SEO, GEO and AEO: The One-Page Plan That Covers All Three

What changed and what didn't

Each line is backed by an official doc or the original paper. Where something is only claimed by vendors, it says so.

• Changed: answers now get written for the buyer, with your page as a cited link instead of a blue link.

  Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode show supporting links and may use a 'query fan-out' technique to find more pages while the answer is generated.

• Changed: new crawlers you should know by name (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended).

  OpenAI recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot if you want to appear in ChatGPT search answers. PerplexityBot surfaces sites in Perplexity results. Google-Extended only controls Gemini training and grounding, and Google says it does not affect inclusion in Google Search.

• Didn't change: you need to be indexed first.

  Google: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear in AI features. There are 'no additional requirements' and no 'special optimizations necessary'.

• Didn't change: no special file or markup is required.

  Google says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. llms.txt is a community proposal, not a Google requirement.

• Didn't change: traffic still shows up in Search Console.

  Google counts AI feature appearances inside the Performance report under the 'Web' search type. There is no separate AI Overviews filter there.

• Open question: exactly how much AI answers cut clicks for your site.

  Studies disagree and depend on query type. Measure your own Search Console clicks vs impressions before believing any one number.

Red flags in 'AI SEO' sales pitches

• They sell SEO, AEO and GEO as three separate retainers.

  The work overlaps almost fully: crawlable pages, clear answers, trusted mentions.

• They promise a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT or AI Overviews.

  Google says indexing and serving are not guaranteed even when you meet every requirement. Nobody controls AI answers.

• They say you need a special AI file or schema to be seen.

  Google says no special files or markup are needed for its AI features.

• They quote 'up to 40% more visibility' as a promise.

  That figure is the maximum gain measured in the GEO paper's lab benchmark, not a result for your business.

• They plan to mass-produce AI pages or post fake reviews and Reddit comments.

  Scaled low-value content breaks Google's spam policies, and fake participation breaks Reddit's rules.

• They report 'AI visibility scores' with no prompts or method shown.

  If you can't see which prompts they ran and when, you can't check the number.

One plan that covers all three

1. Week 1: make sure you can be found

   Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Check robots.txt allows Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Inspect your 5 most important URLs and confirm they are indexed.

2. Week 2: list the buyer questions

   Write the 20 questions buyers ask before they pay you (price, comparison, 'is it worth it', 'best X in city'). Pull them from sales calls, emails, reviews and Search Console queries.

3. Weeks 3-6: answer each question on a real page

   One page per service, a pricing page, an About page and an FAQ in your customers' words. Put the direct answer in the first sentence under a question heading. Add facts AI can quote: prices, numbers, locations, dates.

4. Weeks 7-10: earn mentions elsewhere

   Reviews on your Google Business Profile, listings on the sites that rank for 'best X', guest answers on podcasts and forums. AI answers tend to repeat what many sources agree on (a hypothesis widely held, not a measured rule).

5. Monthly: test and fix

   Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the same 5 buyer questions. Log who gets named and which pages get cited. Fix the wrong facts at their source page.