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

If you only have 15 minutes

1. Read the table above (2 min)

   SEO, AEO and GEO are one job aimed at different screens.

2. Check you can be found (5 min)

   Search Console: are your top 5 pages indexed? robots.txt: are Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot allowed?

3. Get one baseline number (3 min)

   Generative AI report in Search Console: AI impressions for your top page, last 28 days.

4. Fix one opening (5 min)

   Your best service page: direct answer to the buyer's main question in the first sentence, with a price or number.

Where 'GEO' came from

The term comes from a research paper: 'GEO: Generative Engine Optimization' by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan and Ameet Deshpande. It was posted to arXiv in November 2023 and accepted at KDD 2024.

The authors built a test set of queries (GEO-bench), changed web pages in different ways, and measured how visible those pages became in AI-generated answers. Their best methods raised visibility by up to 40% in that benchmark. They also found results varied by subject, so no single trick works everywhere.

What this means for you: GEO is a real research idea, not just a sales word. But the paper tested lab conditions, not Google AI Overviews or ChatGPT with your market. Use it as a hint (be specific, cite sources, add numbers), not a guarantee.

What changed and what didn't

Each line is tagged. CONFIRMED = official doc. STUDY = named research. LIKELY = widely observed. UNKNOWN = no public answer.

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

  CONFIRMED. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode show supporting links and may use 'query fan-out' (several related searches) to find more pages while the answer is generated.

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

  CONFIRMED. OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot surfaces sites in ChatGPT search. Perplexity: PerplexityBot surfaces sites in its results. Anthropic: Claude-SearchBot indexes for Claude search. Google-Extended only controls Gemini training and grounding, and Google says it doesn't affect Google Search.

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

  CONFIRMED. Google: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. There are 'no additional requirements' to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.

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

  CONFIRMED. Google says no new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema are needed. llms.txt is a community proposal; no major AI search engine has said it uses it for ranking (UNKNOWN).

• Changed (a little): you can now see AI impressions in Search Console.

  CONFIRMED. Since June 2026, Search Console's generative AI performance report shows how often your URLs appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode (rolled out to all sites by 31 August 2026). Impressions only: clicks are still mixed into the normal Performance report under Web.

• Changed: fewer clicks when an AI answer shows.

  STUDY. Pew Research Center (68,879 searches by 900 US adults, March 2025): people clicked a normal result on 8% of visits with an AI summary vs 15% without. How much this hits YOUR site is UNKNOWN until you measure it.

• Didn't change: good content and trusted mentions still win.

  CONFIRMED that Google's helpful content guidance applies to all of Search. LIKELY that AI tools favour widely mentioned brands; no company has published its citation formula.

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.

  STUDY. 'Up to 40%' is the best result in the GEO paper's lab benchmark (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024), 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 (LIKELY, not a measured rule).

5. Monthly: test and fix

   Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude the same 5 buyer questions. Log who gets named and which pages get cited. Check Search Console's generative AI report and Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report. Fix wrong facts at their source page.

Questions to ask anyone selling 'AI SEO'

1. Which exact prompts will you track, in which tools, and how often? Can I see the raw answers?
2. What will you change on my site in month 1, page by page?
3. Which of these changes is different from normal SEO? Why?
4. What's your source for each claim (official doc or study)?
5. How will you report Search Console's generative AI impressions alongside clicks and leads?
6. What happens if AI citations don't move after 90 days?
7. Will you create any reviews, Reddit posts or pages in my name? (Right answer: never fake ones.)

Should you pay for SEO, GEO and AEO separately?

The one-page weekly checklist

WEEK OF: ________
[ ] Search Console: any new indexing errors? (5 min)
[ ] Generative AI report: AI impressions on top 5 pages: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
[ ] Performance report: clicks on the same pages: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
[ ] One buyer question answered on a real page (link: ________)
[ ] One review requested
[ ] One mention earned or asked for (where: ________)
[ ] Monthly only: 5 buyer questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI, Claude. Logged? [ ]

Common mistakes

• Treating GEO as a replacement for SEO.

  CONFIRMED: Google's AI features use its normal index. No index, no AI citation.

• Buying llms.txt as an AI-ranking fix.

  Google says no AI text files are needed. Other engines haven't said they use it for ranking.

• Measuring only clicks.

  With AI answers, clicks can fall while visibility rises. Track AI impressions, clicks and leads together.

• Mass-producing AI pages.

  Scaled low-value content is against Google's spam policies.

• Changing everything at once.

  You won't know what worked. Change a few pages, then measure.