GEO for B2B companies: how to be the vendor AI puts on the shortlist
B2B GEO is the work of making sure that when a buyer asks Google's AI Overview, ChatGPT or Claude which supplier, software or agency to consider, your company is on the shortlist the answer gives, and the answer describes you accurately. An AI answer to "best payroll software for a small business" names a handful of vendors. If you are not one of them, the buyer may never reach your site.
B2B buying questions are low-volume and high-value, which is why they are easy to ignore in a keyword report. This guide uses what Google's AI cited for eight South African business searches on 11 October 2026, and turns it into a short list of work.
In short
- In our analysis of 96 Google South Africa searches on 11 October 2026, all eight B2B searches showed an AI Overview, even those with under 100 searches a month.
- For software questions, the Overviews cited vendors' own sites directly: xero.com appeared in three of the eight B2B Overviews.
- For agency questions, they cited agency listing sites (agencies.semrush.com, designrush.com, sortlist.com) next to the agencies' own pages.
- youtube.com was the most-cited domain in the B2B searches: 7 references across 5 of the 8 Overviews.
- Your best B2B GEO assets are honest comparison pages, independent reviews and the listing sites your category's answers already use.
What do South African B2B searches look like in AI Overviews?
Here are the eight business-to-business searches from our analysis of 96 Google South Africa searches on 11 October 2026 (desktop, one day). Monthly volumes are Google Ads averages for South Africa.
| Search | Monthly searches | Sources cited | Examples of cited domains |
|---|---|---|---|
| seo agency south africa | 590 | 9 | agencies' own sites, agencies.semrush.com, designrush.com, sortlist.com |
| digital marketing agency johannesburg | 480 | 8 | agencies' own sites, agencies.semrush.com, google.com |
| how to start a business in south africa | 720 | 9 | sars.gov.za, doingbusiness.org.za, wise.com, youtube.com |
| best payment gateway south africa | 110 | 11 | netcash.co.za, payfast.io, ozow.com, peachpayments.com |
| best accounting software south africa | 70 | 9 | xero.com, sage.com, quickbooks.intuit.com, zoho.com |
| best payroll software south africa | 50 | 7 | simplepay.co.za, sage.com, xero.com, youtube.com |
| best website builder south africa | 50 | 8 | domains.co.za, hostafrica.co.za, youtube.com |
| best crm for small business south africa | not measurable | 3 | xero.com, bizai.co.za, basecloudglobal.com |
Three things stand out. First, every one of these searches showed an Overview, so the low volume did not keep the AI answer away. Second, 42.2% of the B2B sources were South African (.za) domains, against 60.1% across all 96 searches. That figure understates local sources, because South African companies on .com, .io or other domains count as non-.za. Third, in six of the eight, the Overview cited at least one site that also ranked in the top five ordinary results. Ranking still matters.
These are eight searches on one day. Treat them as a pattern to check in your own category, not as a market statistic.
Why are comparison and "best X for Y" pages where B2B GEO is won?
Across all 96 searches, 58 of the 59 "best", "cheapest" and similar list searches showed an AI Overview. B2B buyers ask that shape of question all the time: best CRM for a small business, best payroll software for 50 staff, best agency for a B2B tech launch.
An answer to that question is a list, and it has to come from pages that compare. In our software searches, the Overviews cited the vendors' own sites. That means your own pages can be the source, if they answer the question the buyer asked. A useful comparison page does four things:
- States who each option suits. "Best for firms under 20 staff" is quotable. "Best-in-class" is not.
- Gives real numbers with dates. Prices in rand, limits, integrations, onboarding time, each dated so a reader can trust them.
- Names alternatives fairly, including competitors, and says where they are the better choice.
- Answers the follow-up questions in a short FAQ: contract length, POPIA, local support, payment options.
The research behind GEO supports the approach. In Aggarwal and colleagues' KDD 2024 paper, adding statistics to a page raised its position-adjusted visibility score from 19.5 to 25.9, adding quotations raised it to 27.8, and citing sources to 24.9. Keyword stuffing scored 17.8, worse than leaving the page alone. Results varied by subject, so treat these as directions. For the writing itself, see how to write content AI assistants quote.
Do third-party reviews and directories matter?
For agency searches, they were part of the answer. The Overviews for "seo agency south africa" and "digital marketing agency johannesburg" both cited agencies.semrush.com, and the first also cited designrush.com and sortlist.com, alongside the agencies' own sites. If you sell services, the listing sites your category's answers already cite are worth a complete, accurate profile.
The data also shows the limit of assuming. capterra.co.za ranked in the top ten ordinary results for four of the eight B2B searches, yet none of the Overviews cited it that day. Ranking on a review platform and being cited from it are different outcomes. Check your own category before you spend.
Reviews on your own site carry less weight with Google than you might hope. Google's documentation says that if an organisation controls the reviews about itself, its pages are not eligible for review stars. Testimonials still help visitors, but independent reviews are the ones others can verify.
What role do publishers and analysts play?
Across all 96 searches, South African publishers recurred as sources: mybroadband.co.za was cited 12 times and businesstech.co.za 9 times, though neither appeared in the B2B searches. There, vendors' own pages and listing sites carried more of the answer.
So coverage is not the only route, but it is a durable one. A named mention in an independent article, an industry report or a trade publication is a page you do not control that describes you, and AI answers draw on pages like that when they search. Digital PR for AI visibility covers how to earn it in South Africa.
Why does YouTube keep appearing in B2B answers?
youtube.com was cited 7 times across 5 of the 8 B2B Overviews, more than any other domain in the sector, including for accounting software, payroll software and website builders. Our data records domains, not videos, so we cannot say whose videos they were. If your product needs a demo to be understood, a clear, well-titled walkthrough video is one more page an answer can cite.
How should a B2B company measure its place on the AI shortlist?
Start from the unbranded questions a buyer asks before they know your name, and keep the branded ones separate. Branded vs unbranded questions explains why the split matters. Then:
- Ask each question on Google, ChatGPT and Claude, more than once, because answers vary between runs.
- Record whether you are named, whether you are named first, your share of all vendor mentions, and the sources cited.
- Check that AI search crawlers can reach your site. OpenAI states that sites which opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers".
- Re-run the same questions after every change.
Read no percentage from fewer than 30 answers: below that, a single answer moves it by more than three points.
Frequently asked questions
What is B2B GEO?
B2B GEO is generative engine optimisation for companies that sell to other businesses: the work of being named, and described accurately, when a buyer asks an AI assistant or Google's AI Overview which supplier, software or agency to consider.
Do AI Overviews appear for B2B searches in South Africa?
Yes. In our analysis of 96 Google South Africa searches on 11 October 2026, all eight business-to-business searches showed an AI Overview, including searches with fewer than 100 searches a month. It was one day, on desktop, so treat it as a signal rather than a market statistic.
Should a B2B company publish comparison pages that name competitors?
If they are fair, specific and dated, yes. Answers to best-for questions are lists, and a page that compares options with real prices, features and limits gives an assistant something concrete to draw on. In the research that coined GEO, adding statistics to a page raised its visibility score from 19.5 to 25.9.
Do testimonials on my own website count as reviews?
They help visitors, but they are not independent. Google does not show review stars for reviews that an organisation controls about itself, so build reviews on independent platforms your buyers already use.
Which sources did Google's AI cite for South African B2B searches?
In our 11 October 2026 analysis, the Overviews for software searches cited vendors' own sites such as xero.com and sage.com, the agency searches cited agency listing sites such as agencies.semrush.com and designrush.com, and youtube.com was cited in five of the eight B2B Overviews.