What Is GEO and How Do You Get Cited in AI Search Answers

More searches now end in a written answer instead of a list of links. Google shows AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT searches the web, and Perplexity answers with numbered citations. Each answer cites a few pages. GEO is the work of making your pages the ones that get cited.

There is a lot of noise around the term, so this guide sticks to two things: what the research actually measured, and what Google and OpenAI say about how their systems pick pages. GEO is part of our local SEO and GEO service, and the checklist at the end is the one we apply to client sites and our own.

Where the term GEO comes from

The name comes from a 2023 research paper by researchers at Princeton University and IIT Delhi, published at the KDD 2024 conference. They built a benchmark of 10,000 queries, rewrote source pages in different ways, and measured how much of each AI answer came from each source.

The headline result: the best methods raised a page's visibility in AI answers by up to 40%. The methods that worked were not the ones classic SEO would predict.

Two findings matter most for small businesses. First, keyword stuffing did not help, and on Perplexity it performed about 10% worse than doing nothing. Second, pages that ranked lower in normal search gained the most. Adding citations raised visibility by 115% for sources ranked fifth, while the top-ranked source lost ground. A small local business can compete here with better content, not a bigger link budget.

Keep the limits in mind. The tests used a research setup and one commercial engine, and the authors note that methods will need to change as AI search changes.

What Google says about AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google's guidance is plain. Its page on AI features and your website says the usual SEO best practices still apply, and there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.

• To be shown as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet.
• Both features may use "query fan-out", running several related searches across subtopics to build one answer.
• Google says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema markup.
• Traffic from AI features is counted in the Search Console Performance report, under the Web search type.
• Its checklist includes allowing crawling, internal links, a good page experience, important content in text, structured data that matches the visible text, and an up-to-date Business Profile.

Google also points site owners to its guide on helpful, reliable, people-first content. For a local business, that means answering the real questions customers ask, with facts you can stand behind.

How ChatGPT search finds pages

OpenAI separates search from training. According to its crawler documentation, OAI-SearchBot finds pages for ChatGPT search results, while GPTBot collects content that may be used to train models. The settings are independent. You can allow OAI-SearchBot so your pages can appear in ChatGPT answers and still block GPTBot. Sites that block OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, apart from navigational links. OpenAI says changes to robots.txt can take about 24 hours to apply.

Check your firewall and CDN as well as robots.txt. Bot protection rules sometimes block these crawlers even when robots.txt allows them.

What about llms.txt?

The llms.txt proposal from Answer.AI suggests a plain text file at the root of a site that points language models to its most useful pages. It is a proposal, not a standard, and Google says it does not need AI text files to show pages in its AI features.

We publish one on jcerme.com anyway. Ours is generated from the same route list as the sitemap, so it costs nothing to maintain and never goes stale. Treat it as a low-cost extra, not a ranking tactic.

A GEO checklist for a local business

1. Let the right crawlers in. Allow Googlebot and OAI-SearchBot, and test that your host or firewall does not block them.
2. Answer first. Put a direct 40 to 60 word answer near the top of each key page: what you do, for whom, where, what it costs and how long it takes.
3. Add numbers and sources. Replace "fast service" with your real response time, and link claims to the source. This mirrors the methods that performed best in the GEO study.
4. Use tables for comparisons. Prices, timelines and options are easier to quote when they sit in a clear table.
5. Keep business facts identical everywhere. Name, address, phone, hours and services should match on the website, the Business Profile and directories.
6. Match structured data to the page. Mark up what the page shows, and nothing it does not.
7. Earn mentions on sites AI tools already cite. Reviews, trade directories, local news and partner pages all count.
8. Measure it. Watch Search Console, referrals from AI tools in your analytics, and the answers to the questions your customers ask.

What we changed on our own site

We applied the same checklist to jcerme.com this year. Each main service page now opens with a short question and a 40 to 60 word answer, followed by a key facts table with prices and timelines. Our structured data describes one business entity, declared once and referenced everywhere else. We removed review markup we could not back up with real, verifiable reviews. AI crawlers are allowed, and the llms.txt file is generated automatically.

None of this needed new tools. It needed clearer pages and facts that agree with each other.

What GEO means for a local service business

For a plumber, roofer or garage door company, the questions customers ask AI tools are local: who can fix this today, what does it cost, and are they any good. To answer them, an AI tool needs the same facts a person needs: the services you offer, the areas you cover, your hours, how you price, and what customers say about you.

If those facts only live inside a photo, a PDF or a third-party listing, they are hard to quote. Put them on your own pages in plain text, keep them identical on your Business Profile, and answer the top questions on the page for each service. This is the same groundwork our local SEO and GEO service starts with, because it helps in the map pack and in AI answers at the same time.

GEO and SEO compared

The two are not separate projects. A page Google cannot index will not be cited by AI Overviews, and a page full of vague claims will rarely be quoted by anyone. For local businesses, the Business Profile matters for both. Our Business Profile checklist for home services covers that side.

When to get help

If your site has thin service pages, no clear answers and business details that disagree across the web, GEO starts with fixing those basics. Our local SEO and GEO plans cost $1,500, $3,000 or $6,000 per month and cover Business Profile management, local content, schema and link building, month to month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GEO different from SEO?

GEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it. Pages still need to be crawlable and indexed. GEO adds a focus on clear answers, sourced facts and statistics that AI systems can quote.

Do I need special schema or an AI text file to appear in AI Overviews?

No. Google says there are no additional technical requirements and no special schema or AI text files needed. Pages must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.

Should I block AI crawlers?

Block training if you want, but allow search crawlers if you want to be cited. OpenAI lets you allow OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search while blocking GPTBot for training.

How long does GEO take to show results?

It depends on how often your pages are crawled and how strong the competing sources are. Google says recrawling can take from several days to several months, so plan for months, not weeks.

Can I see how often AI tools cite my business?

Partly. Google counts AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic in the Search Console Web search type, and visits from ChatGPT or Perplexity show up as referrals in your analytics. Neither shows every answer that mentions you, so check the answers to your top customer questions by hand each month.