How-To Guides

How To: GEO, AEO and AI Visibility, Step by Step

24 practical guides covering every service we offer. Use them yourself, or let us do it for you.

Short answer

These guides cover how to do GEO and AEO, get cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, optimize for Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, allow or block AI crawlers, create llms.txt, track AI visibility and traffic, and choose a GEO agency. Each has numbered steps, and we link the matching service. Results vary and no citation can be guaranteed.

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Last updated November 5, 2026 · Written by the Inspire Clicks senior team

Contents

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Grouped by service.

GEO: generative engine optimization

AEO: answer engine optimization

AIO: Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

LLM citations and AI crawlers

AI visibility tracking and intelligence

Getting started and choosing help

Queries chosen from keyword research on how-to phrasing used for GEO, AEO and AI search (Keyword Tool suggestions, November 2026). Crawler facts come from the vendors' own documentation, linked in each guide.

Service

GEO: generative engine optimization

How to

How to do generative engine optimization (GEO)

Short answer: Write down the questions your buyers ask, measure who AI tools cite today, fix crawler access, make key pages answer-first, align your brand facts everywhere, earn third-party mentions, then repeat the measurement monthly.

  1. Build a prompt set. List 15 to 20 questions buyers ask when researching your category, phrased the way they would type or say them.
  2. Baseline it. Run each prompt in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode. Record whether you are named, which sources are cited and the date.
  3. Fix retrieval access. Make sure search-style crawlers can fetch your pages. See how to allow AI crawlers.
  4. Make priority pages answer-first. Put a one to three sentence answer under a question-style heading. See how to write an answer block.
  5. Align brand facts. Use the same name, description, category, address and leadership details on your site and profiles. See Organization schema.
  6. Earn third-party mentions. Target the publications and directories the AI answers already cite. See how to earn mentions.
  7. Re-measure monthly. Rerun the same prompts and compare against the baseline. Judge by trend, not a single answer.

No one controls AI answers, so treat every step as improving odds, not a guarantee.

Need help? Managed GEO →

How to

How to get cited by ChatGPT

Short answer: Allow OpenAI's search crawler, publish pages that answer specific questions in quotable passages, earn mentions on sources ChatGPT already cites, and check results by running your own prompts with search turned on.

  1. Allow OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI documents it as the crawler that surfaces sites in ChatGPT search. Allow it in robots.txt and in your firewall or CDN. Source: OpenAI crawler documentation.
  2. Keep GPTBot a separate decision. GPTBot is for model training, and blocking it does not remove you from ChatGPT search.
  3. Make passages quotable. Lead with a direct answer, then give specifics: numbers, names, dates and sources.
  4. Cover the comparison and "best for" questions. Buyers ask ChatGPT to shortlist. Publish honest comparison pages with clear criteria.
  5. Earn third-party corroboration. Ask ChatGPT your prompts with search on, note which sites it cites, and pursue honest coverage on those or similar sources.
  6. Check referrals. In GA4, look for ChatGPT sources in your own traffic data. See how to track AI traffic.

Need help? LLM citation services →

How to

How to rank in Perplexity

Short answer: Perplexity shows sources for every answer. Allow PerplexityBot, permit its published IP ranges, and publish clear, current, well-sourced pages that answer the question directly.

  1. Allow PerplexityBot. Perplexity says it is used to surface and link sites in Perplexity search results, not to train foundation models. Source: Perplexity crawler documentation.
  2. Permit its IP ranges. Perplexity publishes ranges as JSON and recommends combining user-agent matching with IP verification in a firewall. Update the list periodically.
  3. Know Perplexity-User. This fetcher acts on a user's request and generally ignores robots.txt, so it will not be controlled by those rules.
  4. Answer directly and cite sources. Pages with a clear answer, named sources and recent dates are easier to quote.
  5. Build the same third-party footprint. Check which domains Perplexity cites for your prompts and earn honest mentions there.

Need help? LLM citation services →

How to

How to get your brand mentioned in AI answers

Short answer: Mentions come from clarity and corroboration: a consistent description of what you do, plus independent sources that say the same thing.

  1. Write a one-sentence identity. State who you are, what you do and who for. Use it on your homepage, about page and profiles.
  2. Make facts consistent. Names, categories, locations, pricing and leadership should match everywhere.
  3. Publish citable facts. Original data, definitions and benchmarks give assistants something specific to attribute.
  4. Collect independent references. Editorial coverage, directories, review sites and industry lists corroborate what you say.
  5. Test and correct. Ask assistants about your brand, log errors and fix them at the source page. See how to run an accuracy audit.

Need help? AI visibility intelligence →

Service

AEO: answer engine optimization

How to

How to do answer engine optimization (AEO)

Short answer: Turn your key pages into sources of direct answers: question-style headings, a short answer first, supporting detail, tables for comparisons and matching structured data.

