---
name: seo-geo
description: >
  Audit and improve content for AI Overviews and answer engines, including
  citability, entity clarity, crawler access, brand signals, and passage
  structure.
user-invocable: true
argument-hint: "[url]"
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: AgriciDaniel
  version: "2.4.2"
  category: seo
---

# AI Search / GEO Optimization (May 2026)

## Primary Source: Google's AI Optimization Guide

Google's official position, published under Search Central docs:

> "From Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is
> optimizing for the search experience, and thus **still SEO**."

Read `references/google-ai-optimization-guide.md` for the full synthesis,
myth-busting list (`llms.txt`, chunking, AI-rephrasing, mention-farming,
all rejected by Google as ineffective), and the Who/How/Why test for
content quality.

Audits should frame GEO findings as **SEO fundamentals applied to AI-search
surfaces**, not as a separate optimization discipline. When community
recommendations contradict Google's primary source, defer to Google and note
the contradiction in the report.

## Key Statistics

Third-party figures below were not re-verified on 2026-09-23. Quote them only
with their source and date, or leave them out.

| Metric | Value | Source |
|--------|-------|--------|
| AI Overviews reach | 2.5 billion+ monthly active users, reported from Google I/O 2026 keynote coverage; not confirmed on a Google-owned source; 200+ countries | Third-party I/O reporting |
| AI Overviews query coverage | ~50% of queries (third-party measurement; varies by country) | Industry data |
| AI Mode monthly users | 1B+ (Google, I/O 2026, 2026-05-19) | Google (blog.google) |
| AI Mode model | Google upgrades it often (Gemini 3.5 Flash became the default on 2026-05-19, and newer Flash models have shipped since); never tie advice to a model | Google (blog.google) |
| AI-referred sessions growth | 527% (Jan-May 2025) | Third-party (attributed to SparkToro; not re-verified) |
| ChatGPT weekly active users | 1 billion+ (reported August 2026; 900 million in February 2026) | OpenAI, via press reporting |
| Perplexity monthly queries | 500+ million | Perplexity |

## Critical Insight: Brand Mentions > Backlinks

**Brand mentions correlate 3x more strongly with AI visibility than backlinks.**
(Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands, published 2025-12-12; it follows Ahrefs' May 2025 AI Overviews study)

| Signal | Correlation with AI Citations |
|--------|------------------------------|
| YouTube mentions | ~0.737 (strongest) |
| Reddit mentions | High |
| Wikipedia presence | High |
| LinkedIn presence | Moderate |
| Domain Rating (backlinks) | ~0.266 (weak) |

**Only 11% of domains** are cited by both ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews for the same query, so platform-specific optimization is essential.

---

## GEO Analysis Criteria (Updated)

### 1. Citability Score (25%)

**Self-contained answer blocks** are easy for AI systems to quote. Third-party
studies suggest roughly 130-170 words; this is a readability heuristic, not a
Google requirement (Google's AI optimization guide says you do not need to chunk
content for AI). And **~44% of AI
citations come from the first 30% of a page** (SE Ranking study), front-load
your most citable, self-contained answer rather than burying it below the fold.

**Strong signals:**
- Clear, quotable sentences with specific facts/statistics
- Self-contained answer blocks (can be extracted without context)
- Direct answer in first 40-60 words of section
- Claims attributed with specific sources
- Definitions following "X is..." or "X refers to..." patterns
- Unique data points not found elsewhere

**Weak signals:**
- Vague, general statements
- Opinion without evidence
- Buried conclusions
- No specific data points

### 2. Structural Readability (20%)

**92% of AI Overview citations come from top-10 ranking pages**, but 47% come from pages ranking below position 5, demonstrating different selection logic.

**Strong signals:**
- Clean H1->H2->H3 heading hierarchy
- Question-based headings (matches query patterns)
- Short paragraphs (2-4 sentences)
- Tables for comparative data
- Ordered/unordered lists for step-by-step or multi-item content
- FAQ sections with clear Q&A format

**Weak signals:**
- Wall of text with no structure
- Inconsistent heading hierarchy
- No lists or tables
- Information buried in paragraphs

### 3. Multi-Modal Content (15%)

Multi-modal content can support selection in AI answers (third-party claims only; no primary source gives a figure).

