Generative Engine Optimization: What Actually Helps You Show Up in AI Search
Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the practice of making your content more likely to be used and cited in AI-generated answers — Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar tools. You'll also see it called AEO, for "answer engine optimization." The two terms describe the same goal.
Here's the direct answer: for Google specifically, GEO is not a separate skill from SEO. Google says so explicitly, and it also names the specific tactics being sold as "AI hacks" that don't work on its systems. This guide covers Google's own guidance, what independent research has found about AI answer engines more broadly, and what a small business can actually do about it.
Is SEO still relevant for AI search?
Yes. Google's documentation states plainly that its generative AI features are built on its core Search ranking and quality systems, using a technique called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG): the AI model retrieves relevant, already-indexed pages through normal Search ranking, then summarizes them, with links back to the sources it used (Google Search Central). If a page isn't indexed and eligible to show a snippet in ordinary Google Search, it can't be pulled into an AI Overview or AI Mode answer either (Google Search Central).
In other words: your page has to earn a place in Search the normal way before an AI system can cite it.
What Google says doesn't work
Google has published a section it calls "mythbusting," addressing tactics that get sold under the AEO/GEO label. Here's what it says to ignore, specifically for Google Search (Google Search Central):
| Claim | Google's position |
|---|---|
| You need an `llms.txt` file | Not used by Google Search at all. It won't help or hurt your visibility there. |
| Content must be "chunked" into tiny pieces for AI | Not required. Google's systems can find the relevant part of a normal page. |
| Content needs to be rewritten in an "AI-friendly" style | Not necessary. Google's systems understand synonyms and general meaning. |
| Seeking mentions across blogs and forums helps AI cite you | Inauthentic mentions don't help; the same spam and quality systems apply. |
| You need special AI-specific schema markup | No such markup exists. Ordinary structured data still helps with rich results, not AI inclusion specifically. |
None of this means structure and clarity don't matter. It means the tactics being marketed as new AI-specific tricks generally aren't.
What Google says actually helps
The same guide points to the same fundamentals that have mattered in SEO for years, reframed for AI features (Google Search Central):
- Non-commodity content. Google draws a direct line between content anyone could write ("7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers") and content built on real, specific experience. Its own example of the second kind is an article explaining why a homebuyer waived an inspection and what they learned — a first-hand account, not a summary of common advice.
- A clear technical foundation. The page must be crawlable, indexed, and fast, with the main content easy to distinguish from the rest of the page.
- Content organized for people. Clear paragraphs and headings that make sense to a human reader.
- Genuine images and video, where they add something.
- Avoiding content built only to cover every possible search variation. Google calls this out directly as something that violates its policy on scaled, low-value content, regardless of whether AI was used to produce it.
The company's advice condenses to one question: would a visitor find this page genuinely satisfying? If yes, that page is already doing what it needs to do for AI features too.
What independent research adds
Google's guidance covers its own systems. Separately, a 2023 study from Princeton, Georgia Tech, the Allen Institute for AI, and IIT Delhi — the paper that coined the term "generative engine optimization" — ran controlled tests across a benchmark of real queries and several AI systems. It found that adding citations, direct quotations, and statistics to a page's content increased how often that page was drawn on in generative answers, by as much as 40% in their benchmark, and by as much as 37% when the same changes were tested on the live Perplexity.ai tool (Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization," KDD 2024).
That doesn't contradict Google's position. Citing real sources, using specific numbers instead of vague claims, and quoting an actual expert are ordinary marks of well-written, credible content — not a special AI trick. The overlap is the useful takeaway: the same habits that make content trustworthy to a person are what the research found also helps it get used by an AI system.
A practical checklist
For a small business, this is achievable without a specialist AEO tool:
- Write from real experience. A page built on what you've actually done, priced, or fixed will outperform a generic overview every time — for readers and, per Google's own stated criteria, for AI Overviews too.
- Back claims with real numbers and named sources, not vague claims like "many businesses find." If you don't have a verified figure, say so rather than inventing one.
- Keep the site technically sound. Fast pages, working robots.txt, clean indexing. None of this is AI-specific; it's the same technical SEO that always mattered.
- Use structured data for its real purpose — rich results in ordinary Search — not because a "GEO markup" is required. There isn't one.
- Skip the special files and tricks. No `llms.txt`, no rewriting content into an "AI voice," no chasing mentions on forums. Google names these directly as ineffective for its systems.
- Check the Generative AI performance report in Search Console, which shows how your pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode specifically (Google Search Central).
What this doesn't cover
Google's guidance is about Google Search. It says nothing official about how ChatGPT, Perplexity, or other standalone AI tools choose sources, beyond what the Princeton research found in its own tests of those systems. If being cited in tools outside Google Search matters to your business, treat that as a separate, less certain area, and be skeptical of anyone promising guaranteed placement there.
How Corevalo approaches this
The Digital Growth service covers SEO, content, and conversion strategy aimed at turning traffic into booked calls and paying customers — the same content-quality fundamentals this guide describes, not a separate "AI search" package. If your enquiries are handled by an automated workflow once they arrive, our guide to AI lead qualification covers that side of things.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to do anything different for AI Overviews than for normal SEO?
According to Google, no. The same technical and content fundamentals apply to both.
Is GEO a real, separate discipline?
The term comes from real academic research, and independent researchers have found that certain content qualities do measurably affect visibility in AI-generated answers. Google's position is that, for its own systems, this isn't a separate discipline from SEO — the same practices serve both.
Should I create separate pages just for AI search queries?
No. Google specifically warns that creating content mainly to cover every possible query variation, including AI-generated ones, violates its policy on scaled content abuse.
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Sources: Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search · Google Search Central, AI features and your website · Aggarwal, Murahari, Rajpurohit, Kalyan, Narasimhan, Deshpande, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization," KDD 2024 (arXiv)