  1. Pick the questions. Use sales calls, support tickets, People Also Ask and your prompt set.
  2. Map one question to one section. Give each question its own heading so it can be extracted on its own.
  3. Answer first. Write one to three sentences that fully answer it, then add detail.
  4. Match format to question type. Definitions as paragraphs, how-tos as numbered steps, comparisons as tables.
  5. Source and date it. Link primary sources and show a real last-updated date.
  6. Mirror it in structured data where useful. Only for content that is visible on the page.

Need help? AEO services →

How to

How to write an answer block that AI can quote

Short answer: An answer block is a short, self-contained passage that fully answers a question without needing the paragraphs around it.

  1. Start with the question as a heading, in the words a buyer would use.
  2. Name the subject in the first sentence. Write "Generative engine optimization is..." not "It is...".
  3. Give the answer in one to three sentences, including the key fact, number or condition.
  4. Add one proof point: a source, a date or a specific example.
  5. Read it aloud on its own. If it still makes sense without the page around it, it is quotable.

Example. What is AEO? Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring pages so search and AI systems can extract a direct answer, such as a definition, steps or a comparison table.

Need help? Answer-first rewrites →

How to

How to add FAQ schema (and what it does now)

Short answer: You can still add FAQPage markup, but Google no longer shows FAQ rich results in Search, so treat it as a machine-readable clarity layer, not a way to win extra space. Source: Google Search Central FAQ page.

  1. Write real questions and answers that are visible on the page. Markup must match visible content.
  2. Keep each answer self-contained, one to four sentences.
  3. Add the FAQPage JSON-LD to the page head or body, with one Question and acceptedAnswer per item.
  4. Validate it with Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator, and fix errors.
  5. Do not expect a visual change in Google results. The value is clearer structure for machines and readers.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is GEO?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Generative engine optimization (GEO) is ..."}}]}

Need help? Structured data →

How to

How to optimize product pages for AI shopping

Short answer: Make product facts accurate, consistent and answer-ready: the same price and availability on page and in feeds, structured data that matches, genuine reviews and clear answers on size, material and care.

  1. Align title, price, availability and key attributes between the page and any product feed.
  2. Add Product and Offer structured data that mirrors what the shopper sees.
  3. Answer the practical questions on the page: size, material, care, delivery, returns.
  4. Show genuine reviews and ratings only. Never create or incentivize fake ones.
  5. Write comparison and gift-guide content with clear criteria and honest trade-offs.
  6. Check what AI tools say about your price and stock, and correct the source if it is wrong.

Need help? GEO for e-commerce →

Service

AIO: Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

How to

How to optimize for Google AI Overviews

Short answer: Google says there is nothing special to do beyond SEO fundamentals: your page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Focus on crawlability, helpful original content and accurate structured data. Source: Google Search Central.

  1. Let Googlebot in. Check robots.txt, firewall and login walls.
  2. Confirm indexing. Use Search Console's URL Inspection on key pages.
  3. Keep snippets eligible. Avoid nosnippet or restrictive max-snippet unless you chose that deliberately.
  4. Put the main content in text. Do not hide it in images or scripts that fail to render.
  5. Link internally. Help crawlers and readers find related pages.
  6. Match structured data to visible content. Do not mark up what readers cannot see.
  7. Write for people. Original, specific, expert content with sources.

You do not need an llms.txt file or special AI markup for AI Overviews, according to Google.

Need help? AI Overviews optimization →

How to

How to rank in Google AI Mode

Short answer: AI Mode can break one question into several related searches (query fan-out). Cover the sub-questions around each topic so your site can answer more than the head term.

  1. Pick a priority topic, such as "GEO for SaaS".
  2. List the follow-up questions a buyer would ask next: cost, timeline, tools, risks, alternatives, how to start.
  3. Give each sub-question its own heading and a direct answer, on one page or linked pages.
  4. Interlink the cluster so each page points to the next logical question.
  5. Test by asking AI Mode the head question and its follow-ups. Note which sources it cites and which questions you do not answer yet.

Need help? AI Overviews and AI Mode →

How to

How to measure AI Overviews traffic in Search Console

Short answer: Google counts clicks and impressions from AI features in the Web search type in Search Console but does not break them out separately, so measure change over time and annotate what you changed.

  1. Open Search Console, then Performance, and keep the search type as Web.
  2. Export queries and pages for a baseline period, for example 28 days.
  3. Mark the dates you publish or change key pages.
  4. Compare impressions, clicks and click-through rate for the same queries before and after.
  5. Pair it with a fixed prompt set to see whether you are cited inside the overview.

Expect lower click-through on queries where an overview appears: one 2026 field experiment found about 38% fewer outbound organic clicks (working paper).

