Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your business and pages easy for AI answer engines — ChatGPT search, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot — to find, trust, and cite. The term comes from a 2023 research paper presented at KDD 2024. GEO builds on SEO: Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet to be linked in AI Overviews, and that no special markup is required. MIS Services provides GEO on published monthly plans from $499, month-to-month, with no guaranteed citations — only a measured baseline and monthly reporting.
Why Does Generative Engine Optimization Matter Now?
More people now get an answer from AI instead of a list of links. The Pew Research Center tracked the browsing of 900 U.S. adults in March 2025 and found they clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when Google showed an AI summary, compared with 15% of visits when it did not. They clicked a link inside the AI summary itself in just 1% of visits. When fewer people click, being named inside the answer matters more — and so does being the brand people remember.
That does not make SEO obsolete. Google states that a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet to appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that there are no additional requirements or special optimizations. GEO sits on top of that foundation and extends it to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot, which retrieve and cite sources in their own ways.
We see the shift on our own site. Google Search Console's Generative AI Features report shows misservices.us earned 851 impressions in Google's AI features between May 28 and August 25, 2026 — 142 in the first 30 days and 416 in the last 30, about 2.9 times as many. Impressions are not clicks and the numbers are small, but they show what the report measures and how we track it for clients.
GEO, AEO, AI SEO and SEO: What Is the Difference?
These terms overlap, and agencies define them differently. This is how we use them, so you can compare like with like when you evaluate any vendor.
| Term | What it means | What it optimizes for | How we measure it |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | Earning visibility in traditional search results | Rankings, clicks, and conversions from Google and Bing | Rank tracking and Search Console clicks |
| AEO (answer engine optimization) | Giving concise, extractable answers to questions | Featured snippets, voice answers, and AI answer boxes | Snippet ownership and question coverage |
| GEO (generative engine optimization) | Being retrieved, trusted, and cited in AI-generated answers | Mentions and citations across ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude | Citation rate across a fixed prompt set; AI-feature impressions |
| AI SEO | An informal umbrella term that some vendors also use for SEO done with AI writing tools | Varies by vendor — ask what they mean | Ask for the definition in writing |
Our Generative Engine Optimization Services
Six workstreams that make your business easier for AI engines to find, understand, and cite — and give you a measured baseline so you can see what is working.
AI Visibility Audit
We write a set of real buyer questions for your market and run them across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, and Claude. For each answer we record whether your business is mentioned or cited, which competitors and sources are, and which of your pages is used. That baseline is what every later change is measured against.
Crawler Access & Technical Foundation
AI engines can only cite what they can reach. We review robots.txt for OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, and Googlebot, confirm your key pages are indexed and snippet-eligible, check that content renders without JavaScript, and fix speed and crawl issues. Allowing a bot for search does not mean allowing it for training — each can be set separately.
Answer-First Content
We rewrite key pages so the answer comes first: a plain-language definition, direct answers under question headings, sourced statistics, named quotations, and citations to primary sources. In the original GEO research, adding quotations, statistics, and cited sources gave the largest visibility gains, while keyword stuffing did worse than the baseline.
Entity & Structured Data
We deploy Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQPage markup that matches your visible text, and make your name, address, services, and profiles consistent everywhere. Google says no special schema is needed to appear in AI Overviews, so we treat markup as clarity and rich-result eligibility, not as a guaranteed lever.
Citations & Third-Party Presence
AI answers draw on more than your own site. We strengthen the places engines and buyers look: your Google Business Profile, reviews, industry directories, and earned mentions in publications your buyers read.
Monitoring & Reporting
Every month we re-run the prompt set, track mentions and citations, and review Search Console's Generative AI Features report and Bing Webmaster Tools alongside rankings and leads. You get a plain-language report on what moved and what we will change next.
What Do the Platforms Say About Getting Cited?
Most GEO advice online is opinion. This section separates what the platforms and the research actually document from what is still unproven.
Documented by the platforms
- Google: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” Pages must be indexed and snippet-eligible, and Google says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files, or special schema.org markup. AI features may use “query fan-out,” issuing several related searches, which can surface a wider set of links.
- OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot is used to surface sites in ChatGPT search, and OpenAI recommends allowing it in robots.txt. GPTBot is separate and relates to model training. ChatGPT-User acts on a user's request, and robots.txt rules may not apply. OpenAI notes robots.txt changes can take about 24 hours to take effect.
- Perplexity: PerplexityBot surfaces and links sites in Perplexity results and is not used for training foundation models; allow it in robots.txt to appear. Perplexity-User acts on user requests and generally ignores robots.txt.
- Anthropic: ClaudeBot collects content that may contribute to training, Claude-User supports user questions, and Claude-SearchBot improves search result quality. Anthropic says its bots honor robots.txt.
- Google-Extended: controls whether content is used for Gemini training and grounding, and Google states it does not affect inclusion in Google Search or act as a ranking signal.
What the research found
The paper that named the field, “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024), reports that GEO methods can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses. Of nine methods tested, the strongest were adding quotations, adding statistics, and citing sources; keyword stuffing scored below the baseline. These were tests on a research benchmark, so results may differ by engine, topic, and query.
What is still unproven
- llms.txt: a proposal published in September 2024 that thousands of sites now publish, including ours. Google states AI text files are not needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and we treat llms.txt as optional housekeeping, not a lever.
