How to show up in ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews: SEO for AI

Until recently, searching for something meant opening Google and scanning ten links. Today, many people ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot directly, and Google itself answers above the results with its AI Overviews. The question for any business is obvious: how do I get mentioned there?

This discipline is called SEO for artificial intelligence, GEO (generative engine optimization), or AEO (answer engine optimization). The name matters little. What matters is understanding how these tools choose their sources and preparing your site for them.

Key point: No one can guarantee that an AI assistant will mention your brand. Its answers change depending on the question, the user, and the moment. What you can do is increase your chances of being a useful, trustworthy source.

How AI assistants choose their sources

Each tool works differently, but they share a pattern. When the assistant needs current information, it searches the web, reads several pages, and builds an answer that cites some of them. To choose, it relies on signals similar to those of traditional SEO: the page must be crawlable, relevant, clear, and on a site with a good reputation.

The practical takeaway is reassuring: if you do Google SEO well, you've already covered much of the ground. Google has said publicly that appearing in AI Overviews doesn't require special tricks, just following its guidelines for helpful content.

Step 1: make sure they can read you

It sounds basic, but it often goes wrong. If a crawler can't access your page, it can't cite you.

• Check your robots.txt. Blocking GPTBot prevents OpenAI from using your content to train models, but blocking OAI-SearchBot removes you from ChatGPT search. They're two different things.
• Google-Extended controls whether your content is used to train Gemini; it doesn't affect your presence in Google Search or AI Overviews.
• Don't let important text depend solely on complex JavaScript. Many crawlers read plain HTML better.
• Keep your site fast and free of server errors. A crawler that runs into failures leaves.
• Add your site to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Step 2: write content that can be cited

AI assistants look for passages that answer a question directly. Long, convoluted text is hard to cite. Organized text with clear answers is ideal. These practices help:

1. Start each section with the short answer, then explain the details.
2. Use subheadings that are real questions from your customers.
3. Include simple definitions: “A landing page is…,” “INP measures…”
4. Add verifiable facts of your own: years of experience, processes, areas you serve, and hours.
5. Use tables and lists to compare options or explain steps.
6. Cite official sources when you discuss regulations, taxes, or requirements.
7. Update the date and the content when something important changes.

FAQs at the end of each service page work very well. They're exactly the kind of question and answer an assistant needs. If you don't know where to start, an SEO content strategy defines which questions to tackle first.

Step 3: structured data so AI understands you

Structured data is code, invisible to visitors, that describes your page in a standard language (schema.org). It tells machines, without ambiguity, who you are, what you sell, and where you're located. The most useful types for a business are:

• Organization or LocalBusiness: name, logo, address, phone, hours, and official social profiles.
• Service or Product: what you offer, to whom, and in what area.
• FAQPage: the FAQs on each page.
• Article or BlogPosting: the author and the publication and update dates of your articles.
• BreadcrumbList: the navigation path that shows how your site is organized.

Google explains each type in its official structured data documentation. If your site runs on WordPress, a good SEO plugin handles part of this; the rest is best done custom.

Step 4: build authority beyond your site

Assistants don't just read your page. They also read what others say about you. A brand mentioned in the media, industry directories, associations, and reviews is more likely to be recommended than one that only talks about itself.

• Keep your Google Business Profile complete, with real reviews that you respond to.
• Use the same name, address, and phone number in every directory.
• Get involved in your industry's associations, events, and media.
• Publish case studies and guides that others want to link to.
• Protect your reputation: respond respectfully to negative reviews.

How to measure whether you appear in AI answers

Measurement is still imperfect. Google includes AI Overviews impressions and clicks in the overall Search Console data without breaking them out. In Google Analytics 4, you can see visits from domains like chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, or gemini.google.com in the acquisition report. Add manual checks: every month, ask several assistants the key questions your customers ask and note whether they mention you.

What doesn't work

Promises to “rank you on ChatGPT in 30 days” or magic files that force AI to recommend you are already making the rounds. Be wary. Proposals like the llms.txt file exist, but today they aren't a standard adopted by the major search engines. Filling pages with text written for robots doesn't work either: models are good at spotting filler.

The sustainable path is the same as in traditional SEO: a technically healthy site, useful and honest content, and a real reputation. If you'd like professional support, our SEO for artificial intelligence (GEO) service brings those three pieces together.