Need help? AI visibility reporting →

Service

LLM citations and AI crawlers

How to

How to allow AI crawlers in robots.txt

Short answer: Allow the search and retrieval crawlers explicitly: Googlebot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot, and check that your firewall or CDN does not block them. Sources: OpenAI crawler documentation; Perplexity crawler documentation; Anthropic crawler help article.

  1. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt.
  2. Make sure there is no blanket Disallow: / for the bots you want.
  3. Add explicit Allow groups for the search bots, as shown below.
  4. Add your sitemap line.
  5. Check your WAF or CDN bot rules and allow the vendors' published IP ranges.
  6. Verify in your server logs that these bots receive 200 responses.
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Anthropic says disabling Claude-SearchBot prevents indexing your content for search optimization, and disabling Claude-User may reduce visibility for user-directed search. Details change, so recheck vendor pages. Full crawler access guide.

Need help? Retrieval access audit →

How to

How to block AI training crawlers without losing AI search visibility

Short answer: Training and search use different crawlers. You can disallow the training bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot) while allowing the search bots, so you opt out of training but stay retrievable in AI search.

  1. Decide your licensing position first. Blocking training bots is a business choice, not an SEO requirement.
  2. Add Disallow rules for the training crawlers you want to block.
  3. Keep the search crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot) on Allow.
  4. Do not rely on IP blocking to opt out. Anthropic warns it can stop its crawler from reading your robots.txt.
  5. Review quarterly, since vendors add and rename bots.
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /

Google-Extended is a separate robots.txt token that governs use of content for Gemini models and does not affect inclusion in Google Search. Confirm in Google's current documentation.

Need help? Publisher AI policy →

How to

How to create an llms.txt file (and whether you need one)

Short answer: llms.txt is a proposed markdown file at your site root that summarizes your site for AI systems. It is optional and unproven: Google says no such file is needed for AI Overviews, so treat it as low priority.

  1. Create a plain text file named llms.txt at the root of your domain.
  2. Start with a title line, then a one-sentence summary as a blockquote.
  3. Add sections with links to your most important pages and a short note for each.
  4. Keep links to canonical URLs that return 200.
  5. Update it when your key pages change. Do not expect it to replace sitemaps, schema or good content.
# Example Co
> Example Co provides managed widgets for mid-size teams.

## Services
- [Widget setup](https://www.example.com/setup): how we configure widgets

## Reference
- [Pricing](https://www.example.com/pricing)
- [FAQ](https://www.example.com/faq)

Need help? Our llms.txt approach →

How to

How to run an LLM citation audit

Short answer: A citation audit records which sources AI tools cite for your category and whether you appear, so you know where to earn mentions.

  1. Choose 15 to 20 prompts covering definitions, comparisons, best-for and how-to questions.
  2. Run each on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode with search or browsing on.
  3. Log, per answer: brand mentioned or not, link cited or not, sources listed, sentiment and accuracy.
  4. Tally the domains cited most often. Those are your target sources.
  5. Note prompts where competitors appear and you do not.
  6. Repeat monthly with the same prompts.

Need help? LLM citation services →

How to

How to earn third-party mentions that AI tools cite

Short answer: Use white-hat outreach: publish something worth citing, pitch the sites AI already cites, and keep profiles accurate. Paid-link schemes and fake reviews put your brand at risk.

  1. Start from your citation audit's target domain list.
  2. Create a citable asset: original data, a benchmark, a clear definition or a useful tool.
  3. Pitch editors and contributors with the specific angle and the evidence.
  4. Claim and complete profiles on relevant directories and review sites.
  5. Keep descriptions consistent with your own site.
  6. Track which placements actually go live and whether they get cited.

Need help? White-hat authority building →

Service

AI visibility tracking and intelligence

How to

How to track AI visibility

Short answer: Track a fixed set of prompts on a schedule across AI platforms, and record mentions, citations, sentiment and accuracy. Trends over many prompts matter more than any single answer.

  1. Write buyer-persona prompts across funnel stages: awareness, comparison and decision.
  2. Run the same prompts monthly on each platform, ideally in a clean session and a consistent location.
  3. Record the date, platform, answer, sources, brand mention, link and sentiment.
  4. Compute simple metrics: share of voice (prompts where you appear, divided by total prompts) and citation share by platform.
  5. Benchmark named competitors on the same prompts.
  6. Use tools such as xFunnel.ai or Profound to automate, and validate key prompts by hand.

Answers vary by user, location and time. Repeat prompts several times before reading a change as real.

Need help? AI visibility intelligence →

How to

How to track AI traffic in GA4

Short answer: Segment sessions whose source is an AI assistant, then tie them to conversions. Source names change, so build the list from your own data.

