Wim, Copandi
GEO in two sentences
GEO stands for generative engine optimisation: making your content so that AI assistants find it, understand it and name it as a source. SEO gives you a place in a list of links. GEO puts you in the answer itself.
For an estate agent, this is not a far-off idea. Sellers who want to know what an estate agent costs or how a sale works increasingly ask an AI assistant. The answer they get is built on someone else's pages. Or on yours.
How AI assistants put together an answer
AI assistants with a search function build their answers on pages they find on the web. How they choose those pages differs per tool.
Google is the most open about it. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google describes a technique called "query fan-out". The system runs several related searches across subtopics and sources, and shows links along the way. An AI overview only appears if Google judges that it adds something to the regular search results.
Three things Google says itself:
- No extra requirements. Your page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet. Nothing more.
- No special files. You don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or extra markup.
- SEO remains the basis. According to Google, all existing SEO principles are still worth following.
On ChatGPT and Perplexity, we only share what we saw ourselves. That is the subject of the next chapter.
What kind of content they cite: our test
AI assistants mainly cite concrete content. We saw this in a test of our own.
On 1 November 2026, we put 30 real questions from estate agents to ChatGPT, without logging in. We also looked up some of them in Google, where an AI overview appeared every time, and in Perplexity. The questions covered CRMs, leads and new builds, among other things. This stood out:
- Most answers gave no source. For questions about CRM, leads and new builds, most answers cited nothing at all. So there is still room for anyone who explains it concretely.
- Concrete wins. When sources were named, they were pages with concrete prices, pages that name CRMs, tables and step-by-step guides.
- Official sources come back. FPS Economy, the BIV and the Flemish government's website were cited.
- Answers differ. The same question gave a different answer at another time or from another location.
One detail was instructive. Google's AI overview once mistook the CRM name "Mason" for a typo. A name that can also be an ordinary word needs context. Write "Mason, the property CRM" and the doubt is gone.
The lesson is simple. Write the way an AI assistant likes to cite: concrete, with names, in tables and steps, and with a link to the official source.
What structured data does for your properties
Structured data tells search engines, in a fixed format, what is on a property page. The type of home, the price, the location. Google calls it explicit clues about the meaning of a page.
Don't overrate it. Structured data is not a secret key to AI answers. Google even says you don't need extra markup to appear in AI Overviews. Google does ask that your structured data matches the visible text on your page. What is in the data must also be on the page.
The benefit is more practical. A search engine reads your property correctly, without having to guess what is a price and what is an address. Every website on Habbi, Salamander's website platform, has structured data for properties. You don't write any code for that.
Four things to do this month
You don't have to wait for a new website to start with GEO. Start with what your clients already ask.
- Answer real questions on your website. What does a sale cost, how long does it take, which certificates do you need. Put the answer in the first sentence under the subheading.
- Make it concrete. Name your municipalities, your way of working and the steps of a sale. A table or step-by-step guide says more than a long paragraph.
- Link to official sources. For certificates and obligations, refer to FPS Economy, the BIV or the Flemish government's website. In our test, those sources came back as cited sources.
- Put your properties on their own pages. Listings shown through a third-party widget or iframe don't exist as your own pages on your website. For Google and AI search engines, they don't exist as your content.
How to test it yourself
Ask the same questions to a few AI assistants every month and note what you see. One test says little. A series says a lot.
- Pick ten questions your clients really ask. For example, which estate agent in your municipality sells a house, or what a sale costs there.
- Ask them without logging in in ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity. That way you test like a new visitor.
- Note for each answer which agencies are named and which sources appear.
- Repeat it next time at a different moment. Answers differ, so look at the trend.
Check Google Search Console too. If you appear in AI Overviews, Google says this is included in your search traffic in the performance report, under the search type "Web".
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