GEO and AEO: how to prepare a website so ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews cite it
GEO prepares a site so AI models understand and cite it; AEO makes sure your answer lands in the answer. Both sit on top of technical SEO. 12 concrete steps, a comparison table, a free instant check and prices without a subscription.
Short answer. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is preparing a website so that language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity read it, understand it and name it as a source. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the narrower part: you write the page so that the answer to a concrete question sits in the first two sentences, which lets Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot and voice assistants lift it directly. Both stand on the same foundations as classic SEO: a fast page, clean HTML, structured data. Without those, none of the three works.
This article is the list of what we do on every site we build, and what you can check yourself on this one. Segentic.dev has a public MCP server, an llms.txt, a WebMCP manifest, schema.org on every page and Lighthouse 100/100. This is not theory, it is the page you are reading.
What is the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO?
| SEO | GEO | AEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | a position in the list of results | a citation or mention in a generated answer | your sentence as the direct answer |
| Who reads | the Google and Bing crawler, then a person | a language model (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) | an answer system (AI Overviews, Copilot, voice assistants) |
| What counts | keywords, links, speed, structure | clarity, entities, public numbers, sources, llms.txt, allowed AI crawlers | the question in the heading, the answer in the first two sentences, FAQ schema |
The difference is not the technology but the reader. A crawler looks for signals, a model looks for meaning, an answer system looks for a sentence it can paste. One page can satisfy all three if you write it for a person and build it for a machine.
The only study with measured results worth citing is Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (arXiv:2311.09735, 2023). The authors report up to 40 % higher visibility in generated answers when pages gained source citations, statistics and quotations. The number holds for their test set, not for your site, but the direction is clear: models prefer to cite text with sources and numbers.
Which 12 steps do we take on every site?
- Speed and clean HTML. The page must be readable without JavaScript. Static HTML on Cloudflare loads in under 0.5 s and crawlers and models read all of it. AI crawlers often give up on slow pages. How we measure this is on the fast websites page.
- One H1 and questions as H2. The page title names the topic, the subheadings are the questions people type. "How much does a website cost?" is a better H2 than "Pricing".
- The answer in the first two sentences. Under every question, first the answer with a number, then the explanation. An answer system takes the first paragraph, not the fifth.
- Schema.org. Organization with the real name and address, Service for every service, FAQPage for the questions, Offer with price and currency for every package. On our pricing page six packages are written as Offers with a validity date.
- llms.txt. A file at the root of the domain written for models: who you are, what you do, where, at what prices, with links to the key pages. Our llms.txt carries the whole price list and the terms.
- A robots.txt that allows AI crawlers. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended must be allowed. Many Slovenian sites block them because that was the default advice in 2023, and they disappear from the answers.
- Sitemap and IndexNow. A sitemap for crawlers and an IndexNow ping on every change, so Bing and the engines that use it learn about new content in minutes, not weeks.
- Public numbers. Prices, timelines, speed measurements, the number of pages in a package. A model cannot cite "affordable prices", but it can cite "business site 1,070 €, 2 to 3 weeks".
- Sources and dates in articles. Every figure has a source and a review date. Our price comparison of 20 Slovenian providers links each row to the public price list.
- One entity everywhere. The same company name, address, tax number and email on the site, in schema.org, in Google Business Profile, in the AJPES register and in directories. Models link entities; if you are three different things in three places, you are nowhere.
- MCP and WebMCP. The site as a tool an agent can call. Our MCP server returns packages, prices and articles as JSON, and the manifest at
/.well-known/webmcp.jsonsays how. When an agent looks for a website developer in Slovenia, it gets a structured answer from us, not only text. - Measurement. Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI mode the ten questions your customers type, and write down who gets cited. Without that you do not know whether any of the above works.
None of this is secret. The difference is whether it is done on every page or only on the home page.
How do you check where you stand today?
The SEO, GEO and AEO page has a free instant check. Enter your site address and within seconds you get a result on five points: whether you have an llms.txt, whether robots.txt allows AI crawlers, whether the page carries schema.org, whether the title and meta description are written, and how fast the page responds. You see the result immediately and get a copy by email. Nothing to install, and nobody will call you.
If you want to know how long it takes for Google to notice you at all, the answer is in the guide How fast will I be visible on Google.
How much does it cost?
On a site we build, nothing extra: technical SEO, GEO and AEO are part of every package from 440 €, see pricing. On an existing site we did not build:
- GEO/AEO setup for an existing site: 490 €. llms.txt, robots.txt for AI crawlers, schema.org (Organization, Service, FAQPage, Offer), rewriting headings and first paragraphs into question-and-answer form, an MCP endpoint where the site technically allows it, IndexNow.
- Local SEO package: 290 €. Google Business Profile, LocalBusiness schema, a location page, entity alignment across directories.
- SEO article: 120 € per article of up to 1,100 words with sources, schema and internal links. No subscription; order one or ten.
VAT is not charged, the prices are final. There is no monthly contract because there is no maintenance: once the site is prepared, it stays prepared.
To be fair to the end: nobody can guarantee that ChatGPT will cite you. Models change monthly and pick sources by criteria they do not publish. What we can guarantee is that your site will be ready when they look: readable, structured, with public numbers and allowed access. Content, reputation and time do the rest.