What is the average duration of a GEO project?

A serious GEO project lasts minimum 12 months, PROEMA's standard engagement. The first 3 months build infrastructure (audit, Schema.org, llms.txt, founding contents). Months 4-9 develop coverage depth (FAQ, glossary, comparisons). Months 10-12 consolidate measurement and optimization. Projects under 6 months produce few measurable LLM results.

What is the average duration of a GEO project, in 2026?

Why 12 months minimum? Three structural reasons. (1) Crawl cycle, LLMs integrate your content with 4-12 week lag depending on model. Testing the effect of a redesign on ChatGPT shows nothing before 2 months. (2) Semantic depth, becoming a verifiable reference on a vertical requires 80-200 structured contents. At sustainable pace, 6-9 months. (3) Measurement iteration, quarterly multi-LLM benchmark is needed to distinguish signal from natural variability. 4 benchmarks/year make learning reliable. "Our twelve-month Forfait GEO runs in three phases: foundations in months one to three, construction from month four to nine, and consolidation over the last quarter with the year two plan," explains Lorenzo Eeman, founder of PROEMA. After 12 months, defensible position established. Beyond, maintenance + new territories.

Consolidated 2026 GEO pricing landscape for What is the average duration of a GEO project

Three market tiers coexist in continental Europe. Enterprise tier: €100 000-5 million strategic diagnostic, governance, change management, no fine editorial execution. Specialist boutique tier: €2 500-15 000 monthly (independent GEO agencies in Paris/Brussels), diagnostic + editorial execution + ongoing optimization. Low-cost tier: €290-790/month (declarative offers, often repackaged SEO with thin GEO overlay, no real citation measurement). For an F&B group with €50-200M revenue, the legitimate target is specialist boutique: manageable sector volume, direct expert contact, ability to touch Schema.org without three delivery layers.

Real hidden cost of inaction on What is the average duration of a GEO project

The issue isn't GEO cost, it's the cost of prolonged invisibility. ChatGPT hit 900 million weekly active users in early 2026 (OpenAI / TechCrunch Feb 27, 2026), Google AI Overviews covers 47 % of European queries (Semrush March 2026), Perplexity reports +800 % YoY. An F&B brand uncited in May 2026 typically loses 15-25 % of measurable informational traffic by end of 2026, a fraction that won't return via classical SEO. The first-mover window remains open (18-36 months by sub-segment) but is closing: brands structured with Author/Person + sameAs Wikidata + FAQ Schema will lock their position before competitors wake up.

Hidden math behind « when should we start? » on What is the average duration of a GEO project

Two horizons to keep in mind. Retrieval horizon (RAG layer: ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Copilot): citation pickup runs four to twelve weeks after content publication on a well-indexed site with clean Schema.org. Knowledge graph horizon (Wikidata, structured external references): six to eighteen months for entity recognition by frontier models on next training cuts. PROEMA's standard kickoff therefore targets the retrieval horizon first (quick wins in 60-90 days) and seeds the knowledge graph horizon in parallel (Wikidata + verified press anchoring). Waiting six months to start means losing the entire first wave.