OpenAI puts visual ads next to ChatGPT image results
Ads are now arriving in ChatGPT's own surfaces, not only in search answers.
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AI search GEO AEO
Where AI engines learn about AI search.
Reporting, original research and free tools on how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Mode decide which sources to quote. Written for the marketers who need their brand to be one of them.
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What is generative engine optimization?
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making content more likely to be retrieved, quoted and cited inside AI-generated answers1. The term comes from a 2023 paper by researchers at Princeton and IIT Delhi, who found that adding quotations, statistics and source citations lifted visibility by up to 40%2. SEO competes for a spot in a list of links. GEO competes for one of the handful of sources an answer is built from1.
Covering
ChatGPTGoogle AI ModeAI OverviewsGeminiClaudePerplexityCopilot
Latest analysis
All guides →
The citation gap
Some engines link 19 sources per answer. Gemini's API linked almost none.
Slate ran 1,000 questions through five engines' APIs and counted the links in each answer. The spread is huge, and it changes what "being cited" is worth on each one.
Two caveats matter. APIs and consumer apps behave differently: Semrush's index of 126 million prompts in the apps counted about 15 sources per ChatGPT answer, against 3.1 in Slate's API test. And a link isn't a mention. Gemini can name your brand without linking you.
The practical read: on Perplexity, being one of 19 links is table stakes, and placement in the answer text is what counts. On ChatGPT and Gemini there are few slots, so the work is to be the source the answer is written from.
The engine cheat sheet
Where each engine gets its sources, which crawler has to reach you, and the first thing to fix.
| Engine | Where sources come from | Crawler to allow | Citation pattern | First move |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT search | OpenAI's own crawl plus third-party search providers; Microsoft has said Bing is one | OAI-SearchBot | Wikipedia is 47.9% of its top 10 cited domains (Profound) | Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools and check that your key pages are indexed there |
| Perplexity | Its own index, built by its crawler | PerplexityBot | Reddit is 46.7% of its top 10 cited domains (Profound) | Allow PerplexityBot, then find the Reddit threads that answer your category's questions |
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Google's search index, with query fan-out into related sub-queries | Googlebot (Google-Extended has no effect here) | They cite the same URL only 13.7% of the time (Ahrefs) | Write sections that answer the follow-up questions, not only the head term |
| Gemini app | Google Search grounding | Googlebot, and Google-Extended for grounding | Few links per answer; mentions matter more than links | Leave Google-Extended allowed if you want Gemini app grounding on your pages |
| Claude | Web search through a third-party provider (Brave Search, per Anthropic's subprocessor list) | Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User | 18.5% of B2B AI referrals in spring 2026, up from 1.4% (Higoodie) | Search Brave for your brand's key queries and see what it returns |
| Microsoft Copilot | Bing's index | Bingbot | Follows Bing rankings closely | Submit new URLs through IndexNow so Bing picks them up fast |
Sources: Profound, Ahrefs, Higoodie, Google crawler docs, OpenAI bots. Details and the rest of the sources are in the crawler reference.
What the research says moves citations
Effect sizes from the original GEO study, which tested nine rewrites across about 10,000 queries.
+41%visibility
Quote a named expert
Quotation addition was the single best method in the study.
+31%Replace adjectives with numbers
"Fast onboarding" loses to "live in 14 days, median across 212 customers".
+27%Cite primary sources
For pages ranked fifth in search, citing sources lifted visibility 115%.
−8%Stop keyword stuffing
The classic SEO trick scored below doing nothing at all.
0Citations if bots can't reach you
Blocking OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot takes you out of those answers.
Source: Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", KDD 2024. Percentages are on the paper's position-adjusted word count metric. The numeric example is illustrative.
Numbers worth knowing
All 69 statistics →8%
of Google visits with an AI summary led to a click on a result, against 15% without one
Pew Research, 20252.5B
monthly users of AI Overviews, with AI Mode past 1 billion, per Google
Google I/O, May 202618.5%
Claude's share of B2B AI referral traffic in spring 2026, up from 1.4% a year earlier
Higoodie, 202613.7%
of the time, AI Overviews and AI Mode cite the same URL for the same query
Ahrefs, 540K query pairsBuyer's guides
Agencies and software, compared on what they actually do, what they cost and where they fall short.
Agencies
The best GEO agencies
Who does generative engine optimization well, who it suits, and the red flags to watch for on a sales call.
