How do you optimise a page for AI search?

Being the linked source begins with a page Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity can find. Put your answer at the start. Include something you produced that readers can verify. Check how often AI answers link your page. Track this apart from your search ranking, because a high ranking does not mean the answer links you.

What does a page need before an AI answer can link it?

Each engine finds pages its own way, and Google requires a page to be eligible in Search. Google says supporting links in AI Overviews and AI Mode must be “indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet” (Google Search Central). Its newer guide adds one more condition: “a site must be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console” (Google Search Central, 2026). “Include” is the default (Google Search Console Help).

OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot surfaces sites in ChatGPT search (OpenAI), so a Google ranking does not guarantee a ChatGPT link. Anthropic says Claude-SearchBot “navigates the web to improve search result quality for users” (Anthropic). Perplexity says PerplexityBot is “designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity” (Perplexity). Check that robots.txt does not block these search crawlers, then see whether each engine can find the page.

What are the ten checks?

The first five check that the page can be found. The last five are our checks for a clear, distinctive answer that readers can verify.

Researchers at Princeton University and IIT Delhi named GEO, and their test engine used the top five Google results to write an answer. They report that changes to page text “can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses” (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024).

Checks 1 to 4 cover access and page text; check 5 uses Search Console data. The last five need editorial judgement, and we think they make pages more useful to readers. Test whether the pages you revise using those checks appear in AI answers.

Which GEO tactics does Google say you can skip?

Google lists the first six in “Mythbusting generative AI search: what you don’t need to do”, and warns against the seventh earlier in the same guide (Google Search Central, 2026). That guidance covers Google Search. Check other engines separately.

Google says its search needs no special files or markup, and you do not need to write solely for AI. If a service you use reads llms.txt, consider publishing one, and put your page-writing effort into clear answers.

How do you measure whether AI answers link the page?

Measure links in AI answers separately from page rank. On Google, open the Generative AI performance report in Search Console. Google says it has “rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide” as of 31 August 2026 (Google Search Console Help). The report counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country and device, but it does not show the questions or answers.

For ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other AI search, ask the same buyer questions monthly from the same location. Save each full answer and its sources. Of 247 ChatGPT site citations in our Hong Kong tests, 203 were in neither Google top ten. We checked both the question and its paired keyword (Is GEO replacing SEO?). Try the free GEO check for the first round.

In a study of US searches in 2025, researchers repeated searches two months later. Only 18% of AI Overview pages appeared in both runs, against 45% of Google’s organic results (Findings of ACL 2026). Because AI Overview links changed more than organic results in that study, we check the links each month.