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More and more people no longer just type queries into a search box. They let an AI summarise the answer for them. For businesses, that raises a simple question: does your website show up in those answers, and what can you do about it? This article explains what GEO means, what the providers officially say and which measures actually make sense.
What does GEO mean?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization: optimising content for search systems that use generative AI to write their answers. These include Google AI Overviews (the AI summaries above the classic results), AI Mode in Google Search, ChatGPT's search feature, and services such as Perplexity or Microsoft Copilot.
These systems generate a summary and cite sources along the way. Being linked as a source brings visibility and, ideally, visitors who arrive already well informed.
How AI search systems find their sources
The key point first: the AI features of the major providers rely on their existing search indexes or their own crawlers. A page that cannot be crawled and indexed cannot appear as a source.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google's documentation for site owners states explicitly that there are no additional requirements and no special optimisations for AI Overviews or AI Mode (as of November 2026). A page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet, the short text extract beneath a search result.
According to Google, you do not need new machine-readable files, special AI text files or particular Schema.org markup. The established fundamentals of search engine optimisation apply. Google also stresses that meeting every requirement does not guarantee crawling, indexing or display.
ChatGPT
OpenAI uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, for ChatGPT search. According to OpenAI, sites that block this crawler in robots.txt will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they may still appear as plain navigational links. GPTBot is separate and collects content for training AI models.
The two are controlled independently. You can allow OAI-SearchBot so you can appear in ChatGPT answers, while blocking GPTBot if you do not want your content used for training.
What about llms.txt?
A common recommendation is to place a file called llms.txt in the root of your website, giving language models an overview of your key content. Google does not use this file for Search or its AI features; its documentation explicitly lists AI text files as unnecessary.
An llms.txt does no harm, and some tools or agents may read it. But do not count on it as a lever for visibility in Google. Your time is better spent on well-structured content.
What you can actually influence
Because AI search builds on the search index, solid classic SEO is the foundation. Beyond that, a few factors improve the chance of being chosen as a source. There is no guarantee, because the systems make that selection themselves.
Technical access
- Important pages are not blocked in robots.txt, nor by your CDN or your host's firewall.
- Content is available as HTML text, not only in images, PDFs without a text layer or elements that JavaScript loads only after user interaction.
- Pages load quickly and work well on mobile devices.
Clear, quotable content
AI answers are assembled from individual passages. Sections that make sense without the rest of the page are therefore helpful:
- A question as the heading, followed directly by a precise answer in two or three sentences
- Definitions of technical terms on first use
- Concrete details such as scope of service, service area and process instead of generic marketing claims
- Tables and lists for comparisons and steps
- A visible "last updated" date on time-sensitive topics
Unambiguous company information
AI systems need to recognise who you are. Keep your company name, address, services and contacts consistent and up to date across your site. Maintain your Google Business Profile. Organization or LocalBusiness structured data can support this, as long as it matches the visible content.
Mentions beyond your own website
Whether a business is cited or recommended also depends on what others write about it: trade articles, industry directories, chambers of commerce and associations, or local press. These signals cannot be forced in the short term, but they can be built through genuine expert content and partnerships.
Control: what AI may do with your content
You can control how your content is used:
| Goal | Method |
|---|---|
| Limit text extracts in Google | nosnippet, data-nosnippet or max-snippet |
| Keep a page out of Google entirely | noindex |
| Restrict use for training and grounding Gemini models (no effect on Google Search) | Google-Extended token in robots.txt |
| Prevent display in ChatGPT search answers | Block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt |
| Prevent use for OpenAI model training | Block GPTBot in robots.txt |
Note that heavily restricting snippets in Google also reduces your chance of being cited in AI Overviews.
Measuring results
Clicks from Google AI Overviews and AI Mode are, according to Google, included in Google Search Console's Performance report under the "Web" search type. Visits from ChatGPT can be identified in many analytics tools by the referring domain. In addition, you can periodically ask the AI systems your customers' typical questions and record which sources are cited.
Checklist: your first steps
- Check robots.txt: are Googlebot and OAI-SearchBot allowed? Have you made a deliberate decision on GPTBot and Google-Extended?
- Verify that your key pages are indexed in Google Search Console.
- Collect your customers' ten most common questions and check whether your site answers each one clearly.
- Add precise answers, definitions and process descriptions to your service pages.
- Align your company details across your website, Google Business Profile and directories.
- Review structured data for your organisation and articles and validate it with the Rich Results Test.
- Every three months, run spot checks in AI search systems and record changes.
AI visibility with Simplify Data
In our SEO audits we look not only at technology and content but also at how accessible your website is to AI search systems, and we turn the findings into concrete actions. We work with companies in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, and remotely across Germany. Learn more about our SEO audit