Generative engine optimization: how to get named by ChatGPT and Google's AI

What GEO is, and how it differs from SEO

A "generative engine" is a search tool that writes an answer instead of only listing links. Examples are ChatGPT search, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Perplexity. GEO is the work of raising the chance your page is used and named in that answer. Other labels for the same idea are AEO (answer engine optimization) and "AI SEO". For the history, see how SEO has changed.

What Google says about its AI features (as of November 2026)

Google sets out its position on two pages: AI features and your website and a May 2026 guide to generative AI search. In short:

• A page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet. Google says there are "no additional requirements" and no special optimizations.
• You do not need llms.txt, other AI text files or special schema.org markup. Google Search ignores such files. Making them for other services is fine and does not hurt you in Google.
• Structured data is not required for AI search. If you use it, make sure it matches the visible text. It still helps you qualify for rich results.
• You need not chunk content or rewrite it for AI. Google's systems understand synonyms.
• Writing a page for every follow-up question, to sway AI answers, breaks the scaled content abuse policy. Google's spam policies also cover attempts to manipulate its AI responses.
• Keep your Google Business Profile and Merchant Center details current. Both can feed AI answers.
• AI Overviews show only when Google judges them useful beyond the normal results, so they often do not appear.

Two Search Console tools reached every site by 31 August 2026. A setting lets you keep your site in or out of AI Overviews and AI Mode; sites are in by default. The Generative AI performance report shows how often your pages appear in those features. Clicks from them are counted in the normal Performance report too.

Both features are available in Singapore. Google's help pages list it for AI Overviews and AI Mode. So for Google, GEO is mostly good SEO. That is useful: you do not need a second strategy.

What the research says

The term comes from a paper, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", by Pranjal Aggarwal and five co-authors. It was posted to arXiv in November 2023 and accepted at KDD 2024, a conference on knowledge discovery and data mining. The authors tested content changes on a benchmark of about 10,000 queries. They found visibility in AI answers could rise "by up to 40%".

Which changes worked? In their tests, three did best: citing sources, adding quotations and adding statistics. Making text clearer and more fluent also helped. Keyword stuffing, a classic SEO trick, gave little or no gain, and on Perplexity it did worse than no change. Pages that ranked lower in normal search gained the most.

A September 2025 study by Mahe Chen and three co-authors compared AI search with Google. It found AI search leaned heavily on "earned media", meaning independent third-party sources, over brands' own sites. It also found the AI services differed from each other, including in how much a question's wording changed the answer.

Read both with care:

• "Up to 40%" is a best case in the authors' tests, not an average, and results varied by topic.
• Both studies tested the engines of their time, and engines change often.
• They are research papers, not rules published by any search engine.

We found no official list of ranking factors for ChatGPT. Be sceptical of vendor reports that claim precise rules for it.

What OpenAI says about ChatGPT search

OpenAI's crawler page says ChatGPT search finds sites with a crawler called OAI-SearchBot. Sites that block it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigation links. OpenAI recommends allowing it in robots.txt. A separate crawler, GPTBot, collects content for training, and you can block one while allowing the other.

Our own numbers, and why they are worth watching

We can only describe our own site, ibtuition.sg, an International Baccalaureate (IB) tuition centre site with 446 pages:

• 635 visits from AI assistants in three months, 570 of them from ChatGPT.
• 20 of 142 enquiry forms began with a visit from an AI assistant (August to November 2026).
• Average Google position about 4 for "ib math tuition singapore".

We do not claim 635 visits is a lot. The form figure is what caught our eye. People who arrive from an assistant have often asked it a detailed question first, so they may be closer to a decision. That is our reading of one dataset, not a rule, and we cannot prove why those visits came.

Our takeaway: the same site that ranks well in Google also earns visits from assistants. When we rebuilt the 446 pages, we changed no titles, headings or links. A script checked each one before launch. Track your own site for a few months before you change your plans.

How an AI answer differs from a page of links

A normal results page lists links and you choose. An AI answer writes a summary first and links to the pages that support it. That has three effects on a small business:

• Your wording gets quoted or paraphrased. Clear, self-contained sentences travel better than long, vague ones.
• One question becomes many searches. Google says its AI features may run several related searches behind one question, called "query fan-out". So answer the likely follow-up questions on the same page, not on a new page for each.
• Clicks may be worth more. Google says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are "higher quality": people tend to stay longer on the site. So count enquiries, not only visits.

None of this needs a new tool. It needs pages that answer real questions in plain text.

What to do, in order

1. Let the right crawlers in. Allow Googlebot and OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt. Check your host or content delivery network (CDN) does not block them either.
2. Check Search Console. Confirm your site is still included in Search generative AI features, the default. Then watch the Generative AI performance report.
3. Write answers plainly. Put the answer in the first paragraph. Use headings that match real questions.
4. Back your claims. Cite sources, use real numbers and quote people who know. These did best in the GEO tests.
5. Keep key facts in text, not only in images or PDFs: prices, hours, address, what you do.
6. Keep your Google Business Profile current. Google names it in its own guidance.
7. Earn real mentions: reviews, local press, partners and industry bodies. The 2025 study found AI search leans on such independent sources.
8. Add structured data that matches the page, but do not expect it to be a trick.
9. Measure other assistants too. Look at referrals in your analytics and ask new customers how they found you.

What not to do

• Do not pay for llms.txt files or special markup "for Google". Google Search ignores them.
• Do not write a page for every way a question can be asked. Google says doing so to sway rankings or AI answers is scaled content abuse.
• Do not buy or fake "mentions". Google says inauthentic mentions are not as helpful as they seem.
• Do not buy a guarantee of ChatGPT rankings. No one outside OpenAI controls them.
• Do not trust tools that claim to see Google's internal data. Google says no outside tool has access.
• Do not stop doing normal SEO. See how to rank first on Google and AI search.

A simple test you can run today

Ask ChatGPT and Google a question your customers would ask, such as "best [your service] in Singapore for [your niche]". Note whether you are named, who is, and which pages are cited. Repeat monthly with the same wording, and save the answers. Results vary from one ask to the next, and the 2025 study found the engines differ in how much wording changes their answers. Treat it as a rough read, not a ranking report.

When GEO is not worth your time

If your customers find you by referral, or you get a few dozen enquiries a year, fix your website and Google Business Profile first. AI visibility sits on top of those.

If you want help, see our AI SEO service. Local SEO is from S$600 a month and Growth SEO from S$1,200 a month, with no 12-month lock-in and 30 days' notice. These are draft prices and may change.

Talk to us

Want to see how your site looks to Google and AI tools? Book a free SEO check, or email hello@webseo.sg or WhatsApp +65 8780 3086.