**Check for:**
- Text + relevant images
- Video content (embedded or linked)
- Infographics and charts
- Interactive elements (calculators, tools)
- Structured data supporting media

### 4. Authority & Brand Signals (20%)

**Strong signals:**
- Author byline with credentials
- Publication date and last-updated date
- **Recency**, content under 3 months old is ~3x more likely to be cited in AI answers; pages left stale 6+ months lose citation eligibility (SE Ranking, 1.3M-citation study). A scheduled refresh program is one of the highest-leverage GEO plays.
- Citations to primary sources (studies, official docs, data)
- Organization credentials and affiliations
- Expert quotes with attribution
- Entity presence in Wikipedia, Wikidata
- Mentions on Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn

**Weak signals:**
- Anonymous authorship
- No dates
- No sources cited
- No brand presence across platforms

### 5. Technical Accessibility (20%)

**Many AI crawlers fetch raw HTML without running JavaScript** (for example GPTBot and PerplexityBot in public tests), while Googlebot renders JavaScript and feeds AI Overviews and AI Mode. Server-side rendering keeps content visible to all of them.

**Check for:**
- Server-side rendering (SSR) vs client-only content
- AI crawler access in robots.txt
- llms.txt presence (reported for completeness; it carries **no weight** in this score, see `references/llmstxt-evidence.md`)
- RSL 1.0 licensing terms

---

## AI Crawler Detection

Check `robots.txt` for these AI crawlers:

| Crawler | Owner | Purpose | Obeys robots.txt? |
|---------|-------|---------|---|
| GPTBot | OpenAI | **Model training only** (NOT ChatGPT Search) | yes |
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | **ChatGPT Search citability** (the crawler that decides it) | yes |
| ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | ChatGPT browsing (user-triggered) | "may not apply" per OpenAI (user-triggered) |
| ClaudeBot | Anthropic | **Model training only** (NOT Claude's search features) | yes |
| Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | **Claude/Claude.ai search-result citability** (the crawler that decides it) | yes |
| Claude-User | Anthropic | Claude browsing on a user's behalf (user-triggered) | **yes** (Anthropic: all three bots honor robots.txt) |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Perplexity AI search (not used to crawl for foundation-model training) | yes |
| Perplexity-User | Perplexity | Fetches for a user's question (user-triggered) | generally ignores |
| CCBot | Common Crawl | Training data (often blocked) | yes |
| Bytespider | ByteDance | TikTok/Douyin AI | yes |
| cohere-ai | Cohere | Cohere models | yes |
| Google-Extended | Google | **Gemini/Vertex training & grounding, and training of the models behind Search gen-AI features** (NOT Google Search inclusion or ranking) | yes |
| Google-CloudVertexBot | Google | Site-owner-requested Vertex AI Agent crawls | yes |
| Google-Agent | Google | User-triggered agent fetches (agentic browsing for a user) | **no (user-triggered)** |
| Google-GeminiNotebook | Google | Fetches individual user-added source URLs (replaced `Google-NotebookLM`, supported until August 2026) | **no (user-triggered)** |
| Google Messages | Google | User-triggered fetch | **no (user-triggered)** |
| Applebot-Extended | Apple | **Apple Intelligence / generative-AI training data opt-out only** (NOT Siri, Spotlight, or Safari search; does not itself crawl, it labels content already fetched by Applebot) | yes |

Sources: [OpenAI crawlers](https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots),
[Google crawlers overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/overview-google-crawlers),
[Anthropic crawler support article](https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler),
[Apple Applebot-Extended support article](https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829).
Anthropic's current crawler support article documents only ClaudeBot, Claude-User,
and Claude-SearchBot; it does not list `anthropic-ai`, so the previously-unverified
`anthropic-ai` row has been removed rather than kept as a guess.

**Recommendation:** Allow OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, and PerplexityBot for AI
search visibility. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, and Applebot-Extended are training-only
signals -- allow or block them on licensing preference, not on search-visibility
grounds.

