Your questions about AI search, answered
Ghostart FAQ
Ghostart is an AI visibility platform — GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) in the jargon — built for small business owners, marketing leads and agencies who want ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI to name their business, not just Google to rank their website.
Below are the questions people actually ask on sales calls, answered straight, including the ones with no comfortable answer.
Last updated 13 July 2026
Who this applies to
Founders and marketing leads at small and mid-sized businesses, plus the agencies and ghostwriters working on their behalf.
Ghostart is remote-first and used globally, with its team based in London and Brighton, UK.
Key facts
- Ghostart reads your website, builds a strategy, and checks whether AI platforms currently mention you for your customers' real questions
- Ghostart tracks change over time rather than promising a single guaranteed result
- According to Semrush's analysis of 325,000 AI-search prompts, most LinkedIn content cited by ChatGPT and Google's AI came from individuals, not company pages
My search traffic isn't what it used to be, is that AI's fault?
Partly, yes.
Google now shows AI-generated answers at the top of many searches, so people get what they need without clicking through, and a growing number skip search altogether and ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini who to use instead.
It's rarely only AI. Algorithm changes and competition play their part too, but the shift underneath is structural, not a blip.
That changes the question worth asking. It's no longer just "how do I rank?" It's "am I in the answer?"
I know I need to show up in ChatGPT, but where do I even start?
Start by finding out where you stand.
Add your website to Ghostart and it reads your site, builds a strategy, and checks whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity currently mention you for the questions your customers are asking.
You can't fix what you haven't measured. From there the work is simple, if not always easy.
Publish specific, first-hand content answering the questions you want to be known for, in the places AI reads: your website, LinkedIn, your blog.
Ghostart drafts it in your voice and shows you whether it moved the needle.
Can you guarantee my business will get recommended by AI?
No. Be wary of anyone who says they can.
Whether an AI names you depends on retrieval, how the question is worded, competing sources, recency, and each model's own behaviour. None of that is within anyone's control, Ghostart included.
What you can do is make your business the easiest, clearest and most consistent option for AI to recommend, and track whether that's changing. Ghostart improves your likelihood and shows you the trend.
Anyone promising a guaranteed spot in an AI answer is selling old-world vanity with new-world language.
How much time will this actually take me? I'm running a business.
Less than you fear, more than nothing.
Ghostart handles the strategy, the topic research and the first drafts. The part only you can do, adding your real specifics and hitting publish, is realistically an hour or two a week.
What doesn't work is a burst of activity followed by silence. AI favours businesses that show up consistently, so a steady hour a week beats a frantic month before everyone goes quiet.
If you have a team, each person taking a slice makes the load lighter, not heavier.
How would I even know if it's working?
Ghostart asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews and Google's AI Mode the questions your customers ask, and records whether they mention you.
You see which topics you show up for, which you're missing from, and how that changes month by month. One caveat worth knowing: AI answers vary.
Ask the same question twice and you can get different sources back. Treat any single result as a snapshot, not a verdict.
The trend over time is the honest metric, and it's the one Ghostart shows you.
Isn't GEO just SEO with a new name? Do I still need SEO?
They're close cousins, not the same thing.
SEO gets you into Google's list of links. GEO gets you named inside the AI's answer, where there's no list left to scroll through.
You still want SEO, and increasingly the same content serves both. The groundwork overlaps: a clear, well-organised website helps either way.
GEO adds a layer on top, consistent, first-hand content from real people, published where AI actually looks. Doing GEO well doesn't cost you your search presence.
It moves you to where search is heading.
Do I need my whole team doing this, or can I do it on my own?
You can do this on your own, and plenty do. A team is an advantage, not a requirement.
Here's why a team helps when you have one: AI tends to cite individual, named people more than company pages.
According to Semrush's 2024 analysis of 325,000 AI-search prompts, most LinkedIn content cited by ChatGPT and Google's AI came from individuals rather than company pages.
More real voices covering more of your topics widens your coverage.
But one owner publishing consistently, in their own voice, beats a silent team every time.
Common mistakes
- Publishing a burst of content, then going quiet for months. AI rewards consistency, not intensity.
- Treating a single AI answer as proof of success or failure, rather than watching the trend.
- Waiting for a "guaranteed" GEO strategy before starting. That strategy doesn't exist, for Ghostart or anyone else.
- Assuming GEO replaces SEO, and dropping search fundamentals that still matter.
- Outsourcing every word to a generic AI writer, which produces exactly the beige content GEO is meant to fix.
FAQ
- What is AI visibility?
- AI visibility is whether AI platforms — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers — name and recommend your business when someone asks them a question in your area. It's the new version of showing up on page one: as more people ask AI instead of searching, being in the answer is what being found now means.
- What is AI visibility also known as?
- The industry hasn't settled on one name. The technical term is GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation); you'll also see AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation), LLMO (Large Language Model Optimisation), GSO (Generative Search Optimisation) and AI SEO. They all describe the same job. We lead with 'AI visibility' because it's the plain-English version your customers would actually recognise.
- What does GEO stand for?
- Generative Engine Optimisation — the technical name for AI visibility work: getting your business named inside AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, rather than only ranked in traditional search results.
- What is the Beige-ometer?
- Ghostart's scoring system for generic, interchangeable writing. It flags content too vague or templated for AI to cite with confidence, and shows what to change.
- Which AI platforms does Ghostart check?
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, plus Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode — tracked against the real questions your customers ask.
- Is Ghostart only for solo founders?
- No. It's used by solo owners, marketing leads inside 10 to 50 person teams, and agencies managing several clients at once.
- Where is Ghostart based?
- London and Brighton, UK, operating remote-first for a global customer base.
Sources and further reading
- Semrush, analysis of 325,000 AI-search prompts (2024), on individual versus company-page citation rates in ChatGPT and Google's AI.
- Ghostart homepage FAQ, for the original shorter-form answers this page expands on.
Find out where you stand
Add your website and Ghostart checks whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers currently mention you for the questions your customers are asking.
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