AI search
Google AI Overviews: How Sources Get Picked and What You Can Control
What Google says about how AI Overviews and AI Mode choose supporting links, what actually helps, what doesn't, and the controls you have.
FindSEO6 min read
AI SEO hub
Get found in AI search
Straight answers on how Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI assistants choose what to show, free tools to check your own site, and agencies that do this work. No hype, and sourced to the AI companies' own documentation.
Free AI SEO tools
Check what AI crawlers can reach, whether your llms.txt is right, and how ready a page is to be quoted. No sign-up.
- AI Crawler Access CheckerReads a site's robots.txt and shows, bot by bot, whether AI search crawlers, AI training crawlers and AI control tokens may crawl it, with copy-paste rules to change that.Check AI crawler access
- llms.txt Generator and ValidatorChecks a site's /llms.txt against the published format and tests its links. If there isn't one, it drafts a starting file from the homepage and sitemap for you to edit.Check or create llms.txt
- AI-Readiness CheckerScores one page out of 100 on how easily AI search tools can reach it, understand it and quote it, and lists what to fix first.Check a page's AI readiness
Where to start
Most AI search visibility comes down to a few basics, in this order.
- 1Let the right crawlers inMake sure Googlebot, Bingbot and AI search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot aren't blocked by robots.txt or your firewall.
- 2Make pages easy to read and quoteContent in plain HTML, clear headings, and a short opening paragraph that answers the main question.
- 3Say who you are, consistentlyThe same business details everywhere, with Organization or LocalBusiness markup and sameAs links.
- 4Earn mentions elsewhereReviews, directories and credible sites that describe you accurately. AI tools lean on what others say.
- 5Measure itTrack AI referrals in GA4 and test the questions your customers ask.
AI search guides
How AI search works, what helps, what doesn't, and how to hire for it.
AI search
How to Get Your Business Mentioned in ChatGPT and Perplexity
Where ChatGPT and Perplexity find the businesses they recommend, and the practical steps that make yours easier to find, describe and cite.
FindSEO5 min read
AI search
Should You Block AI Crawlers? GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended Explained
The difference between AI training and AI search crawlers, what OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity and Google say their bots do, and robots.txt rules.
FindSEO5 min read
AI search
llms.txt: What It Is, Who Reads It and Should You Bother?
An honest guide to llms.txt: what the file is, who actually reads it, how to write a good one in an hour, and why it isn't a fix for AI visibility.
FindSEO4 min read
AI search
Entities and Schema for AI Search: Helping Machines Know Who You Are
Why consistent business details, Organization or LocalBusiness markup and sameAs links help search engines and AI assistants identify your business.
FindSEO5 min read
AI search
How to Choose an AI SEO Agency (and Spot the Hype)
What AI SEO work should include, the questions to ask an agency, the red flags to watch for and how to judge the price of an AI SEO proposal.
FindSEO4 min read
AI search
How to Measure Traffic from AI Search in GA4
Set up an AI assistants channel in Google Analytics 4 to track visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, and learn what you still can't measure.
FindSEO4 min read
AI search glossary
The terms you'll hear from agencies and in AI search news, explained in plain English.
- Generative engine optimisation (GEO)Generative engine optimisation (GEO) means improving the chance that AI systems such as Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT or Perplexity cite or mention your brand and pages in their generated answers. It builds on SEO fundamentals: accessible, accurate, well-sourced content and a reputation that other credible sites reference.
- Answer engine optimisation (AEO)Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so that search features, voice assistants and AI tools can pull a direct answer from it. In practice it overlaps heavily with standard SEO: clear questions and answers, accurate facts, and pages that search engines can crawl and understand.
- AI OverviewsAI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that Google shows at the top of some search results, with links to the web pages they draw on. Google says pages need no special optimisation to appear: they must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and standard SEO best practice applies.
- AI ModeAI Mode is a conversational search experience in Google Search that answers questions with an AI-generated response, supporting links and follow-up questions. Google says pages need no special optimisation to appear in it: they must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and normal SEO best practice applies.
- Large language model (LLM)A large language model (LLM) is an AI system trained on very large amounts of text to predict and generate language. LLMs power tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, and the AI answers in search, which is why businesses now care how these models describe them.
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is when an AI system searches for relevant documents or web pages at the moment a question is asked, then uses them to write its answer. It's how AI search tools give current answers with citations, and it's the part of AI search that SEO can influence.
- Query fan-outQuery fan-out is a technique where an AI search system splits one question into several related searches, runs them at the same time, and combines what it finds into a single answer. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use it, so pages can appear for parts of a question.
- AI citationAn AI citation is a link or named reference to a source that an AI assistant or AI search feature shows alongside its generated answer. Being cited can send visitors and build trust, and it's the main thing businesses mean when they talk about visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity or AI Overviews.
- Zero-click searchA zero-click search is one where the searcher gets what they need on the results page, or from an AI answer, without clicking through to any website. Featured snippets, local packs, knowledge panels, AI Overviews and AI assistants all increase zero-click searches, which changes how SEO success should be measured.
- AI crawlerAn AI crawler is a bot run by an AI company that fetches web pages, either to collect training data for its models, to build a search index for its AI answers, or to read a page live when a user asks. Each has its own user-agent name you can allow or block in robots.txt.
- GPTBotGPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler for collecting content that may be used to train its generative AI models. Blocking it in robots.txt tells OpenAI not to use your pages for training. It is separate from OAI-SearchBot, which decides whether your site can appear in ChatGPT search answers.
- Google-ExtendedGoogle-Extended is a robots.txt token that lets site owners decide whether content Google crawls may be used to train future Gemini models and to ground Gemini answers. Google says it doesn't affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search, and it doesn't control AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- llms.txtllms.txt is a proposed standard for a Markdown file at a website's root (/llms.txt) that gives AI tools and agents a short summary of the site and a curated list of links to its most useful pages. It is optional, informal and not a ranking factor in Google Search.
- Entity (knowledge graph)In search, an entity is a distinct, well-defined thing, such as a business, person, place, product or concept, that search engines and AI systems can recognise and connect to facts. A knowledge graph stores entities and the relationships between them, helping systems tell your business apart from others with similar names.
- sameAssameAs is a schema.org property used in structured data to list other web pages that clearly identify the same entity, such as a business's official social profiles, Wikipedia page or directory listings. It helps search engines and AI systems connect those profiles and be confident they describe one business.
Agencies that offer AI SEO
532 agencies on FindSEO say on their own websites that they offer AI search work, across 31 countries. Compare services and reviews, then contact them directly or let us introduce you.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO (also called generative engine optimisation or GEO) is work aimed at getting a business found, mentioned and cited in AI answers, such as Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot. Most of it is good SEO: crawlable pages, clear answers, consistent business facts and a strong reputation.
Do I need to do anything special to appear in Google's AI Overviews?
Google says no. A page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and normal SEO best practice applies. Google says you don't need new AI text files or special schema markup.
What's different about ChatGPT and Perplexity?
They use their own crawlers (such as OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot) and indexes as well as third-party search. If your robots.txt or firewall blocks those crawlers, you can't be cited in their search answers, even if Google can see you.
Can anyone guarantee my business appears in AI answers?
No. No outside party controls what AI tools say. Treat any guarantee of AI mentions, citations or rankings as a red flag.
How does FindSEO decide which agencies offer AI SEO?
We only list an agency under AI SEO when its own website clearly says it offers AI search work, such as AI SEO, generative engine optimisation or visibility in AI Overviews, ChatGPT or Perplexity. Agencies can update their services from their dashboard.