Questions about GEO
Real questions with a short answer that stands on its own, followed by the detail and a link to the page that goes into it further.
What is the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO focuses on a place in the search results, GEO on a mention in the answer of an AI search engine. The technical foundation overlaps, but with GEO you measure whether your brand appears in answers.
A site that does well in Google has a head start, but no guarantee: in March 2026 Ahrefs measured that 37.9 percent of the pages cited in AI Overviews also appeared in the first 10 results.
How do I get into the answers of ChatGPT?
Allow OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt, because that crawler determines whether your site can appear in the search results of ChatGPT. Then make sure you have clear text with figures and sources. Nobody can guarantee a fixed place.
GPTBot is a different crawler: it collects content for training, and blocking it is separate from the search results.
Do I need schema markup for AI?
Not for the AI features of Google: Google writes that structured data is not required for them and that no special markup exists. Schema markup does remain a tidy description of your organisation and articles.
Google has not shown FAQ rich results since 7 May 2026, so FAQPage no longer produces an expandable result there.
Do I need an llms.txt?
Not for Google Search: Google writes that Google Search does not use llms.txt or similar AI files. Your GEO therefore does not recommend it and does not measure it either. Spend that time on your pages instead.
Should I block or allow AI crawlers?
Allow search crawlers if you want to be able to appear in AI answers. You can block training crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot separately if you do not want your content to be used for training. That choice is yours.
Does a high Google position help you get into AI answers?
A high Google position helps, but it is no guarantee. In measurements by Ahrefs from March 2026, 37.9 percent of the pages cited in AI Overviews also appeared in the first 10 search results for the same query.
Why does an AI tool mention my competitor and not me?
From the outside it is rarely possible to say for certain why an AI tool does or does not mention a brand, because providers do not publish how they select. First check whether crawlers may read your site, whether your text is in the HTML and whether your brand is mentioned on other sites.
Across 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found a stronger correlation between visibility in AI Overviews and brand mentions (0.664) than with backlinks (0.218). That is a correlation and not proof of cause.
How do I measure whether AI tools mention my business?
Put the same questions to the same AI tools at fixed moments and note whether your brand is named and cited. Do that every week and look at the trend, because answers vary a lot from day to day.
Can anyone guarantee a place in an AI answer?
No. AI tools do not publish how they choose sources, and citations change a lot: Ahrefs saw about 60 percent of ChatGPT citations disappear the next day. Anyone who promises a place is promising something that nobody controls.
Can AI crawlers read JavaScript?
In measurements by Vercel and MERJ from December 2024, none of the major AI crawlers executed JavaScript. Text that only loads in the browser is then invisible to them. Check the page source to see whether your text is in it directly.