AEO / GEO: the 2026 layer
Be cited, not just ranked.
Generative Engine Optimisation for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. A discipline layered on top of classical SEO. Same foundations, different formats, fewer citations per query.
The work
Six pillars that run continuously.
Entity establishment
AI systems reason about the world in entities, not strings. Organization schema, complete and consistent profiles, Wikidata where notability supports it. When an AI is asked about your category, you appear on the shortlist.
Topical authority
AI systems heavily favour sources that have demonstrated depth on a topic. Pillar pages plus genuinely useful supporting articles, all internally linked. Breadth and depth in equal measure.
Extractable content
Question-shaped headings, short direct answers at the top of each section, supporting depth below, structured patterns (lists, tables, FAQs) that map cleanly onto how AI systems format their own answers.
Validating schema
Organization site-wide. Article + Person on every article. Service, LocalBusiness, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList where applicable. All of it validating. Broken schema is worse than no schema.
llms.txt and llms-full.txt
The emerging standard for AI crawler guidance: a curated map of the site’s most important content, with brief descriptions, served at the site root. Inexpensive to produce, meaningfully improves AI representation.
Authoritative brand mentions
AI training and retrieval both weight brand mentions in trusted publications heavily, sometimes more than backlinks. Digital PR with the AI lens on it.
The honest part
AI search changes weekly. The fundamentals don’t.
The biggest mistake in this discipline is treating AI search as a separate thing from classical SEO. It sits on the same foundations. The second biggest is making promises about AI outcomes when the systems themselves change weekly.
The third, producing thin content optimised for AI extraction at the cost of being genuinely useful, is the one most agencies will make. The systems are getting better at distinguishing the two and penalising the former. The work that actually compounds is the work that’s good either way.
Frequently asked.
What’s the difference between AEO and GEO?
They are different framings of the same discipline. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) frames it as optimising for the answer engines themselves: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) frames it more broadly as optimising for generative AI representation across systems. The work is the same; the term is what changes by audience.
Does this replace classical SEO?
No. AEO/GEO sits on top of classical SEO and depends on the same foundations: strong entity, strong topical authority, strong technical hygiene, strong brand presence. A site that ranks well in classical search has most of the foundation it needs to be cited by AI; a site that doesn’t, won’t.
Why does this matter now?
AI Overviews trigger on a majority of informational queries. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot collectively send a real and growing slice of qualified traffic. AI systems also cite far fewer sources than classical SERPs do, often three to five, which means first-page visibility carries disproportionate AI value. The shift is real, ongoing, and uneven across industries; ignoring it is a decision.
Can you guarantee citation in AI Overviews or ChatGPT?
No. The systems change weekly, the citation logic is opaque, and any agency promising specific AI outcomes is being dishonest. We can build the conditions that make citation likely: entity strength, authority, extractable content, validating schema. And we can track citation share over time. The honesty that governs our classical SEO promises applies here.
How do you measure AI visibility?
Search Console now reports AI Overview impressions and clicks under the AI search filter. We also use third-party tooling (Profound, Otterly, Peec AI or equivalent) to track citation presence across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude over time. AI metrics sit alongside classical organic in the monthly report.
See how you look to AI.
The free audit checks for the six pillars above plus the classical SEO foundations. You get a defensible read on where you stand in under a minute.