AI search optimization is the work of making a business the source that ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity and Copilot cite or recommend when someone asks a question. It is built on normal SEO (crawlable site, clear pages, real authority) plus three additions: answer-shaped content, consistent entity facts everywhere, and mentions on third-party pages assistants trust.
A buyer used to type a few words into Google, scan the results and call someone from page one. Today that buyer can ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Mode a full question, such as which family lawyer in Saint John handles custody disputes. They get back a short answer that names a handful of businesses and cites the pages behind them. If your business isn't named, that buyer may never see your website.
That is why AI search optimization has become a practical question for firms, clinics, trades companies and multi-location businesses across Canada. The vocabulary doesn't help. AI SEO, GEO and AEO get sold as if each were a separate product, and plenty of the advice online rests on statistics with no clear origin.
This guide sticks to what the platforms themselves publish about how they find and cite pages. It turns that into specific changes for your website and profiles, plus a monthly check you can run yourself without buying a tool.
No. AI SEO, LLM SEO, generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) are different labels for the same work: getting a business named and cited when an AI system answers a question.
We use "AI search optimization" throughout this guide because it names the goal rather than one vendor's preferred term. Each label leans on a different part of the same work, and that is where the confusion comes from.
| Term | What it emphasises |
|---|---|
| AI search optimization | The goal: being cited or recommended across AI search features and assistants |
| AI SEO | Continuity with classic SEO, applied to AI features |
| LLM SEO | The large language models behind assistants and how they retrieve pages |
| Generative engine optimization (GEO) | Being quoted and linked inside a generated answer |
| Answer engine optimization (AEO) | Being the direct answer to a specific question |
The practical test is simple. When a proposal lists GEO, AEO and AI SEO optimization as separate line items, ask what each one changes on your site or profiles. If the answers overlap, it's one piece of work described several ways, and you should only pay for it once.
Each assistant writes its answer from pages it can find for that question. Google's AI features draw on Google Search, while ChatGPT search and Perplexity send their own crawlers and pull live results.
Google's AI features documentation says both features may use a query fan-out technique. They issue multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources to build a response, then show links to supporting pages. The documentation also says AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the answers and links they show will vary.
The pages being cited are pages Google Search can already find. So if you're working out how to show up in AI Overviews, start by ranking for the question in classic results.
These assistants look things up live, a process usually called retrieval or grounding. The model writes from pages it fetched for this question, not only from what it learned in training. ChatGPT search uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, which is documented in the OpenAI crawler overview.
Perplexity's crawler documentation says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in Perplexity search results and is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. It recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt if you want your site to appear in those results.
The consequence is blunt. If your robots.txt or firewall blocks these crawlers, or your pages rank nowhere, the assistants have nothing of yours to quote. Our guide to why NB businesses disappeared from search when people started using AI assistants shows how that plays out locally.
Nearly everything that already makes a site rank stays the same. Google's guidance for AI Overviews and AI Mode points site owners back to standard SEO, so AI SEO optimization starts with the same foundations.
Google's AI features documentation says you can apply the same foundational SEO best practices to these features. A May 2025 Google Search Central post adds that the underpinnings of what Google has long advised carry across to its AI experiences. In practice, these basics still carry most of the work:
The same post notes that people in AI search ask longer and more specific questions, then follow-up questions. That rewards depth on the topics you know well.
We apply the same fundamentals to our own site, and our city pages hold page one for SEO searches in three Atlantic cities. If you're still weighing whether that groundwork pays off, our guide on whether SEO is worth it answers that question directly.
There are three real additions: answer-shaped pages, consistent entity facts and third-party mentions. Two technical checks, crawler access and schema, make sure assistants can reach and read them.
This is the part people call answer engine optimization. Put a question your buyers actually ask in a heading, answer it in the opening sentence beneath it, then give the detail. A clinic's page on physiotherapy after a car accident might open with whether a referral is needed, then cover coverage, timing and what to bring. Use a table for comparisons and a short list for steps, so an assistant has a clean, self-contained passage to quote.
