In this article
- What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
- How does ChatGPT choose the sites it suggests?
- How do you appear in Gemini and Google's AI Overviews?
- What about Claude, Perplexity and Copilot?
- What raises the chance that AI will quote you?
- Practical steps to appear in ChatGPT, Gemini and others
- How do these visits turn into sales?
- The Origami view
- The bottom line
For your website to appear in ChatGPT and Gemini answers, their tools must first be able to reach and read it, and then the AI must find a clear, well-sourced answer worth quoting. In practice: allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt so you can appear in ChatGPT search, make sure Google indexes your pages because Gemini and AI Overviews rely on Google's index, and serve your content as text that shows without JavaScript. Then write pages that answer the question in the first paragraph, with figures and named sources. This is called GEO, and it builds on SEO and AEO rather than replacing them.
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
| Term | Goal | Where you appear | Success measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO: search engine optimization | Rank your page in search results | Google's blue links | Rankings and clicks |
| AEO: answer engine optimization | Make your page the direct answer to a question | Featured snippets, FAQs and voice assistants | Being shown as the answer |
| GEO: generative engine optimization | Get mentioned or quoted by AI | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and AI Overviews | Mentions and citations in answers |
The three are layers, not alternatives: without SEO Google does not index you, without AEO the engine finds no ready answer on your page, and without GEO an AI may answer a question in your field and name your competitor instead of you. We covered the basics in our SEO and AEO guide for Saudi businesses.
How does ChatGPT choose the sites it suggests?
According to OpenAI's official documentation, ChatGPT search relies on a crawler called OAI-SearchBot, and sites that block it in robots.txt do not appear in ChatGPT search answers. GPTBot is a different crawler used for model training; you can block it and still appear in search. OpenAI says a robots.txt change takes about 24 hours to take effect. This is the most common mistake we see: a company blocks every AI crawler to protect its content, and disappears from ChatGPT's answers entirely.
How do you appear in Gemini and Google's AI Overviews?
Google's official documentation says appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode needs the same conditions as regular search: the page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and there are no additional technical requirements. It recommends allowing crawling in robots.txt and in any CDN, using internal links, keeping important content as text rather than images, making structured data match the visible text, and keeping your Business Profile up to date. In short: strong SEO is your gateway to Google's AI.
What about Claude, Perplexity and Copilot?
Every AI tool reads the web through its own crawlers or through the index of a search engine it relies on, and the same rule repeats: separate the training crawler from the search crawler, and allow the search crawler.
| Tool | What to allow | What the company says |
|---|---|---|
| Claude by Anthropic | Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User | According to Anthropic's official page, blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce your site's visibility in Claude's search results, while ClaudeBot is for training |
| Perplexity | PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User | Perplexity's documentation says PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in search results and is not used to train foundation models, and that changes may take up to 24 hours |
| Microsoft Copilot | Bingbot, and register your site in Bing Webmaster Tools | On 10 February 2026 Microsoft launched the AI Performance report, which shows how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries, and recommends clear headings, tables, FAQ sections, fresh content and IndexNow |
The practical takeaway: one well-built site serves you in all these tools, as long as robots.txt or your CDN does not block their search crawlers.
What raises the chance that AI will quote you?
The leading peer-reviewed study in this field is the GEO paper from Princeton and partners, published at KDD in 2024. It tested 10,000 queries across 25 domains and measured how each writing method affected a source's visibility in AI answers:
- Adding an attributed quotation from an expert or body: raised visibility by 42.6%.
- Adding statistics and figures: raised it by 32.8%.
- Improving fluency and clarity: raised it by 28.7%, the most effective method in business topics.
- Citing sources: raised it by 27.7%.
- Keyword stuffing: lowered visibility by 8.7%, so the old SEO trick hurts you here.
Practical steps to appear in ChatGPT, Gemini and others
- Open the door to the right crawlers. Allow OAI-SearchBot, Googlebot and the Claude and Perplexity search crawlers in robots.txt and in your CDN, and decide deliberately whether to block training crawlers.
- Make content visible without JavaScript. OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity crawlers do not execute JavaScript, according to a review of more than 500 million requests, so a site that builds its pages only in the browser may look empty to them.
- Answer in the first paragraph. Put a complete answer of 40 to 140 words under the title, then the details.
- Use figures, sources and attributed quotes. These are the three strongest methods in the GEO paper.
- Write subheadings as questions your customers actually ask, and add a visible FAQ section.
- Keep one company identity, the same name and description on your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directories, because AI links information across many sources.
- Get mentioned beyond your site. Industry articles, neutral comparisons and customer reviews make AI trust a mention of you.
- Update your key pages with genuinely new information, not just a new date.
How do these visits turn into sales?
A visitor arriving from a ChatGPT or Gemini answer has usually read a summary about you and arrives looking for a next step. So give every page a clear path: a contact, booking or quote button, plus visible trust signals such as past work and official contact details. Then measure: track visits from chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com, perplexity.ai, claude.ai and copilot.microsoft.com in your analytics, follow the free AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, and ask the AI tools about your service every month to see whether you are mentioned.
The Origami view
At Origami we offer the full search and AI visibility service: a technical audit of your site and its crawlers, fixing what stops ChatGPT and Gemini from reading it, content that answers your customers' questions with figures and sources, one consistent company identity across the web, and monthly measurement of how often you appear in answers. We work from evidence, not promises, because nobody can guarantee a fixed position in AI answers.
If you want AI to recommend your company to customers, see our services or contact us directly.
The bottom line
Appearing in ChatGPT and Gemini starts with technical basics: allowed crawlers and indexed text content. Then comes content that answers directly with figures and sources, and a presence beyond your site that confirms your identity. SEO puts you in the index, AEO makes you the answer, and GEO gets AI to mention you. Together they are the path to visits and sales from customers who trust what they read.
Sources: the paper GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024): https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735 , OpenAI's crawler documentation, Google's documentation on AI features in Search, Anthropic's and Perplexity's crawler pages, the Bing Webmaster blog, and Lantern's review of AI crawler behaviour with JavaScript.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get ChatGPT to suggest my website?
Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt, make your content text that shows without JavaScript, write pages that answer customer questions in the first paragraph with figures and sources, and get mentioned on trusted sites beyond your own.
What is the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO raises your page's ranking in search results, while GEO gets AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini to mention or quote you in their answers. GEO depends on SEO: there is no GEO without good indexing.
And what is AEO?
Answer engine optimization: making your page the direct answer to a question, in featured snippets, FAQs and voice assistants. It relies on a clear answer paragraph and question-style headings.
How do I appear in Copilot, Perplexity and Claude?
Allow their search crawlers: Bingbot for Copilot, PerplexityBot for Perplexity and Claude-SearchBot for Claude, and register your site in Bing Webmaster Tools to track Copilot citations in the AI Performance report.
Does blocking GPTBot hide my site from ChatGPT?
No. According to OpenAI, GPTBot is for training only, and ChatGPT search relies on OAI-SearchBot. If you block the latter, you disappear from ChatGPT search answers.
Do I need special optimization for Google's AI Overviews?
Google says there are no additional technical requirements: the page only needs to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, while following the usual SEO basics.
Can anyone guarantee my company appears in AI answers?
Nobody can guarantee it, because answers change with the question and the user. But measured methods such as figures, sources and clear writing clearly raise the chances.
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