7 Common GEO Mistakes That Kill Your AI Visibility

The Hidden Mistakes Killing Your AI Visibility

Most women business owners are making strategic GEO mistakes that prevent AI systems from understanding and recommending their businesses, despite having technically sound websites.

When Rachel hired me to review her consulting firm’s online presence, she was convinced she had a technical problem. “My website loads fast, my content is well-written and I even hired an SEO expert last year,” she explained. “But when potential clients ask AI systems for business consultant recommendations, my name never comes up.”

After conducting a comprehensive GEO audit, I discovered Rachel wasn’t making technical mistakes – she was making strategic ones. Her website was optimised perfectly for traditional search engines but completely wrong for AI systems.

Rachel’s situation is incredibly common among female entrepreneurs and women business owners. They’re investing time and money in optimisation strategies that actually hurt their AI visibility whilst missing the key elements that AI systems need to understand and recommend their businesses.

Here’s what many don’t realise: AI isn’t just a search engine – it’s a buying engine. Your potential clients are using AI to move through their entire buyer’s journey, from initial problem recognition to final purchase decision. If you’re not visible in that process, you’re not just missing searches – you’re missing sales.

The good news? Most GEO mistakes are easier to fix than traditional SEO problems. You don’t need complex technical implementations or expensive tools (hurrah!) – you need to understand how AI systems think and what they’re looking for when making business recommendations within the conversational queries your potential customers are having.

Mistake #1: Over-Optimising for Keywords Instead of Entities

The biggest mistake female entrepreneurs make is treating GEO like traditional SEO – focusing on keyword density instead of helping AI systems understand their business as a distinct entity.

What This Looks Like: Content stuffed with keyword phrases like “female entrepreneur business coach” repeated unnaturally throughout pages. Service descriptions that sound like they were written by a faulty robot having a particularly boring day and needing oiled, because they’re optimised for search algorithms rather than humans asking real questions – and humans are weird mate!

Why It Kills AI Visibility: AI systems are sophisticated enough to recognise keyword stuffing and unnatural language patterns – they’ve even put their own little “tells” into the stuff they produce like the em-dash (evidence of this in your writing is likely to get your page de-indexed from Google faster than you can say “wait! Let me dele-…” 😳.

They prioritise content that sounds conversational and well… just normal really – the way real people describe their business services when speaking to potential clients.

The Real Impact: Businesses focused on keyword optimisation often get ignored by AI systems because their content doesn’t sound trustworthy – or natural enough to recommend to real customers seeking genuine help.

We’re actually at an interesting time because whilst we have the rapid evolution (revolution?) of AI – it’s actually helping us out in a way. The scammers have been relying on automations and AI to mock-up “legit” businesses which were then stealing traffic (and 💰💰) – now the AI systems themselves are looking at the scammers’ work and thinking “huh? we wrote this” and banishing them. What a time to be alive! AI doing the Lord’s work when it comes to dealing with spammers haha.

How to Fix It:

• Replace keyword-focused descriptions with natural, conversational explanations of what you do and who you help – it’s worth getting transcriptions of your customer calls so you can pull out any questions which came up during those conversations
• Instead of “business coach,” use “business coach helping women business owners in Chicago build sustainable, profitable companies without burning out”
• Focus on entity optimisation by clearly defining what your business is, what specific problems you solve, and what makes you uniquely qualified to help particular types of customers – it’s experts in + bullshitters out

Mistake #2: Ignoring Content Structure and Formatting

Many women business owners create beautiful, flowing content that reads well to humans (assuming they up the font size. FFS I’m 51, wear varifocals and if your site is in font size = 11 it really doesn’t matter how good your stuff is – I’m oot as they say here in Scotland!) but is nearly impossible for AI systems to parse and extract information from.

What This Looks Like: Long paragraphs without clear structure (like the one above *snicker*), important information buried in the middle of articles – and no clear question-answer formatting that AI systems can easily reference and quote. AI systems love FAQs (…more than I love cheese & crackers!)

Why It Hurts: AI systems need to quickly extract specific information to include in their responses. If your content doesn’t have clear structure, AI systems will skip over it in favour of more organised information sources that they can confidently cite.

The Real Impact: Your expertise gets overlooked not because it’s not valuable, but because AI systems can’t efficiently extract and present your information to users asking for recommendations.

How to Fix It:

• Restructure content with clear headings, bullet points – and FAQ-style formatting
• Start articles with direct answers to questions and then provide supporting details
• Use numbered steps for processes and clearly labelled sections for different aspects of your expertise – the numbers demonstrate methodology and process
• Create dedicated FAQ sections that directly answer the questions your ideal clients ask during consultations
• This question-answer format is exactly what AI systems look for when generating responses

Mistake #3: Focusing Only on Google Whilst Ignoring Other AI Systems

Most SEOs and business owners are still concentrating almost exclusively on Google optimisation whilst ignoring the growing ecosystem of AI systems that customers use to discover businesses. [June 2025 – my own research and observations]

What This Looks Like: Optimisation strategies that only consider Google’s algorithms whilst ignoring ChatGPT, voice assistants, industry-specific AI tools, and emerging search platforms that your ideal clients actually use.

