For twenty years, getting found online meant one thing: show up near the top of Google and people would click. That’s no longer the whole story. A growing share of people now ask ChatGPT, Claude or Google’s own AI features a question and read the answer without visiting a single website.

The numbers are hard to ignore. SparkToro found that about 68% of U.S. Google searches ended without a click in early 2026, up from about 60% in 2024. A randomized study by researchers at the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon found that when Google shows an AI Overview, clicks to websites drop by about 40%.

So the question has changed. It used to be “Do we rank?” Now it’s also “When someone asks an AI about what we do, are we one of the sources it uses?” That second question is what people mean by GEO.

SEO and GEO, in plain English

SEO, or search engine optimization, is everything that helps search engines find your pages, understand them and rank them.

GEO, or generative engine optimization, is everything that helps AI assistants find your content, trust it and quote it when they answer someone’s question.

The good news is that GEO doesn’t replace SEO. It sits on top of it. AI assistants don’t read the whole internet live. When they search, they lean on search indexes, and they favor pages those indexes already trust.

• Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet, and that’s it.

• Claude’s web search draws heavily on Brave Search. One study this year found that 87.8% of the sources Claude used also appeared in Brave’s top ten results for the same question.

• ChatGPT search finds pages with OpenAI’s own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and OpenAI says it also works with other search providers.

In other words, a site with weak SEO usually has weak GEO too. Fix the foundation first.

What’s actually different

AI quotes answers, not pages

A search engine sends people to your page. An AI assistant reads your page and pulls out a sentence or two. Pages that state a clear answer near the top are much easier to quote than pages that bury it under a long introduction.

More than one search engine matters now

Google is still the biggest, but ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot draw on other sources too. If your site is only set up for Google, you may be missing from the places those assistants look.

Your reputation gets summarized, not just linked

When someone asks “Who’s a good web designer near me?”, the AI builds its answer from everything it can find: your site, your reviews, directories, local news and community discussions. What other people say about you matters as much as what you say about yourself.

How to improve your GEO

None of this requires tricks. Most of it is good housekeeping that also helps your regular search traffic.

1. Let the right AI crawlers in

Each AI company uses separate bots for training and for search, and you can treat them differently. To show up in ChatGPT search, allow OAI-SearchBot. For Claude, allow Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User. You can still block the training bots, GPTBot and ClaudeBot, if you’d rather your content not be used to train AI models. OpenAI says each of its bot settings is independent, so blocking GPTBot doesn’t remove you from ChatGPT search.

Also check your firewall or security service. Some now block AI crawlers by default, which can quietly keep you out of AI answers.

2. Get indexed in more than Google

Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and submit your sitemap to both. Bing’s tools now include an AI Performance report that shows when your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries. Then search for your business on Brave Search to make sure you’re there.

3. Answer the question in the first two sentences

Write headings the way people ask questions, then answer right below them in plain language. “How much does a new website cost?” followed by a direct answer is easier for an AI to use than a clever headline and three paragraphs of setup. A good FAQ page is one of the easiest wins.

4. Make your key facts easy to find

Your business name, what you do, where you are, your hours and how to reach you should be written in plain text on your site, not only in images or PDFs. Keep them identical everywhere they appear, including your Google Business Profile and directory listings.

5. Add structured data, and keep it honest

Schema markup for your organization, local business, articles and FAQs helps machines read your facts without guessing. Google doesn’t require it for its AI features, and it says markup should match what’s visible on the page. Treat it as a label, not a shortcut.

6. Show real expertise and keep it current

Put real names on articles, explain what you’ve actually done and include original material like your own photos, numbers and case studies. Show dates, and update pages when things change. AI assistants tend to favor sources that add something new over ones that repeat what’s everywhere else.

7. Build your reputation off your site

Ask happy clients for reviews. Keep your Google Business Profile complete. Get listed in the directories that matter in your field, and show up in local press and community conversations. These are the places AI assistants check when deciding whether you’re worth recommending.

8. Skip the gimmicks

You’ll see advice to add an llms.txt file. It doesn’t hurt, but don’t expect much from it. Google’s own guidance says you don’t need special AI text files or markup to appear in its AI features, and in 2025 Google’s John Mueller said that no AI system was using llms.txt.

How to see how AI sees you

Turn on web search in ChatGPT and Claude and ask the questions your customers ask. Try “best [your service] near [your town]” and “What do you know about [your business]?” Note who gets cited and whether the facts about you are right.

Then check your analytics for visits from chatgpt.com, claude.ai, perplexity.ai and copilot.microsoft.com. For most businesses those numbers are still small, but they’re growing, and they show you which pages AI assistants trust.

The short version

Good SEO is still the foundation. GEO adds a few habits on top: let AI crawlers in, get indexed beyond Google, answer questions clearly and keep your facts consistent across the web.

If you’d like help working through this list, tell us about your project and we’ll get back to you with next steps.