AI Search Optimisation (AIO) in 2026: how to get your business cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews
A practical playbook for making your website the source AI assistants quote: answer-first content, entity signals, schema and llms.txt.
Key takeaways
- AI assistants cite pages that answer a question directly in the first 40–60 words under a clear heading.
- Consistent brand, author and location signals (schema, About page, profiles) make you an “entity” models trust.
- An llms.txt file and open crawler policy make it easy for AI search engines to read and index your site.
What is AI search optimisation?
AI search optimisation (AIO), also called generative engine optimisation (GEO), is the practice of structuring a website and its content so that AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews can understand, trust and cite it. It builds on classic SEO — fast pages, clear structure, authority — and adds formats that language models prefer: direct answers, definitions, comparisons and well-labelled facts.
Why it matters now
A growing share of buying research starts with a question to an AI assistant rather than ten blue links. If your competitor’s page is the one being summarised, you are invisible in that conversation — even if you rank well on Google.
Answer-first content
Lead every section with the answer, then expand. Use question-style H2s that match how people ask, and put a 40–60 word “quick answer” directly underneath. Key-takeaway boxes at the top of an article are quoted verbatim surprisingly often.
Entity and author signals
Models weigh who is saying something. Publish a real About page, author profiles with credentials, consistent NAP (name, address, phone) data, and link to your profiles on LinkedIn, Google Business, Clutch and GitHub. Mark it all up with Organization and Person schema.
Technical basics: schema, llms.txt and crawlers
Add Article, FAQPage, Service and Organization schema. Publish an llms.txt file at your domain root summarising your pages. Allow the major AI crawlers in robots.txt — you cannot be cited by an engine that is not allowed to read you.
How to measure AI visibility
Track branded mentions in AI answers for your core queries monthly, monitor referral traffic from chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai in GA4, and watch which pages are being cited. Double down on formats that get quoted.
Frequently asked questions
Does AIO replace SEO?
No. AIO extends SEO. The same technical health and authority that rank on Google are the foundation for being cited by AI assistants.
Should I block AI crawlers to protect my content?
For a service business the trade-off usually favours allowing them: being cited is free distribution. Block only scrapers that provide no referral value.
Need this done for your business?
Get a free audit and a fixed-price proposal within 48 hours.