How to Show Up in ChatGPT & AI Search Results

A customer might ask an assistant to compare accountants for contractors in Bristol or explain what a boiler service includes. The response may name businesses, cite web pages or give a general answer. This guide separates documented access requirements from content experiments and shows how to record the resulting evidence without assuming every customer sees the same answer.

What GEO actually is

Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making your business more likely to be retrieved, cited and recommended by AI assistants — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot. The term comes from a Princeton-led GEO paper that tested which content changes measurably increased visibility in generated answers; adding statistics, quotations and citations increased visibility by up to 40% in the researchers’ benchmark. That is evidence from a controlled benchmark, not a promise that every site will see the same lift.

The first thing to understand is that GEO is not a replacement discipline. For current, time-sensitive or commercial questions, leading assistants can retrieve web pages before composing an answer. That makes crawlability, indexability, relevance and third-party authority familiar foundations, even though each system chooses sources differently.

How AI assistants choose their sources

For web-search answers, these systems retrieve relevant pages and then compose a response, sometimes with citations. Retrieval does not mean every accessible page will be selected, and no robots.txt rule or schema property can guarantee a citation.

• ChatGPT Search uses OpenAI’s OAI-SearchBot and can also use third-party search providers, including Bing. OpenAI says inclusion is not guaranteed even when crawling is allowed.
• Perplexity documents PerplexityBot for search indexing and Perplexity-User for user-requested page fetches.
• Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same core technical requirements as ordinary Search. Access is controlled through Googlebot, and no special AI schema or file is required.
• Microsoft search experiences rely on Bing, so Bing index health remains a useful second source of discovery and traffic.

Two practical consequences. First, check that your site is indexed and healthy in both Google and Bing — Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are free. Second, make sure robots.txt and your firewall allow the search crawlers you want: Googlebot for Google Search and its AI features, OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT Search, PerplexityBot for Perplexity, Claude-SearchBot for Anthropic search and Bingbot for Bing. Google-Extended is a separate control and does not govern inclusion in Google Search, AI Overviews or AI Mode.

Content that gives readers useful evidence

Give readers a clear answer supported by facts they can check: an explanation of your process, a documented example or a useful first-hand observation. Google’s current AI-search guidance prioritises original, useful content and says there is no requirement to split it into tiny passages or rewrite it just for AI systems.

Be specific and quotable

Replace vague claims such as “a leading provider” with evidence you can substantiate. For a service business, explain what an appointment covers, which qualifications are relevant and how a customer receives an estimate. Publish prices, timelines or outcomes only when they are current and verified. The GEO benchmark is a reason to test better-supported content, not a reason to invent statistics or assume a quotation will earn a citation.

Answer questions in question format

Many AI queries are phrased as questions. A useful FAQ section — real questions customers ask, each answered directly below a descriptive heading — creates passages that are easy for people and retrieval systems to understand. Put the answer first, add context after it, and do not pad the page with near-duplicate questions.

Mark it up

Structured data (JSON-LD) describes visible page content and can support eligibility for specific Google rich results when their requirements are met. Use accurate Organization or LocalBusiness details for the business; do not assume that every Schema.org type has a Google rich result. Google’s May 2026 update confirms that FAQ rich results stopped appearing on 7 May 2026. Keep useful questions and answers for readers, without adding FAQPage markup to seek that result. Google requires no special schema for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Our local SEO checklist covers the practical foundations.

Entity consistency: be one thing everywhere

Keep your business name, contact details, services and service areas accurate across your website and the profiles you actually maintain, including Google Business Profile. This helps customers verify they have found the right business. Google documents accurate profile information and legitimate reviews as useful local-search practices. There is no universal evidence that a directory listing or third-party mention carries a particular weight in every assistant’s recommendations.

The llms.txt question, answered honestly

llms.txt is a proposed content guide, not a crawler permission file. Google’s current documentation says Google Search ignores it, including for AI features. This does not establish every other provider’s behaviour. Maintain one for a documented use case, without assuming it improves visibility.

Why traditional SEO is still most of the job

Search visibility and AI visibility overlap heavily: indexable pages, clear title tags, first-hand expertise, useful links and corroborating mentions all improve the source material retrieval systems can find and trust. There is no separate trick that makes a weak or unhelpful site reliably visible to assistants. GEO adds emphasis on quotable passages, source citations and consistent entity facts, but assigning a universal percentage split between SEO and GEO would overstate what current evidence can prove. What changes most by sector is which questions to answer — our industry SEO guides map those.

What AI Overviews do to your traffic

The uncomfortable part. In its updated December 2025 analysis, Ahrefs estimated that AI Overviews correlated with a 58% lower click-through rate for the position-one result on informational queries. That is an observational estimate, not proof of causation. Separately, Pew Research found users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits with an AI summary, against 15% without, in browsing data from 900 consenting US adults collected in March 2025. Informational queries — “how often should a boiler be serviced” — increasingly end on Google itself.

A fall in CTR with stable impressions does not identify AI Overviews as the cause. Position, query mix, device mix, competing results and changes to your title or snippet can also affect clicks. Compare like-for-like page and query groups before drawing a conclusion; our Search Console quick wins guide explains useful filters. Use Google’s Generative AI performance report, where available for your property, to examine reported AI impressions separately from ordinary search traffic.

The AI visibility checklist

1. Verify indexing in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
2. Confirm robots.txt and your CDN allow Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot if you want those search systems to retrieve the site.
3. Add accurate Organization, LocalBusiness, Product or Service structured data where it matches visible page content; validate supported types with Google’s Rich Results Test.
4. Improve key pages with useful, verified facts and first-hand examples; check any prices, timelines and credentials before publication.
5. Build a genuine FAQ answering the questions customers actually phrase to assistants.
6. Align your name, services and descriptions across every profile and directory you appear on.
7. Use available provider reports first. Supplement them with a fixed set of relevant assistant questions, recording the provider, date, exact prompt and cited URLs. Label these as samples.
8. Treat llms.txt as an optional file for a documented use case, not a Google indexing or AI-visibility requirement.

VantageRank agents use connected Search Console evidence to propose content, structured data and technical work for review. The free AI visibility check offers an additional sampled view of selected questions. Treat that sample as a starting point for investigation, with provider-reported evidence and your own customer outcomes providing separate measures.

Sources and methodology

This guide separates documented crawler controls from observed search behaviour. Provider documentation explains access and eligibility; independent studies describe correlations or controlled benchmarks, not guaranteed outcomes for an individual site.

• Generative Engine Optimization research paper — Princeton, Georgia Tech, Allen Institute for AI and IIT Delhi.
• ChatGPT Search publisher guidance — OpenAI.
• AI features and your website — Google Search Central.
• Optimising for generative AI features — Google Search Central; checked 10 September 2026.
• Generative AI performance report — Google Search Console Help.
• Tips to improve your local ranking — Google Business Profile Help.
• Perplexity crawler documentation — Perplexity.
• Anthropic crawler controls — Anthropic.
• Google users click less when an AI summary appears — Pew Research Center.
• AI Overviews reduce clicks: updated study — Ahrefs.