AEO & GEO Services
Answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization: getting your business named and cited when Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity answer your customers' questions. Done as part of SEO and measured every month.
What AI answers do to clicks on Google
- of Google searches in the study showed an AI summary
- 18%
- of visits with an AI summary led to a click on a regular result, against 15% without one
- 8%
- of visits with an AI summary led to a click on a link inside it
- 1%
- of searches with an AI summary ended the browsing session, against 16% without one
- 26%
Source: Pew Research Center, July 22, 2025: browsing data from 900 US adults, 68,879 Google searches in March 2025. An observed pattern, not a measured cause.
What AEO and GEO are, and why they're part of SEO
Agencies sell it as AEO services, GEO services, AI SEO or AI search optimization. The names differ; the job is the same.
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of getting your pages used as the source when Google AI Overviews, AI Mode or a featured snippet answers a question. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the same for assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, which put an answer together from several sources and name businesses in it.
Both depend on things SEO already covers. Google uses its own search index for AI Overviews and AI Mode and controls them with the same robots.txt rules as Googlebot. ChatGPT search finds pages through OpenAI’s OAI-SearchBot, Perplexity through PerplexityBot. All of them lean on what other sites say about you. A page that search engines can’t reach or don’t trust rarely ends up in an AI answer.
That is why we don’t sell AEO and GEO as a separate retainer. They are part of every SEO plan we run. The one piece we sell on its own is an AI visibility audit, for businesses that want to know where they stand before deciding anything.
Six things we check first
Most of them can be checked in an afternoon, and any one of them can keep a business out of AI answers.
AI crawlers are blocked
A robots.txt rule or bot protection at the host turns away OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, and the site can't appear in ChatGPT search or Perplexity answers. Blocking GPTBot only opts out of model training; blocking OAI-SearchBot removes you from ChatGPT search.The answer is hidden
Prices, service areas and turnaround times sit in a PDF, an image, a quote form or a script that only runs in the browser. An assistant can't cite what it can't read on the page.No page answers the question
The site has a Services page but nothing that answers "how much does it cost in Denver" or "how long does it take". Assistants cite the page that answers, which is often a competitor's.The business looks different across the web
The name, address, phone number or categories differ between the website, the Google Business Profile and directories. Conflicting facts make a business harder to recommend with confidence.Nobody else mentions you
Assistants lean on what other sites say: directories, reviews, industry lists, local news, forum threads. A business that only describes itself gets named less often.Facts are out of date
Old prices, a closed location, a service you stopped offering. Assistants repeat what they find, including what is no longer true.
Where we track you, and where each platform finds its sources
Google AI Overviews
The answer above the regular results. Sources come from Google's search index and follow the same robots.txt rules as Googlebot. Google says there are no extra requirements to appear.
Google AI Mode
A conversational mode inside Google Search, built on the same index. Since June 2026 Search Console reports impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
ChatGPT search
OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot decides whether your pages can appear in ChatGPT search answers. It is set separately from GPTBot, which collects data for training.
Perplexity
PerplexityBot builds Perplexity's search index, and every answer lists its sources. A separate fetcher, Perplexity-User, opens pages when a person asks about them.
Gemini
Google's assistant, separate from Search. The Google-Extended setting controls whether your content is used for Gemini; it does not affect Google Search.
Microsoft Copilot
Answers draw on Bing, so your Bing index status and your Bing Places listing matter here more than anywhere else.
How we measure AI visibility
Citations by platform
Each month, Ahrefs counts how often your site is cited in AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot answers in the US.
Pages cited
How many different pages of your site those citations point to, and whether the number grows as new pages go live.
Google's own numbers
Impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search Console, reported by Google since June 2026.
Priority questions by hand
The questions that matter most to your sales, asked on each platform, saved as dated screenshots. Answers change, so we keep the evidence.
A baseline before any work
The first measurement is taken before we change anything, so every later number is compared with where you started.
Next to your SEO report
AI citations sit in the same monthly report as rankings, traffic and leads, because the same work moves all of them.
AEO vs GEO vs SEO: one job, three names
The three terms describe where you want to show up, not three different kinds of work.
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it shows | The regular results in Google and Bing | Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, featured snippets | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot |
| What counts as a win | A high position and a click | Your page is a source of the answer | Your business is named and your site is cited |
| What moves it | Crawling, content, links | Pages that answer the question directly, clean structure | Consistent facts about the business and mentions on other sites |
Most of the work is shared. A page Google can’t crawl won’t appear in AI Overviews either; Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode have no extra requirements beyond what Search needs. A business that every directory describes differently confuses an assistant the same way it confuses Google Maps. Running AEO, GEO and SEO as three projects means paying three times for one set of fixes.
What doesn’t work (and still gets sold)
An llms.txt file. Google has said in writing that Search doesn’t use it, and the data on who reads these files is thin. Our analysis of the llms.txt data covers who actually requests them.
Paid spots in «best of» lists. Lists of top agencies or top contractors that sell their places are ads. Mentions that help are the ones an editor, a customer or a directory chose to publish.
Hundreds of AI-written pages, one per question. Google’s spam policies name scaled content abuse: generating many pages mainly to manipulate rankings. It can take a site out of the results that AI answers are built from.
A guaranteed place in ChatGPT. Assistants give different answers to different people and to the same person on different days. Nobody controls that, so nobody can guarantee it. What can be measured is how often your site is cited over a month.
