AI Search Optimisation is the work of getting your business named and cited when people ask AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude. It works in three stages. First, the answer crawlers must be able to read your pages: each assistant reads from a web index, and since September 2026 ChatGPT runs its own index rather than Bing's. Second, your pages must answer buyers' questions clearly enough to be quoted. Third, and most important, trusted sources must talk about you: 84% of the links AI assistants cite are earned media, such as press, roundups and reviews (Muck Rack, May 2026).
Why AI Search Optimisation exists
Search has changed. When someone types a question into Google, ChatGPT, or Bing today, they no longer just get a list of links. They get an answer. That answer is generated by an AI system, which reads hundreds of websites, extracts the most useful information, and writes a response. The websites it draws from get cited as sources. The ones it ignores receive no traffic at all.
This shift has had real consequences. When an AI Overview appears at the top of the results, fewer people click the websites below it: in a 2025 Pew Research Center study, people clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits with an AI summary, against 15% without. Buyers act on these answers too: 82% of B2B software buyers acted on an AI recommendation in the last two years (G2, July 2026).
AI Search Optimisation is the discipline that has emerged in response. It covers everything a business needs to do to be the source those AI systems cite, rather than the business those systems ignore.
The three names for the same discipline
The industry has not yet settled on a single term. You will see all three used interchangeably:
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). Focuses on making content answer specific questions directly, so answer engines can extract and cite it.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). Specifically targets generative AI systems (models that write responses rather than returning links) like ChatGPT Search and Google AI Overviews.
- LLMO (Large Language Model Optimisation). The most technical term, referring to making content readable and trustworthy to the large language models that underpin all modern AI search systems.
All three terms describe the same goal: appearing in AI-generated answers. HelloWorld uses AI Search Optimisation as the plainest description of what the service achieves.
How AI search systems decide what to cite: the three-stage process
Understanding why one business gets cited and another does not requires understanding the three-stage process that every AI search system follows.
Stage 1 · Retrieval: getting into the candidate pool
When a user asks a question, the AI system doesn't search the entire internet from scratch. It queries an existing index, a pre-built database of web pages. Crucially, different AI systems use different indexes:
- Google AI Overviews and AI Mode pull from Google's own index. Google says there are no extra requirements: the page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet. Ranking still helps, but less than it did: the share of AI Overview citations from top-10 pages fell from 76.1% to 38% (Ahrefs, 2026).
- ChatGPT Search leaned mainly on Bing's index until September 2026. It now runs its own index, built by OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawler, with search-result scraping as a fallback and Bing used mainly in Deep Research (Peec AI, 4 September 2026). If OAI-SearchBot cannot reach your pages, ChatGPT search cannot cite them.
- Perplexity and Claude run their own indexes, built by PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot, and fetch pages live while they answer. Copilot still draws on Bing's index.
This has a practical implication: let every answer crawler in, both in robots.txt and through your CDN or firewall. Since 15 September 2026, Cloudflare blocks some AI crawlers by default on pages with ads for new domains, so a perfect robots.txt can still return an error. Bing Webmaster Tools still matters for Copilot, but it is no longer the route into ChatGPT.
Stage 2 · Selection: the citation filter
From the pages in the retrieval pool, AI systems evaluate each one and decide which to actually cite. In practice, only a fraction of retrieved pages are cited. The rest are pulled into the evaluation process and then discarded without being cited.
What determines whether a page makes the cut:
- Answer position. AI assistants quote the top of a page. If your key information is buried below the fold, a competitor's clearer page is quoted instead.
- Passage-level evaluation. AI systems evaluate your page paragraph by paragraph, not as a whole. A single well-structured paragraph can be cited even if the rest of the page is mediocre.
- Visible Q&A blocks. Questions with short, self-contained answers give an AI assistant passages it can quote in full. The visible text is what counts. FAQPage markup is optional: a controlled test found no citation effect from adding schema (Ahrefs, May 2026).
- Comparison formats. In B2B software, 70.8% of AI citations go to pages titled "best", "top" or a comparison (Overthink Group, July 2026).
- Question-phrased headings. H2 and H3 headings that match real user questions are more likely to trigger citation for those queries.
Stage 3 · Authority: the off-site confidence check
This is the most commonly overlooked stage, and the most important. Most AI citations come from third-party sources, not brand-owned websites. In Muck Rack's analysis of 25 million AI citations, 84% were earned media. Unlinked brand mentions correlate with AI visibility far more strongly than backlinks do: about 0.66 against 0.22 (Ahrefs).
This means:
- Google Business Profile, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Facebook are citation sources in their own right. Google Business Profile alone receives 28.6% of local AI citations (BrightLocal, September 2026). For B2B software, it is G2, Gartner Peer Insights and Capterra.
- Roundups ("best X in Y" lists), trade press and local news features carry the most weight. Press releases sent through a wire are only 1.1% of AI citations, so pitch stories, not releases.
- YouTube, LinkedIn and community threads count too. YouTube mentions were the strongest single factor in Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands. Reddit matters for Google AI Mode and Perplexity, but no longer for ChatGPT since August 2026.
A perfectly structured website with zero external presence will still struggle to be cited. The off-site authority layer is not optional.
