To show up on ChatGPT and other AI assistants, your site has to be crawlable, answer real questions directly in the first lines of a page, back claims with specific facts such as prices and timelines, and be mentioned on other sites the assistants trust. This is called GEO (generative engine optimisation) or AEO (answer engine optimisation). It builds on SEO rather than replacing it.
What are GEO and AEO?
GEO, generative engine optimisation, means making your content easy for AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers to find, understand and cite. AEO, answer engine optimisation, is an older term for much the same thing: structuring content so it can be lifted as a direct answer.
Both depend on normal SEO. When ChatGPT searches the web, it runs search queries and reads the pages that come back. If you do not rank or cannot be crawled, you cannot be cited.
How AI assistants pick their sources
When we studied the searches ChatGPT ran for GCC buyer questions such as best software company in Riyadh or app development cost in Dubai, the cited pages had a few things in common: a direct answer near the top, specific numbers, clear headings phrased as questions, and recent dates. Directory and list pages from third-party sites were cited heavily too.
Steps you can take now
- Let AI crawlers in: check robots.txt does not block GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended unless you mean to.
- Open key pages with a 40 to 60 word answer to the main question.
- Use question headings that match how people ask, including Arabic questions for Gulf audiences.
- Publish real facts: prices, timelines, locations served, what you do not do.
- Add structured data: Organization, Service, FAQPage and Article.
- Publish an llms.txt file that summarises your site for language models.
- Get listed and mentioned on directories, review sites and industry lists your buyers read.
- Keep pages updated and dated; AI search favours fresh sources for prices and rankings.
What does not work
Stuffing pages with city names, fake reviews and invented local offices. AI assistants cross-check sources, and inconsistent claims make a business less likely to be cited, not more.
Make sure your prices and facts match across your site, directories and social profiles. Contradictions are exactly what AI answers surface.
How to measure it
Ask the assistants the questions your buyers ask, every month, and record who is cited. Watch referral traffic from chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai in your analytics. It is imperfect, but it shows direction.
