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How to Get Cited by ChatGPT and Google AI Without Falling for GEO Myths

No one can guarantee a citation in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI features. You can improve your odds by making sure AI crawlers can reach your site, keeping strong search fundamentals, publishing specific first-hand information and earning genuine mentions of your brand elsewhere. Most of the rest of what is sold as “GEO” is either ordinary SEO or unproven.

Is GEO different from SEO?

It depends on who you ask, and the honest answer is “partly.” Google’s position is that “AEO” and “GEO” are simply SEO for this search experience, and that its usual best practices continue to apply.

There is also real research behind the term. A paper accepted to KDD 2024 reported that optimization methods could raise visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40%, with results that vary by domain. That is a useful finding, but “up to” in a research setting is not a forecast for your website. Be skeptical when a vendor presents a figure like this as a promise.

Can AI search tools actually reach your website?

Start here, because this is the one area where a simple mistake can remove you completely. Each platform uses different crawlers with different jobs.

Crawler Job What blocking it does
OAI-SearchBot Indexes sites for ChatGPT search features Sites opted out will not appear in ChatGPT search answers, aside from possible navigational links
GPTBot Crawls content that may be used for model training Signals that content should not be used for training, with no effect on OAI-SearchBot
PerplexityBot Surfaces and links sites in Perplexity results Sites that want to appear should allow it
Googlebot Crawls pages for Google Search, including AI features Controls crawling access for Search

The practical point is that you can allow search crawlers and still block training crawlers, since OpenAI says these settings work independently. We recommend reviewing your robots.txt, plus any firewall or security plugin rules, because a setting you never chose can block these bots. OpenAI also notes that robots.txt changes can take roughly a day to take effect.

Do you need llms.txt or special schema?

Not for Google. Its guide says of these files and special markup that “Google Search itself doesn’t use them.” The guide also says structured data is not required for generative AI search and that no special schema exists for it. Its AI features documentation agrees that no new AI text files or markup are needed.

Structured data can still make sense when it supports a rich result. Just check that the feature still exists. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026 and later removed the documentation. An FAQ section can still help your readers, but it will no longer earn that rich result, so ignore advice that treats FAQ markup as a shortcut.

We did not find verified evidence on whether llms.txt helps with other AI platforms, so we treat it as optional and low priority.

Do you need to rank in the top 10 to get cited?

Ranking helps, but the overlap is lower than many people assume. Ahrefs found that about 38% of AI Overview citations also ranked in the top 10, based on 863,000 keyword results and about 4 million cited URLs. Its 2025 study had put the figure near 76%, though the authors note that their method improved, so the two are not directly comparable.

Ahrefs suggests that “query fan-out,” where one question is split into related searches, may explain this. That is the authors’ interpretation, not something Google has confirmed. If it is right, the takeaway is reasonable either way: cover the full set of questions around a topic rather than obsessing over one phrase. Google separately says you do not need to chase long-tail variations or rewrite in AI-specific phrasing, so write for clarity and not for a keyword list.

Do brand mentions matter more than backlinks?

There is a correlation, with limits. In a study of 75,000 brands, Ahrefs reported a correlation of 0.664 between branded web mentions and AI Overview mentions, against 0.218 for the number of backlinks. About 26% of the brands had no AI Overview mentions at all. The study covers Google’s AI Overviews only, dates from May 2025 and states plainly that correlation is not causation.

Google also warns that seeking inauthentic mentions is less helpful than it may seem. In our view, the sensible response is to earn real attention: be listed where your customers look, get covered by your industry press, contribute real expertise and give people a reason to talk about you. Paying for mentions on low-quality sites is a poor bet.

Does fresh content get cited more?

Somewhat, and it varies by platform. An Ahrefs analysis of about 17 million cited URLs found that AI assistants cited content about 25.7% fresher than organic results by publication date. ChatGPT cited the freshest content, while AI Overviews looked much like regular Google results. The authors also note that cited content still averages close to three years old and that Google’s John Mueller has warned against changing dates without changing the content.

We recommend updating pages when facts, prices or processes change, and leaving the date alone when they have not.

What should you do first?

Here is the order we would follow:

  1. Check access. Review robots.txt, firewall rules and indexing for your key pages.
  2. Fix the basics. Google requires pages to be indexed and eligible for a snippet.
  3. Make your entity clear. State who you are, what you do, where you work and who you serve, in the same words everywhere.
  4. Publish what only you can. Google recommends content drawn from what you actually know. Add data, examples and expert judgment.
  5. Complete your business profiles. Google names Business Profiles and Merchant Center as ways to be visible in AI responses.
  6. Track prompts by hand. Each month, ask the main AI tools your customers’ top questions and note who gets named.

Frequently asked questions

Can an agency guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend my business?

No. Google says third-party tools cannot access its internal ranking or AI systems, and answers can vary between queries and over time. Treat any guarantee as a warning sign.

Should I block GPTBot?

That is a business decision about model training, separate from search visibility. Blocking GPTBot while allowing OAI-SearchBot is a supported setup.

Do I need to break my content into short chunks for AI?

Not for Google, which says there is no requirement to do so. Clear headings and direct answers are still good for readers.

How long does it take to see results?

We cannot give a reliable timeline, and we did not find a verified study that sets one. Keep a monthly log so you can see your own trend.

Want to know if AI search can find you?

JONTI Code Design is a bilingual studio in San José, Costa Rica, that works with clients mainly in the United States on technical SEO, local SEO and visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. If you want a straight look at where you stand, email info@jonti.co.cr.

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