What Is AEO (and GEO), and How Do You Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT?

By Luis Barraza, CEO of G Media · Last reviewed September 2026

AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) are the work of getting your business named in answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity. You do it with pages that answer customer questions directly, consistent business details everywhere, reviews and mentions on other sites, and a website AI crawlers can read.

What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?

They overlap more than the acronyms suggest. AEO and GEO are mostly two names for the same goal.

	SEO	AEO	GEO
Goal	Rank in search results and earn the click	Be the source an answer is pulled from	Be included and recommended in AI-written answers
Where it shows	Google and Bing results, the map pack	Featured snippets, voice answers, AI Overviews	ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, AI Overviews
What it rewards	Relevant pages, links, a sound website	Direct answers in clean, quotable passages	Clear facts, outside mentions, reviews, consistency
How you measure it	Rankings, clicks, calls	Whether your text is the one quoted	Whether your business is named when you ask the tools

SEO is still the foundation. Google says the same SEO best practices apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no extra requirements or special tricks.

Where do ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity get their answers?

These tools read the open web through search indexes and their own crawlers, then summarize what they find and cite a few sources. A few practical facts follow from that:

Google AI Overviews draw on Google's own index, so a page that cannot rank or be indexed is unlikely to be cited.
ChatGPT search uses a crawler OpenAI calls OAI-SearchBot. If your robots.txt or your hosting firewall blocks it, ChatGPT cannot read your site for search answers.
Bing supports IndexNow, a free way to tell search engines the moment you publish or change a page.
Other websites matter. In our own weekly checks of Las Vegas questions in September 2026, most of the sources the AI tools cited were directories, review sites, booking marketplaces and "best of" articles, not the businesses' own homepages.

What does an AI-ready page look like?

AI tools pull passages, not whole pages. A page is easier to quote when each section can stand on its own.

The answer first. Open with a direct answer of 40 to 60 words, then the detail.
Headings phrased as questions, in the words customers actually use.
Specific facts: your address, hours, what is included, turnaround and, when you are ready to publish them, prices.
Tables for comparisons, and sources for any outside figures.
An FAQ block with structured data. Since 2023 Google shows FAQ rich results mainly for well-known government and health sites, so do not expect the dropdowns in search. The markup still describes your questions and answers in a format machines can read.
An llms.txt file, a plain summary of your business and key pages written for AI tools. It is a young, proposed standard, so treat it as a helpful extra rather than a switch.

Presentation matters. A 2024 study from researchers at Princeton and partner institutions found that changes like citing sources, adding quotations and adding statistics raised a source's visibility in AI-generated answers by up to 40% in their tests.

What work happens off your website?

Google Business Profile. Complete categories, services, hours, photos and regular posts.
Reviews. A steady flow of real, specific Google reviews. Google lists review count and rating among the signals for local prominence.
Consistent details. The same name, address, phone and hours on your site, Google, Bing Places, Yelp, Apple and industry directories.
Mentions. Get listed in credible local directories and "best of" roundups, appear on podcasts and YouTube, and answer questions in community threads without spamming.

How long does it take, and how do you measure it?

No one can promise a mention by a certain date, because none of these tools publish their rules. Technical fixes and new pages can be picked up within days to weeks; outside mentions and reviews build over months. Measure it directly: write down ten questions your customers ask, ask them in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google on a schedule, and log whether your business is named, whether your site is cited, and who is named instead. Repeat monthly.

A checklist you can start this month

Check that your robots.txt and hosting firewall allow search crawlers, including OAI-SearchBot and Bingbot.
Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and set up IndexNow.
Match your name, address, phone and hours everywhere they appear.
Write one answer page for each of your top five customer questions.
Add Organization or LocalBusiness, Article and FAQ structured data.
Publish an llms.txt file that lists your services and key pages.
Ask every happy customer this month for a Google review.
Run your ten test questions and save the results as your baseline.

How G Media does it

We do this for our own site first. G Media runs a fixed set of Las Vegas buyer questions through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google every week and logs who gets named. Our honest comparison of the best podcast studios in Las Vegas has been cited in Google's AI Overview for that question. For clients, we write answer pages, add structured data and llms.txt, set up Bing and IndexNow, tighten Google Business Profile and reviews, and back the pages with real video from your business. See AI search optimization in Las Vegas and SEO in Las Vegas.

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Frequently asked questions

What is AEO?

AEO, or answer engine optimization, is structuring your website and business information so AI assistants and search features can pull a direct answer from it and name your business as the source.

Is GEO the same as AEO?

Nearly. GEO, generative engine optimization, focuses on being included and recommended in answers written by generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. In practice the work is the same: clear answer pages, consistent business details, reviews and outside mentions.

Can you pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

Not in the organic answers. Be wary of anyone who guarantees placement. What you can do is make your business easy to find, read and verify, and track whether it shows up over time.

Does SEO still matter if people use ChatGPT?

Yes. Google says the same SEO best practices apply to its AI features, and AI tools lean on search indexes to find sources. Good SEO is the foundation that AEO builds on.

How do I check whether ChatGPT recommends my business?

Write down ten questions your customers ask, such as "best med spa in Summerlin," and ask them in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google. Note whether you are named, whether your site is cited and who appears instead. Repeat each month with the same questions.

Does an llms.txt file help?

It can help AI tools understand your business quickly, and it is cheap to add. It is a proposed standard rather than a requirement, so pair it with the basics: crawlable pages, structured data, reviews and consistent details.

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About G Media. G Media (Galindo Media LLC) is a Las Vegas marketing agency, content and video first, at 4160 S Durango Dr, Unit 140, Las Vegas, NV 89147, with four podcast and content sets under one roof. Open Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. (702) 499-5111 · [email protected]. Written by Luis Barraza, CEO and co-founder.