2.9M
Surabaya city population, Indonesia's second largest economy
Source: BPS Kota Surabaya 2024
Tanjung Perak
Indonesia's busiest eastern port, serving the archipelago
Source: Pelindo
2023
The year Arfadia began documenting its GEO practice
Source: Arfadia dated archives
0 Hours
Time difference between Arfadia's Jakarta office and Surabaya
Source: WIB (UTC+7)
About GEO and AEO in Surabaya
Generative Engine Optimization is the discipline of structuring a brand's entity, evidence, and published record so that AI systems recognise it, describe it accurately, and cite it when answering questions in its category. Answer Engine Optimization is the narrower practice of shaping content so a machine can extract a direct answer from it.
High Adoption, Thin Specialist Bench
Surabaya is Indonesia's second largest economy and the gateway to its eastern half, but the purchasing decisions for much of what moves through Tanjung Perak are made somewhere else. A steel distributor here sells to a contractor in Jakarta. A chemical supplier sells to a factory in Gresik whose parent company sits in Singapore. The buyer is rarely in the same city as the seller.
Several Adoption Numbers, Different Questions Being Asked
That single fact changes what optimisation should target. Local search serves walk-in trade and nearby enquiries, which is a small share of industrial revenue. The procurement team that actually signs the contract is asking a different question entirely, from a different place, and increasingly asking an AI assistant first.
Procurement Now Starts With a Chatbot, Not a Directory
The purchasing process that used to begin with a trade directory, an industry association list, or a referral from a colleague now often begins with a question typed into an AI assistant. Who supplies this in Indonesia. Which manufacturers hold this certification. Who has capacity for this volume.
Which agencies actually do GEO for Surabaya businesses, not just SEO with AI added on?
Named GEO-specialist entrants with published methodology:
AI-first specialists with dated GEO service pages
Agencies with a public prompt-testing methodology
GEO methodology pages
Citation case studies
Framework documentation
Which agencies actually do GEO for Surabaya businesses, not just SEO with AI added on?
A different mix, weighted toward third-party coverage:
Agencies with recent directory and roundup coverage
Firms with named press or digital-PR mentions
Agency directories
Market roundups
Press coverage
40% vs 15% SOV
A brand can hold roughly 40% share of voice in one AI engine and 15% in another for the same tracked prompt set. Single-platform GEO optimisation is a documented visibility gap, not a shortcut.
The answer names three to five companies. If yours is not among them, you are not in the process at all, and you will never know the enquiry existed. This is different from losing a tender. Losing a tender means you were considered. Being absent from the shortlist means you were never considered, and no feedback loop tells you why.
Referrals Still Open Doors, But They Get Verified Now
Most Surabaya B2B suppliers will say their business comes from referrals rather than search, and that is usually true. What has changed is what happens after the referral.
Individual use vs. organisational adoption, Surabaya
Surabayas using AI tools monthlye-Conomy SEA, Jan-Mar 2026
Organisations that have scaled AI across the businessWorkplace survey, 2,010 knowledge workers
e-Conomy SEA Single Source (individual figure, VERIFIED); Surabaya workplace survey via Asana / Deloitte (organisational figure, REPORTED, Deloitte separately puts "already transformational" at 12%). Different populations, different definitions, deliberately shown side by side rather than merged.
94%
Of B2B Buyers Used AI During Their Last Purchase
The person who received your name now verifies it before replying. They type your company name into an AI assistant and ask what it does, whether it is credible, and who else does the same thing. If that check returns nothing useful, or returns a competitor with a clearer public record, the referral loses force before you are ever contacted.
17-18%
Of AI Citations Come From a Brand's Own Website
Arfadia's survey of 127 Indonesian businesses, published with a registered DOI and indexed on Google Scholar, found that 72 percent of marketers use AI to produce content while only 12 percent optimise so that AI can find them. In industrial B2B the second figure is likely lower still.
No independently audited figure exists for the size of Indonesia's GEO services market as of mid 2026. Any agency quoting one is estimating, and we would rather say that plainly than publish a number we cannot source.
Our GEO and AEO Services in Surabaya
Six disciplines, built around the reality that your buyer is elsewhere and asking about capability, not location.
Capability-Led Entity Architecture
Content written in Surabaya spelling and terminology (-ise/-our, superannuation, suburb-level geography) for human trust and E-E-A-T.
Honestly framed: no controlled study has measured whether spelling alone changes AI citation, a genuine evidence gap, so we do not oversell it as a ranking lever.
Multi-Platform Citation Tracking
ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot each retrieve differently, and share of voice for the same brand can vary by 25 points or more between engines.
We baseline and re-test across every platform that matters to an Surabaya buyer, not a single default engine.
Procurement Question Panel
Named data-handling approach mapped to APP 8 cross-border obligations, a data-processing agreement, and Notifiable Data Breach incident-response support.
Foregrounded from the first proposal, because Surabaya procurement teams ask, and because post-2024 reforms make this an accountability question, not just a policy document.
Entity and Schema Infrastructure
Organization, Person and FAQPage schema kept accurate, implemented as structural hygiene rather than oversold as a guaranteed citation lever, because the evidence on schema's direct impact is genuinely mixed.
