How to get cited by every major AI engine.

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization is the discipline of getting your brand cited inside the answers that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overview, and Bing Copilot generate for their users. It overlaps with traditional SEO but the target is different: instead of ranking #1 in the blue links, you're trying to be the source the AI quotes when a buyer asks a category-level question. A decade ago the win condition was "rank #1 on Google for X." In 2026 the win condition is "get cited by ChatGPT when a user asks about X." Both still matter, but the second one is how a growing share of purchase decisions now start.

Each AI engine has its own crawler, its own ranking heuristics, and its own citation patterns. ChatGPT runs three distinct bots (GPTBot for training, OAI-SearchBot for live index, ChatGPT-User for per-URL fetches) and weights Crunchbase + Wikipedia heavily. Perplexity is the most citation-aggressive — it surfaces citations inline on almost every answer — and rewards TLDR-first content structure. Claude is the most source-conservative and cares about named-author credibility. Google AI Overviews pull from the same index as organic search but apply a second extraction layer that favors FAQPage and HowTo schema. One generic GEO strategy won't work for all six; each platform needs its own playbook.

How to use these guides

Start by asking the engine you care about most a category query — "best [your category] tool 2026" in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini — and see whose name comes back. If your brand isn't cited, the platform-specific guide below tells you exactly what that engine looks for and what to change on your site, in your entity profiles, and in your content structure to become an extractable, citable source. Run our free 9-category audit first to see where your AI Citability score stands, then pick the engine guide that matches your buyer's workflow.

Want the 25-query AI visibility matrix tested against your brand in real time? That's The GEO Diagnostic ($149) — we run 25 buyer-intent queries across all five major engines and show you exactly where you appear, where competitors appear instead, and what's structurally missing from your site to earn the citation.