What AI search changed
Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot answer questions directly and link to a handful of sources. For simple facts that means fewer clicks. For anything people research before buying, being one of the cited sources puts your brand in front of the buyer at the moment they are forming a view.
Foundations first
Google has said its AI features use the same index and quality systems as normal search, and that a page needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to be used. So GEO starts with technical SEO and genuinely helpful content. I also check that the crawlers used by AI search tools, such as OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, are not blocked by your robots.txt or firewall, and that key content is in the HTML rather than loaded by scripts.
Write to be quoted
- Answer first: a clear, direct answer near the top of the page, then the detail.
- Specifics: numbers, named methods, dates and examples are easier to cite than generalities.
- Structure: descriptive headings, short paragraphs, lists and tables where they genuinely help.
- Evidence: original data, case studies and first-hand experience that other sources do not have.
Entities and reputation
AI systems build their picture of a business from many sources. Consistent names and descriptions across your site, profiles and directories, Organization and Person structured data, and genuine mentions in respected publications all shape what they say about you. That is why GEO overlaps with digital PR.
Measuring it
I set up GA4 to separate traffic from AI assistants, track how answers describe and cite you for the questions that matter to your business, and report the trend alongside normal rankings. Read more in why technical SEO still wins in AI search and using AI for content without losing trust.