FAQ markup for rich results. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026. Questions and answers on a page are still useful because they answer real questions. The markup alone is not a shortcut, as we explain in this article.
Local businesses in AI answers
When someone asks an assistant for a plumber, a dentist or a car service in their city, the answer is built from the same places a person would check: the Google Business Profile, reviews, directories and the business’s own site. In the example below, Google showed the business’s profile card right under the AI Overview that named it.
For a local business that makes AI visibility mostly local SEO: a complete profile, the same name, address and phone number on every listing, reviews, and service pages that state prices and areas plainly. See our local SEO service, the guide to Google map citations and how a new local business reached #1 on Google Maps.
A real example: Mr. Chauffeur Colorado
Mr. Chauffeur Colorado is a car service in Colorado and one of our clients. We ran its SEO: technical and on-page work, service pages optimized to answer the questions people ask before booking, citations in local directories, and link building.
On October 17, 2026, a Google search for «denver to red rocks car service» showed an AI Overview that named the company in its answer («operators like Mr. Chauffeur or Red Rocks Voyager») and listed Mr. Chauffeur Colorado among its sources, with the company’s profile card below.
Across AI platforms, Ahrefs counted 634 citations of mrchauffeurcolorado.com in US AI answers on October 18, 2026, pointing to 77 different pages of the site. Most of them, 506, are in AI Overviews for Google searches; the rest are in AI Mode (47), Gemini (34), Perplexity (22), AI Overviews for tracked prompts (18), Copilot (6) and ChatGPT (1).
AI answers change from one search to the next, so the screenshot is a snapshot of that day, and the counts are what we track month to month.
How much AEO and GEO cost
At TwoX there is no separate fee for AEO or GEO: the work is part of every SEO plan, because it is the same work on the same pages. The one thing we sell on its own is the AI visibility audit, a one-time $900.
Agencies that sell AEO services or GEO services separately rarely publish prices. One that does, WebFX, lists GEO plans starting at $3,000 a month with a six-month commitment. If you are comparing offers, ask what is measured, how often, and what happens to the work if you stop paying.
All you need to do is leave your phone number and we will contact you right away!
How the AI visibility audit works
A one-time project for $900. You get the findings and the plan whether or not you work with us afterwards.
Baseline
Citations of your site by platform from Ahrefs, AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions from Search Console if you give us access, and the pages already being cited.
Priority questions
We agree on the questions your customers ask before they buy and check them on Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, with dated screenshots.
The six checks
Crawler access, hidden answers, missing pages, inconsistent business facts, mentions on other sites and stale information.
Plan
What to fix first, which pages to write or rewrite, and which listings and mentions to go after, in order of effort and effect.
Walk-through
A 30-minute call to go through the findings. The report and screenshots are yours to keep or hand to your own team.
AEO & GEO pricing
There is no separate AEO or GEO retainer. The work is part of every TwoX SEO plan; the audit is the only piece sold on its own.
AI visibility audit
RecommendedWhere your business stands in AI answers today, and what to do about it.
$900one-time
- Citations by platform from Ahrefs
- Priority questions checked on 5 platforms, with screenshots
- The six checks from this page
- A prioritized plan for pages, listings and mentions
- 30-minute walk-through call
Part of SEO
For SEO clients, AEO and GEO work and monthly AI citation tracking come with the plan.
Includedin every SEO plan
- Answer-ready service and location pages
- Consistent business facts across listings
- Mentions and links from relevant sites
- AI citations in the monthly SEO report
Further reading
Frequently Asked Questions
AEO is about being the source of answers in Google's AI Overviews, AI Mode and featured snippets. GEO is about being named and cited by assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. The work behind both is largely the same, which is why we do them together and as part of SEO.
No. AI answers are built from pages that search engines can crawl and trust, so SEO is the ground they stand on. What changes is what counts as a win: being cited in an answer as well as ranking in the list of results.
At TwoX, AEO and GEO services are included in every SEO plan with no separate fee. The AI visibility audit is sold on its own for $900. Agencies that sell GEO as a separate service and publish prices start around $3,000 a month.
Fixes to crawler access and business facts can show up within weeks, once the platforms recrawl the site. New pages and new mentions take longer, usually months, and depend on how competitive the questions are. We track the citation count monthly so you can see the trend.
No one can. Assistants give different answers to different people and change them over time. What we can do is remove what keeps you out, publish what they can cite, and measure how often you are cited each month.
For most businesses, no. Google has said Search doesn't use it, and there is little evidence that AI assistants rely on it to choose sources. It does no harm, but it shouldn't come before crawler access, clear answers and consistent business facts.
With Ahrefs we count citations of your site and the number of cited pages on each platform every month. We add AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions from Search Console and dated screenshots of the questions that matter most to your sales.
Yes, and for local businesses it overlaps most with local SEO. Assistants recommending a plumber or a dentist lean on the Google Business Profile, reviews, directory listings and service pages, so the same fixes help on Google Maps and in AI answers.
Block the ones that train models if you want to, but keep the ones that power search. Blocking GPTBot opts out of OpenAI's training; blocking OAI-SearchBot removes you from ChatGPT search. For Google, the Google-Extended setting covers Gemini and doesn't affect Search.
Your website address, the services and areas that matter most, and the questions customers ask before they buy. Search Console access is helpful but optional.
Let's talk about your growth
Tell us about your business and where you want more customers from. We'll look at your site and come back with concrete next steps.