This guide was rewritten in October 2026. Earlier versions referred to Google’s Search Generative Experience and Bing Chat, which are now AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot, and recommended FAQ markup that Google no longer shows as a rich result.
When Google answers a question with an AI summary above the results, it is reasonable to ask whether your pages now need rewriting for machines. For most websites they do not. Google’s own documentation says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode (opens in a new tab) beyond those for ordinary Search.
Quick answer: generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the work of helping AI search tools find, understand and cite your pages. It rests on the same foundations as SEO: pages that can be crawled and indexed, that answer a question clearly and that support their claims with evidence. The main thing that changes is how you measure visibility.
What GEO means
The term comes from a research paper, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (opens in a new tab), by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues, presented at the KDD 2024 conference. The authors describe generative engines as systems that retrieve web pages and write an answer from them, and define GEO as changing content so it is more visible in those answers.
You will also see answer engine optimisation (AEO) and LLM optimisation used for similar ideas. The labels matter less than the mechanism: an AI search tool can only cite a page it can retrieve, and it is more likely to use a passage that answers the question directly.
GEO and SEO compared
The two overlap far more than the separate names suggest. The difference is mostly in what you are aiming for and how you measure it.
SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
Goal | Rank a page in search results and earn the click | Have a page used or cited in an AI-generated answer |
How pages are found | Crawling and indexing by search engines | The same crawling and indexing, plus each AI service’s own crawler |
What helps | Useful content, clear structure, technical health, links from respected sites | The same, with particular weight on passages that answer a question directly and support claims with evidence |
How you measure it | Impressions, rankings, clicks and conversions | Citations where reported, referral visits and conversions; clicks are fewer |
Where AI answers appear now
Each service finds pages in its own way, so the controls and reports differ.
Service | How it finds pages | What you control | Where to measure |
|---|---|---|---|
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Google’s search index, crawled by Googlebot. Both may run several related searches to build an answer | robots.txt rules for Googlebot; nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex | Search Console Performance report, Web search type |
Microsoft Copilot and Bing AI summaries | Bing’s index | robots.txt rules for Bingbot; IndexNow to report updates | Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance report |
ChatGPT search | OpenAI’s OAI-SearchBot crawler | Allow or block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt | Referral traffic in your analytics |
Two controls are easy to confuse. Google-Extended limits use of your content for training and grounding in Google’s other AI systems; it does not remove pages from Search or its AI features. OpenAI’s GPTBot crawler controls model training (opens in a new tab), while OAI-SearchBot controls whether pages appear in ChatGPT search. Other assistants use their own crawlers, so check each one’s documentation before changing robots.txt.
What the platforms say about being included
Google states that pages need to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and that no special schema, AI text files or other new markup are needed. Its May 2025 guidance on AI search (opens in a new tab) lists familiar advice: original content written for people, a good page experience, content Google can crawl, structured data that matches what is visible on the page, and up-to-date Business Profile and Merchant Center listings.
Microsoft’s February 2026 announcement of AI Performance reporting (opens in a new tab) gives similar advice: clear headings and tables, claims supported by data and sources, and content kept current. OpenAI asks sites that want to appear in ChatGPT search to allow OAI-SearchBot.
None of the three describes a separate optimisation technique. Our view is that GEO is best treated as a check on how well your existing SEO work holds up, not as a new discipline. Our guide to SEO basics covers those foundations.
What the research found, and what it does not show
The GEO paper rewrote source pages in different ways and measured how much of each page appeared in generated answers. Adding citations to sources, relevant quotations and statistics produced the largest gains, roughly 30 to 40% on the paper’s main visibility measure. Keyword stuffing produced little or no gain and slightly reduced visibility in some tests.
The study has clear limits:
- It tested two engines: a system built on GPT-3.5 that answered from the top five Google results, and Perplexity.
- The systems date from 2023 and 2024, and current AI search features work differently.
- Visibility was the authors’ own measure of how much text was used, not clicks or rankings.
- The authors did not measure effects on conventional search rankings.
