AI visibility (GEO): who ChatGPT and Google AI Mode recommend in Greek, and why

GEO, in Greek

They’re looking for you without knowing your name.

use case

It’s 10:40pm on a January evening. A mother in Thessaloniki types into her phone: “family hotel in Heraklion with a kids’ club and a shallow beach”. She doesn’t open ten links. She reads one answer that suggests three hotels, two lines on each, sources underneath.

Your hotel has a kids’ club and one of the shallowest beaches on the coast. It isn’t in the answer. Not because anyone decided so, but because nowhere on your site does plain text say the club takes children aged 4 to 12, or how shallow the sea in front of you is. Those facts live only in a photo and a brochure PDF.

That’s GEO in one paragraph. Answer engines recommend the businesses they can read, cross-check and quote. If your facts can’t be read, you’re not in the answer, however good the hotel is.

What changed

Search turned into an answer.

1. Google AI Mode has worked in Greece, in Greek, since 8 October 2025. People now ask in full sentences, and the answer comes before the list.

   To Vima, 8 Oct 2025 · press report

2. When a results page shows an AI summary, users click a traditional result on 8% of visits, against 15% when it doesn’t.

   Pew Research Center, July 2025 · study of 900 US adults, March 2025

3. The top-ranking page had a 58% lower click-through rate when an AI Overview appeared above it (December 2025 vs December 2023).

   Ahrefs, February 2026 · vendor data

4. Traffic from AI answers is still small. In one documented case, visitors from ChatGPT converted at 15.9%, against 1.76% for organic search, but they were just 0.07% of organic visits.

   Seer Interactive · a single case, unnamed client

The conclusion isn’t “SEO is dead”. It’s simpler: fewer clicks overall, and the people who do arrive via an answer have already done part of their choosing. And something no business gets to choose: the answer gets written whether you’re in it or not.

Anatomy

How an answer is assembled.

Nobody outside these companies knows the exact algorithm, and anyone who claims to is selling you something. What we do know is what the platforms themselves publish, and what measurement shows when you ask the same questions every month. Simplified, the path has five steps.

1. The question splits into smaller ones

   Google describes AI Mode as running many related searches at once, one per subtopic. “Family hotel with a kids’ club and a shallow beach” becomes at least three questions: family hotel, kids’ club with ages, sea depth.

   Google, AI Mode announcement (2025) · platform documentation

2. Readable pages are found

   To show up as a link in an AI Overview or AI Mode, a page has to be indexed and eligible for a snippet in Search. In practice: text, not a picture of text; HTML, not just a PDF; a page that isn’t blocked.

   Google Search Central, “AI features and your website” · platform documentation

3. The page that answers precisely wins

   A paragraph saying “kids’ club for ages 4 to 12, 10:00–13:00 and 17:00–19:00” can be quoted. A page saying “ideal for families” gives nobody anything to quote. Numbers, hours, prices, distances, certifications: those become answers.

   the principle we write by · Netex rule

4. Facts get cross-checked

   If the site gives one set of hours, the Google profile another and the booking platform a third, the engine can’t tell which is true. Google explicitly asks for structured data to match the visible text and for the business profile to be kept up to date.

   Google Search Central · platform documentation

5. The answer is written, with its sources

   The answer names a few businesses and links to the pages it took its facts from. That’s where it’s decided whether you’re one of them, or the page in dashed outline.

In Greek

Five Greek details.

1. Sources are scarce

   On many topics there’s no Greek page that answers precisely. That’s an opening: the first good page often becomes the source, and the engine has few alternatives to weigh it against.

2. People type the way they talk

   «Ξενοδοχείο Ηρακλείου», the same without accents, or “xenodoxeio irakleio” in Latin letters. You don’t need to stuff the page with variants. You need to write naturally, in full sentences, and name places and products the way your customers do, not the way your catalogue does.

3. Your name is spelt three ways

   The registered name, its Latin spelling and the trading name must all point to one entity: same address, same phone number, links between them, and Organization markup tying them together. Otherwise the engine sees three small businesses instead of one.

4. Buyers abroad ask in English

   A buyer in Germany or a Briton looking for a house in Crete won’t ask in Greek. An English version written by a person, with proper hreflang, is the surest way for them to find you. Machine translation shows, and it misses the words buyers actually use.

5. The Google profile counts

   For local questions, Google explicitly recommends an up-to-date business profile. The right category, hours, description, captioned photos and replies to reviews, in Greek and, where it makes sense, in English.

   Google Search Central, “AI features and your website” · platform documentation

Use cases

Six trades, six questions.

Six questions asked every day, in trades that have nothing in common. For each: who’s asking, what the engine needs before it can cite you, what usually stops it, and what we fix first. We drew the answers in the images to show the pattern; they aren’t screenshots.

TodayWith the fix

Family hotel · Herakliondrawing · use case

The question

family hotel near Heraklion with a kids’ club and a shallow beach

Who’s asking

A parent in January, booking for July.

What the engine needs

• The kids’ club written in text, with ages and hours.
• Distance to the sea and how shallow it is, in metres.
• The same facts on the site, the Google profile and the booking platforms.
• Reviews that mention children, with replies from the hotel.

What usually stops it

All of it exists, but inside a brochure PDF and in photos.

First fix

One “For families” page with short answers under questions, and the same facts on the Google profile, in Greek and English.

What we measure

Mentions across 30 family questions, every month, on four engines · direct bookings from that page.

