GEO: how to get your website found and cited by AI

Published on 01/06/2026 by Federica García · updated on 25/09/2026 by the Eazyclick team. This guide replaces our four previous articles on SEO, AI and GEO, brought together in one up-to-date page.

Your customers no longer just type three words into Google. They ask full questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Mode, and read a written answer with a few cited sources. GEO is about becoming one of those sources. This guide explains what it is, how it differs from SEO, what really helps a Belgian small business get cited, and which promises to be wary of.

What is GEO?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) covers the practices that help a website be understood, used and cited by AI-powered answer engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. The aim is no longer simply to rank, but to be chosen as a source.

You may also see the terms AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or LLMO. They describe the same idea: engines that answer questions for users, and websites seeking to inform those answers and receive credit for them.

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO aims for a place in Google's results list; GEO aims for a citation in an AI-written answer. In practice, both share the same foundations: a crawlable website, useful pages and an identifiable business. GEO adds the need for short, precise answers that are easy to reuse as they stand.

Google says so itself for its own AI features: no special optimisation is required to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode; a page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet in traditional search (Google Search Central, “AI features and your website”). Good SEO therefore remains the first step towards GEO. If these concepts feel unclear, start with our SEO or SEA guide.

How does AI choose its sources?

AI engines that search the web run searches, read the pages they find, then write an answer citing those that respond most clearly to the question. They favour pages that their crawlers can access, that are precise and up to date, and that come from an identifiable source. No provider publishes the exact formula.

What we know from official sources:

• Each engine has its own crawlers. At OpenAI, OAI-SearchBot powers ChatGPT search; a website that blocks it will not appear in search answers (OpenAI's crawler documentation). GPTBot, meanwhile, is used to train models.
• Google relies on its index. No indexing means no citation in AI Overviews.
• Content must be readable without complex JavaScript. Some crawlers struggle to read text that loads late or is hidden behind an interaction.

How can you make your website visible in ChatGPT and AI?

To be cited by AI, first check that its crawlers can read your website, then write pages that directly answer your customers' questions with specific facts: prices, service area, timescales and conditions. Make your business consistently identifiable everywhere, and keep your information up to date.

Practical steps, in order of impact:

1. Let crawlers in. Check your robots.txt file: blocking AI search crawlers means giving up your place in their answers.
2. Answer first, then expand. Under each question-based heading, write two or three self-contained sentences, followed by the detail.
3. Give verifiable facts. Your prices, timescales, the municipalities you serve, and sources when you cite a rule. AI is more likely to reuse a precise statement than a vague promise.
4. Present the same business everywhere. Use the same name, address and phone number on your website, Google profile and directories, plus structured data describing your business and services.
5. Add a byline and date. A real author, a visible update date, and an “about” page explaining who you are.
6. Get mentioned elsewhere. Local press, trade associations, partners and customers: AI cross-checks sources, just as people do.
7. Look after your Google profile and reviews. For local questions (“a good plumber in Namur”), this is often the first source consulted. See our guide to Google reviews.

When writing, five structural rules help readers, search engines and AI understand your pages:

Do you need an llms.txt file?

An llms.txt file does no harm, but it is not enough on its own. It is a proposed format, not a standard: Google says no special AI text file is needed for its AI features. It may help certain tools find your key pages; the content on those pages is still what matters.

The same goes for structured data: it helps engines understand who you are and what you sell, and remains good SEO practice, but no markup guarantees a citation.

Which GEO promises should you question?

Be wary of any offer that guarantees a position or citation in ChatGPT or Google: no provider controls those answers. Also be wary of mass-produced AI content without review, fake reviews and pages created for every city without meaningful content. What works takes patience: useful, accurate pages that are kept up to date.

A good provider shows you what they measure (rankings, cited pages and traffic from AI engines where visible), tells you what they cannot measure, and explains their content choices.

How can you measure your visibility in AI?

Measuring AI visibility is still imperfect. Three indicators are useful: visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or other assistants in your analytics; regular tests of your customers' questions in those tools; and, for Google, Search Console data, which includes AI Overviews.

List ten questions your customers actually ask (“how much does… cost”, “who does… in Liège”), ask the main assistants each month, and record who gets cited. It is basic, but honest, and quickly reveals which pages your website is missing.

How does Eazyclick improve your AI visibility?

Our websites are designed to be read by search engines: fast, crawlable pages, structured data about your business and services, and question-based headings with direct answers. With our Google & AI search solution, we track your Google rankings and visibility in AI engines, and fix anything holding you back.

To keep your website supplied with fresh content each month, SEO Boost publishes new content based on your customers' real searches, written with AI and reviewed by a member of our team before publication, from €99/month excl. VAT; SEO Premium, for a faster publishing pace, costs €449/month excl. VAT. SEO Boost is included in the Booster pack. We do not guarantee citations: we work on what makes them more likely.