GEO and AEO explained: how small businesses get found in AI search answers

More people now ask an AI assistant “who’s a good dentist in Al Barsha?” or “Shopify or WooCommerce for a UAE store?” and get an answer with a few links, instead of ten blue links. GEO and AEO are the new labels for being one of those links or names. The labels are new. Most of the work isn’t.

What the platforms actually say

Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode):

• There are no additional technical requirements. To appear as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet.
• The same SEO fundamentals apply: crawlable pages, internal links, good page experience, important content in text form, structured data that matches visible text, and up-to-date Merchant Center and Business Profile information.
• Traffic from AI features is included in Search Console’s Performance report, under the “Web” search type.
• Google-Extended in robots.txt controls whether content is used to train Gemini models and for grounding in Gemini apps. It does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search.

OpenAI (ChatGPT search):

• OAI-SearchBot is the crawler for ChatGPT’s search features. Sites that block it won’t appear in ChatGPT search answers (except as navigational links).
• GPTBot is for model training. You can block it and still allow OAI-SearchBot.

So “optimising for AI” is mostly doing SEO well, plus deciding which AI crawlers you allow.

What tends to get a business mentioned

AI answers summarise what the web says. Pages that are easy to quote and businesses that are easy to verify have an advantage:

1. Specific answers on your own pages. “A deep clean for a 2-bedroom apartment in Dubai usually takes 5–6 hours with a team of three” is quotable. “We offer world-class cleaning solutions” isn’t.
2. One page per service, per main area. See service pages that rank and convert.
3. Questions answered in the words customers use, with the answer in the first sentence or two under each heading.
4. Consistent business facts everywhere: name, address or service area, phone, hours, services. On your website, your Google Business Profile and directories. See the Google Business Profile checklist.
5. Evidence and specifics: prices or price ranges, timelines, process, credentials, real examples.
6. Being mentioned elsewhere: reviews, local press, industry associations, partner sites. AI tools rarely name a business no one else talks about.
7. Structured data that matches the page (Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, Article). See structured data for small businesses.

Crawler access: decide on purpose

Check your robots.txt and any bot-blocking in your hosting or CDN (Cloudflare, for example, offers AI-bot blocking settings):

Other AI products publish their own crawler names. Many businesses allow the search-type crawlers (so they can be found) and make a separate decision about training crawlers.

A practical plan

1. Fix the basics: indexing, page speed, mobile, one clear page per service. See the small business SEO guide.
2. List the 20 questions customers ask before buying, and make sure your site answers each one clearly.
3. Make business facts consistent across your site, Google Business Profile and major directories.
4. Earn mentions: reviews, local partnerships, useful content others link to.
5. Set crawler rules deliberately.
6. Check monthly what AI assistants say about your business for your key questions, and record it. See monitoring AI assistant mentions.

What not to do

• Don’t create hundreds of thin pages “for AI”. Google’s spam policies still apply, and thin pages don’t get quoted.
• Don’t add structured data that doesn’t match what’s on the page.
• Don’t rely on FAQ markup for visibility. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in 2026. Answering questions in the content still helps readers and AI tools.
• Don’t trust tools that promise to “rank you in ChatGPT”. Nobody controls these answers.

Frequently asked questions

Is SEO dead because of AI search?

No. Google’s AI features are built on its search index and use the same eligibility rules. Good SEO is the foundation for appearing in AI answers.

How do we measure AI search traffic?

Google includes AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic in Search Console’s Web performance data, without a separate breakdown. Referrals from ChatGPT and other assistants often show up as referral traffic in GA4. Manual checks of key questions fill the gaps.

Should we block AI crawlers to protect our content?

That’s a business decision. Blocking search-type crawlers removes you from those answers. Blocking training-only crawlers doesn’t affect search visibility in the products listed above.

If you’d like help making your site and business information ready for AI search, that’s part of our traffic sources service.