How AI SEO differs from traditional SEO
Traditional SEO and AI Search Optimisation share some technical foundations: both benefit from fast, crawlable websites with clean code and strong internal linking. But the strategic differences are significant.
| Factor | Traditional SEO | AI Search Optimisation |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank in blue-link results | Be cited in AI-generated answers |
| Success metric | Keyword position, organic traffic | AI citation frequency, referral traffic from AI |
| Query length | Optimise for short keyword searches | Target full conversational questions, often several times longer |
| Content structure | Keywords, headings, word count | Answer-first structure, direct extraction quality |
| Technical signals | Core Web Vitals, crawlability | Answer crawler access through robots.txt and the CDN, words in the HTML |
| Link building | Essential for rankings | Weak; brand mentions on trusted sites matter more |
A business can rank number one in Google for every relevant keyword and still never appear in a single AI Overview or ChatGPT response. The pages AI cites often differ from the top Google results: only 38% of AI Overview citations now come from pages in Google's top ten, down from 76.1% in July 2025 (Ahrefs). The ranking signal and the citation signal are genuinely different.
What AI Search Optimisation involves in practice
A complete AI Search Optimisation programme covers three pillars, matching the three stages of how AI citation works.
Pillar 1 · SEO foundation and retrieval access
Before any AI assistant can cite you, it has to be able to read you. This means: the answer crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot, Bingbot) allowed in robots.txt and through your CDN or firewall, your words served in the HTML rather than only after JavaScript runs, nothing important set to noindex or nosnippet, an XML sitemap submitted to Google and Bing, and a complete Google Business Profile for every location. Organisation or LocalBusiness schema, consistent listings and a clear title and description are worth keeping as basic hygiene, but they do not increase citations on their own.
Pillar 2 · Content structure for AI selection
Once you're in the retrieval pool, your content needs to pass the citation selection filter. This means: answer-first content with the key information near the top of each page, visible question-and-answer blocks, honest comparison pages with the year in the title and pricing on the page, headings phrased as real customer questions, and specific facts (prices, hours, locations, qualifications). Keep the pages genuinely maintained: 75% of pages AI assistants cite were updated within the last year, and changing the date alone does not count (Seer Interactive, July 2026).
Pillar 3 · Off-site authority building
The most commonly neglected pillar, and the one with the strongest evidence. This means: getting onto the roundups and comparison articles that AI assistants already cite, trade press stories, recent reviews on the platforms your sector is judged on, long-form YouTube explainers, a complete LinkedIn company page for B2B firms, disclosed answers in the community threads your buyers read, and monthly tracking of where competitors are cited instead of you.
Who needs AI Search Optimisation
Any business whose customers use AI to find, compare, or choose services is affected by AI search. This includes:
- Restaurants and cafés: customers ask AI for recommendations, opening hours, menu options, and suitability for occasions.
- Solicitors and legal professionals: customers ask AI which type of solicitor they need, what questions to ask, and who operates in their area.
- Hotels and accommodation: travellers ask AI to plan entire trips, including where to stay based on specific preferences.
- Retailers and boutiques: customers ask AI for product recommendations, brand comparisons, and buying guides.
- Accountants and financial services: small business owners ask AI for advice and for recommendations on who to contact.
- Trades and contractors: homeowners ask AI for guidance on projects and for recommended professionals in their area.
The common thread is a customer who uses natural, detailed language to ask a question and trusts the AI's answer, often without clicking through to verify the source. Appearing in that answer is now as commercially significant as appearing on the first page of Google was a decade ago.
How to get started with AI Search Optimisation
The most effective starting point is an AI Visibility Audit: a review of your current website that identifies exactly where AI assistants are blocked, what content is poorly structured for extraction, which roundups and review sites AI assistants cite in your category, and where your competitors are already being cited. From there, the work follows a clear sequence: fix crawler access, rebuild key pages with answer-first structure, get onto the sources AI assistants already trust, and publish content that answers the specific questions your customers ask AI.
For a practical step-by-step guide, see How to get your business noticed in AI search.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does AEO stand for?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It is one of several names for AI Search Optimisation: the practice of structuring website content so that AI-powered answer engines cite it when responding to user queries. The terms AEO, GEO, and LLMO are all used to describe the same discipline.
What is the difference between AEO and GEO?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) are two names for the same discipline. GEO specifically emphasises optimisation for generative AI systems (models that write full responses rather than returning links) such as ChatGPT Search and Google AI Overviews. In practice the terms are interchangeable.
Does AI SEO replace traditional SEO?
No. AI Search Optimisation and traditional SEO are complementary. Many technical foundations (clean site architecture, strong internal linking, fast page loads) benefit both. The difference is in content strategy: traditional SEO targets keyword rankings, while AI SEO targets citation in AI-generated answers. We recommend running both in parallel.
What is LLMO?
LLMO stands for Large Language Model Optimisation. It refers to the same discipline as AEO and GEO: making content readable, trustworthy, and extractable by the large language models that power AI search systems including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot.
How quickly can a business start appearing in AI search results?
A technical fix, such as unblocking an answer crawler, can show within weeks once the pages are crawled again. Being named for competitive questions usually takes six to twelve months. AI assistants also answer differently each time, so measure the rate across a fixed set of prompts, never a single answer.