Coimbra is a city of students and of healthcare: it has Portugal's oldest university and one of its largest hospital centres. People looking for a clinic, private tutoring, a student room or a restaurant in the Baixa ask ChatGPT more and more often before choosing. The answer depends on the whole brand, and that is what our GEO and SEO consulting works on.
GEO is optimising a brand for generative engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity; SEO is the part that optimises the website for Google. Our piece on what GEO is explains the difference without jargon.
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Health and education: sectors where trust decides
In healthcare and education nobody chooses at random. Neither does ChatGPT: it looks for the speciality, the team's experience and what others say. A clinic or tutoring centre that says clearly what it does, for whom and with which team has a far better chance of being recommended.
Then there is the academic calendar. In September thousands of new students arrive with the same questions: where to live, where to eat, where to see a doctor. That is when a well-described brand wins customers for the whole year.
The four fronts of a Coimbra brand
- Google Business Profile. The exact speciality, opening hours, access and parking.
- Website. One page per speciality or service, with frequent questions answered in the first line. This is where SEO works.
- Social media. Consistent Instagram and LinkedIn; for students, Instagram is often the first visit.
- Reviews and replies. On Google and sector platforms. Replying to each one with care, and never with the customer's health details in the reply, shows a brand you can trust.
University of Coimbra: the question asked at the Paço das Escolas
The University of Coimbra, with the Joanina Library and the tower you can see from the whole city, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2013. People leaving the Paço das Escolas often ask ChatGPT where to have lunch in the upper town or where to try pastéis de Santa Clara.
A brand that writes "5 minutes from the University" on its site, its Google profile and its social media, and sees it repeated in reviews, gets into that answer.
Where we start
- Measure. We ask ChatGPT the questions of a patient, a student and a visitor and count the mentions. Messgeo, our own GEO tool, repeats the measurement every month.
- Align the four fronts. The same speciality, the same contacts, everywhere.
- Answer every review, with care and without personal data.
- Earn mentions across the city. Coimbra guides, associations, sector directories, local press.
- Repeat, and always before September.
In two lines
In Coimbra, trust decides, in healthcare, education and tourism. The brand that wins says clearly what it does and replies with care on every front. GEO looks after the whole, SEO after the website within it.
