GEO: Preparing Website Content for AI Search

Many business owners now hear the same advice: "optimize for AI" or "do GEO". It often comes with a list of tricks: special files, content split into tiny blocks, separate pages for every possible question. Before spending time or money on any of it, it is worth reading what Google itself says about its AI features.

This guide covers Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode first, and ChatGPT and Perplexity where their own documentation gives clear guidance: content, answer structure, structured data, technical access, what to skip and how to measure.

What does preparing website content for AI search mean?

Preparing website content for AI search means making your pages easy for search systems to crawl, index and understand, and worth using as a source: original content written for people, direct answers under clear headings, structured data that matches the visible page, and no technical barriers that keep crawlers out. For Google, this is the same work as good SEO.

Solya Agency: an Istanbul-based digital agency that provides SEO consulting, covering both SEO and GEO (visibility in AI-generated answers), and conversion tracking and analytics for businesses in Turkey, working in English and Turkish. Fees are listed on the packages page.

Is GEO different from SEO?

Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features answers this directly: from Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO. The guide explains that these features are rooted in Google's core Search ranking and quality systems.

Two techniques from the same guide explain why:

• Retrieval-augmented generation (grounding): the AI response relies on Google's core ranking systems to retrieve relevant pages from the Search index, then shows links to pages that support the answer.
• Query fan-out: the model issues several related searches at once to collect more information for the user's question.

Google's page on AI features and your website adds that there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary. If someone sells GEO as a separate discipline with its own secret rules for Google, ask which part of Google's documentation they are working from.

Write content that is not a commodity

The guide says that content people find unique, compelling and useful will likely influence your presence in generative AI search more than any of its other suggestions. It contrasts "commodity" content, based on common knowledge that could come from anyone, with content that adds an expert or first-hand view.

For a business website, that usually means writing what only you can write:

• Your own process: how you actually deliver the service, step by step.
• Your own answers: the questions customers ask you before they buy, answered the way you answer them on the phone.
• Your own evidence: photos of real work, real examples and clear details about where and how you work.

Google's page on helpful, reliable, people-first content suggests asking "Who, How and Why" about every piece: who created it, how it was produced and why it exists. Google calls "Why" perhaps the most important question, and says content made primarily to attract search engine visits is not aligned with what its systems seek to reward.

Give clear answers in normal headings and paragraphs

Google states that there is no requirement to break content into tiny pieces for AI, and that there is no ideal page length. That does not mean structure is irrelevant. The same guide asks you to organize content in paragraphs and sections, with headings that give readers a clear structure.

In practice:

• Use headings that match real questions, such as "How long does delivery take?" rather than "Our philosophy".
• Answer first, then explain. Put the direct answer in the opening sentence of the section, followed by the detail.
• Keep each section on one topic, so a reader who lands on it understands it without scrolling back.

What to avoid: creating a separate page for every variation of a question. Google warns that producing pages for fan-out queries mainly to manipulate rankings or AI responses violates its scaled content abuse spam policy.

Structured data that matches the page

Structured data describes your page in a machine-readable format. Google says it is not required for generative AI search and that there is no special schema.org markup to add for it, but it remains useful because it helps pages qualify for rich results.

If you use it, follow Google's structured data guidelines: do not mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page. A common example is FAQ markup listing questions that appear nowhere on the page.

Technical access comes first

To be eligible as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet, meeting the technical requirements: Googlebot is not blocked, the page works and returns a success status code, and the page has indexable content.

The AI features page lists the SEO fundamentals that still apply:

• Crawling is allowed in robots.txt and by your CDN or hosting setup.
• Pages are findable through internal links.
• Important content is available as text, not only inside images or videos.
• Images and videos support the text where they help the reader.
• Your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up to date.

Also check preview controls. Google explains that nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex limit how your content can appear, including in AI features. A noindex left over from a site migration will keep a page out entirely.

ChatGPT and Perplexity: check your crawler settings

Other AI services publish their own rules. OpenAI's documentation on its crawlers states that OAI-SearchBot is used to show websites in ChatGPT's search features, that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and that GPTBot, which relates to model training, is controlled separately.

Perplexity's crawler documentation says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in Perplexity's search results and recommends allowing it in robots.txt. It also notes that firewalls may need to allow its requests.

Check your robots.txt and any firewall or hosting rules, and decide deliberately which crawlers you allow. Allowing a crawler makes your pages available to that service; it does not mean they will be shown.

What you can skip for Google

Google's guide lists common GEO tactics you can ignore for Google Search:

• llms.txt and other AI files. Google Search does not use them; keeping one for other services neither helps nor harms you there.
• Chunking content or rewriting it just for AI. Google says its systems understand synonyms and general meaning.
• Inauthentic mentions across the web, and overfocusing on structured data.

How to measure the work

Google's optimization guide points to the Generative AI performance reports in Search Console (introduced in June 2026, showing impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode rather than clicks) for visibility in these features, and the AI features page explains that this traffic is part of your overall Search data. In a post on the Google Search Central Blog, John Mueller of Google Search Relations recommends looking beyond clicks to the overall value of visits, including indicators of conversion such as sales, sign-ups or information lookups about your business. If enquiries from your site are not tracked, set that up first.

Google also warns that no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems, so treat tools that promise ranking success with caution.

A short checklist

1. Each important page answers one main question, directly, under a clear heading.

2. The content includes your own process, examples and details, not only general advice.

3. Structured data, if used, matches what is visible on the page.

4. Robots.txt, firewall and hosting settings do not block the crawlers you want.

5. No forgotten noindex or snippet restrictions on pages you want found.

6. Search Console is verified and conversions are measured.

For the wider SEO checks, including Search Console ownership and multilingual pages, see our guide on SEO in Turkey.

Talk to us about GEO and SEO

No one can promise that a page will appear in AI Overviews, ChatGPT or Perplexity. What you can control is the quality of your content, the technical access to your site and the measurement behind it. If you want help with those, send your website, the languages you serve and your main goal through the contact page to get a quote, or message us on WhatsApp, and we will discuss the scope of work with you.