### Check the right bot for the claim you are making

Two pairs are routinely conflated. **Each claim below may only be supported by its own
bot's robots.txt status** -- check them separately and report them separately.

| Claim you want to make | Bot to check | Bot that does NOT support this claim |
|---|---|---|
| "Content is citable in ChatGPT Search" | `OAI-SearchBot` | `GPTBot` |
| "Content is available for OpenAI model training" | `GPTBot` | `OAI-SearchBot` |
| "Content can be used for Gemini/Vertex training & grounding" | `Google-Extended` | `Googlebot` |
| "Content is eligible for Google Search / AI Overviews" | `Googlebot` | `Google-Extended` |
| "Content is citable in Claude's search features" | `Claude-SearchBot` | `ClaudeBot` |
| "Content is available for Anthropic model training" | `ClaudeBot` | `Claude-SearchBot` |
| "Content can be used for Apple Intelligence training" | `Applebot-Extended` | `Applebot` |
| "Content is discoverable via Siri, Spotlight, or Safari search" | `Applebot` | `Applebot-Extended` |

- **`Google-Extended` governs Gemini and Vertex AI training and grounding use, and
  training of the models behind Search gen-AI features. It does not affect inclusion
  in ordinary Google Search, or in AI Overviews and AI
  Mode, both of which are served from the `Googlebot` index.** Never score
  `Google-Extended` as a "Google Search readiness" signal, and never cite a blocked
  `Google-Extended` as evidence that a site is missing from Google Search.
- **`OAI-SearchBot` is the crawler that determines ChatGPT Search citability.
  `GPTBot` is OpenAI's separate training crawler.** Checking `GPTBot` access tells
  you nothing about whether ChatGPT Search can cite the page. A site that blocks
  `GPTBot` and allows `OAI-SearchBot` is fully citable in ChatGPT Search.
- **`Claude-SearchBot` is the crawler that determines citability in Claude's own
  search features. `ClaudeBot` is Anthropic's separate training crawler** (per
  Anthropic's crawler support article). Checking `ClaudeBot` access tells you
  nothing about Claude search citability, and vice versa; report each separately.
- **`Applebot-Extended` is a training-data opt-out signal, not a crawler that
  fetches pages itself.** Per Apple's support article, disallowing
  `Applebot-Extended` opts a site out of Apple Intelligence / generative-model
  training use, but the page remains discoverable through Siri, Spotlight, and
  Safari as long as `Applebot` itself is allowed. Never cite a blocked
  `Applebot-Extended` as evidence a site is missing from Apple's search surfaces.

Do not use these names interchangeably in report prose. When reporting crawler access,
name the specific user-agent that was checked and the specific capability it governs.

> **Google's user-triggered fetchers generally ignore robots.txt rules** (Google-Agent, Google-GeminiNotebook, Google Messages); OpenAI says robots.txt "may not apply" to ChatGPT-User, while Anthropic's Claude-User honors it. robots.txt cannot block them, use server-side access controls. Google's canonical crawling/robots reference moved to **developers.google.com/crawling** (migrated 2025-11-20); IP-range files now live at `/crawling/ipranges/` and `googlebot.json` was renamed `common-crawlers.json`. Emerging: **Web Bot Auth** (RFC 9421) lets bots authenticate via a `Signature-Agent` header + key directory (used by Google-Agent); reverse-DNS verification remains the fallback.

---

## llms.txt Standard

Read `references/llmstxt-evidence.md` for the primary-source evidence (Mueller, Illyes, SE Ranking 300k-domain study, OtterlyAI server-log audit) on why `/llms.txt` is not currently a citation lever for major AI search systems. claude-seo reports presence but assigns no citation-ranking weight.

> **Google now states this explicitly.** Google's AI optimization guide, published
> 2026-05-15 (llms.txt guidance clarified 2026-06-15, last updated 2026-07-10), says `llms.txt` and other AI-text files are
> not needed for Google Search and do not help or hurt visibility or rankings.
> They may still serve non-Google systems. Never recommend `llms.txt` as a Google
> ranking or citation lever. Source:
> developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide

**llms.txt** is a community proposal for giving LLMs a curated map of a site; no major AI provider has confirmed using it.

