GEO results arrive in stages. Fixing crawler access can take effect within days; OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach its search systems. Changes to page content usually show in AI answers that search the web within a few weeks, once the pages are recrawled. Gaining mentions on other websites and changing what a model knows from training takes months. For most businesses, three to six months is a realistic period to judge whether GEO work is paying off.
Why the timing differs by type of answer
AI assistants answer in two ways. For some questions they search the web and write the answer from the pages they retrieve. For others they answer from what the model learned in training. Your website can change the first kind of answer as soon as crawlers and indexes pick up your changes. The second kind only changes when the company releases a model trained on newer data, which you cannot control or predict.
A realistic timeline
| Change | Where it shows | Typical time | What decides the speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unblocking OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt | ChatGPT search eligibility | About a day, per OpenAI | OpenAI’s systems re-reading robots.txt |
| Removing a firewall block | All AI crawlers | Days | How soon each crawler returns |
| Rewriting key pages | Answers that search the web | 2 to 8 weeks | How often your pages are recrawled and re-indexed |
| New answer pages | Answers that search the web | 4 to 12 weeks | Discovery, internal links, ranking for the sub-questions |
| Fixing brand details across profiles | How assistants describe you | 1 to 3 months | When each site updates and is recrawled |
| Mentions on other websites | Whether assistants name you | 3 to 6 months or more | PR, reviews and listings building up |
| Changes to what a model knows | Answers without web search | Months, unpredictable | When the AI company trains a new model |
These ranges are what we plan with, based on how crawling and indexing work. They are not promises: a site that Google and Bing crawl daily moves faster than a site they visit once a month.
What you can do in the first 30 days
- Week 1Check crawler access and rendering; fix blocks.
- Week 1 to 2Set the baseline: buyer questions, runs, analytics.
- Week 2 to 3Make brand details consistent everywhere.
- Week 3 to 4Rewrite the three to five pages that matter most.
After 30 days you should see technical fixes reflected in crawler logs and, often, the first changes in answers that search the web. Our AI crawler access checker covers week 1, and tracking brand mentions for free covers the baseline.
What slows GEO down
- A new domain with few links and little history, which crawlers visit less often
- Pages that only render with JavaScript
- A brand name shared with other companies
- No independent mentions, reviews or listings
- Changing too many things at once, so no one can tell what worked
How it compares with SEO
GEO and SEO move at similar speeds for the parts they share, because AI answers that search the web depend on search indexes. GEO adds slower parts: mentions on other sites and model updates. A study by Seer Interactive found that ranking on page one of Google correlated at about 0.65 with being mentioned in ChatGPT answers, so sites with established SEO usually see GEO results sooner. More in GEO vs SEO.
How to judge progress
| After | Look for |
|---|---|
| 1 month | AI search crawlers visiting and getting status 200; key pages indexed |
| 3 months | More mentions and citations on problem and category questions; fewer wrong descriptions |
| 6 months | A steady share of voice against competitors; visits and enquiries from AI referrals |
Frequently asked questions
Can GEO work faster for a brand-new company?
Technical fixes work at the same speed. Being named in category answers usually takes longer, because new companies have few mentions elsewhere.
Should we stop if nothing changes in the first month?
Not if the crawler fixes are confirmed in the logs. Content and mentions need more time. Judge at three months against the baseline.
Can anyone speed this up with a guarantee?
No. Crawling schedules and model updates are controlled by the search and AI companies.
Sources
- OpenAI, “Overview of OpenAI crawlers” (note on robots.txt changes taking about 24 hours)
- Seer Interactive, “What drives brand mentions in AI answers?”