Consistent entity information (name, services, executive details, location) reduces the chance an AI system hedges or misrepresents the business.
Earned Media and Trade Coverage
Placement and mentions across outlets and directories Surabaya AI engines and buyers actually recognise.
Only around 17-18% of AI citations trace back to a brand's own website, so this is treated as GEO infrastructure, not a separate PR line item.
RoGEO Reporting for Industrial B2B
Citation rate, share of voice, sentiment and AI-referred pipeline tracked in IDR-denominated tiers, against realistic benchmarks rather than a promised outcome.
Works alongside
our companion SEO service for Surabaya rather than replacing it.
to be the source the AI actually cites, use GEO
Why Choose Us as Your GEO Agency for Surabaya
Arfadia has practised generative engine optimization since 2023, before most Indonesian agencies had a name for it. The dated archive is public and the methodology is published.
Three research reports carry registered DOIs and are indexed on Google Scholar: the AI Citation Rate Report 2026, State of SEO Indonesia 2026, and Digital Marketing Benchmark Indonesia 2026. The benchmark report is built on a primary survey of 127 Indonesian businesses, cross validated against four research sources, with 124 data points validated and five rejected for lack of a verifiable source.
3
Offices: Jakarta, Bandung, Bali
Practising GEO Since 2023
Arfadia began documenting generative engine optimization in 2023, before most Indonesian agencies had a name for it. The dated archive is public.
Published Research, Registered DOI
Three reports indexed on Google Scholar, including a primary survey of 127 Indonesian businesses with 124 data points validated and five rejected.
Same Timezone, Buyers' City
Head office in Jakarta where many of your buyers sit, delivery teams in Bandung and Bali. No timezone gap with Surabaya.
Milestone Commitments, Published
Targets separated into what we accept being held to and what measurement cannot yet promise. The closing audit reports what was missed.
Explore Related Services
GEO in Surabaya works hardest when paired with the rest of the SEOv2 stack.
Ready for a Live AI-Citation Demonstration?
Get a free citation and structure audit scoped to your category, run across the platforms your Surabaya buyers actually use, with a named query, a date and a screenshot. Contact our team to get started.
Request Your Free GEO Audit
Frequently Asked Questions About GEO & AEO in Surabaya
Should we optimise for Surabaya specifically, or for Indonesia?
SEO wins ranking positions in organic links. AEO focuses on winning the single extracted answer or featured snippet. GEO earns brand mentions and citations inside a synthesised AI response. They share a technical and content foundation, so most Surabaya businesses need an integrated strategy rather than three disconnected services.
Our clients find us through referrals, not search. Does this still apply?
For most Surabaya B2B suppliers, Indonesia, and often beyond. Your buyer is a procurement team that may sit in Jakarta, Singapore, or overseas, and their question is about capability and certification, not geography. Local optimisation matters for walk-in trade and nearby service calls, which is usually a small share of industrial revenue.
We are a contract manufacturer with no consumer brand. Is GEO relevant?
Partly, and it is worth being precise. Referral still opens the door. What has changed is that the person who received your name now verifies it with an AI assistant before replying. If that check returns nothing, or returns a competitor with a clearer record, the referral loses force before you are contacted.
How long before we see AI citations?
It works differently but it works. Consumer brands compete for recommendation. Contract manufacturers compete to be found by sourcing teams asking about capability, capacity, and certification. That panel of questions is much smaller and narrower, which usually makes it cheaper and faster to compete in than a consumer category.
How do you comply with Indonesia's PDP Law when handling our data?
AI citation has a crawl latency of two to three months, so the month three baseline is usually close to zero and that is normal rather than a failure. Movement typically becomes visible around month six, with category position by month twelve. We state this before contracts are signed rather than explaining it later.
Can you show a live AI-citation demonstration before we sign?
Data handling is scoped in the agreement before work starts, covering what is collected, where it is processed, and how long it is retained. We do not transfer client data outside agreed systems, and we do not use client data to train models.
How do you measure success, and what does reporting look like?
Yes. We run a sample of the procurement questions relevant to your category across six platforms and show what comes back today, including where competitors are named instead of you. That sample becomes the starting point for the frozen panel if you proceed.
Do we need English content if we sell mainly within Indonesia?
Citation frequency per platform, share of voice against named competitors, and description accuracy, reported monthly against a panel of 75 to 100 procurement questions frozen at month three and handed to you. You can run the same questions yourself at any time and check our numbers.
How does GEO interact with our existing SEO?
It depends on where your buyers research. If any meaningful share of your enquiries originate from Singapore, Malaysia, or a multinational's regional office, then yes, because those buyers ask in English and the answers they receive draw on English sources. If your buyers are entirely domestic, Bahasa Indonesia is sufficient.
Can you guarantee we get cited in ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews?
They share infrastructure and diverge in output. Technical health, site structure and entity clarity serve both. Beyond that, SEO optimises for a ranked list of links while GEO optimises for inclusion in a synthesised answer. Running them separately duplicates the foundation work twice.
ChatGPT citation set
Perplexity citation set
