Your future customers aren’t “googling” anymore: they’re asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot — and the AI answers by naming just a handful of businesses. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the discipline that makes sure your SMB is one of them.
DVCOM practices GEO for its clients… and on its own site, which you may well have found in exactly that way.
A company that is absent from generative search results becomes invisible to a growing proportion of its market — even if its website ranks highly in traditional search results.
Good GEO relies on good SEO: generative engines rely heavily on traditional search results when selecting their sources.
That is why our SEO/GEO and Search Intelligence approach treats them as a single system.
SEO gets you ranked in a list of blue links. GEO gets you cited inside the AI-generated answer itself. These are two complementary disciplines, but they operate through different mechanisms:
Grille
SEO Classic
AEO (Answer Engine Optim.)
GEO (Generative Engine Optim.)
Objectives
Ranking in search results
Occupying the zero position (excerpts, voice assistants)
Responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and AI Overviews
Levers
Keywords, backlinks, technical aspects
Q&A, optimised extracts
Entities, structured data, citability, subject authority
Measures
Rankings, clicks, organic traffic
Yield of extracts obtained
AI mentions, share of voice, referral traffic from AI search engines
Quebec French: your customers’ conversational search queries (“best agency near me”, “what is GEO?”) use vocabulary that AI models associate with local sources. We optimise your AI visibility in both languages.
Local sources: AI systems cite directories, media outlets and rankings that they deem reliable for the Quebec market. Being listed there is a direct way to get mentioned.
Bill 25: the collection and processing of your visitors’ data must comply with the Quebec regulatory framework — including within your AI visibility measurement tools.
The reality for local SMBs: realistic budgets, quick decisions, a need for measurable results — no jargon or endless projects.
— where do you show up (or not) in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews on your commercial queries?
Deliverable: an AI visibility report featuring your priority search queries, your competitors and the gaps you need to close. You can also get an initial overview yourself using our free Score GEO tool.
AI engines need to be able to read, understand and trust your website. We implement Schema.org structured data (Organisation, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage), the llms.txt file, a robots.txt file open to AI crawlers (GPTBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, etc.), and a clear entity architecture: who you are, what you do, for whom, and where.
Deliverable: a website that is technically readable by LLMs, validated tool by tool.
AI systems do not cite vague pages: they draw on clear definitions, original data and direct answers. We create answer pages, FAQs, definitions and proprietary data written to be reproduced verbatim by generative AI systems — in impeccable French, with sources and authors clearly identified.
Deliverable: a GEO content calendar prioritised according to your business requirements.
An AI system recommends companies that its trusted sources already recommend. We build your presence in the directories, rankings, media and industry publications that generative search engines use as references — starting with Quebec.
Deliverable: a plan for citations and mentions, with tracking of acquisitions.
GEO is self-managing. Every month: tracking of your mentions across each search engine, changes in your share of voice compared to your competitors, referral traffic from AI sources, and strategy adjustments based on what the models actually identify.
Deliverable: a monthly dashboard in plain language — no 40-page reports that nobody reads.
We practise what we preach. This website is GEO-optimised — try it out: ask ChatGPT or Perplexity to recommend a GEO agency in Montreal.
GEO isn’t a stand-alone service. It’s integrated into our comprehensive range of AI-powered digital marketing services: SEO & Search Intelligence, content and social media marketing, conversion campaigns, and productivity optimisation with AI. Your AI visibility is fuelled by everything else.
Proven expertise, not a passing fad. DVCOM has been providing digital marketing services in Montreal since 1998. GEO is the natural evolution of nearly three decades of search engine optimisation — not an opportunistic reinvention.
Projects tailored to SMBs. We start with the groundwork, followed by monthly support, and metrics you can understand.
GEO primarily benefits businesses whose customers ask questions before making a purchase:
Professional services (accountants, solicitors, consultants): your customers ask the AI, ‘Which accountant is best for an SME in Montreal?’ — the one mentioned gets the call.
Construction and renovation: queries such as ‘how much does… cost’, ‘which contractor for…’ now receive generated responses, with named recommendations.
Healthcare and private clinics: patients check practitioners and treatments with AI before booking an appointment.
E-commerce: generative engines compare products and shops — and recommend those with well-structured product listings.
Tourism and accommodation: ‘what to do in…’, ‘where to stay near…’ have become conversations with AI, rather than traditional searches.
B2B and manufacturing: buyers build their list of suppliers by consulting ChatGPT well before filling in a form.
If your customers ask an AI ‘which company do you recommend for…’, GEO is relevant to you.
GEO is not a black box. Every month, your dashboard answers four simple questions:
Are you mentioned? The number of mentions and references to your company in the responses from each AI model (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews) to your business-related queries.
More or fewer than your competitors? Your AI share of voice: out of 100 responses generated in your market, how many mention you, and how many mention your competitors.
Is it driving traffic? Referral traffic from AI engines, identified in your analytics — traffic that is still modest in volume, but with a conversion rate well above average: the AI has already done the pre-selection work.
What do we need to adjust? What the models retain (or distort) about your business, and the actions to take the following month to set things right.
An AI visibility audit is available free of charge via our Score GEO tool. Optimisation projects usually begin with a foundational phase (audit, technical analysis and initial content), followed by monthly support tailored to the size of your SME. Please contact us for a detailed assessment.
Technical corrections (structured data, llms.txt) are incorporated by AI engines within a few weeks. Citations in generative responses typically take 2 to 4 months to build up, depending on your initial authority.
No. AI systems select their sources from websites that are already recognised as authoritative in traditional search: without a solid SEO foundation, no generative optimisation will be effective. That is why we deliver both together, as a single system.
We systematically query the leading AI models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews) about your business enquiries and monitor your presence, your positioning and that of your competitors in their responses.
This is a file located in the root directory of your website that presents your most important pages to AI models in a format they can easily read. The file itself is simple; its value lies in what you put in it — a choice that stems from your entity strategy and your priority business queries, not from a copy-and-paste template.
Yes — and that’s actually an advantage: competition for queries in Quebec French is still low. SMEs that structure their content now are gaining a lasting edge in French-language AI responses.
For an SME looking to attract customers, blocking GPTBot or Google-Extended is tantamount to opting out of AI-generated responses. Unless there are specific intellectual property concerns, we recommend the opposite: opening up access and becoming the cited source.
To some extent, yes — and we encourage you to get started: the technical foundations are well within the reach of a resourceful team. What really makes the difference in AI-powered responses is what comes next: identifying the business queries that matter, producing content that the models choose to cite from amongst thousands of sources, building external authority, and measuring, month after month, what each search engine picks up about you. This is where our support pays off. In fact, many of our clients combine the two: their team handles the implementation, whilst we manage the strategy and measurement.
This is exactly what the audit reveals: many SME websites are invisible to LLMs due to JavaScript-heavy content, a lack of structured data or an overly restrictive robots.txt file. Our GEO Score gives you an initial assessment free of charge.
Yes — throughout Quebec, either remotely or in person in the Greater Montreal area.