**Location:** `/llms.txt` (root of domain)

**Format:**
```
# Title of site
> Brief description

## Main sections
- [Page title](url): Description
- [Another page](url): Description

## Optional: Key facts
- Fact 1
- Fact 2
```

**Check for:**
- Presence of `/llms.txt`
- Structured content guidance
- Key page highlights
- Contact/authority information

---

## RSL 1.0 (Really Simple Licensing)

New standard (December 2025) for machine-readable AI licensing terms.

**Backed by:** Reddit, Yahoo, Medium, Quora, Cloudflare, Akamai, Creative Commons

**Check for:** RSL implementation and appropriate licensing terms.

---

## Platform-Specific Optimization

| Platform | Key Citation Sources | Optimization Focus |
|----------|---------------------|-------------------|
| **Google AI Overviews** | Strongly ranking-correlated, cites pages that already rank well | Traditional SEO + passage optimization |
| **Google AI Mode** (Gemini models, upgraded often) | Weakly ranking-correlated; broader pool (~9 domains cited/query, Ahrefs) | Distinct surface: freshness, entity authority, citable passages beyond position 5 |
| **ChatGPT** | Wikipedia (47.9%), Reddit (11.3%) of top-10 cited sources (Profound, 2025-06-05) | Entity presence, authoritative sources |
| **Perplexity** | Reddit (46.7%) of top-10 cited sources (Profound, 2025-06-05), Wikipedia | Community validation, discussions |
| **Bing Copilot** | Bing index, authoritative sites | Bing SEO, IndexNow |

> **Two Google citation engines, not one.** AI Mode and AI Overviews reach the
> same conclusion ~86% of the time but cite the same URLs only **13.7%** of the
> time (Ahrefs study, 540K query pairs). Treat them as separate surfaces: ranking
> well in classic Search feeds AI Overviews, but AI Mode draws from a broader pool
> where freshness and entity authority outweigh raw position. Score both.
>
> **AI Mode is also a booking surface (2026-08-27).** Flight price tracking
> with email alerts (180+ countries and territories), hotel booking through
> integrated partners, and fares shown in points or miles now happen inside
> AI Mode. Travel and hospitality clients should check partner eligibility;
> nothing here is a documented ranking change.
>
> **UX is now unified, surfaces still distinct.** At Google I/O 2026 (2026-05-19)
> Google said follow-up questions now flow from an AI Overview into AI Mode, live
> worldwide on desktop and mobile, and began rolling out a new intelligent Search
> box where AI Mode is available. The *experience* is one flow, but the two citation engines remain
> technically distinct (different models/link sets), keep scoring both.

### Citation surfaces & controls in AI Search (2026)

Google added many AI citation/source surfaces across AI Overviews **and** AI Mode (May 2026):

- **Preferred Sources**, an eligible domain or subdomain can be selected by a
  user, making its content more likely to appear in that user's Top Stories and
  eligible for a preferred badge in AI Mode or AI Overviews. This is a
  **per-user preference**, not a documented general ranking signal. Publishers
  may offer Google's interactive button or a deeplink, but should not promise a
  site-wide ranking lift. Since 2026-09-18 the docs also require the site to be
  included in Search generative AI features (the Search Console "Search generative AI" control) to
  show as a preferred source in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Source:
  developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sources
- **"Highly Cited" badges**, earned via original primary reporting that other articles cite.
- **Community Perspectives**, elevates Reddit/forum/firsthand content.
- Inline links, desktop hover **Link Previews**, and prominent link carousels.

