Every few months a new acronym promises visibility in AI answers: GEO, AEO, LLMO. Search now often gives people an answer before it gives them links, and that’s a real change. But the fundamentals of being found haven’t been replaced. They’ve become less forgiving.
What Google actually says
Google’s guidance on generative AI features in Search is clear: established SEO practices still apply, and there’s no special markup or file you need in order to be included. Crawlable pages, useful content and clear structure matter, and no format guarantees a citation. Other AI tools discover and present information differently, so be wary of anyone selling one platform’s quirks as universal rules.
Be specific enough to quote
AI answers draw on pages that state things plainly. A product page that names the exact model, the real specifications and the actual offer is easier to cite than a page of brand adjectives. And a claim that’s true of one product shouldn’t be written as if it covers the whole range. That’s how wrong answers get repeated at scale.
Answer real buying questions
The questions people now type into AI tools are the ones they used to ask a salesperson: which one suits my situation, what does it cost to run, what’s the difference between these two? Pages that answer those questions well serve both the person and the machine reading on their behalf.
It’s still SEO, done properly
At AdvanceQuip, organic traffic grew 60% by combining content with technical SEO: useful pages on a site search engines could crawl and understand. That combination is still the foundation. AI search simply raises the bar on the content half. Read the case study.
Report it honestly
A screenshot of your brand in an AI answer shows what appeared for one query, once. It isn’t consistent visibility and it isn’t revenue. Track search performance, referral traffic from AI tools and inquiries separately, and describe each for what it is.