GEO Guide: Get Recommended by ChatGPT & Google AI

When someone in Kochi asks ChatGPT for a good dental clinic near Edappally, or a founder in Dubai asks Google's AI Mode which agencies build Shopify stores for Indian brands, the answer names a handful of businesses and links a few sources. Being one of them is what generative engine optimization, or GEO, is about.

This guide explains how AI answers pick their sources, what actually gets cited, and how to measure it, using our own site as the worked example. It sits alongside our SEO services, because almost everything that helps in AI answers starts with being findable in ordinary search. For Kerala businesses the stakes rose in October 2025, when Google rolled out AI Mode in Malayalam and six other Indian languages↗ (opens in a new tab).

What is GEO, and how is it different from SEO?#

The term comes from a research paper, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization↗ (opens in a new tab), by researchers at Princeton and IIT Delhi, published at KDD 2024. They tested content changes against a benchmark of real-world queries and found that adding citations, quotations and statistics made a source noticeably more visible in AI-generated answers, by up to 40% in their tests, while classic keyword stuffing offered little to no improvement. It was a lab benchmark, not a guarantee, but the lesson is intuitive: specific, well-sourced content is easier to quote.

The overlap is large. AI answers are built from pages in a search index, so a page that isn't indexed can't be cited, however well it is written.

How do ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Copilot choose sources?#

Most AI search products work in two steps. First they retrieve candidate pages from an index. Then a language model writes an answer from the passages that best match the question and cites some of them. Two questions decide whether you appear: can the engine reach your page, and does the page contain a passage worth quoting?

Google's guidance is unusually blunt. There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode↗ (opens in a new tab) beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet, and Google tells site owners not to create new machine-readable files or special markup for them. OpenAI's documentation is just as clear in the other direction: sites that block OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers↗ (opens in a new tab), though they can still appear as plain navigational links.

What actually gets cited?#

1. Answer-first passages#

AI answers lift short, self-contained passages. Put the question a buyer asks in a heading, then answer it directly in the first two or three sentences, in 40–60 words, before the detail. Define terms in one sentence. A page that makes the reader scroll through a brand story before the answer gives the engine nothing to quote.

2. The same facts everywhere#

Assistants cross-check what they find. Your business name, address, phone number, hours, services and the places you serve should read the same on your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Facebook, Justdial and every directory listing. Two addresses, an old phone number or a different spelling of your name make you a less confident answer. For Calicut businesses, decide how you handle "Calicut" and "Kozhikode" and apply it consistently; our local SEO guide for the Google Map Pack covers the details.

3. Mentions on other sites#

A brand that only praises itself is a weak recommendation. Assistants lean on independent sources: Google reviews, industry directories (Practo for clinics, Clutch or GoodFirms for agencies), local press, association listings, and case studies on clients' own websites. Earn these; paid link schemes break Google's spam policies and tend to backfire.

4. Specific numbers with sources#

The GEO paper's strongest levers were statistics, quotations and citations. Publish real figures, say where they come from, and date them. It's why we treat benchmark posts such as cost per lead in India vs the UAE as citation assets: every figure has to be sourced or it doesn't go in.

5. Structure machines can parse#

Use tables for comparisons and prices, lists for steps, and a short FAQ for the follow-up questions people ask. Keep important information in text, not only in images or videos. If you add structured data, make sure it matches what is visible on the page, which Google explicitly asks for.

How did we apply this to marketlube.in?#

When we audited our own site before the 2026 rebuild, it failed the most basic test. The old marketlube.in was a client-rendered app: the HTML a crawler received was an empty shell with a single blank root element, the page title read "Market Lube" rather than our brand name, and the sitemap and robots.txt addresses returned the app itself instead of real files. Any crawler that doesn't run JavaScript saw almost nothing.

The rebuild fixes that from the foundations up:

• Server-rendered pages. Every page arrives as complete HTML, which is how we build websites for clients too.
• A summary under every H1. Two or three sentences saying who, what and where, in the HTML from the first byte.
• Question-led headings and FAQs. Blog posts open with a short answer and close with the questions buyers actually ask.
• One source of truth for our details. Name, address and phone come from a single file used by the pages and the structured data, kept identical to our Google Business Profile.
• An open door for crawlers. A real XML sitemap, and a robots.txt that explicitly allows the main search and AI crawlers.
• An llms.txt file. A plain summary of who we are and our key pages. Google says it doesn't need one; it costs nothing to publish.

We won't claim results we haven't measured yet. We'll report what changes once there is enough data to say something honest.

Should you allow AI crawlers or block them?#

For a business that wants enquiries, allow the search crawlers. Training crawlers are a judgement call: publishers protecting paid content often block them, while a service business usually benefits from being well known to the models. Either way, decide deliberately and check that your hosting firewall or CDN isn't blocking bots your robots.txt allows.

On llms.txt: it was proposed in September 2024 as a plain-text guide for AI tools. Some tools read it, Google says it isn't needed for its AI features, and it's cheap to add. Treat it as housekeeping, not strategy.

How do you measure GEO?#

AI visibility is harder to measure than rankings, but it is no longer a black box:

AI answers vary between runs, users and locations, so treat the manual question panel as a trend line, not a score.

What should a Kerala or Gulf business do first?#

A practical 30-day plan:

1. Check you can be read. Open your key pages, view the page source and confirm the main text is in the HTML. Verify the site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and fix pages that aren't indexed.
2. Fix your facts. Agree one version of your name, address, phone, hours and services, then update your Google Business Profile, Justdial, LinkedIn, Facebook and directory listings to match.
3. Rewrite your five most important pages answer-first. A short summary under the main heading, question-style subheadings, one table where it helps, and a brief FAQ.
4. Earn three mentions. A case study on a client's website, a complete directory profile with genuine reviews, and one local press or association listing.
5. Match your customers' language. If they ask in Malayalam or Arabic, your key service pages should exist in that language too.
6. Start the question panel. Write down 20 buyer questions and record this month's answers as your baseline.

Frequently asked questions#

Is GEO replacing SEO?#

No. AI answers are built from search indexes, so crawlability, indexing, relevance and reputation still come first. GEO adds attention to quotable passages, consistent facts about your business and mentions on other sites. Treat it as SEO done properly for a world where answers, not just links, are the product.

Do I need an llms.txt file?#

Not for Google, which says its AI features need no special files. Some AI tools may read it, and it takes an hour to write, so add one if your site is in good shape otherwise. It won't rescue pages that crawlers can't read.

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT or Google's AI?#

You can't buy an organic citation. Some platforms show labelled ads alongside AI answers, but those are ads, not recommendations. Be wary of anyone selling guaranteed placement in AI answers; nobody controls what the models say.

How long does GEO take to show results?#

Technical fixes can be picked up as soon as your pages are recrawled, often within weeks. Reputation, meaning reviews, mentions and citations from other sites, builds over months. Anyone promising a date for appearing in AI answers is guessing.

Does schema markup help AI engines?#

It helps machines understand facts such as your business type, address and services, and Google uses it for rich results. It isn't a switch that gets you cited, and Google asks that structured data match the visible content. Get the page right first, then mark it up.

Where to go from here#

Start with the 30-day plan. Most of it needs no budget, just care. If you'd like help auditing how your business appears in AI answers today, tell us about your site and we'll look at it with you, or read how our SEO and AI search work is put together.