Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Consultant in Canada
I help Canadian businesses measure and improve how their pages and brand are retrieved, mentioned and cited in AI-generated answers, across Google’s AI features, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. The work combines technical SEO, original evidence, consistent entity information and credible third-party references. Every engagement starts with a measured baseline, so you can tell whether anything actually changed, and no one, including me, can guarantee placement in an AI answer.
Also offer AEO consulting →
What Is Generative Engine Optimization?
Generative engine optimization is a developing practice focused on improving the likelihood that a source is discovered, retrieved, used, mentioned or cited in AI-generated answers. It is not a single ranking system. Visibility depends on whether the engine searches at all, what it crawls and indexes, what it retrieves, the wording and context of the query, the platform, the location, the date, and how much the answer varies between runs. A 2026 survey of 45 studies describes it as a stochastic, partially observable pipeline. In practice that means the work is about improving odds across a chain of steps, and measuring whether the odds moved.
The term comes from a 2023 paper reporting visibility gains of up to 40%: a figure you will see quoted often, and usually without its condition. It applies to content already present in the model’s context, so it says nothing about getting found in the first place. The same 2026 survey also found that rewriting purely to win citations can hurt retrieval, which is why I start by measuring rather than rewriting.
GEO vs SEO: what’s different
Less than the labels imply, and the honest version is worth stating because it is unusual to see on a page like this. Google says its AI features are rooted in its core Search ranking systems, that optimizing for them is “still SEO,” and that no special markup is required. So on Google’s surfaces, SEO foundations are the work.
What generative visibility adds on top: it applies to engines that do not use Google’s index at all, and the outcome is not a position but a spectrum. You can be retrieved, mentioned, cited, paraphrased without attribution, or left out entirely. Those are five different situations with five different fixes, and treating them as one is the most common reason this work gets misdiagnosed.
GEO vs AEO: overlapping labels, different emphasis
GEO and AEO solve different problems. AEO focuses on how your existing content is formatted so AI engines can extract a direct answer from it: page-level structural work. GEO focuses on whether AI models trust and recognize your brand enough to cite it at all: entity-level positioning across the web. AEO is about being extractable; GEO is about being represented. Most businesses need both, but each is a separate practice.
| AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Optimizes | Page-level extraction | Entity-level recognition |
| Focus | Format and structure of your content | Authority and trust signals across the web |
If your goal is specifically AEO: See AEO consulting →
For the full comparison: AEO vs GEO vs SEO →
What a GEO Consultant Does
Four areas of work, each focused on making AI models recognize and cite your business.
Entity signal building
Making it unambiguous who you are, what you sell and where: consistent organization details, authoritative profiles, structured information on your own site, and independently verifiable references. Inconsistent entity information is one of several reasons a brand goes missing from answers; the audit tells you whether it is yours. Wikidata only comes into it where an entity genuinely meets the notability bar.
Citation authority development
Earning coverage on sources you do not control. A claim only you make is weaker evidence than one others repeat, and independent references improve corroboration, discovery and credibility. Treat that as sound reasoning rather than a measured weighting: no engine publishes how it scores third-party sources.
Content structure for generative AI
Restructuring how your core content is organized so generative AI systems can synthesize it into responses. This is different from formatting for extraction: GEO content structure focuses on clear claims, source attribution, and contextual completeness so an AI model can build an answer around your information rather than around a competitor's.
Platform-specific strategy
Platforms differ in when they search at all, what they retrieve from, how fresh their sources are, how they present citations, and how much their answers vary between runs. So I test each one separately rather than assuming a tactic transfers. You will see confident claims elsewhere about what each engine 'favours'; those are folklore, not findings. My recommendations come from repeated, dated observations on your own domain.
Results: Proof of Methodology
Owned-property case study. HomeCalc.ca is a Canadian personal-finance calculator site that I own, not a client engagement, which is why the raw data can be published in full. Over 3 months it recorded 32,800+ measured AI appearances across two publisher reports: 17,800+ Copilot citations in Bing Webmaster Tools and 15,000impressions in Google’s Generative AI features report. That is measurable growth on those two surfaces. It does not establish equivalent results on engines that report nothing, and appearances are not customers.
HomeCalc launched with no backlink portfolio, no years of indexed content and no brand recognition. That is what makes the numbers worth showing: they were not inherited from an established domain. A specific technical change produced them, and identifying that change on your site is what the audit is for.
“I identified a specific technical change that produced this lift. The methodology is part of what you receive in the audit.”
Each engagement is led personally by Hami Tahm, AI visibility consultant based in Canada.
Read the full HomeCalc case study →How GEO visibility is measured
“Visibility” is five different things, and reporting them as one number hides which one actually moved. Separating them is what makes a result checkable.
One prompt is not a measurement. AI answers vary by engine, wording, location, date and run, so what I report comes from repeated prompts, query variants, dated captures, and first-party console data wherever a console exists. The methodology and the underlying dataset are both public, so you can check how the figures on this page were produced before you buy anything.
