At a glance
- SEO gets a page into the search results. GEO (generative engine optimization) makes sure a company is named and linked in the answers of AI assistants.
- Answers that cite sources rely on search indexes: Google AI Overviews on the Google index, ChatGPT search on Bing among others. No indexing, no mention.
- What gets cited are clear, verifiable statements on easily accessible pages, backed by mentions on other websites.
- Three tasks are new above all: allowing AI crawlers, making facts machine-readable, measuring mentions.
Two terms, one goal
SEO (search engine optimization) covers everything that moves a website up in search engine results: technical accessibility, content on real search queries and links from other websites.
GEO (generative engine optimization) pursues the same goal for AI assistants. Instead of a list of links, they deliver an answer in full sentences and name only a few sources. Appearing there works like a recommendation; missing from it means not being part of the answer. The terms AEO (answer engine optimization) and LLMO (large language model optimization) are also used for the same task.
Where AI assistants get their knowledge
A language model has two sources of knowledge. Its training knowledge comes from texts collected up to a cutoff date; it changes only with new model versions. Web search, by contrast, retrieves current pages when a question calls for it. For companies, web search matters most, because it supplies the sources that are linked in an answer.
- Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
- Google index; a page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet
- ChatGPT search
- Its own crawler (OAI-SearchBot) and partner search indexes, including Bing
- Microsoft Copilot
- Bing index
- Perplexity
- Its own crawler (PerplexityBot) and its own index
- Claude
- Its own search crawler (Claude-SearchBot) and retrieval on request (Claude-User)
The consequence: a site that is not properly indexed in Google and Bing will not be cited in most AI answers either. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google explicitly names no requirements beyond the established fundamentals of search.
What stays the same
- Technology: pages are reachable, fast, error-free and fully readable for crawlers, even without JavaScript.
- Content: every important service has its own page that answers what people actually search for.
- Trust: links and mentions on other reputable websites show that a company exists and is in demand.
- Clarity: titles, headings and paragraphs say exactly what they are about.
These points still decide the classic search results, and they are also the foundation on which AI assistants choose their sources.
What is new
Allow AI crawlers
Many websites block AI crawlers without knowing it: through entries in robots.txt or through defaults of their hosting or CDN provider. Since July 2025, Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default for new domains. There are crawlers that collect training data for the models (such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot) and crawlers for search (such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot). To appear in answers that cite sources, at least the search crawlers have to be allowed.
Make facts machine-readable
Structured data following schema.org in JSON-LD format describes a company unambiguously: name, address, services, logo and profiles. Search engines and assistants then do not have to guess these details from running text. The data has to match the visible text.
Write unambiguously
Language models are most likely to take over statements that stand on their own: one fact per sentence, figures with units, consistent names for products and services. A paragraph that fully answers a question works better as a source than a page full of hints.
Do not forget Bing
Because several assistants draw on the Bing index, registering with Bing Webmaster Tools pays off. The IndexNow protocol reports new and changed pages to Bing and other search engines right away.
Mentions beyond your own website
Assistants build their picture from many sources: business directories, trade articles, review sites, social media profiles. Consistent details on name, address and services in all these places make a company clearly identifiable and prevent mix-ups with companies of the same name.
How to measure GEO
- Visits from AI answers: in web analytics they appear with sources such as chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or copilot.microsoft.com. ChatGPT usually adds the parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com to links.
- Mentions: a fixed list of questions is asked regularly in several assistants; what gets recorded is whether the company is named and linked.
- Google: Search Console counts clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode in the web search performance report, without reporting them separately.
A five-step approach is described in the article Check AI visibility.
Frequently asked questions
Does GEO replace search engine optimization?
No. AI assistants with web search draw on search indexes. A website that is hard to find in Google and Bing also has little chance in AI answers. GEO adds a few tasks to SEO but does not replace it.
Does a website need an llms.txt?
The file is a proposal from 2024, not a binding standard. Google has said it does not use it. The file cannot do harm, and it summarizes a website compactly; it does not replace any of the fundamentals above.
How quickly do changes take effect?
In the web search of the assistants, often within days to weeks, once the pages have been crawled again. In training knowledge only with a new model version, so after months.