What is AI SEO?
AI SEO means making your website easy for AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot to find, understand and quote. It is also called GEO, generative engine optimisation, or AEO, answer engine optimisation. It builds on normal SEO rather than replacing it.
AI search tools still have to find your pages before they can use them. Google says that to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. There are no additional technical requirements.
So if your site is not showing up in normal Google results, fix that first. AI visibility sits on top of good SEO.
Source: Google Search Central, AI features and your website.
Do I need special markup or an AI text file for Google's AI Overviews?
No. Google says there is no special schema.org structured data you need to add, and you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup to appear in its AI features. Its advice is the usual SEO basics: allow crawling, link pages internally, and keep key content as text.
Google's list of recommended practices includes allowing crawling in robots.txt and through your CDN or host, making content findable through internal links, giving a good page experience, keeping important content in text, supporting text with good images and video, and making structured data match the visible page.
It also says to keep your Merchant Center and Business Profile details current. For local businesses, an accurate Google Business Profile matters in AI answers as much as in Maps.
Source: Google Search Central, AI features and your website.
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
First, make sure ChatGPT can see your site. OpenAI says sites that opt out of its OAI-SearchBot crawler will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Then publish clear, specific pages that answer the questions your customers ask, and get your business mentioned on other trusted sites. No one can guarantee a mention.
Check your robots.txt file. OpenAI runs separate crawlers: OAI-SearchBot is for search, GPTBot is for training its models, and ChatGPT-User visits pages when a user asks. You can allow OAI-SearchBot so you appear in search answers while blocking GPTBot if you do not want your content used for training. OpenAI says robots.txt changes for search can take about 24 hours to take effect.
OpenAI has not published everything that decides which businesses ChatGPT names. Being well indexed in both Google and Bing, having consistent business details across the web, and having real reviews and mentions all help AI tools trust that you exist and do what you say.
Source: OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers.
What kind of content gets quoted by AI search?
Content that adds sources, quotes and statistics did best in the GEO study by Aggarwal and colleagues, published at KDD 2024. Those methods lifted visibility in AI answers by 30 to 40% on the study's main measure. Keyword stuffing gave little to no improvement and did 10% worse than baseline on Perplexity.
The study also found smaller sites gain the most. Citing sources raised visibility by 115.1% for pages ranked fifth in normal search results, while top-ranked pages lost ground on average. That is good news for small Australian businesses that cannot outspend big brands on links.
In practice: answer the question in the first sentence, keep each answer self-contained, use real numbers with named sources, and write like a person who knows the subject. Google's own guidance says trust is the most important part of E-E-A-T.
Source: Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024); Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.
What are the best AI SEO tools?
Start with the free ones. Google Search Console shows how Google indexes your pages. Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report showing how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing AI summaries. Then simply ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, and note who gets named.
IndexNow is worth setting up too. It lets your site tell search engines straight away when a page is added, updated or deleted, and it is supported by Microsoft Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep.
Paid AI visibility trackers exist, but most small businesses do not need one to start. Be wary of AI writing tools as a shortcut. Google says using generative AI to produce large amounts of text without manual oversight or curation represents little to no effort, and that is not content it wants to show.
Source: Adobe Experience League, Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance Report; IndexNow.org; Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.
Is AI search worth worrying about for a small Australian business?
Yes, but it is not a reason to panic or pay for a separate AI service. The work that helps you in AI answers is mostly good SEO done properly: indexed pages, clear answers, accurate business details and real reviews. If your normal SEO is weak, fix that first and AI visibility follows more easily.
Be honest about what you sell. If customers rarely ask an AI tool about your type of business, a few clear service pages and a strong Google Business Profile will do most of the work.
MarketingOnWeb includes GEO and AEO in its flat $990 a month + GST SEO fee, month to month. We do not promise you will be named by ChatGPT. No one can.
You’ll deal directly with