Family hotel · Heraklion →

TodayWith the fix

Packaging film maker · Central Macedoniadrawing · use case

The question

food-grade PE film manufacturer in Greece, certified, for export The question is asked in English.

Who’s asking

A procurement manager in Germany looking for a second supplier.

What the engine needs

• A specification table in HTML: thicknesses, widths, materials, certifications with their numbers.
• An English page written by a person, with correct hreflang.
• The company identical everywhere: registered name, Latin spelling, address, LinkedIn.
• Third-party mentions: trade directories, industry associations, trade fairs.

What usually stops it

The specs live in a catalogue PDF, and the company name is spelt three ways.

First fix

One page per film family, with a table and Product and Organization markup that says exactly what the visible text says.

What we measure

Mentions across 30 English-language buyer questions · sample requests from abroad.

Packaging film maker · Central Macedonia →

TodayWith the fix

Accounting office · Volosdrawing · use case

The question

accountant in Volos who can handle mandatory e-invoicing

Who’s asking

A small-business owner, a few weeks before the tax authority’s deadline.

What the engine needs

• A page that answers “what changes for me”, with the official dates and a last-updated date.
• Exactly what the office takes on and what it doesn’t, with a “from” price.
• A Google profile with the right category, hours and areas served.
• The accountant’s name as the author, with their credentials.

What usually stops it

The home page only says the office “provides accounting services”.

First fix

An e-invoicing guide with dates updated as soon as AADE changes them, questions and answers, and the accountant’s byline.

What we measure

Mentions for “accountant + town + topic” questions · calls from the Google profile.

Accounting office · Volos →

TodayWith the fix

Air-compressor service · Larissadrawing · use case

The question

factory air compressor repair near Larissa, breakdown on a Saturday

Who’s asking

A maintenance lead with a line at a standstill.

What the engine needs

• Emergency call-out hours written clearly, and the same on the Google profile.
• Supported makes and power ratings, in a list.
• Areas served, with a typical arrival time.
• A phone number in text, not only inside an image.

What usually stops it

“24/7” exists only on an image banner on the home page.

First fix

An “Emergency breakdown” page with hours, areas and times, and the same data in LocalBusiness markup.

What we measure

Mentions for emergency questions · out-of-hours calls.

Air-compressor service · Larissa →

TodayWith the fix

E-bike parts e-shopdrawing · use case

The question

36V e-bike battery with next-day delivery in Greece

Who’s asking

A cyclist in Patras with a dead battery, Friday lunchtime.

What the engine needs

• Products with full specs in text: voltage, capacity, compatibility.
• Delivery times per area, spelt out, not “fast dispatch”.
• Price and stock identical on the page and in the Product markup.
• A returns policy in plain language.

What usually stops it

The descriptions are copied from the manufacturer, identical to ten other e-shops.

First fix

Compatibility tables you write yourself, and a “When will it arrive” page per city.

What we measure

Mentions for product questions · visits from chatgpt.com and gemini.google.com · orders from them.

E-bike parts e-shop →

TodayWith the fix

Estate agency · Chaniadrawing · use case

The question

can a non-EU citizen buy a house in Crete, what are the steps The question is asked in English.

Who’s asking

A British buyer thinking about a house in Crete.

What the engine needs

• A step-by-step page in English, from the tax number to the contract, reviewed by a lawyer.
• A last-updated date and who wrote it.
• Links to official sources for every step.
• The agency as a clear entity: address, languages spoken, registration number.

What usually stops it

The page exists only in Greek, or in machine-translated English.

First fix

An English guide written by a person and checked by a lawyer, and the same entity on every profile.

What we measure

Mentions across 30 English-language buyer questions · enquiries from abroad.

Estate agency · Chania →

Method

Eight steps. The last one, every month.

1. We write 30 questions, in Greek and English, in your customers’ words: from calls, emails, reviews and whatever people ask at the counter.
2. We measure the baseline: what ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode answer, whether they mention you, and who they mention instead.
3. We clean up the entity: name, address, phone, Google profile, Organization and LocalBusiness markup, links to the official profiles.
4. We write answer-first pages: a 40–60-word answer under each question, tables, “from” prices, dates, a named author.
5. We keep structured data identical to the visible text, word for word where it matters.
6. We get you mentioned where the engines look: trade directories, chambers, partners, press.
7. We check that no security rule blocks the search crawlers, and write the policy into robots.txt.
8. Every month: share of mentions across the 30 questions, Search Console data (where Google counts its AI features too), and visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com. What changed, what didn’t, what we do next.

Honestly

What GEO doesn’t do.

• It isn’t a trick. Google says plainly there are no special optimisations for AI Overviews and AI Mode. What works is a good, readable, precise page.
• It doesn’t guarantee a mention. Answers change with the wording, the day and the user. That’s why we measure share across 30 questions every month, not one question once.
• It doesn’t replace SEO. For Google’s AI features the page has to be indexed first; without basic SEO there is no GEO.
• It doesn’t rest on llms.txt. We add one as an experiment, because it takes minutes, but its benefit hasn’t been shown.
• It won’t get you “first place in ChatGPT”. Anyone selling that is selling something they don’t control.

Google Search Central, “AI features and your website” · platform documentation

On your own

Check it in ten minutes.

Six checks you can run today, with no tools and without us. Tick the ones that are true.

Our own tracking

We measure ourselves first.