AI SEO and GEO: how to optimize for AI search

What AI SEO and GEO add to SEO

Classic SEO asks whether a page ranks. AI SEO and GEO ask a second question: once an engine has read the page, does its answer name you? You will also see it called AI search optimization, SEO for AI, LLM SEO or LLM optimization. They describe the same job, which is also known as generative engine optimization and answer engine optimization.

The basics still matter. Google says there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary”, and that a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet to be shown as a link. AI SEO and GEO start where that leaves off.

Step 1: let the AI crawlers in

Each engine reads the web with its own crawler, and robots.txt can block them one by one. OpenAI, for example, uses OAI-SearchBot to show sites in ChatGPT search and GPTBot to collect training data; blocking the first keeps you out of ChatGPT’s search answers. Check that your robots.txt, firewall and CDN allow the search crawlers you care about. Our ChatGPT SEO guide lists the OpenAI agents that matter and what each one controls.

Step 2: write answer-first pages

Engines build answers from passages. A page that states the answer in its first two sentences, under a heading that matches the question, gives them a passage to lift. Follow it with the detail: options, prices, trade-offs, steps.

• One question per page, phrased the way buyers ask it, such as “best payroll software for a 20-person startup”.
• A direct answer first, in 40 to 60 words, that makes sense on its own.
• Headings that match follow-up questions, because engines run several related searches (the query fan-out) and each may land on a different section.
• Tables for comparisons, so prices and features are easy to extract.
• A visible date and author, so engines and readers can judge freshness.

Step 3: give engines evidence to quote

The KDD 2024 GEO study rewrote web pages in nine ways and measured how much of the AI answer came from each. Adding quotations from credible sources helped most (+40.9%), then statistics (+30.6%), fluency (+28.0%) and citing sources (+27.5%). Keyword stuffing made things worse (−8.3%). In practice: cite numbers, name your sources, and quote real experts.

Step 4: show up where engines look

Engines often answer from pages you don’t own. In our October 2026 study of 150 AI answers, reddit.com was among the sources of 22 answers and youtube.com of 13. ChatGPT listed 16.6 domains as sources per answer on average, while Google AI Mode listed only 2.5, so on Google’s AI surfaces a few sources carry the whole answer. List the sources each engine uses for your prompts, then earn a place on them: reviews, directory listings, comparison articles and honest community answers.

Step 5: measure, then repeat

AI answers change from one run to the next, so one check proves nothing. Track a fixed set of prompts on each engine, repeatedly, and watch visibility, position, sentiment and citations move. Keep some prompts untouched as controls: if the prompts you worked on improve and the controls don’t, your work caused it. Our guide to measuring AI visibility explains each number, and ranking in AI Overviews covers Google’s side.

Common AI SEO and GEO mistakes

• Blocking the crawlers by accident, through a firewall rule or a blanket robots.txt line.
• Writing for keywords instead of questions. Engines answer questions; stuffing keywords lowered visibility in the GEO study.
• Relying on special files. Google says you don’t need new machine-readable files or markup to appear in its AI features. See our llms.txt guide.
• Ignoring third-party sites, where many answers come from.

Cited runs AI SEO and GEO as a service: we track your prompts on every engine, write and ship the content, fix the technical issues and listings, and report what moved every week.