Why It Hurts: Your potential customers are using multiple AI systems to research businesses and services. Focusing only on Google means you’re invisible to customers using other discovery methods that might be more relevant to their decision-making process.

The Real Impact: You miss significant opportunities for customer acquisition through AI systems that might be more effective at reaching your specific audience or industry niche.

How to Fix It:

• Develop a multi-platform AI strategy that considers how your business appears across different AI systems (e.g., ChatGTP, Perplexity, Siri, etc.)
• Optimise for voice search (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant), conversational AI (ChatGPT, Claude), and specialised and/or AI tools your customers might use
• Test how your business appears when people ask different AI systems for recommendations in your field
• Create content that works across multiple AI platforms, not just Google’s algorithm

Mistake #4: Not Measuring AI Mention Performance

The biggest measurement mistake is continuing to focus exclusively on traditional SEO metrics whilst ignoring AI discovery performance entirely.

What This Looks Like: Tracking keyword rankings, organic traffic, and traditional SEO metrics whilst having absolutely no bloody idea whether AI systems are mentioning or recommending your business to potential clients.

Why It Hurts: You can’t optimise what you don’t measure – and without tracking AI mentions and recommendations, you have no way either way, to know whether your GEO strategies are working or what needs improvement.

The Real Impact: You might be investing time and resources in strategies that don’t actually improve your AI visibility whilst missing opportunities to amplify what’s working effectively.

How to Fix It:

• Develop a system for monitoring AI mentions across different platforms
• Regularly test how your business appears in AI-generated responses to relevant queries
• Track the source of new customer inquiries to identify which ones come from AI recommendations
• Set up Google Alerts for your business name combined with AI-related terms
• Ask new clients how they found you, and pay particular attention to mentions of voice search or AI recommendations

Mistake #5: Neglecting Authority Building for AI Recognition

Many female entrepreneurs assume that having credentials automatically establishes authority with AI systems, but AI authority recognition requires specific optimisation strategies.

What This Looks Like: Professional credentials listed without context, expertise mentioned but not demonstrated, and authority signals that humans understand but AI systems can’t interpret or verify effectively. For example, your Life Coaching Certification – whilst it’s all good and well having taken the course, passed the course and have a nice certificate – AI systems want to know how you’ve applied that knowledge and to which speciality (niche).

Why It Hurts: AI systems need to verify and validate expertise before recommending businesses. Credentials alone aren’t enough – else we’d all be buying certificates from Etsy! 😉 AI systems need to understand your expertise in context and see evidence of your results and methodology.

The Real Impact: Highly qualified professionals get overlooked by AI systems in favour of businesses that better demonstrate their expertise and authority in AI-recognisable ways.

How to Fix It:

• Document your expertise with specific examples, case studies, and detailed explanations of your methodology
• Include client results with permission, media mentions, speaking engagements, and industry recognition in ways that AI systems can understand and verify
• Create comprehensive “About” pages that don’t just list credentials but explain your expertise, approach, and what makes you uniquely qualified to help specific types of clients
• Develop content that demonstrates your knowledge rather than just stating your qualifications

Mistake #6: Using Generic Business Descriptions

One of the most damaging mistakes is describing your business in generic terms that AI systems can’t differentiate from hundreds of similar businesses.

What This Looks Like: Service descriptions like “marketing consultant,” “business coach,” or “wellness practitioner” without any specificity about who you serve, what problems you solve, or what makes you different from every other coach flooding LinkedIn with “abundance mindset” posts.

Why It Hurts: AI systems need to understand what makes your business unique to recommend you confidently. Generic descriptions make it impossible for AI to determine when your business is the best fit for specific customer needs versus alternatives – and they really just don’t understand the fluffy language either. Y’know… being machines – the poor little things don’t really understand what “soul-empowered” or “heart-led” means. Although tbf, I don’t either…

The Real Impact: You get lost in a sea of similar businesses because AI systems can’t identify your unique value proposition or understand when to recommend your services over alternatives. You need to be crystal clear to get cited in those ChatGTP conversations because AI doesn’t like guessing games, they want to be helpful and offer you up genuinely helpful answers.