  1. In GA4, open the Traffic acquisition report and set the dimension to session source or source / medium.
  2. Search for sources such as chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com and claude.ai, and note which actually appear in your data.
  3. Create a custom channel group or an Exploration segment that matches those sources, for example with a regular expression.
  4. Compare engagement and key events for this group against organic search.
  5. Add a "how did you hear about us" field to forms to catch visits that arrive with no referrer.

Some AI clicks arrive without a referrer and appear as direct traffic, so GA4 will undercount.

Need help? Reporting →

How to

How to run an AI accuracy audit

Short answer: Compare what AI tools say about your pricing, products and leadership with your own source of truth, then fix each error at the page that caused it.

  1. Create a fact sheet: prices, plans, features, locations, leadership and policies.
  2. Ask each AI platform factual questions about your brand.
  3. Log every mismatch with the platform, the prompt and the source it cited.
  4. Trace the source: your own page, a directory, a news article or an outdated listing.
  5. Correct the source where it lives, and update your own pages so they are unambiguous.
  6. Retest next month and track open errors.

Need help? AI visibility intelligence →

How to

How to add Organization schema for entity clarity

Short answer: Organization markup tells machines who you are with consistent name, logo, URL, contact and profile links. It helps disambiguate your brand but does not by itself cause citations.

  1. Collect the exact name, URL, logo, description and contact details you want machines to use.
  2. Write an Organization JSON-LD block with those values and your official profile links in sameAs.
  3. Place it on your homepage and reference the same @id from other pages.
  4. Make sure every value appears on the site or in profiles, so they agree.
  5. Validate it with the Schema Markup Validator and Google's Rich Results Test.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.example.com/#organization","name":"Example Co","url":"https://www.example.com/","logo":"https://www.example.com/logo.png","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/company/example"]}

Need help? Structured data and entities →

How to

How to keep content fresh for AI search

Short answer: Update pages that answer time-sensitive questions on a schedule, and change the visible date only when the content really changed.

  1. List pages that contain prices, statistics, rules or tool names that go stale.
  2. Set a review cadence, for example quarterly, and assign an owner.
  3. Update facts and sources, remove dead links and add what changed.
  4. Show a real last-updated date and keep dateModified in schema consistent with it.
  5. Resubmit the URL in Search Console when a key page changes.

Need help? Content freshness →

Service

Getting started and choosing help

How to

How to run a GEO audit yourself

Short answer: Work through retrieval, content, entity, authority and measurement checks, fix retrieval first, and score yourself so you can see progress.

  1. Open our 20-point GEO audit checklist.
  2. Score each item as done, partial or missing.
  3. Fix retrieval and indexing items first, since AI cannot cite what it cannot fetch.
  4. Then work on answer structure, entity consistency and authority.
  5. Rerun the checklist quarterly.

Need help? Free AI visibility audit →

How to

How to choose a GEO agency

Short answer: Choose on method and honesty, not promises. A good agency explains how it measures, who does the work and what it will not do.

  1. Ask how they measure AI visibility. Look for a fixed prompt set, repeat runs and Search Console and GA4 data.
  2. Ask who does the work. Prefer named senior people over a handoff to juniors.
  3. Avoid anyone who guarantees citations or rankings. AI answers cannot be controlled.
  4. Ask how they earn mentions. Reject paid-link schemes, fake reviews and hidden text.
  5. Check the contract: month-to-month terms, deliverables you own, clear scope.
  6. Ask for an audit or a small fixed-scope start before a long retainer.

See how we answer these on Why Inspire Clicks.

Need help? Why Inspire Clicks →

How to

How to get started with Inspire Clicks

Short answer: Request the free AI visibility audit, review the findings, then choose a fixed-scope Sprint, a monthly retainer or a quote-based intelligence plan.

  1. Send your website, markets and top competitors through the contact form. We reply within 24 hours.
  2. Receive the audit: domain rating, top keyword opportunities, critical technical issues and an AI visibility snapshot.
  3. Pick a path: the $1,499 Citation Sprint, a retainer from $99 per month or AI Visibility Intelligence by quote.
  4. Kick off with a baseline prompt set and a prioritized roadmap.

Need help? Free AI visibility audit →

FAQ

About these guides

No. A spreadsheet, Search Console, GA4 and access to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode are enough to start. Tools such as xFunnel.ai and Profound automate prompt tracking at scale.
Technical fixes can improve eligibility within weeks. Citation share usually builds over several months, and results vary by site, category and competition. No one can guarantee a citation.
Check crawler access and indexing first. If AI systems cannot fetch your pages they cannot cite them. Then make priority pages answer-first and measure a baseline.
The fundamentals overlap: accessible, clear, corroborated content. The crawler names and controls differ per vendor, which is why the crawler sections list them separately.
Yes. Each section links to the matching service. We reply within 24 hours to audit requests.
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