/seo-geo

name: seo-geo
description: >
  Optimize content for AI Overviews (formerly SGE), ChatGPT web search,
  Perplexity, and other AI-powered search experiences. Generative Engine
  Optimization (GEO) analysis including brand mention signals, AI crawler
  accessibility, llms.txt compliance, passage-level citability scoring, and
  platform-specific optimization. Use when user says "AI Overviews", "SGE",
  "GEO", "AI search", "LLM optimization", "Perplexity", "AI citations",
  "ChatGPT search", or "AI visibility".
user-invocable: true
argument-hint: "[url]"
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: AgriciDaniel
  version: "2.3.1"
  category: seo

AI Search / GEO Optimization (May 2026)

Primary Source: Google's AI Optimization Guide

Google's official position, published under Search Central docs:

> "Optimizing for generative AI search is **still SEO** from Google's > perspective. AEO and GEO are rebranded labels for the same work."

Read `references/google-ai-optimization-guide.md` for the full synthesis, myth-busting list (`llms.txt`, chunking, AI-rephrasing, mention-farming, all rejected by Google as ineffective), and the Who/How/Why test for content quality.

Audits should frame GEO findings as **SEO fundamentals applied to AI-search surfaces**, not as a separate optimization discipline. When community recommendations contradict Google's primary source, defer to Google and note the contradiction in the report.

Key Statistics

| Metric | Value | Source | |--------|-------|--------| | AI Overviews reach | 2.5 billion+ monthly active users, reported from Google I/O 2026 keynote coverage; not confirmed on a Google-owned source; 200+ countries | Third-party I/O reporting | | AI Overviews query coverage | ~50% of queries (third-party measurement; varies by country) | Industry data | | AI Mode monthly users | 1B+, reported from Google I/O 2026 keynote coverage; not confirmed on a Google-owned source | Third-party I/O reporting | | AI Mode model | custom version of Gemini 2.5 | Google | | AI-referred sessions growth | 527% (Jan-May 2025) | SparkToro | | ChatGPT weekly active users | 900 million | OpenAI | | Perplexity monthly queries | 500+ million | Perplexity |

Critical Insight: Brand Mentions > Backlinks

**Brand mentions correlate 3x more strongly with AI visibility than backlinks.** (Ahrefs December 2025 study of 75,000 brands)

| Signal | Correlation with AI Citations | |--------|------------------------------| | YouTube mentions | ~0.737 (strongest) | | Reddit mentions | High | | Wikipedia presence | High | | LinkedIn presence | Moderate | | Domain Rating (backlinks) | ~0.266 (weak) |

**Only 11% of domains** are cited by both ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews for the same query, so platform-specific optimization is essential.

---

GEO Analysis Criteria (Updated)

1. Citability Score (25%)

**Optimal passage length: 134-167 words** for AI citation. And **~44% of AI citations come from the first 30% of a page** (SE Ranking study), front-load your most citable, self-contained answer rather than burying it below the fold.

**Strong signals:**

• Clear, quotable sentences with specific facts/statistics
• Self-contained answer blocks (can be extracted without context)
• Direct answer in first 40-60 words of section
• Claims attributed with specific sources
• Definitions following "X is..." or "X refers to..." patterns
• Unique data points not found elsewhere

**Weak signals:**

• Vague, general statements
• Opinion without evidence
• Buried conclusions
• No specific data points

2. Structural Readability (20%)

**92% of AI Overview citations come from top-10 ranking pages**, but 47% come from pages ranking below position 5, demonstrating different selection logic.

**Strong signals:**

• Clean H1->H2->H3 heading hierarchy
• Question-based headings (matches query patterns)
• Short paragraphs (2-4 sentences)
• Tables for comparative data
• Ordered/unordered lists for step-by-step or multi-item content
• FAQ sections with clear Q&A format

**Weak signals:**

• Wall of text with no structure
• Inconsistent heading hierarchy
• No lists or tables
• Information buried in paragraphs

3. Multi-Modal Content (15%)

Content with multi-modal elements sees **156% higher selection rates**.

**Check for:**

• Text + relevant images
• Video content (embedded or linked)
• Infographics and charts
• Interactive elements (calculators, tools)
• Structured data supporting media

4. Authority & Brand Signals (20%)

**Strong signals:**

• Author byline with credentials
• Publication date and last-updated date
• **Recency**, content under 3 months old is ~3x more likely to be cited in AI answers; pages left stale 6+ months lose citation eligibility (SE Ranking, 1.3M-citation study). A scheduled refresh program is one of the highest-leverage GEO plays.
• Citations to primary sources (studies, official docs, data)
• Organization credentials and affiliations
• Expert quotes with attribution
• Entity presence in Wikipedia, Wikidata
• Mentions on Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn

**Weak signals:**

• Anonymous authorship
• No dates
• No sources cited
• No brand presence across platforms

5. Technical Accessibility (20%)

**AI crawlers do NOT execute JavaScript.** Server-side rendering is critical.

**Check for:**

• Server-side rendering (SSR) vs client-only content
• AI crawler access in robots.txt
• llms.txt file presence and configuration
• RSL 1.0 licensing terms

---

AI Crawler Detection

Check `robots.txt` for these AI crawlers:

| Crawler | Owner | Purpose | Obeys robots.txt? | |---------|-------|---------|---| | GPTBot | OpenAI | **Model training only** (NOT ChatGPT Search) | yes | | OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | **ChatGPT Search citability** (the crawler that decides it) | yes | | ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | ChatGPT browsing (user-triggered) | no (user-triggered) | | ClaudeBot | Anthropic | **Model training only** (NOT Claude's search features) | yes | | Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | **Claude/Claude.ai