GEO (generative engine optimization)

GEO (generative engine optimization) is a set of actions a website takes to get into the answers of AI assistants and AI search: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews and AI Mode. The separate terms AEO and LLMO mean almost the same thing. For Google, according to its own 2026 guide, it is not a separate discipline but ordinary SEO.

In plain words

When a person asks ChatGPT "which kettle should I buy", the system either answers from the model's memory or searches the web, gathers several pages and retells them, sometimes with links. GEO is an attempt to make sure your store is among those pages and mentions.

The topic is young, and there is a lot of unverified advice around it. Below is a split between what is confirmed and what advice authors merely claim for now.

What is confirmed

Google says directly: there are no special techniques

Google's guide (May 2026) explains that AI Overviews and AI Mode rely on the core ranking systems. Two mechanisms: finding relevant pages in the Google index (RAG) and "query fan-out", where the system runs several related queries at once. It recommends unique content with first-hand experience, clear structure, a good page experience and technical accessibility. The guide calls the following a waste of time:

• llms.txt files and "special" markup for AI (Google Search doesn't use them);
• "chunking" text into small pieces for AI;
• rewriting in an "AI style";
• artificial brand "mentions";
• excessive enthusiasm for structured data for the sake of AI (there is no special schema).

(Google, 2026). This applies specifically to Google. For other companies' AI systems there is no such official list.

Other assistants cite more than Google's top results

Ahrefs (August 2025, about 15,000 queries): on average only 11.9% of links in AI assistants' answers matched Google's top 10 for the same query; for Perplexity 28.6%, for ChatGPT 8.0%. AI Overviews, in the authors' conclusion, are closer to ordinary results. This is a study by a company that sells tools for collecting this data; the ChatGPT data was collected in early July 2025 (Ahrefs, 2025). The authors' conclusion: assistants seem to search by several variants of a query, so it pays to rank consistently for a group of related queries rather than for one.

Brand mentions go together with visibility

Ahrefs (May 2025, 75,000 brands, AI Overviews): the strongest link with brand visibility was brand mentions across the web (correlation 0.664), a weaker one was backlinks (0.218). The authors stress: this is correlation, not proof of cause; the sample is skewed toward large brands; the state of AI Overviews is as of May 2025 (Ahrefs, 2025).

AI answers are unstable

A study by SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai (November–December 2025, 2,961 queries) showed: ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews/AI Mode repeated the same list of brands in less than 1% of cases. However, some brands appeared in 55–77% of answers even with different wording. Hence: count the frequency of mentions across many queries, not a "position". The authors did not peer-review the work, and Gumshoe.ai sells tracking tools (SEJ, January 2026).

Markup gives no noticeable gain

Ahrefs (May 2026) tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD between August 2025 and March 2026, against about 4,000 control pages. In ChatGPT (+2.2%) and AI Mode (+2.4%) the changes were not different from zero; in AI Overviews there was a small drop (−4.6%). The sample consisted of pages AI already cited often (Ahrefs, 2026). This doesn't mean markup is useless: it is needed for Google's rich results (see Structured data).

llms.txt

An SE Ranking analysis of almost 300,000 domains (SEJ report of 20 November 2025): about 10% of domains had the file, and no link to AI citation frequency was found. The authors write that it "doesn't directly affect… at least for now" (SEJ, 2025). More in the article AI bots on your site.

What remains without evidence

These claims are widespread, but there is no verified confirmation for them:

• "Add a Q&A block and ChatGPT will cite you."
• "A page of the right length or structure gets into answers more often."
• "Platform X guarantees a place in AI answers." Google warns directly that no third-party service has access to Google's internal ranking and AI systems, so advice from such services should be checked against official guidance (Google, 2026).

How much traffic this brings

Ahrefs (June 2025, 81,947 sites): the top three AI sources gave 0.19% of site traffic, while Google sent about 210 times more. ChatGPT gave over 80% of AI traffic. Ahrefs notes that part of AI traffic is indistinguishable from direct visits or search (Ahrefs, 2025). There is no data for Ukraine.

How GEO differs from SEO

What a store should do

1. Make sure search bots are not blocked (robots.txt, CDN, bot protection), as Google advises (AI features).
2. Write about the product what the supplier doesn't have: your own tests, photos, instructions, answers to customer questions. This is "non-commodity" content in Google's terms.
3. Keep the feed and prices up to date: Google directly mentions Merchant Center among the sources for products in AI answers (see Google Merchant Center).
4. Watch for mentions of your store in third-party sources: reviews, roundups, forums. Faking them isn't worth it: Google calls artificial mentions pointless.
5. Measure the result by sales and searches for the store's name, not only by "presence in AI".

Common mistakes

• Paying for "guaranteed inclusion" in ChatGPT.
• Treating the position in an AI answer as a metric: it is random (SparkToro, 2026).
• Rewriting everything into an "AI format" instead of writing useful text.
• Buying artificial mentions.

FAQ

What is GEO in plain words? An attempt to get into AI assistants' answers. For Google it is the same as SEO.

How do I get into ChatGPT's answers? There is no guaranteed way. OpenAI has a separate bot for search (OAI-SearchBot): sites closed to it don't appear in ChatGPT search answers (OpenAI). Beyond allowing the bot, the data shows the role of search visibility and brand mentions.

Will GEO replace SEO? There is no basis to think so: according to Ahrefs' 2025 data Google remains the main source of traffic, and Google's 2026 guide treats these actions as part of SEO.

Do I need llms.txt? Google doesn't use it, and a study of 300,000 domains found no link to citations.

Related terms

• SEO trends for an online store
• AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google
• AI bots on your site: GPTBot, robots.txt and llms.txt
• Structured data for an online store: Product, Offer, Review
• Content marketing

Sources

• Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search (May 2026) — developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide
• Google Search Central, AI features and your website — developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
• OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers — developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots
• Ahrefs, Only 12% of AI cited URLs rank in Google's top 10 (11.08.2025) — ahrefs.com/blog/ai-search-overlap
• Ahrefs, AI Overview brand visibility factors (26.05.2025) — ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-brand-correlation
• Ahrefs, We Tracked 1,885 Pages Adding Schema (11.05.2026) — ahrefs.com/blog/schema-ai-citations
• Ahrefs, AI traffic study (26.06.2025) — ahrefs.com/blog/ai-traffic-increase
• Search Engine Journal, AI Recommendations Change With Nearly Every Query: SparkToro (30.01.2026) — searchenginejournal.com/ai-recommendations-change-with-nearly-every-query-sparktoro
• Search Engine Journal, llms.txt shows no clear effect on AI citations (20.11.2025) — searchenginejournal.com/llms-txt-shows-no-clear-effect-on-ai-citations-based-on-300k-domains