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Straight Up Search Launches New GEO Service for Brands
Northampton‑based SEO agency Straight Up Search has launched a Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) service that helps eCommerce and SaaS brands secure accurate citations in AI‑driven search tools. By focusing on crawler access, structured data, brand monitoring and citability, GEO ensures that companies appear in AI assistants’ answers rather than being overlooked. The service signals a shift from keyword‑centric SEO to entity‑centric visibility that is critical as consumers increasingly rely on AI for product recommendations.
Key Highlights
- ✓Straight Up Search launches new GEO service for eCommerce and SaaS brands
- ✓Service focuses on securing accurate citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
- ✓Four-pillar approach: Crawler access, Entity/schema work, Monitoring, and Citability scoring
- ✓GEO is described as an evolution of SEO, not a replacement, focusing on clear, structured information
What Happened
On 21 October 2026, Northampton‑based SEO agency Straight Up Search unveiled a new service that confronts the rising prominence of AI‑powered search. Dubbed Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), the offering targets eCommerce and SaaS brands that want to appear accurately in the answers generated by tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. As shoppers and B2B buyers increasingly skip traditional search engines to ask AI assistants for recommendations, Straight Up Search is positioning itself to keep brands in the conversation rather than on the periphery.
Key Details
The GEO service rests on four pillars, each moving beyond simple keyword focus toward a holistic technical and entity‑centric strategy:
1. AI Crawler Access
The first step is to open the door. Straight Up Search rewrites robots.txt and deploys llms.txt files so that major AI crawlers—GPT‑Bot (OpenAI), Claude‑Bot (Anthropic), and Perplexity‑Bot—can discover and index a site. Without this access, AI engines have no reliable source of data, and they will skip the brand entirely.
2. Entity and Schema Work
AI models thrive on clarity. To eliminate ambiguity, the service adds rich structured data—Organization, Product, FAQ, and Article schemas—aligned with the Knowledge Graph and Wikidata. This consistency tells search engines and AI assistants exactly who the brand is, what it sells, and how it answers common questions, dramatically reducing hallucinations or misrepresentations.
3. AI Brand Monitoring
Visibility in the AI ecosystem is dynamic. GEO offers weekly monitoring of brand mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot. A share‑of‑voice comparison against competitors gives owners a clear snapshot of their standing and highlights opportunities for improvement.
4. Citability Work
Finally, the agency evaluates how likely AI tools are to cite a brand and provides a step‑by‑step roadmap to boost that score. By focusing on data quality and accuracy, GEO transforms abstract SEO objectives into concrete, measurable outcomes.
What It Means For Your Business
For business owners, GEO signals a shift in the SEO playbook. Traditional tactics—keywords, backlinks, and on‑page copy—remain important, but the future of discovery hinges on entities and citations. Imagine a small‑business CRM buyer asking ChatGPT, “What’s the best CRM for a boutique agency?” If your brand isn’t cited in the AI’s answer, the opportunity vanishes. GEO bridges that gap, ensuring your company is not only visible but also accurately represented in AI‑generated summaries, ready to convert curiosity into sales.
Why This Matters
The move toward Generative Engine Optimisation tackles the trust deficit in AI search. Unlike a list of blue‑link results, an AI Overview synthesises information, pulling from the most authoritative sources it can find. When structured data is weak, competitors with richer schemas dominate the answer, and you lose the sale. By adopting GEO now, brands can secure a foothold in the knowledge graph before rivals do, turning AI assistants from passive search tools into proactive sales partners.
Why It Matters (continued)
Consumers increasingly rely on AI assistants for product recommendations, and missing the answer box means disappearing from the discovery process. GEO equips businesses with the technical groundwork—readable, verifiable, authoritative content—to earn citations. In a world where the “answer” often appears as a generated paragraph instead of a list of links, being cited becomes the new currency of visibility.
FAQs
- Is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) a replacement for traditional SEO?
No. According to Jamie Irwin, founder of Straight Up Search, GEO is not a replacement but an extension of the same discipline—clear, accurate, and well‑structured information—applied to the new AI‑centric search landscape.
- Which AI search tools does this service cover?
The service is designed to help brands appear in answers generated by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot.
- What is llms.txt and why is it important?
llms.txt is a new standard file that lets large language models read a site’s content structure quickly. It ensures that AI crawlers can access and index your data efficiently, improving the likelihood of citation.
Why This Matters For Your Business
As AI assistants become the first touchpoint for many shoppers and B2B buyers, the traditional blue‑link model is giving way to synthesized answers that pull from the most credible sources. If a brand’s structured data is incomplete or mis‑aligned, AI engines will default to competitors with richer schemas, and the brand disappears from the answer. GEO addresses this by ensuring that a site is technically discoverable, its entities clearly defined, and its information trustworthy, thereby increasing the chances of being cited in AI responses. For business owners, this shift means that SEO is no longer just about ranking on page one—it’s about being the authoritative source AI assistants turn to when answering questions. A missing citation can translate into lost leads and revenue, especially in high‑intent searches such as “best CRM for small businesses” or “top eCommerce platform for dropshipping.” By investing in GEO, brands can proactively shape the narrative AI presents to potential customers. The real‑world impact is tangible. A recent pilot with a mid‑size SaaS client saw a 35 % rise in AI‑driven traffic after implementing structured data and crawler optimisations, leading to a measurable uptick in trial sign‑ups. This demonstrates that GEO’s focus on citations is not theoretical—it directly influences conversion metrics in a world where AI answers often replace search engine results pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) a replacement for traditional SEO?
No. According to Jamie Irwin, founder of Straight Up Search, GEO is not a replacement but an extension of the same discipline—clear, accurate, and well‑structured information—applied to the new AI‑centric search landscape.
Which AI search tools does this service cover?
The service is designed to help brands appear in answers generated by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot.
What is llms.txt and why is it important?
llms.txt is a new standard file that lets large language models read a site’s content structure quickly. It ensures that AI crawlers can access and index your data efficiently, improving the likelihood of citation.
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