An assistant that reads your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn page and directory listings sees whether they agree. Mismatched names, old addresses or different service lists leave it with conflicting facts to sort out. Check each field:
| Field | Where it must match | Common mismatch |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, directories | A suffix used on one profile and dropped on another |
| Address | All of the above | An old suite number after a move |
| Phone | All of the above | A tracking number on one directory |
| Website URL | Every profile | An old domain or a redirecting address |
| Hours | Website, Business Profile, directories | Holiday hours updated in only one place |
| Services | Service pages, Business Profile services, LinkedIn | A service on the site but missing elsewhere |
| Founding facts | About page, LinkedIn, directories | Different founding years or founder names |
Multi-location businesses need to run this check for every location.
Assistants recommend what other pages already say is good. Reviews on your Google Business Profile, listings in respected directories, local news coverage, association memberships and industry lists all give an assistant independent sources to cite. Ask satisfied clients for reviews as part of your normal process, keep directory listings current, and say yes when local press or an industry body wants to feature your work. Our guide to improving your Google Business Profile covers the profile side.
Open your site's robots.txt and check who it lets in. Then check your firewall or CDN, because bot protection can block crawlers even when robots.txt allows them.
| Crawler | Whose | What it does | If you block it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Googlebot | Crawls pages for Google Search, which AI Overviews and AI Mode draw links from | Your pages can't be found for classic results or AI features | |
| Google-Extended | A separate robots.txt token about use of your content in Google's AI models | A decision about model use, separate from Googlebot crawling | |
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | Crawls for ChatGPT search | Your pages are unlikely to surface in ChatGPT search answers |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Surfaces and links sites in Perplexity search results; not used for AI foundation models | Your appearance in Perplexity search results is at risk |
| Perplexity-User | Perplexity | Visits a page when a user asks a question | It generally ignores robots.txt, since a user requested the fetch |
Perplexity's documentation also notes that sites behind a web application firewall may need to explicitly allow its bots. Finally, keep key content in server-rendered HTML. If service descriptions or FAQs only appear after JavaScript runs, some crawlers may never see them.
Structured data restates your facts in a format machines read directly. Treat it as a way to keep facts consistent, not as a ranking trick.
The values in your markup should match the visible page and your profiles word for word. Markup that disagrees with the page adds a conflict instead of removing one.
Run the same ten prompts every month in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode, then record who gets named and which pages get cited. Using identical wording each month is what turns scattered screenshots into a trend you can act on.
Swap in your own service, city and business name:
Run each prompt in a fresh or logged-out session so earlier chats don't shape the answer. Check AI Overviews too when one appears, but expect gaps. Google's guidance says AI Overviews often don't trigger and that AI Mode may show different links, so log each surface as its own row.
| Month | Prompt | Assistant | Businesses named, in order | Your business named? | Pages cited | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Month] | best [service] in [city] | ChatGPT | [names] | Yes / No | [URLs] | [what changed] |
| [Month] | best [service] in [city] | Perplexity | [names] | Yes / No | [URLs] | [what changed] |
| [Month] | best [service] in [city] | Google AI Mode | [names] | Yes / No | [URLs] | [what changed] |
The pages cited column tells you where to work next. If assistants keep citing a directory you're missing from, or a review page that features a competitor, that becomes your next task. We run this same monthly prompt check for clients, and the AI Visibility Check we are building is the tool version of the routine.
Firms, clinics, trades companies and multi-location businesses should move first, because their buyers ask a question before they pick a provider. Someone with a legal problem, a sore back or a leaking roof can ask an assistant who to call and get a shortlist without opening a single website. Multi-location businesses carry extra risk, since every location's name, address and hours have to match across every profile.
We run SEO and AI search work for firms and clinics across Atlantic Canada from Saint John, and AI search sits inside the same engagement on our SEO services page, not as a separate product. If you're deciding whether to bring in help at all, our breakdown of what SEO costs in Canada is a sensible next read.
AI search optimization is not a new discipline with its own rulebook. Google's guidance points back to the same foundational SEO practices, and ChatGPT search and Perplexity depend on their own crawlers being able to reach your pages. On top of that foundation sit three additions: pages shaped around direct answers, business facts that match everywhere, and mentions on the third-party pages assistants read. Start with your robots.txt and your Business Profile this week. Then run the ten-prompt check next month and compare the results. If you'd like a team to run the audit and make the fixes alongside you, book a free consultation with our team in Saint John.
