"I asked ChatGPT who to recommend for building a website." You will hear this sentence from customers more and more often. A share of search is moving from classic Google to AI tools – ChatGPT with search, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot. And here is the uncomfortable truth: if AI doesn't know you, it won't recommend you. This article breaks down how AI search engines pick who to mention, and what to do so your business is among them. The discipline is called GEO – Generative Engine Optimization.
How AI search picks who to mention
No magic involved. AI tools assemble answers from two sources:
1. Classic search indexes. ChatGPT search reads Bing results; Google AI Overviews read Google. When someone asks "how much does an e-shop cost", the AI quietly runs a search, reads the top-ranked pages and composes an answer from them – ideally citing the source. If you're not in the top results, you don't make it into the answer. AI search is not a replacement for SEO – it's built on top of it.
2. Entity knowledge. Language models "remember" from training and from the web which brands go with which topics. When a company name repeatedly appears next to "web development Ostrava" – in directories, reviews, articles, profiles – the AI forms that association. A business with no mentions doesn't exist for AI, no matter how good its website is.
GEO vs. SEO: what changes and what doesn't
Good news: most of the work overlaps. What worked for SEO works for GEO – a technically healthy site, quality content, authority. Two things change:
AI cites answers, not pages. Classic Google shows a link and a title. AI extracts a specific fact – a price, a process, a comparison – and cites the source. Sites win when an answer can be "cut out" of them easily: clear questions and answers, concrete numbers, structured data.
Brand matters more. AI prefers recommending a company it "knows" from multiple independent sources. Ten quality mentions in relevant places do more for AI visibility than a hundred anonymous content pages.
What to actually do (in order of importance)
1. The foundation: rank in classic search
Sounds boring, but it's the precondition for everything else. If you don't rank on Google and Bing, AI has nowhere to take you from. Technical SEO, content answering real queries, top 10 positions – that's where AI citations are decided too. I cover the how in my SEO services and the SEO pricing guide.
2. Register with Bing
ChatGPT reads Bing – and a surprising number of websites are not registered in Bing Webmaster Tools at all. It's free and takes five minutes (verification can be imported from Google Search Console). Without it, you're half-invisible to ChatGPT.
3. Content that can be cited
AI loves extractable facts. Walk through your pages and ask: "Can AI cut an answer out of this?"
- Concrete prices instead of "price on request" – for price queries, AI cites sites that state one
- FAQ sections phrased the way people actually ask
- Structured data (FAQ schema, Service schema) – a machine-readable base
- Clear answers up front – a summary in the first paragraph, detail below
4. llms.txt – a business card for AI crawlers
A newer standard: a text file at /llms.txt that gives AI crawlers a concise summary of what the site offers, for how much and for whom. Not mandatory, but a cheap way to hand AI accurate information in an ideal format. (Yes, this site has one – including the full llms-full.txt version.)
5. Entity: mentions, reviews, profiles
This is where local businesses win or lose. AI verifies trust across sources:
- Google Business Profile with reviews – the strongest local signal
- Directories – consistent name, address, website
- Links from real websites – footers of delivered projects, case studies, industry mentions
- Profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook) – even a passive profile is another confirmation the business exists
6. Measure what you can
Nobody measures AI search properly yet, but the minimum is: Bing Webmaster Tools (what ChatGPT sees), Search Console (what Google sees), and occasionally just asking the AI about your field and noting who it names. Tools like Ahrefs are starting to track AI citations.
What to avoid
Don't trust "guaranteed AI tricks". The discipline is new, and anyone promising you first place in ChatGPT is selling air – the algorithms change every few months. Only one thing works: being a good, citable source, visible in the places AI draws from.
Don't write for robots at the expense of humans. AI learns to recognize quality much like Google does. Keyword-stuffed text won't help in classic or AI search.
Summary
AI search doesn't work against SEO – it builds on it. The order of steps for a business that wants to appear in ChatGPT and AI Overviews answers: (1) healthy SEO and top 10 positions, (2) Bing registration, (3) content with extractable facts and concrete prices, (4) llms.txt, (5) entity building through reviews, directories and links. Most of it fits inside normal SEO work – just with the awareness that your reader is no longer only a human and Google, but also a language model composing an answer for someone deciding who to call.
Want help with this? GEO preparation is a standard part of my SEO optimization work. And if you want your whole team to master AI tools, see company AI training.