GEO Consultant vs GEO Agency vs Generative AI Visibility Software
Three ways to approach GEO. Each solves a different part of the problem.
| GEO Consultant (Hami Tahm) | GEO Agency | Generative AI Visibility Software | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who builds the strategy | Hami Tahm, personally | Account manager and team | No one: software shows data only |
| Best suited to | Direct access to one senior person, fixed scope | Multi-discipline execution and larger programmes | Repeated monitoring and trend analysis |
| Deliverable | Written audit, action plan, implementation support | Ongoing programme of work | Dashboard and alerts |
| Usual limitation | Limited delivery capacity (one person) | Higher cost and more handoffs | Still needs someone to interpret and act on it |
| Proof on this site | Public owned-property case study + published dataset | Varies by firm | Varies by vendor |
| Pricing model | Starts with $1,500 CAD audit, no retainer | Monthly retainer | Monthly subscription |
GEO Consultant (Hami Tahm)
GEO Agency
Generative AI Visibility Software
Software is useful for monitoring your citation patterns over time. Agencies make sense at scale. A consultant makes sense when you want one person to look at why AI models aren’t citing your business specifically, and build the entity strategy to change that.
For software comparisons: Profound vs AirOps vs Peec →
How I Work With Clients
AI visibility audit
Where AI models recognize you, where they don't, and which entity signals are missing or inconsistent.
Entity gap analysis
What AI engines currently believe about your brand, and where the gaps in their understanding are largest.
GEO strategy
A prioritized plan to build the right entity signals, citation authority, and content structure for your specific business.
Implementation and citation monitoring
Your team executes the plan; I monitor citation lift across platforms and adjust.
Start with the audit. The GEO strategy follows from what it reveals.
Who This Is For
Companies that rank on Google but never appear when AI models generate responses about your category.
Consulting, agency, healthcare, and financial firms whose buyers research via AI before any conversation.
Brands where entity consistency across the web is a brand risk, not just a marketing one.
CMOs and marketing leads at established companies: you have a team that can execute; you need outside expertise to identify the highest-leverage AI moves first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between GEO and SEO?
They overlap heavily. Google states that its AI features run on its core Search ranking systems and that optimizing for AI Overviews and AI Mode is still SEO, with no special markup required, so on Google's surfaces, SEO foundations are the work. What generative visibility adds is the engines that do not use Google's index at all, and an outcome that is a spectrum rather than a position: you can be retrieved, mentioned, cited, paraphrased without attribution, or omitted. Nobody has shown that either discipline 'rewards' a specific fixed factor.
What is the difference between GEO and AEO?
GEO addresses whether AI models trust and recognize your brand enough to cite it: entity-level work. AEO addresses how your existing content is formatted so AI engines can extract a direct answer from it: page-level work. GEO is about being represented; AEO is about being extractable. Most businesses need both. For AEO specifically, see AEO consulting.
What is generative AI visibility software, and do I need a consultant instead?
Generative AI visibility software (Peec, Profound, AirOps, and similar tools) tracks where and how AI engines mention your brand. They give you data. A GEO consultant interprets the data, identifies the entity gaps software can't see, and builds the strategy to close them. Most businesses benefit from both: software for ongoing monitoring, a consultant for strategy.
How quickly can I see GEO results?
On HomeCalc.ca (a site I own), appearances began climbing within 48 hours of the changes, with the full 32,800-appearance lift visible in 3 months. That is one property, and one observation is not a timeline you should plan around. There is no published service level for this: Google's own documentation says recrawling alone can take days to months and that indexing is never guaranteed. What you can control is measuring on a fixed schedule so you can tell movement from noise.
What do I receive when working with a GEO consultant?
A written audit covering each AI model, an entity signal gap analysis, a prioritized GEO action plan, platform-specific recommendations, and direct support during implementation. The audit is the entry point.
How much does this cost?
The starting point is a $1,500 CAD AI visibility audit: flat fee, one-time. From there you can act on the findings yourself, or have me turn them into a fixed-scope Action Plan and roadmap for your team to ship (the audit fee is credited toward it). Optional monthly monitoring is available afterward, on a fixed 6–12 month term, never required to get started.
Do I need both AEO and GEO?
Often, yes. AEO and GEO solve different problems (extraction vs recognition), and most businesses have gaps in both. The audit reveals which gap is bigger for your specific situation. If AEO is the dominant problem, the strategy focuses there first. If it’s GEO, the strategy focuses there. See AEO consulting for the AEO side.
Related Service: AEO Consulting
If your goal is specifically optimizing how your existing pages are structured so AI engines can extract clear answers from them (not the broader question of whether AI models recognize your brand across the web), that’s a separate practice. Answer engine optimization (AEO) is page-level work; GEO is entity-level positioning.
Most businesses end up needing both. The audit reveals which to start with.
Answer Engine Optimization Consulting in Canada →Work With Me
Ready to find out why AI models aren’t citing your business?
Start with a $1,500 CAD AI visibility audit. Report and walkthrough call within 7 business days.
Most GEO engagements start with the AI Visibility Audit ($1,500 CAD, 7 business days). After the audit, we scope ongoing work based on what we find.
Book Your AI Visibility Audit →Or email hami@hamitahm.com