ChatGPT SEO · Generative engine optimization · AI search
Get found when ChatGPT answers your customers.
ChatGPT, AI Overviews, and agentic search now answer buying questions directly. This site explains the practical work behind being the source those answers draw from — no gimmicks, no guaranteed-citation promises.
The short version: make your business findable (crawlable), structured (schema and machine-readable files), answer-ready (question-shaped content), and citable (evidence and citations) — then measure what actually happens.
Start with the four levers
What is generative engine optimization?The definition, the method, and what GEO can and cannot do.
GEO vs SEOWhat carries over from traditional SEO and what is genuinely new.
AI search optimization checklistA page-by-page checklist for AI search and AI Overviews.
LLM optimization layerSchema, llms.txt, entity graphs, and answer-ready content.
AI citation optimizationWhat makes a page citable in AI answers, how to measure it, and what no one can guarantee.
Why this site exists
Most "optimize for ChatGPT" advice is recycled SEO tips with new branding. The honest picture is different: AI systems consume websites through crawls, structured data, retrieval, and citations. Each of those is controllable, and each has real limits.
- Crawling — if a system cannot fetch or parse your pages cleanly, nothing else matters.
- Structured data — entity graphs and machine-readable files (robots.txt, sitemaps, llms.txt, JSON-LD) tell machines what the business is.
- Answer-ready content — direct questions, direct answers, and definitions survive retrieval better than marketing prose.
- Evidence — sources with traceable claims, dates, and citations are easier for AI systems to use and for people to trust.
Honest limits: optimization improves how your business is interpreted and how eligible it is to be retrieved. It does not guarantee that ChatGPT cites, recommends, or trusts you — and any vendor who promises otherwise is selling certainty that does not exist.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you optimize a website for ChatGPT?
- You cannot pay for placement or control what ChatGPT answers, but you can control the inputs it is built to use: clean crawling, structured data, answer-ready content, and evidence other sources can cite. That is what ChatGPT SEO means in practice.
- What is ChatGPT SEO?
- ChatGPT SEO is the practice of making a business findable, interpretable, and citable by ChatGPT and similar AI systems — measured by observation, not guaranteed placement.
- Does ChatGPT search work like Google?
- Partially. Crawling, indexing, and relevance still matter, but ChatGPT and AI Overviews retrieve and synthesize passages into answers, often citing sources. The goal shifts from ranking for a query to being the source an answer draws from.
- Is there a guarantee ChatGPT will cite my business?
- No. No legitimate method can guarantee a citation, a mention, or a trust decision by any AI system. Optimization improves interpretation and retrieval eligibility.
Next step
Audit the machine layer first. Check what actually renders for crawlers, what schema exists, and which of your questions AI answers already draw from.
Read the checklist →