AI SEO: how to get your brand recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode (2026)

AI SEO is the work of making your brand easy for AI assistants — ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Copilot — to find, trust and cite when someone asks for a recommendation. In practice it is classic SEO plus a few extra checks: let AI crawlers read your site, publish pages that state clear, specific facts, and make sure the rest of the web says the same things about your business. Google’s own guidance puts it plainly: optimizing for generative AI search “is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”

What is AI SEO (generative engine optimization)?

AI SEO, generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) are different names for the same goal: being the source an AI answer quotes or the brand it names. The difference from classic SEO is the result you aim for. Instead of a blue link in position one, you want a mention or a citation inside a written answer.

The foundations don’t change. AI assistants mostly answer by retrieving pages from a search index and summarising them, so a site that isn’t crawled, indexed and trusted won’t be cited. What changes is the emphasis: crawler access for more bots than just Googlebot, facts that can be lifted into an answer, and a consistent brand identity across the web.

How AI assistants choose which sources to cite

Each assistant works a little differently, and only some of them document how. Here is what the companies themselves say.

Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google says its generative AI features are “rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems.” They use retrieval-augmented generation (grounding): Google’s ranking systems fetch relevant pages from the Search index, and the model writes an answer with links to those pages. They also use query fan-out — the model runs several related searches at once to cover sub-topics of the question, then cites the best page for each part. Our guide to Google AI Mode in Thailand shows what that looks like for Thai searches.

To be eligible, a page must be indexed and able to show with a snippet, and the site must be included in the Search generative AI features setting in Search Console. Google says there are no extra technical requirements beyond that.

ChatGPT search

OpenAI runs three relevant bots. OAI-SearchBot builds the index for ChatGPT’s search features; OpenAI states that sites that block it “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.” ChatGPT-User fetches a page when a user asks ChatGPT to visit it. GPTBot collects content that may be used to train models — blocking it doesn’t affect search.

OpenAI also says ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers; Microsoft Bing has been reported as one of them. Since Bing also powers Microsoft Copilot, verifying your site in Bing Webmaster Tools is a cheap safeguard.

Gemini app

Gemini can ground answers in the Google Search index. Note one detail in Google’s crawler docs: the Google-Extended token controls both training of future Gemini models and grounding in the Gemini app. Blocking it doesn’t affect Google Search rankings, but it can keep your content out of Gemini app answers.

The crawlers that matter

Step 1: Let search and answer bots in

The most common reason a good site never appears in AI answers is that the bots can’t read it. Check three places:

1. robots.txt. Make sure nothing blocks the search and answer crawlers above. A blanket Disallow for “AI bots” copied from a template often blocks OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot along with the training bots.
2. Cloudflare (or another firewall/CDN). Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control lets you allow or block individual AI crawlers, and its AI bot settings and defaults have changed several times through 2025 and 2026. Open the dashboard and check that search and assistant crawlers aren’t blocked — distinguish them from training bots, which you may block separately.
3. Search Console. Confirm the site isn’t opted out of Search generative AI features.

Also keep prices, services, locations and contact details in the HTML itself, not only in images or content loaded by scripts. Google can process JavaScript, but you can’t count on every AI crawler doing the same.

Step 2: Write answer-first pages with facts AI can lift

AI answers quote passages that settle a question clearly. Make that easy:

• Answer first. Open each page and each section with a direct 1–2 sentence answer, then go deeper.
• Be specific. Prices or price ranges, steps, timelines, locations, opening hours, plan names. Vague marketing copy gives an AI nothing to quote.
• Use tables and lists for comparisons and options — “which one should I choose” is exactly what people ask AI.
• Add what only you know. Google’s guide calls it “non-commodity content”: first-hand experience, your own data, local detail. A summary of what everyone else says gives an AI no reason to pick you.
• Write in Thai and English. Thai customers ask in Thai. A native Thai page answers a Thai question better than a translated English one.
• Keep it fresh. Update facts when they change and show the updated date.

Don’t build a separate page for every fan-out query. Google says doing so mainly to manipulate AI responses violates its scaled content abuse policy.

Step 3: Make your brand a clear, consistent entity

When someone asks “which agency…” or “which clinic…”, an AI assistant draws on what the whole web says about you, not just your homepage. Google’s guide notes that AI features can show “what’s being said about products and services across the web, including in blogs, videos, and forum discussions.”

• Organization schema with sameAs links to your official profiles. Google says structured data isn’t required for AI features, but it helps machines connect your site to your brand.
• Google Business Profile. Google says a Business Profile can help your services appear in AI responses. Keep categories, hours and services complete.
• Consistent name, address and phone (NAP) on your site, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Facebook, LINE OA profile and directories.
• Real mentions on trusted sites: industry directories, local press, partner sites, reviews. Google warns that seeking inauthentic mentions “isn’t as helpful as it might seem.”

Step 4: Show who stands behind the content

Experience and trust (E-E-A-T) matter as much in AI answers as in classic results. Use named authors with real roles, an About page that says who you are and where you work, and contact details that match your business profiles.

How to measure AI SEO results

Be wary of tools that claim to know Google’s internal AI metrics. Google says no third-party tool has access to its ranking or AI systems.

What not to do

• Don’t treat llms.txt as a ranking lever. Google says Search ignores llms.txt and similar “AI text files”; having one neither helps nor hurts. It’s optional.
• Don’t chunk or rewrite content “for AI”. Google says there’s no requirement to break content into tiny pieces or write in a special style.
• No hidden text, prompt tricks or fake reviews. These are spam and put the whole site at risk.
• Don’t buy mentions or listicle placements that pretend to be independent.

AI SEO checklist

If you’d rather have someone run this for you, our AI search & SEO service starts with exactly these checks for Google, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Gemini.