AI Overviews and GEO: What Actually Works and What’s Marketing Noise

AI Overviews are answers that Google puts together with artificial intelligence and shows above the regular search results, with links to source websites. GEO (generative engine optimization) is the name for everything done to get a site into such answers: in Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

The short answer for those in a hurry: for Google there’s no separate “AI optimization”, and Google says so itself. The ordinary SEO fundamentals and helpful content are what work. There’s a lot of marketing around GEO right now; below we sort out what actually works and what doesn’t.

What AI Overviews and AI Mode are

AI Overviews appear above the search results for some queries: a short summary answer with links to the pages it was built from.

AI Mode is a separate, conversational search mode: a person asks a complex question, follows up, and Google answers with links.

According to Google’s documentation, both may use a technique called query fan-out: the system runs several related searches on subtopics and assembles the answer from different sources. So a page that doesn’t rank at the top for the main query, but best answers one of the sub-questions, can still end up in the answer.

For a page to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, it has to be indexed by Google and eligible to be shown in search with a text snippet. There are no other technical requirements.

Where GEO came from

The term comes from a paper by researchers at Princeton, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (2023). The authors tested which changes to a text help a page appear more often in AI systems’ answers. On their test set of queries, visibility rose by up to 40%, and quotations, statistics and cited sources worked best. But they also note that effectiveness varies a lot by topic.

Then the market picked up the term, and “GEO” is now sold as a separate service, often with promises nobody can guarantee.

What Google says

In the same documentation on AI features, Google states plainly:

• there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimization is needed; the usual SEO best practices apply;
• you don’t need to create new machine-readable files, “AI files” or special markup;
• there’s no special schema.org markup you need to add for AI;
• in Google’s observation, clicks from results with AI Overviews are higher quality: people spend more time on the site.

What works and what’s noise

The left column is the same thing that helps ordinary SEO and the people reading your site. That’s why a separate “AI optimization” almost always turns out to be regular content work under a new name.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity: not just Google

Other AI services have their own crawlers. The main thing is not to block them by accident.

• OpenAI separates its crawlers: OAI-SearchBot handles appearing in ChatGPT search, while GPTBot collects data for training models. They can be configured separately, for example allowing search and blocking training.
• Check robots.txt and bot protection. Some hosts and CDNs block AI crawlers by default. If you want to appear in AI search answers, make sure the search crawlers aren’t blocked.
• Off-site mentions matter to these systems as much as the site itself: they often rely on reviews, directories and publications about the company.

How to measure the result

• Search Console. Impressions and clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the regular Performance report, search type Web. They aren’t broken out separately in that report.
• Google Analytics 4. Visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and other AI assistants are grouped into a separate AI Assistant channel. AI Overviews and AI Mode aren’t included there; they count as organic search.
• Branded searches. If AI answers mention you more often, searches for your company name usually grow too.
• Manual checks. Once a month, ask ChatGPT and Google a few questions your customers ask and see whether you’re among the sources.

What to do right now

1. Check in Search Console that your important pages are indexed and error-free.
2. On every service page, give a direct answer: what it is, who it’s for, what it costs, how long it takes. How to do that is covered in our article on website content creation.
3. Add facts only you have: case studies with numbers, your own data, real photos.
4. Show who’s behind the company: contacts, address, team, experience.
5. Collect reviews and mentions on external platforms and keep your Google Business Profile up to date.
6. Make sure robots.txt and your hosting settings don’t block search crawlers.
7. Set up a view of the AI Assistant channel in GA4 to see visits from AI services.

The technical basics matter too: pages should load fast and work properly on a phone. More on that in our articles on website loading speed and responsive design. And if you’re interested in AI on the website itself rather than in search, start with our overview of AI chatbots for websites.