By Doug Foulkes | PT Productions
What does AI actually see when it looks at your business online?
It’s a question most business owners have never asked. And in 2026, it’s the question that decides whether you get recommended or ignored.
In my last post I talked about the shift from SEO to GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation. SEO was one side of the cube. GEO is all six. If you missed that one, the short version is this: AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews don’t work the way Google used to. They don’t match keywords to pages. They scan everything they can find about your business your website, your social profiles, your videos, your bios, your reviews and they decide whether to recommend you.
And right now, most South African business owners have no idea what AI scans for when recommending businesses.
So let’s break it down. Here are the six signals AI is looking at when it decides whether your business is worth recommending. These are the six sides of the 3×3 cube. Get them right and you’re in the game. Get them wrong and you’re invisible, no matter how good your work is.
1. Is your business name the same everywhere online?
This is the boring one. It’s also the most important.
AI calls this “entity consistency.” In plain English: does your business have one name, one description, and one set of contact details across every place it appears online?
Most businesses fail this without even realising it. Your website says “Cape Town Plumbing Solutions.” Your Facebook page says “CT Plumbing.” Your Google listing says “Cape Town Plumbers (Pty) Ltd.” Your LinkedIn says “CTPS.” That’s four different versions of the same business and AI doesn’t know which one to trust. So it trusts none of them.
What to check today: Open every social profile, your website footer, and your Google Business Profile. Are they identical? Same name. Same description. Same phone number. Same address. If they’re not, fix it before you do anything else.
2. Does AI know what you do – literally?
Here’s something most business owners don’t realise: AI now indexes the audio in your videos. When you say something on camera, AI tools transcribe it, read it, and use it to understand what your business is about.
Which means if you’ve never said the words “we’re a structural engineering firm in Stellenbosch” out loud in any of your videos, AI has no idea you’re a structural engineering firm in Stellenbosch.
This is the spoken keywords signal, and it’s the one that catches everyone off guard. People assume their video captions are enough. They’re not. The audio is now searchable content.
What to do today: In your next video, in the first 15 seconds, say your business name, what you do, and where you do it. Out loud. Plain language. Not a tagline, a description. “I’m Doug Foulkes from PT Productions in the Western Cape. We help business owners get their video and social media right.” That sentence alone is now indexed by every AI tool that finds the video.
3. Are you answering the questions your customers are actually asking?
AI rewards content that sounds like a real answer to a real question.
Not keyword-stuffed pages. Not jargon. Not “Our innovative, scalable, client-centric solutions deliver world-class outcomes.” That kind of writing was built for the SEO era when keyword density mattered. In the GEO era, it actively works against you.
What works now is conversational framing. AI asks itself: “Is this content answering a question someone might type into me?” If the answer is yes, it gets pulled into the response. If the answer is no, it gets ignored.
What to do today: Look at your website’s homepage. Does it answer the questions your customers actually ask? “How much does it cost?” “How long does it take?” “Do you work in my area?” If your homepage doesn’t answer those questions in plain language, rewrite it. Or get someone to rewrite it for you.
4. How many places does AI need to find you?
If you’re only on one platform, you’re invisible to entire dimensions of AI search.
Recent research shows that AI tools pull from 5 to 16 different sources when generating a single answer. They reference YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, forums, review sites, Reddit, Wikipedia. One audit found that YouTube alone is cited as a primary source in nearly 60% of AI search responses.
If your business only exists on one platform, say, just Facebook, then you’re invisible to the other 15 places AI is looking. The businesses that do show up across multiple platforms are the ones being recommended.
This isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about being in the right places, consistently.
What to do today: Make a list of where your business currently has a presence. Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Business Profile. Pick the gaps. Start with the platforms your customers actually use. For most SMEs in South Africa, that means a Google Business Profile, a LinkedIn presence (you personally, not the company page), and at least one short-form video platform.
5. Are you participating online, or just posting?
There’s a difference between broadcasting and participating. AI knows the difference.
LinkedIn comments where you contribute real expertise to a discussion. Forum threads where you answer someone’s question. Replies on industry posts that add genuine insight. AI calls these “social citations” and treats them as authority signals, proof that you’re a real person with real knowledge, not a marketing account churning out posts.
The businesses being recommended in 2026 aren’t the ones posting the most. They’re the ones participating the most.
What to do today: Spend 15 minutes a day commenting thoughtfully on three industry posts. Not “Great post!” but actual contributions. Your name, your expertise, your perspective. Do this consistently for a month and AI will start associating you with your industry in ways no amount of posting ever could.
6. Does AI think your business is still active?
A profile that hasn’t been updated in two years tells AI you’re not in business anymore.
A pinned post from 2023, an outdated bio, an Instagram account that went silent six months ago, these aren’t neutral. They’re red flags. AI is looking for content freshness, and stale profiles signal that your business isn’t worth recommending.
This is the one most people get wrong. They built their digital presence years ago and haven’t touched it since. They’re not actively damaging their brand, they think. But they are. Silence isn’t neutrality. Silence is invisibility.
What to do today: Open every profile your business has. When was the last post? When was the bio last updated? Is the pinned content still relevant? If the answer is “I don’t know” or “ages ago,” you’ve found your starting point. Start with a fresh post and an updated bio. Then keep going.
How will GEO evolve beyond the 3×3?
I use the Rubik’s Cube as a metaphor because it makes this practical.
SEO was a 2×2 cube. One side mattered: keyword optimisation on your website. Get it right and you ranked.
GEO is a 3×3 cube. Six sides. The six signals above. Get them right and you’re recommended.
But the cube is going to get bigger. There’s a 4×4. There’s a 5×5. There’s a 7×7. As AI gets more sophisticated, it’s going to scan more signals — sentiment, video quality, citation depth, contextual relevance, things we haven’t named yet. Businesses that treat GEO as a one-time fix will be left behind.
The ones that win are the ones who get the 3×3 right now and stay ready for what’s next.
How can business owners start with GEO today?
The six signals above are the 3×3. Get them right and you’re in the game.
If you’re not sure which ones your business is sending and which ones are silent, I’ll tell you. DM me ENGINE on any platform, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and I’ll audit your digital presence against all six signals, showing you exactly what AI scans for when recommending businesses like yours. No pitch. Just precision.
Because the businesses being recommended in 2026 aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones whose signals are the clearest.