How to Fix It:

• Develop specific, differentiated business descriptions that clearly communicate who you serve, what problems you solve, and what makes your approach unique
• Instead of “business coach,” become “business growth strategist helping female entrepreneurs scale to six figures without sacrificing work-life balance using my proven SCALE methodology” (yes really! That long – check out my case studies to see it in action!)
• Include your specific methodology, target client characteristics, and the unique results you deliver in your business descriptions
• Ditch the fluffy “soulful,” “heart-led,” “abundance-focused,” or “divinely guided” psychobabble – AI systems need to understand what you actually do, not how spiritually enlightened you feel about it

Mistake #7: Inconsistent Information Across Platforms

The final critical mistake is maintaining inconsistent business information across different online platforms, which confuses AI systems and reduces recommendation confidence by damaging your E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

What This Looks Like: Slightly different business names, service descriptions, or contact information across websites, social media profiles, and/or directory listings that create confusion about your actual business entity.

Why It Hurts: AI systems cross-reference information from multiple sources before making recommendations. Inconsistencies create doubt about your business legitimacy and reduce the likelihood of AI recommendations and the big tech companies are actually trying to increase security/fight scammers even though it seems it’s a never-ending battle – they are trying

The Real Impact: AI systems may view inconsistent information as signs of an unreliable or potentially fraudulent business, leading to reduced visibility and fewer recommendations to potential clients.

How to Fix It:

• Conduct a comprehensive audit of all your online presences to ensure consistent business names, service descriptions, contact information, and positioning across all platforms
• Create a master document with your exact business information and use it to standardise all online profiles
• Regularly audit your online presence to catch and correct any inconsistencies that might develop over time
• Ensure your business entity is clearly defined and consistent everywhere

The Cost of These Mistakes

Each of these mistakes individually can significantly impact your AI visibility – but the cumulative effect of multiple mistakes can be devastating for customer acquisition. Female entrepreneurs making these errors often experience:

• Declining organic visibility as traditional SEO becomes less effective and AI becomes the primary buying engine
• Missed customer connections as ideal clients can’t find them through AI search during their buyer’s journey – and they’re not showing up on Google either
• Competitive disadvantages as optimised competitors capture AI-driven referrals and sales because they started optimising before the gold-rush
• Wasted marketing investments in strategies that don’t improve AI discovery or conversion
• Frustrated customer experiences when AI systems can’t provide accurate business information or recommendations

The Quick Fix Action Plan

While these mistakes can seriously damage your AI visibility, most are relatively quick to correct once you understand what to change:

Week 1: Audit your current business descriptions and rewrite them to be specific, natural, and problem-focused rather than keyword-focused.

Week 2: Restructure your most important content pages with clear headings, FAQ sections, and easy-to-extract information and schema.

Week 3: Standardise your business information across all online platforms and profiles.

Week 4: Set up systems for monitoring AI mentions and tracking AI-driven customer inquiries.

Month 2: Develop comprehensive authority-building content that demonstrates your expertise with specific examples and results.

Month 3: Test and optimise your presence across multiple AI systems beyond just Google.

Prevention Strategies

Avoiding these mistakes long-term requires developing new habits and approaches that prioritise AI optimisation alongside traditional marketing efforts:

• Think Entity-First: Always consider how AI systems will understand and categorise your business when making content or optimisation decisions
• Prioritise Natural Language: Write for humans first, ensuring your content sounds conversational and authentic rather than optimised for algorithms
• Monitor Multiple Platforms: Regularly test how your business appears across different AI systems and search platforms
• Measure What Matters: Track AI mentions and recommendations alongside traditional metrics
• Build Authentic Authority: Focus on demonstrating real expertise and results rather than trying to game AI algorithms

The Competitive Advantage

The businesses that avoid these common GEO mistakes whilst their competitors continue making them gain significant competitive advantages as they become the businesses that AI systems confidently recommend to curious buyers.

The female entrepreneurs and women business owners who understand and avoid these mistakes position themselves to capture the growing market of customers who rely on AI as their primary buying engine.

And, as these women go ahead and build sustainable competitive advantages – their competitors are left to struggle with declining traditional search effectiveness and wonder why their “manifesting abundance” approach isn’t working. 😉

Your business expertise deserves to be discovered by the customers who need it most. Avoiding these common GEO mistakes ensures that AI systems can understand, trust, and recommend your business when potential clients are looking for exactly what you offer,

Stop Making These Visibility Mistakes Today

The shift to AI-powered business discovery is accelerating rapidly – faster than I could ever have anticipated – and AI is becoming the dominant buying engine for service-based businesses.

Every day you continue making these mistakes is another day that ideal clients are asking AI systems for recommendations and getting your competitors’ names instead of yours. But the good news is that most of these mistakes can be fixed quickly with the right approach – much faster than waiting for the universe to “align your abundance frequency” or whatever nonsense is trending on Instagram this week.

Need help ensuring your business avoids these critical errors? My free 50-point GEO audit checklist walks you through everything you need to check to make sure your business is optimised for AI discovery. Download it now and start fixing these mistakes before they cost you any more potential clients.