I work on AEO and GEO every day, so let me be honest with you: for Google, they are SEO. Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features says it plainly. AI Overviews and AI Mode run on the same core ranking and quality systems as classic search, so any AEO or GEO advice should be judged like any other SEO advice.
Five myths, and what Google says
- llms.txt and other "AI files": Google says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or Markdown to appear in Search, and that creating them will neither harm nor help.
- Chunking content into small pieces: not needed. Google understands several topics on one page and shows the relevant part. There is no ideal length.
- Rewriting for AI: not needed. AI systems understand synonyms and general meaning, so you do not have to cover every long-tail variant.
- Buying mentions: inauthentic mentions are not as effective as authentic, high-quality content, and spam systems are built to block manipulation.
- Special AI schema: structured data is not required for generative AI search, and there is no special markup to add. Keep it for rich results.
I keep an llms.txt on my own site because some assistants may read it. For Google it neither helps nor harms, and how ChatGPT or Perplexity choose sources is not officially documented. I would never sell it to you as a ranking trick.
What Bing says about GEO
Bing went a step further: its Webmaster Guidelines, updated on February 27, 2026, name Generative Engine Optimization as a category and say it guarantees citations no more than SEO guarantees rankings. Copilot uses the same crawl and index as Bing search. Bing also expanded its abuse definitions to cover artificially engineered language designed to trigger AI citations, and prompt injection aimed at its models.
What actually works
- Be eligible: indexed, shown with a snippet, and included in Search generative AI features in Search Console.
- Publish non-commodity content: first-hand experience, real cases, your own data.
- Organize pages for humans: clear headings, key information early, one topic per URL.
- Keep your business facts consistent everywhere: name, services, location, contact.
- Measure in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, not in tools that claim "internal" Google metrics.
How AI features choose their sources
Google calls it grounding, or retrieval-augmented generation. AI Overviews and AI Mode use the core ranking systems to retrieve relevant, up-to-date pages from the index, the model reviews them and writes an answer with prominent links to the pages that support it. The consequence is simple: to be cited, you first have to be retrievable. Indexed, eligible for a snippet, and good enough to rank for the question or for one of its fan-out queries.
The controls you really have
- nosnippet: no text snippet in Search, and the page is not used as direct input for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- data-nosnippet: the same, but only for one fragment of the page.
- max-snippet: limits how much text can be used, in snippets and as AI input.
- The Search Console inclusion control: takes the whole site out of AI features without changing classic rankings.
- Google-Extended in robots.txt: changes nothing in Search; it limits training and grounding in other Google products such as Gemini.
- noindex: takes the page out of Google completely. There is no separate AI Overviews crawler to block.
ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity
Other assistants split their crawlers by job. OAI-SearchBot surfaces sites in ChatGPT search, Claude-SearchBot improves Claude's search results and PerplexityBot links sites in Perplexity, while GPTBot and ClaudeBot collect content that may be used for training. That means you can allow citing and decide about training separately. On my site I allow all of them, because being found and cited is the goal. That's a business decision, and it should be yours.
What Copilot needs from your pages
Bing has two directives worth knowing: noarchive stops your content from being used in Copilot answers and grounding, and nocache limits it to the URL, the title and the snippet. Avoid both on pages you want cited. Bing also says grounding favors one topic per URL, key information early, explicit facts that can be verified, consistent names for your business and fresh content, which you can signal with IndexNow.
Red flags in an AEO or GEO proposal
- "We will create a page for every question people ask the AI." That is scaled content abuse.
- "We will add AI schema to your site." Google says there is no special schema for AI.
- "We track your share of voice in Google AI with internal data." No third-party tool has that data.
- "We will publish fifty AI articles a month for you." Nobody can review that properly.
When I evaluate a tactic, I answer in three lines: what Google or Bing says about it, with the document and date; whether it touches a spam policy; and what to do instead. It keeps the conversation honest and saves a lot of money.
My own setup, as an example
On this site I apply exactly what I recommend. The FAQ page answers real questions business owners ask me, and its structured data matches the visible text word for word. That helps machines understand the page, even though FAQ rich results are no longer part of Google's feature gallery. My name, roles and facts are the same on every page and profile. There is an llms.txt for the assistants that may read it, and robots.txt lets the search crawlers of ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity in. Then I measure in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. None of it is magic. It's clarity, consistency and content that comes from real work.
Google even has a page on evaluating third-party SEO advice, and it warns against tools that promise ranking success or claim internal metrics, because no third-party tool has access to Google's ranking or AI systems. If someone promises you AI citations, ask them for the source. Then let's talk about building the real thing.
Sources
- Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search · Google Search Central, updated July 10, 2026
- Bing Webmaster Guidelines · Bing, updated February 27, 2026
- Evaluating third-party SEO advice and tools · Google Search Central, updated June 5, 2026
- AI features and your website · Google Search Central, updated December 10, 2025
How I made this article: I researched and drafted it with the help of Claude, then checked every fact myself against the official documentation listed in the sources.