GEO and AEO: How to Get Your Business Cited by AI Search

What the terms mean

• AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): structuring content so it can be lifted as a direct answer.
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): making your brand and pages likely to be summarised and cited by AI engines.
• Both build on solid SEO. They do not replace it.

What helps

• Answer the question in the first sentence, then explain.
• Add FAQ sections with short, direct answers to real customer questions.
• Use schema markup (Organization, FAQPage, Service, Article) so the structure is explicit.
• Keep facts consistent everywhere: name, services, contact details and location.
• Publish original, specific information. Generic content gives AI nothing worth citing.

Let AI crawlers in

Check your robots.txt does not block AI crawlers you want to reach you. You can also publish an llms.txt file, a plain summary of your site for language models. It is an emerging convention, so treat it as a small bonus rather than a guarantee.

Make content render without scripts

Important text and numbers should appear in the server-rendered HTML. If a stat only appears after a script runs, many crawlers will never see it.

Be realistic

No one can guarantee a citation. The reliable approach is the same as good SEO: be genuinely useful, clear and trustworthy, and make that easy for machines to read.