The useful lesson is about evidence. A passage that names its source and gives a specific figure is easier to quote accurately, and it is also more useful to a human reader. Treat the percentages as an indication from controlled tests, not a forecast for your site.
Writing passages AI tools can use
AI answers are built from passages, not whole pages. The same habits that make a page easy to skim make it easier to quote accurately.
- Give each section one job, with a heading that says what it answers.
- Put the direct answer or definition in the first sentence or two under the heading, then the detail.
- Make key passages make sense on their own. Name the thing you are talking about rather than relying on “it” or “this” from an earlier section.
- Give figures with their source and date, and quote exact wording where it matters.
- Use tables for comparisons and numbered lists for steps.
- Cover the related questions a reader is likely to ask next. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may run several related searches to build an answer, so a page that covers the subtopics of a question has more chances to be used.
People often type longer, more conversational questions into AI tools than into a search box. Headings phrased as the questions your readers actually ask can help, as long as the page still reads as a coherent explanation rather than a list of fragments.
What we recommend
- Check access first. Use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to confirm your important pages are indexed. Decide deliberately about Bingbot and OAI-SearchBot: blocking a crawler removes your pages from that service’s answers.
- Answer the main question early. Give a plain answer near the top, then the detail. The Readability & Content Clarity Checker can help you spot dense passages.
- Support claims with specifics. Name the source, give the figure and its date, and quote where the exact wording matters. Our E-E-A-T guide explains how this kind of evidence builds trust.
- Keep structured data accurate. Article and Organization markup help search engines interpret a page, but there is no AI-specific schema. Check that markup matches the visible content; the Structured-Data Generator produces a starting point. Do not add FAQ markup expecting a search feature: Google stopped showing FAQ rich results (opens in a new tab) on 7 May 2026.
- Keep facts current. Update product names, thresholds and screenshots when they change, and explain substantial updates.
- Keep local listings accurate. Local businesses should keep Google Business Profile and Bing Places details correct, since both companies point to them as sources.
What we would avoid
- Breaking pages into question-and-answer fragments. A question as a heading helps when it matches what readers ask, but splitting an explanation into disconnected snippets makes it harder to follow.
- Adding AI files or new markup as a fix. Google says none are needed for its AI features.
- Keyword stuffing. It did not help in the GEO research and reduced visibility in some tests.
- Paying for AI visibility tracking before checking the free reports described below.
Is GEO relevant for small websites?
Yes, in the sense that the same rules apply to every site. Google’s stated requirements are that a page is indexed and eligible to show a snippet; there is no size threshold. A small site that answers a specific question clearly, with evidence, can be cited alongside much larger ones. It cannot be guaranteed, but neither can a top ranking in ordinary search.
How to measure AI search visibility
Search Console counts traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode within the Performance report’s Web search type, alongside ordinary results; Google’s documentation does not describe a separate filter for AI features. A page whose impressions rise while clicks fall may be appearing in AI answers.
Bing Webmaster Tools added an AI Performance report in public preview in February 2026. It shows how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing AI summaries, which pages are cited and a sample of the queries used to retrieve them. Microsoft notes that these figures do not indicate ranking or placement.
In your analytics, check referral sources for visits from AI assistants, which appear under their own domains, such as chatgpt.com.
It also helps to check by hand. Ask the AI tools your customers use the questions your pages answer, and note which sources they cite. Answers vary between sessions and over time, so look for patterns across several checks rather than reacting to one result.
Expect fewer clicks per search. In a Pew Research Center study (opens in a new tab) of 900 US adults in March 2025, people clicked a result on 8% of visits to search pages with an AI summary, compared with 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary on about 1% of visits. Google says clicks from pages with AI Overviews tend to be higher quality, though it has not published figures. Measure what visitors do after they arrive, such as enquiries, sign-ups or tool use, not clicks alone.
Next step
Start with access. Inspect your three most important pages in Search Console, then use the beginner’s guide to technical SEO to fix anything that stops them being crawled or indexed.
