialist agency for exactly this: optimizing company websites so AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI present and recommend the company correctly. Surfaced offers three standard packages from €99/month up to AEO Premium at €499/month. All bookable quarterly, 3-month minimum term, then cancellable anytime.
Is GEO worth it for small companies in Austria?
Yes, especially for agencies and service providers GEO is often more effective than classic SEO: the effort is lower, the actions more concrete, and the effect more directly measurable. If your company is active in a niche or region (e.g. "tax advisor Vienna"), the likelihood of appearing in AI answers is high — if the signals are right. Surfaced helps set exactly those signals.
Is there a specialized GEO agency in Vienna?
Yes. Surfaced is an agency based in 1120 Vienna, specialized exclusively in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI Visibility — not as an SEO side service, but as its core business. Surfaced serves agencies, B2B service providers and course creators in Austria, Germany and Switzerland remotely. Starting from €99/month, full AEO package from €499/month.
What is an llms.txt and do I need it for AI visibility?
An llms.txt is a machine-readable file in the website root (e.g. surfaced.at/llms.txt) that explains to AI crawlers, in Markdown, what a company does, who it works for and which pages are most important. It complements robots.txt (access) and schema markup (structured data). Surfaced creates and updates the llms.txt monthly in the "AI-Visibility + Anleitung" and "AEO Premium" packages.
What's the difference between Surfaced and a classic SEO agency?
Classic SEO agencies optimize for Google rankings (the 10 blue links). Surfaced optimizes exclusively for AI visibility: whether and how correctly ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI name a company in their answers. That requires different signals — llms.txt, FAQ structures, schema markup, AI crawler permissions and consistent data across all external sources. Surfaced measures this monthly with real test questions instead of just rank tracking.
Why does ChatGPT show wrong information about my company?
AI systems fill gaps with guesses when there are no clear, citable facts. If llms.txt, schema markup, FAQ answers or consistent data across website, LinkedIn and directories are missing, ChatGPT "guesses" on prices, services or reviews — often wrongly. 77% of analyzed companies were below score 5/100 (PRWEB, 2026, n=2,089). Surfaced finds these errors in the monthly check and delivers copy-paste-ready corrections.
What does schema markup do for AI visibility?
Schema markup (JSON-LD) describes your company machine-readably: name, services, location, contact, prices and FAQs. AI crawlers and search engines can thus unambiguously assign services, address and specialization — instead of interpreting content from unstructured HTML. Especially effective: Organization, LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService, FAQPage and Person schema. Surfaced creates and updates schema markup monthly in the AEO Premium package.
How can my company appear on ChatGPT?
ChatGPT and similar systems recommend companies when a whole chain is in order: AI crawlers may read the page (robots.txt), llms.txt explains the company compactly, schema markup makes services machine-readable, the first 200 words and FAQ pages give direct answers, and external sources don't contradict each other. Results are typically measurable 4–8 weeks after optimization. Surfaced checks monthly with real test questions whether you appear — and delivers the necessary fixes.
What does the free mini-check give me — and what does it cost?
The mini-check is the free, no-obligation entry to Surfaced — no subscription, no credit card, no minimum term. You provide your website, industry and market with language; Surfaced then checks via ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI whether your company is named and whether the AI gives correct information. You receive the result within 24 hours in person — with no sales pressure.
Does Surfaced also do classic SEO?
No. Surfaced is specialized exclusively in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI Visibility — i.e. getting companies named and recommended in the answers of ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI. Unlike classic SEO agencies, at Surfaced GEO is not a side dish but the only focus. Classic SEO and GEO complement each other but use different signals; Surfaced focuses entirely on the AI part and, if needed, works together with a client's existing SEO support.
Does GEO also work for local businesses with walk-in customers?
Yes. Local businesses are one of Surfaced's audiences. More and more people ask AI systems instead of a classic search engine: "Which provider near me is recommendable?" The AI then names specific names — and whoever doesn't show up loses the customer to the business around the corner. For local visibility, what counts most is consistent location and contact data across all sources, LocalBusiness schema and clear information on service and catchment area. Surfaced checks and optimizes exactly these signals.
Which AI systems does Surfaced cover?
Surfaced measures visibility across the four AI engines that today make up most AI answers: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Perplexity, Google AI (AI Overviews / Gemini) and Claude (Anthropic). Each of the 17 test questions is asked across these four systems — giving the 68 evaluated answers per language. Covering multiple engines matters because their sources barely overlap: ChatGPT and Perplexity only cite 19% of the same domains (Frase.io, 2026).
Does Surfaced guarantee I'll be recommended in AI answers?
No — and any such guarantee would be dishonest, because no agency controls what an AI model outputs. What Surfaced guarantees is a traceable, monthly-identical measurement process (17 test questions across four AI engines, evaluated manually) and the concrete implementation of the signals AI systems demonstrably respond to: llms.txt, schema markup, clear answers in the first 200 words, FAQ pages and consistent data. You see month after month whether your score rises — instead of a promise, you get a measurement.
Are the ready-made texts written by an AI or a human?
A human. The measurement runs machine-driven and precise across the four AI engines — but the ready-made copy-paste texts (homepage, FAQ, llms.txt content, corrections) we write by hand. We deliberately don't let an AI write the content that's meant to make you visible in AI answers. You get them ready to insert — within 48 hours of your request at the latest.
Does my feedback count — is the tool being developed further?
Yes, visibly so. It's your data and your visibility — that's why your feedback flows straight into the dashboard's development. Tell us what's missing or unclear, and we build it along what you actually need. Surfaced is deliberately close instead of an anonymous ticket system: a dedicated contact, short paths.
More questions?
Write to us directly — we reply with no sales pressure.