A growing share of searches now end with an AI answer instead of a click. For many questions, the first thing people see is an AI Overview, a conversation in Google’s AI Mode or a ChatGPT reply. If your brand isn’t cited in that answer, you can be invisible even when you rank on page one.
This is what people now call GEO, or generative engine optimisation. It isn’t a replacement for SEO. It’s SEO plus a few new habits. Here’s how AI search picks its sources and what I recommend businesses do now.
Why this matters now
- AI Mode is going mainstream. Google keeps pushing AI Mode as a full conversational search experience. In late September it started testing shopping from Flipkart directly through Gemini and AI Mode in India.
- Clicks are shrinking for some queries. Similarweb found that zero-click searches for news rose from 56% to 69% in a year as AI Overviews expanded.
- Visibility is unstable. AirOps research found that only about 30% of brands stayed visible from one AI answer to the next for the same question. Being cited once doesn’t mean you’ll be cited tomorrow.
How AI search engines choose sources
The engines work differently, so it helps to know where each one gets its information:
| Engine | Where answers come from | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Google’s own search index | Normal SEO still comes first. If Google can’t crawl and rank you, it won’t cite you. |
| ChatGPT search | Bing’s index plus real-time web retrieval | Check your site in Bing Webmaster Tools, not just Google. |
| Perplexity | Its own index plus live retrieval | Clear, well-structured pages that answer a question directly get picked up. |
All of them break a question into smaller sub-questions behind the scenes. Google calls this “query fan-out”. So a page that only answers the main question often loses to a page that also covers the follow-ups.
8 steps to get cited
- Let AI crawlers in. Check your robots.txt and any firewall or CDN rules. If you block crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or Bingbot, those engines can’t cite you. Google-Extended only controls AI training; blocking it doesn’t remove you from AI Overviews.
- Answer first. Put a direct, two or three sentence answer at the top of the page or section, then the detail. AI systems quote passages, and a clear answer is easy to lift.
- Cover the follow-up questions. Think about the next five questions a buyer would ask and answer them on the page. Use clear headings that match how people ask.
- Add facts, figures and sources. Researchers from Princeton and IIT Delhi found that adding statistics, quotations and citations made content up to around 40% more visible in AI-generated answers. Use your own data where you can.
- Show who is behind the content. Author names, credentials, an About page and real contact details help both Google and AI systems trust the page.
- Use structured data. Organization, Article, FAQPage and Product schema help engines understand what a page is about and who published it.
- Get mentioned elsewhere. AI answers lean heavily on third-party sources: reviews, industry articles, Reddit threads, LinkedIn posts and YouTube videos. Digital PR and genuine community participation now affect AI visibility, not just links.
- Track it. Make a list of 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask. Check monthly whether AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity mention you, and which competitors they cite instead.
What about llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed file that gives AI tools a short summary of your site’s key pages. It’s cheap to add and does no harm. But no major AI search engine has confirmed it uses the file to choose sources, so don’t treat it as a priority over the steps above.
The bottom line
GEO isn’t a trick. The pages that get cited are the ones that answer clearly, prove what they say and come from a brand other people already talk about. Strong SEO fundamentals get you into the index. Clear answers, real expertise and third-party mentions get you into the AI answer.
Want to know where you stand in AI search?
I can check how your brand shows up across Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and ChatGPT for the questions your customers ask, and show you what to fix first.
Sources
- What is GEO? (Similarweb)
- Google tests buying from Flipkart through Gemini and AI Mode in India (TechCrunch, 26 Sept 2026)
- Google Search AI Mode (TIME, 29 Sept 2026)
- GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al., Princeton and IIT Delhi, KDD 2024)
- AI features and your website (Google Search Central)
Written by Sandesh Karkare, growth marketing consultant in Mumbai with 20 years in digital marketing.