AEO and GEO: Getting Found in AI Search

People increasingly ask AI assistants for recommendations: “Who is a good plumber near me?” or “What should I look for in a bookkeeping service?” The answers often name specific businesses and cite specific pages. That raises a new question for business owners: how do you become one of the sources an assistant trusts?

Two terms describe this work: AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization). This guide explains what they mean, what is known about how AI assistants pick sources, and practical steps you can take. No one can promise placement in AI answers, but you can make your business easier to understand and cite.

What AEO and GEO mean

• Answer engine optimization (AEO) focuses on making your content the best direct answer to a question. It grew out of work on featured snippets and voice search.
• Generative engine optimization (GEO) focuses on being included and cited in answers generated by AI systems, such as chat assistants and AI summaries in search results.

In practice, the two overlap heavily. Both reward content that is clear, accurate, well structured and backed by signals of trust.

How AI assistants choose sources

Each AI product works differently, and providers do not publish full details. Broadly, assistants draw on two things:

1. What the model learned during training, from large amounts of public text.
2. What it retrieves at answer time, often through a search index or web browsing.

For the retrieval part, many of the familiar search fundamentals still apply. Assistants tend to favor sources that:

• Can be crawled and read easily
• Answer the question directly and specifically
• Show clear signals of who is behind the content
• Are consistent with other sources about the same business
• Are mentioned or reviewed elsewhere on the web

AEO and GEO are mostly about doing the fundamentals well and removing ambiguity.

Practical steps

1. Make sure AI crawlers can read your site

• Check your robots.txt file. Some sites block AI crawlers without realizing it. Decide deliberately which crawlers you allow.
• Make sure important content is in the HTML, not hidden behind scripts that may not render for crawlers.
• Keep pages fast and free of errors.

2. Write clear answers to real questions

Collect the questions customers actually ask on calls, in chats and in emails. Then answer them on your site:

• Put a short, direct answer near the top of the page.
• Follow with detail, examples and context.
• Use descriptive headings that match how people phrase questions.
• Keep facts specific: service areas, hours, what is included, what is not.

3. Add structured data

Structured data (schema.org markup, usually in JSON-LD) helps machines understand your content. Useful types for many businesses:

Structured data should always match what is visible on the page.

4. Consider an llms.txt file

llms.txt is a proposed convention, introduced in 2024, for placing a plain-text or Markdown file at the root of a website that summarizes the site and links to its most important pages for language models. It is not an official standard, and support across AI products varies. It is cheap to add, so many sites include one as a clear summary of who they are and where key information lives.

5. Keep business information consistent everywhere

Assistants cross-check information. Inconsistent details create doubt. Make sure these match across your website, Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, social profiles and directories:

• Business name
• Address or service area
• Phone number
• Hours
• Services and categories

6. Earn genuine reviews and mentions

Reviews and third-party mentions are signals of trust for people and for AI systems. Ask happy customers for honest reviews, respond to reviews professionally, and never buy or fake them. Being mentioned in local news, industry associations or partner sites also helps establish who you are.

7. Show who is behind the content

Add author names and bios to articles, a clear About page, and real contact details. Content from identifiable experts is easier to trust.

AEO and GEO checklist

• AI crawler access reviewed in robots.txt
• Key pages render as readable HTML
• Top customer questions answered on the site with direct answers
• Headings phrased the way people ask questions
• Organization or LocalBusiness schema in place
• FAQPage schema on FAQ sections, matching visible content
• llms.txt summarizing the site and key pages
• Name, address, phone and hours consistent across listings
• Process for requesting and responding to reviews
• Author and About information visible

How to track progress

Measurement is still imperfect. Practical approaches:

• Regularly ask major AI assistants the questions your customers ask, and note whether and how your business appears.
• Watch referral traffic from AI products in your analytics where it is identifiable.
• Ask new customers how they found you, including “an AI assistant” as an option.
• Keep tracking traditional search performance, since it often feeds AI answers.

Treat results as directional. AI answers vary by user, location, wording and time.

FAQ

Is AEO replacing SEO?

No. AEO and GEO build on SEO fundamentals: crawlable pages, useful content, technical health and trust signals. Think of them as an extension of SEO that pays closer attention to direct answers and machine readability.

Can anyone promise our business will appear in ChatGPT or other assistants?

No. AI products decide what to include, and their systems change often. Be cautious of anyone who promises placement. What you can do is make your information clear, consistent and trustworthy.

How long does it take to see results?

It varies. Technical fixes and clearer content can be indexed relatively quickly, while reviews, mentions and reputation build over months. Plan for steady, ongoing work rather than a one-time project.

If you want help making your site easier for people and AI assistants to understand, see our SEO & AI Search Optimization service, or book a strategy call.