SoftwareThe best AI visibility tools
Profound, Peec AI, Semrush, Ahrefs Brand Radar and more, side by side on engines and pricing.
AlternativesProfound alternatives
When a cheaper or narrower tool is the better buy, and when Profound is worth it.
FreeFree AI visibility checkers
What each free checker tests, its limits, and what one check can't tell you.
More comparisons and playbooks
Agencies
The best AEO agencies in 2026: 10 answer engine optimization firms compared
AgenciesThe best AI SEO agencies in 2026: 10 firms that optimize for Google and AI answers
PlaybookHow to rank in ChatGPT and get recommended for buyer prompts
ChecklistGEO audit checklist: 32 pass/fail checks for AI search visibility
AlternativesPeec AI alternatives: 8 tools and when each one beats Peec
TrackersAI Mode tracker: 11 tools that track Google AI Mode, checked on vendor pages
TrackersAI Overview tracker: 11 tools to track Google AI Overviews, plus what Search Console shows free
TrackersChatGPT rank trackers: 11 tools that track your brand in ChatGPT, compared
Free tools
They run in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent anywhere.
Citability grader
Paste a page and get a 0 to 100 score on twelve signals AI engines reward, each with a fix.
AI crawler robots.txt checker
Paste your robots.txt and see which of 21 AI bots it allows, and which rule decided it.
llms.txt generator
Build a spec-compliant llms.txt from your key pages, with warnings for relative and duplicate URLs.
Schema generator
FAQPage, Article, Organization, HowTo and SoftwareApplication JSON-LD, checked against Google's required fields.
AI user agent directory
Every major AI crawler with its operator, purpose and official documentation.
AI visibility checker Arobis AI
Enter a domain and get a 0 to 100 AI readiness score for ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity in about 25 seconds.
From the wire
All news →Cloudflare opens Pay Per Use: AI companies pay when content is used, not just crawled
The first large attempt to price an answer instead of a bot hit.
blog.cloudflare.comProfound raises $180M at a $1.8B valuation
AI visibility tracking is now a funded software category of its own.
tryprofound.comSearch Console's generative AI reports reach every site
Impressions only, no clicks. Still the first first-party AI data Google has given site owners.
searchenginejournal.comGoogle I/O: AI Mode passes 1 billion monthly users
Google is folding AI Overviews and AI Mode closer together.
blog.googleEight terms you'll keep running into
Full glossary of 40 terms →
Query fan-outGoogle splits one question into many related searches, then builds the answer from all the results.
GroundingTying a model's answer to retrieved documents, so it can cite them.
Citation rateThe share of tracked prompts where an engine links to your site.
Share of voiceYour mentions as a share of all brand mentions in your category's answers.
Google-ExtendedA robots.txt token for Gemini training and grounding. It doesn't affect Search or AI Overviews.
llms.txtA proposed Markdown file listing a site's key pages for language models. Google Search doesn't use it.
Zero-click searchA search that ends without a click, often because the answer is on the results page.
RAGRetrieval-augmented generation: fetch documents first, then write an answer from them.
Questions people ask us
How do I check if ChatGPT mentions my brand?
Write down 20 to 50 questions your buyers would ask, run each one in ChatGPT with search on, and record whether you're named, linked, or absent. Run them more than once, because answers vary between runs. Before you start, the free Arobis AI visibility checker scores how ready your site is for AI engines, and our measurement guide covers the full prompt-tracking method.
Is GEO different from SEO?
They overlap more than vendors admit. Google's AI features draw on Google's index, so ranking still matters there. The differences: AI answers reward quotable facts over keyword targeting, engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT use their own crawlers and indexes, and success is measured in mentions and citations instead of positions. See GEO vs AEO vs SEO.
Should I block GPTBot?
Blocking GPTBot keeps your content out of future OpenAI training. It does not remove you from ChatGPT search, which uses OAI-SearchBot. Many publishers block the training bot and allow the search bot. If you want AI engines to cite you, never block the search bots.
Does llms.txt help AI visibility?
There's no evidence it moves citations yet. Google says Google Search doesn't use it, and log studies show few AI crawlers request the file. It takes ten minutes to make, so there's little downside, but don't expect results from it. The llms.txt guide has the details.
Who publishes AI Ranked?
AI Ranked is published by Arobis AI, an AI search demand generation agency for B2B SaaS. Our standards: primary sources, vendor data labelled as vendor data, and no numbers we couldn't check. More on the about page.
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