**Controlling AI-feature appearance:** there is **no AI-specific opt-out file**, but since 2026-08-31 every site has a Search Console control, "Search generative AI" (include by default, exclude, or inherit), that controls eligibility for AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover; it is not a ranking signal, it is separate from `Google-Extended`, and it is not a training control. Beyond that, appearance is governed by standard preview/index directives, `nosnippet`, `data-nosnippet`, `max-snippet`, `noindex` (distinct from the third-party AI-crawler robots controls above). Source: developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features

**Search agents (live, not just WebMCP):** Google's "Information Agents" run in the background to monitor topics, plus agentic booking/calling for select categories (announced at I/O 2026 for a summer US rollout; Information Agents start with AI Pro and Ultra subscribers; confirm current availability before promising it), so agent-friendly-page optimization (real interactive elements, accessibility tree, layout stability) now matters for actions, not only citations. Audit that with `/seo agentic` (the `seo-agentic` sub-skill), which also reads Lighthouse's Agentic Browsing fraction.

---

## Google Update Correlation

For AI Overviews or AI Mode visibility changes, check the dated product and
core-update entries first:
`"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/claude-seo" run seo_updates.py --kind product --kind core --json`.
Treat a stale ledger (`freshness.stale`) as incomplete.

## Output

Generate `GEO-ANALYSIS.md` with:

1. **GEO Readiness Score: XX/100**
2. **Platform breakdown** (Google AIO, ChatGPT, Perplexity): give a score only for platforms measured with a tool (for example DataForSEO or SE Ranking); otherwise report qualitative readiness and say it was not measured
3. **AI Crawler Access Status** -- report each crawler separately with the
   capability it governs. Training access (`GPTBot`, `Google-Extended`, `CCBot`,
   `ClaudeBot`, `Applebot-Extended`) and search citability (`OAI-SearchBot`,
   `Googlebot`, `PerplexityBot`, `Claude-SearchBot`, `Applebot`) are distinct
   findings and must never be merged into one line.
4. **llms.txt Status** (present, missing, recommendations)
5. **Brand Mention Analysis** (presence on Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn)
6. **Passage-Level Citability** (self-contained answer blocks identified; ~130-170 words is a heuristic, not a Google rule)
7. **Server-Side Rendering Check** (JavaScript dependency analysis)
8. **Top 5 Highest-Impact Changes**
9. **Schema Recommendations** (for AI discoverability)
10. **Content Reformatting Suggestions** (specific passages to rewrite)

---

## Quick Wins

1. Add "What is [topic]?" definition in first 60 words
2. Create self-contained answer blocks (about 130-170 words is a common heuristic)
3. Add question-based H2/H3 headings
4. Include specific statistics with sources
5. Add publication/update dates
6. Implement Person schema for authors
7. Allow key AI crawlers in robots.txt

## Medium Effort

1. Create `/llms.txt` file (optional: ignored by Google Search; may help other AI crawlers)
2. Add author bio with credentials + Wikipedia/LinkedIn links
3. Ensure server-side rendering for key content
4. Build entity presence on Reddit, YouTube
5. Add comparison tables with data
6. Implement FAQ sections (structured, not schema for commercial sites)

## High Impact

1. Create original research/surveys (unique citability)
2. Build Wikipedia presence for brand/key people
3. Establish YouTube channel with content mentions
4. Implement comprehensive entity linking (sameAs across platforms)
5. Develop unique tools or calculators

## DataForSEO Integration (Optional)

If DataForSEO MCP tools are available, use `ai_optimization_chat_gpt_scraper` to check what ChatGPT web search returns for target queries (real GEO visibility check) and `ai_opt_llm_ment_search` with `ai_opt_llm_ment_top_domains` for LLM mention tracking across AI platforms.

## Error Handling

| Scenario | Action |
|----------|--------|
| URL unreachable (DNS failure, connection refused) | Report the error clearly. Do not guess site content. Suggest the user verify the URL and try again. |
| AI crawlers blocked by robots.txt | Report exactly which crawlers are blocked and which are allowed. Provide specific robots.txt directives to add for enabling AI search visibility. |
| No llms.txt found | Note the absence (optional file; Google Search ignores it) and provide a ready-to-use llms.txt template for non-Google AI crawlers. |
| No structured data detected | Report the gap and provide specific schema recommendations (Article, Organization, Person) for improving AI discoverability. |

## FLOW Framework Integration

For prompt-guided AI content optimization, use `/seo flow optimize <url>`, FLOW's 21 optimize-stage prompts complement GEO's citability and structure analysis with evidence-led AI prompts.