- Any guarantee of citation: no engine publishes a ranking formula, and answers change by prompt, location, and over time. We will never promise you a specific citation.
What Do We Measure On Our Own Site?
We run the same measurements for ourselves that we run for clients. The numbers are small and we publish them with sources and dates so you can judge them.
| Measure | Result | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions in Google AI features, 90 days | 851 (85% from the U.S.) | Google Search Console, Generative AI Features report, May 28 – Aug 25, 2026 |
| Trend within those 90 days | 142 impressions in the first 30 days; 416 in the last 30 | Google Search Console, same report |
| Share from our statistics pages | 237 impressions across 5 pages — 27% of the page-level total | Google Search Console, same report |
| Google AI Overview position tracked | Position 1 in an AI Overview for 4 tracked queries: nationwide seo, sem services long island, dental seo long island, mis agency | Semrush position tracking, October 2026 |
| AI crawler access | robots.txt explicitly allows OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, and Bingbot | misservices.us/robots.txt |
| Client result: Barrier Island Psychiatry (Outer Banks, NC) | 35+ qualified patient calls per month from SEO and AI search optimization, with no paid advertising (client-reported) | MIS Services case study |
Two cautions. Impressions in AI features are not clicks — the report has no click column — and the Semrush queries have small search volumes. We show them because they are real, and because this is the reporting you would receive.
Our GEO Process, Audit to Monthly Reporting
Baseline Audit (Weeks 1–2)
Prompt set, citation baseline across four AI engines, technical and content review, and a comparison with the competitors AI engines name instead of you.
Foundation Fixes (Weeks 3–6)
Crawler access, indexability, structured data, and answer-first rewrites of your highest-value pages.
Content & Citations (Weeks 7–12)
New answer content with sourced statistics, directory and review work, and earned mentions where your buyers read.
Measure & Iterate (Monthly)
Monthly re-test of the prompt set, a plain-language report, and a prioritized list of next actions.
Want the do-it-yourself version first? Read our AI Overview playbook →
Generative Engine Optimization by Industry
AI answers for health and professional services are held to a higher bar for trust, and local searches behave differently from national ones. We apply GEO inside the vertical playbooks we already run:
- Dental practices — dental SEO
- Therapy, psychiatry, and mental health practices — mental health marketing
- Hospitals, urgent care, and multi-location healthcare — healthcare SEO services
- Commercial cleaning and janitorial companies — marketing for commercial cleaning companies
- Local service businesses — local SEO services and nationwide SEO
- Mobile kids' party and entertainment businesses — kids' party bus marketing statistics
GEO Services Plans
Starter
Single-location or single-service businesses
- ✓ AI visibility audit with buyer-question prompt set
- ✓ Crawler access + robots.txt review
- ✓ Schema + FAQ restructuring for up to 5 key pages
- ✓ Monthly AI citation report
- ✓ Email support
Growth
Businesses competing on many questions
- ✓ Everything in Starter
- ✓ Answer-first content updates for up to 10 pages
- ✓ Citation + directory building
- ✓ Competitor citation tracking
- ✓ Monthly strategy call
Scale
Multi-location or multi-brand organizations
- ✓ Everything in Growth
- ✓ Multi-location or multi-brand rollout
- ✓ Digital PR + earned mentions
- ✓ Bi-weekly reporting
- ✓ Dedicated strategist
Month-to-month, no long-term contract. No citation is guaranteed.
Do It Yourself or Have Us Do It?
| Factor | DIY with our free playbook | MIS Services GEO plan |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Owners with time who want to start now | Businesses that want it implemented and measured |
| Cost | Your time | $499, $999, or $1,999 per month |
| Baseline | Test a handful of prompts yourself | A structured prompt set across four AI engines |
| Implementation | You do the work | We do the work; you approve |
| Reporting | Manual spot checks | Monthly written report |
| Contract | Not applicable | Month-to-month |
For the underlying search fundamentals, see our SEO services and local SEO services. Our own site is hand-coded in Next.js and server-rendered, which keeps pages fast and readable by crawlers; see website design and development.
Where the GEO Claims Come From
Every platform and research claim on this page comes from a primary source we read directly. Our own numbers come from Google Search Console and Semrush exports dated as shown above.
- Google Search Central — AI features and your website. developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
- Google — common crawlers (Google-Extended). developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/google-common-crawlers
- GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024). arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735
- OpenAI — crawlers and robots.txt. developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots
- Perplexity — crawlers. docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots
- Anthropic — web crawling and blocking. support.claude.com (Anthropic crawler article)
- Pew Research Center — Google users and AI summaries (July 2025). pewresearch.org
- The /llms.txt proposal (Jeremy Howard). llmstxt.org
Frequently Asked Questions
See What AI Says About Your Business Today
Free 30-minute GEO audit. We run a starter set of buyer questions across ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity, and Claude, show you where you are and are not cited, and list the top fixes in priority order. No obligation, no long-term contract.
12 W Sunrise HWY, Lindenhurst, NY 11757 · Mon–Fri 9 AM – 6 PM ET
Ready to Get Cited by AI?
Tell us about your business and we will run a starter AI-visibility check and send you the results with recommended next steps.