Is your site ready to be cited by AI? A practical intro to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

More and more people search on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Being found is no longer enough - you need to be cited. For twenty years SEO had one clear goal: rank in Google's top results. Something deeper is changing now.

A growing share of people, before buying or choosing a supplier, no longer open Google - they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini. And to answer, these models cite some sources and ignore others. So the question for anyone with a website becomes different: is my site among the sources AI can read and cite? That's what GEO - Generative Engine Optimization - is about.

The good news: GEO isn't magic. It rests on concrete, verifiable signals.

1. Can AI crawlers reach your site?

ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity use dedicated crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended). If your robots.txt blocks them - often by mistake or an old setting - AI can't read you, so it can't cite you. That's the first thing to check.

2. Do you have an llms.txt file?

It's a simple file, modeled on robots.txt, that tells AI which content is most relevant to read. Still uncommon, but becoming a standard: adopting it now is an early-mover advantage.

3. Is your content "extractable"?

AI reuses structured content better: a single clear H1, subheadings, lists, direct answers, structured data (JSON-LD). A wall of undifferentiated text is hard to cite; a well-isolated answer isn't.

4. The technical basics

HTTPS, descriptive title and meta description, indexable pages. Nothing new versus classic SEO, but still prerequisites.

Where to start

The fastest way to know where you stand is to measure. We published a free audit that checks these signals in seconds and returns an "AI-readiness" score, no signup to see the result:

https://seoautohub.com/audit-geo

SEO isn't dying, it's widening: beyond ranking on Google, being readable and citable by generative engines now matters. Those who move now - while the standard is still immature - gain an edge that will be far more expensive to win a year from now.