Generative engine optimisation (GEO): how to get cited by ChatGPT

What generative engine optimisation means

Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the work of making your pages easy for AI search tools to find and quote. The goal is that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews name your brand and link to your site when they answer a question your buyers ask.

The term comes from a research paper called 'GEO: Generative Engine Optimization' by Pranjal Aggarwal and five co-authors, with researchers from Princeton University and IIT Delhi. It was first published in November 2023 and accepted at the KDD 2024 conference. The authors tested different ways of rewriting web content and measured how visible each version became in answers written by AI search engines.

On this page, SEO means search engine optimisation, the work that gets your pages into Google's list of results. AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO are both about being found and cited in AI answers. Those are the summaries that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews write above or instead of a list of links.

GEO builds on SEO. Google writes that a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet before it can appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page that Google can't index can't become a source in its AI answers either.

What is the difference between answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization?

The two terms overlap almost completely in practice. Answer engine optimisation is the older term and is about giving short, direct answers that a search engine or voice assistant can show as the answer. Generative engine optimisation is about being one of the sources an AI model reads, quotes and links when it writes its own answer.

Because the groundwork is the same, we work on SEO, AEO and GEO together. Our SEO and AEO work starts with research and a baseline, covers the technical side and content, and continues as a monthly SEO cycle with a fixed AI prompt test.

How AI search engines choose which sources to cite

An AI search engine can only cite a page that its crawler may visit and, for Google, a page that is indexed. Within those pages, research on GEO found that adding quotations, statistics and cited sources made content more visible in AI answers, while adding extra keywords gave little or no improvement.

Each engine documents its own rules. Google says there are no extra requirements and no special steps needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. You also don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup (Google Search Central, 'AI features and your website', last updated 10 December 2025). OpenAI says that sites which block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Perplexity says PerplexityBot is the crawler that surfaces and links websites in its search results.

Training crawlers are a separate decision. Blocking GPTBot tells OpenAI not to use your content to train its models, and it doesn't control whether you appear in ChatGPT search. Google says the same about Google-Extended, which doesn't affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search. Check your robots.txt line by line, because one broad rule that blocks all bots also blocks the search crawlers you want.

The GEO paper also found that the effect of each change differed by topic. A method that helped for one type of question did less for another, so there's no single trick that works for every site. Clear, easy-to-read text and claims backed by sources did well in the paper's tests overall.

How to use generative engine optimization?

Start with the basics every engine needs, then make your best pages easier to quote. Let the search crawlers in and put a direct answer of 40 to 60 words under each main heading. Back your claims with sources and figures, add structured data that matches the visible text and keep your company details identical everywhere.

We follow the same rules on this site and in client work. For Gül Reizen, a Turkish-Dutch travel organisation in Amsterdam, we did keyword research in Dutch and Turkish. We then built a new Dutch language version with 10 pages and a blog, and added an FAQ system and structured data. We also run a monthly SEO cycle for the site, and the results are further down this page.

Where llms.txt fits in

An llms.txt file is a small, optional extra. The format is a proposal from September 2024 for a Markdown file at the root of your site. It gives AI tools a short summary and links to your most useful pages. Google says its AI features need no AI text files, so the basics above matter more.

Jeremy Howard proposed the format on llmstxt.org on 3 September 2024. The file opens with the name of the site as a heading, followed by a short summary and then sections with links, each with a name and an optional note. It can sit at the site root to cover the whole site, or in a subfolder to cover one section.

We add llms.txt as part of the technical work, as we did on Vergola's new site, and we keep it short and accurate. If your time is limited, spend it on crawler access and clear answers first, because those matter in every engine.

How to measure whether AI answers mention you

Measure AI visibility with a fixed set of questions your buyers ask, tested in the same AI tools every month. Note whether your brand is named, whether your site is linked and which other sources are cited. Google counts traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode in the normal web search totals in Search Console, without a separate report.

AI answers change from one run to the next, so a single test says little. Keep the questions, the tools and the settings the same every month, and save each answer with its date. This is the fixed AI prompt test in our monthly SEO cycle, and we report every result with the date it was measured.

Here is what that looks like for Gül Reizen, measured once on one day. On 12 October 2026 the brand was named in 6 of 10 AI answers, where an earlier test had found it in 0 of 8. On the same day, seven non-branded search terms were in the mobile top 10, up from none, and 'umrah reizen' had moved from position 59 to 3. Because answers and rankings move from day to day, we read one measurement as a snapshot and repeat the test every month.

Which route fits your team

You can do the first steps of GEO yourself: check your robots.txt, rewrite the openings of your key pages and start a monthly prompt test. If your site runs in several languages or markets, or AI answers already name your competitors, bring in an agency that works on SEO and AEO together.

For the do-it-yourself route, Google's documentation on AI features is short and clear, Search Console is free, and a spreadsheet is enough to keep track of your monthly prompt test. Our free SEO check tells you how your site shows up in Google and in AI answers, so you can see where to start.

If you sell in the Netherlands, Germany or across the EU and want AI answers to name your brand, request an intro call. After the call, you'll receive a proposal with the scope, timeline and price.