GEO optimization: the method to get cited by AI

What is GEO optimization?

GEO optimization (GEO for Generative Engine Optimization) covers the actions that increase the likelihood that an AI answer engine cites your brand or your pages. The targets are ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews. It is also called LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) or LLM SEO: these terms refer to the same work.

It aims at two distinct results. Being cited as a source depends mainly on your pages and their technical accessibility. Being cited as a brand depends mainly on what the web says about you. The difference with classic search engine optimization is explained in GEO vs SEO; this page details the method.

Where do you start with GEO optimization?

Order matters: optimizing the content of a site that crawlers cannot read is wasted spending. Here is the recommended sequence.

1. Check eligibility with Google: a page must be indexed and able to show with a snippet. The site must not be excluded from generative AI features in Search Console (Google, guide to optimizing for generative AI, updated on July 10, 2026).
2. Open access to the index crawlers of AI engines. At OpenAI, a site that blocks OAI-SearchBot no longer appears in ChatGPT’s search answers (OpenAI, crawler documentation).
3. Check the CDN: since September 15, 2026, Cloudflare blocks some training and agent crawlers by default. This applies to pages with ads on new domains (Cloudflare, July 1, 2026). Check the actual setting, do not assume it.
4. Measure the starting point: a fixed panel of questions, recorded across several engines, before any action.
5. Act on the pages, then on the brand’s identity, then on its presence outside the site (next sections).

The details on crawlers, their roles and robots.txt are on our page about GPTBot and AI crawlers.

How do you make a page citable by AI?

An answer engine does not pick up a whole page, but a passage. That passage must answer a question on its own, without depending on the previous paragraph. Google states that there is no need to cut content into small pieces. Its systems can isolate the useful part of a page that covers several topics.

Do	Avoid
A direct answer of two or three sentences at the top of the page	An introduction that delays the answer
Section headings that announce the question covered	Decorative or vague headings
Figures with their source, date and scope	Statistics with no origin
Clear tables, lists and definitions	Comparisons buried in a paragraph
A point of view of your own: test, case, method	A summary of what other pages already say
An identified author and a visible update date	Anonymous, undated content

Research points the same way. In the founding GEO study, three additions improve visibility in generated answers the most: statistics, source citations and expert quotes. Keyword stuffing reduces it (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024). These results come from an experimental benchmark: remember the order of the levers, not the percentages.

Finally, Google stresses “non-commodity” content: a first-hand opinion or real experience brings what other sources do not have. This is also the core of the E-E-A-T criteria.

How do you work on the brand entity?

Language models reason in terms of entities: a brand, a person, a product, linked to other entities. A brand is only cited if the model knows what it is and how to tell it apart from a namesake. This identity work is done once, then maintained.

• A canonical name: a single spelling everywhere, on the site, social networks, directories, press releases. List the existing variants rather than letting them multiply.
• A single defining sentence: “[Brand] is a [category] that [offers what] to [which audience]”. Reuse it word for word on the site and third-party profiles.
• A factual “About” page: founding date, named executives, locations, business activity, verifiable figures. This is often the page an engine reads to define the company.
• Organization markup with the sameAs property, pointing to the official profiles of the same entity (Google, Organization structured data). The details are on our page about structured data.
• Up-to-date third-party profiles: Wikidata, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile listing if the business is local, professional directories. A Wikipedia page only if the brand genuinely meets the notability criteria.

Then check what the engines say about you. Ask them simple questions: “What is [Brand]?”, “Who runs [Brand]?”. Classify each claim as accurate, outdated, false or missing. Trace the error back to its likely source and correct it there. No vendor documents a correction delay: do not promise anything on that point.

How do you earn brand mentions outside the site?

A correlation does not establish a cause, and the study comes from a tool vendor. Still, it points the priority toward presence outside the site. The engines do not consult the same spaces: ChatGPT relies heavily on Reddit and Wikipedia, Gemini on Wikipedia, Reddit and YouTube (Semrush, June 26, 2026).

• Content people want to cite: a study with your own data, a barometer, a free tool, an honest comparison that includes competitors.
• Targeted press relations: aim for a mention in an article on the right topic rather than an isolated link.
• A useful presence in communities: genuinely answer questions on industry forums before naming the brand.
• Customer reviews: volume, freshness and replies to negative reviews.

To choose where to act, record the sources cited by the engines on about twenty key questions in your market. Group them by domain, then target the ones where your brand is absent.

Which practices should you avoid in GEO?

• Relying on an llms.txt file: Google Search ignores it and states that no “AI” file is needed. The full picture is on our page about the llms.txt file.
• Splitting pages into tiny fragments: Google considers it unnecessary.
• Rewriting your texts “for AI”: models understand synonyms. Write for your readers.
• Betting everything on structured data: useful for rich results, it is not required for Google’s AI features, which have no dedicated markup.
• Hidden text, instructions aimed at AIs, different content served to crawlers: risk of penalties and reputational damage, for a short-lived effect at best.

How do you know whether GEO optimization is working?

Measure before and after, with the same settings. Five metrics are useful: brand mention rate, page citation rate, share of voice against competitors, Search Console AI impressions and citations in Bing’s AI Performance report.

No engine gives the same answer twice: only draw conclusions from repeated measurements. The method is detailed on our page about measuring AI visibility. The overall framework is in our GEO guide.