SEO is not dead — Meet GEO: How to get found by AI
Meet GEO: the new art of getting your content cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and every AI search engine.
February 26, 2026
~4 min read
A few years ago, the goal was simple: rank on page one of Google. Today, millions of people skip the results page entirely and ask to an AI. They type a question into ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini, and they trust the answer they get back.
If your content isn’t being cited by those AI tools, you’re invisible to a fast-growing chunk of the internet. That’s the uncomfortable truth behind a concept called GEO : Generative Engine Optimization.
The good news? SEO isn’t dead. It evolved. And the brands that understand this shift early will have a serious competitive advantage.
What Is GEO, exactly?
GEO is the practice of optimizing your content so that AI-powered search engines and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Bing Copilot choose to reference, quote, or recommend your content in their answers.
Traditional SEO was about signals: keywords, backlinks, page speed. GEO is about trustworthiness and retrievability. AI tools don’t just rank pages, they read, synthesize, and decide which sources deserve to be cited.
— Martech.org
The key difference: AI systems don’t just match keywords to queries. They fan out across multiple sources, synthesize information, and present a single answer. Your content needs to be the best, clearest, most credible source on a topic, not just the one with the most backlinks.
The 7 Best Practices for Getting Cited by AI
1. Write to answer questions, not Just rank for Keywords
AI search is driven by conversational, intent-rich queries — full questions like “What’s the best CRM for a 10-person startup?” rather than “best CRM small business.” According to SEO expert Aleyda Solis, your content strategy needs to map to these longer, task-oriented prompts across the entire customer journey.
Practically, this means structuring your content around clear questions and direct answers. FAQ sections, “How to” guides, and comparison pages tend to perform well because they match how people actually ask AI tools for help.
2. Be Genuinely Authoritative (E-E-A-T Still Matters)
Google’s E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) isn’t just for Google anymore. LLMs are trained to favor sources that show real expertise. That means:
- Clear author bylines with credentials or bios
- Original data, research, or first-hand perspective
- Citations to reputable external sources
- A consistent, well-established online presence
As OMR explains, AI models prioritize sources that demonstrate genuine knowledge — not just well-formatted keyword stuffing. Write like a real expert, not a content farm.
3. Structure Content for “Chunk Retrieval”
Here’s a detail most people miss: AI tools don’t always read your full article. They retrieve chunks ( paragraphs or sections) that directly answer a specific part of a query. If your content isn’t organized into clearly bounded, self-contained ideas, it’s harder for AI to extract and cite.
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4. Be crawlable and indexable by AI Bots
Microsoft’s advertising team highlights a basic but often overlooked point: if AI crawlers can’t access your content, you can’t be cited. Check that your robots.txt file doesn’t block major AI crawlers (like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or Bingbot), and make sure your content loads cleanly : no login walls, no heavy JavaScript blocking key text.
5. Build citations and mentions across the web
LLMs learn from the web. The more your brand, name, or content is referenced by credible third parties (news sites, industry blogs, forums like Reddit) the more likely AI systems are to treat you as a trustworthy source. This isn’t traditional link-building; it’s reputation-building.
Aim to get mentioned in contexts where people discuss your topic. Guest posts on authoritative sites, being quoted in industry news, and participation in niche communities all contribute to what’s sometimes called your “AI footprint.”
6. Use simple, direct Language
AI tools favor content that is clear and easy to parse. Dense jargon, overly complex sentences, and vague marketing copy don’t extract well into AI answers. Write the way a knowledgeable friend would explain something ; plain, direct, and specific.
7. Monitor Your AI Visibility (New Metrics for a New Era)
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Aleyda Solis’s GEO checklist recommends tracking how often your brand is mentioned, cited, or linked in AI-generated answers. You can use tools like Profound, Peec AI, or Similarweb to see what prompts are driving AI traffic to your site and how you compare to competitors.
The big picture: Traditional SEO + GEO = Your 2026 strategy
The temptation is to see GEO as replacing SEO. It doesn’t. Billions of searches still happen on Google every day, and ranking well there still matters enormously. But the smartest content strategies in 2026 optimize for both, building content that ranks in traditional search and earns citations in AI answers.
The encouraging news: most of what makes content good for GEO (genuine expertise, clear structure, direct answers, credible sourcing) also makes it better for traditional SEO. The fundamentals haven’t changed. The bar has just been raised.
The brands that treat this moment like the early days of SEO — as an opportunity, not a threat — are the ones who will own the next decade of search visibility.
Your GEO quick-start checklist
- Structure every piece of content around specific questions your audience asks AI tools
- Include clear author info and demonstrate real expertise
- Use descriptive headers so AI can extract sections easily
- Check that AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot) are not blocked in robots.txt
- Build third-party mentions and citations on credible sites
- Write in plain, direct language — clarity beats cleverness
- Track your AI visibility with dedicated tools and adjust regularly
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