Getting Cited by the AIs.
A growing share of buyers no longer Google a question and click ten blue links. They ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity, and they trust the synthesized answer. If your business is not in that answer, you do not exist to them.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) are about getting cited by AI engines when they answer questions. What works: structured data (schema), direct factual claims in plain language, comprehensive topic coverage, an llms.txt file, being mentioned on third-party sources the AI already trusts, and content organized as clear questions and answers. Traditional SEO still matters, but AI engines weight clarity, structure, and citability differently than Google rankings.
01Why this is happening now
Google AI Overviews now appear on a large and growing share of searches. ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of weekly users asking it questions they used to type into a search bar. Perplexity is building an entire business on cited answers. The behavior shift is real: people increasingly get an answer, not a list of links.
For businesses, this is both a threat and an opening. The threat: if the AI does not mention you, the click never happens. The opening: most of your competitors have done nothing to optimize for this, so the field is wide open.
02What AI engines actually reward
AI engines do not "rank" the way Google does. They retrieve, synthesize, and cite. What makes content citable:
- Direct factual claims — clear statements an AI can lift and attribute, not vague marketing fluff
- Structured data — schema markup that tells the engine exactly what your content is
- Question-and-answer format — content organized the way people actually ask
- Comprehensive coverage — depth on a topic, not thin pages
- Third-party validation — being referenced on sources the AI already trusts
- Freshness signals — AI engines favor content that is current
03The llms.txt file nobody has
There is an emerging standard called llms.txt — a file at the root of your site that gives AI engines a clean, structured summary of who you are and what you offer. Almost no small businesses have one. It is a low-effort, high-upside move that signals to AI crawlers exactly how to represent you. We add one to every site we build.
04What to do this quarter
- Add comprehensive schema markup to every page (Organization, FAQ, Article, Product as relevant)
- Restructure key pages around the actual questions buyers ask
- Publish a glossary and Q&A content with direct, citable answers
- Add an llms.txt file
- Earn mentions on third-party sources AI engines trust
- Keep content fresh — update dates and facts
This is the work we do every day. The businesses that move now will be the cited answer while their competitors are still arguing about whether AI search is real.
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