TL;DR: GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO (answer engine optimization) are names for one job: getting your business named when a homeowner asks ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot or Perplexity who to call. Google says this work “is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.” What changes is where the effort goes: each assistant reads different sources, has its own crawler or setting, and reports in a different place. The six strategies below cover all four, based on what each company says in its own documentation.
The short version for owners: you probably do not need a separate “AI SEO” package. Have your web person prove the site is open to Google, Bing, ChatGPT and Perplexity; keep your Google Business Profile and Yelp listing complete; and rewrite your three most profitable service pages with real local jobs, prices and reviews. Ignore anyone selling guaranteed ChatGPT rankings, llms.txt files or secret AI schema (see What to skip, below).
Sources: BrightLocal consumer survey 2026, BrightLocal AI sources study (August 2026), Ahrefs (March 2026). New to this? Read our guide to the basics of showing up in AI answers first; this post goes one level deeper.
GEO, AEO and SEO: what the words mean for a contractor
GEO was named in a 2023 research paper (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024) that tested how to make a page more visible inside AI-written answers. AEO is the marketing term for pages that answer a question directly. Google’s guide to generative AI features in Search (added May 2026) describes both as “work specifically focused on improving visibility in AI search experiences,” then adds: “From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”
So GEO is not a separate channel that needs a separate vendor. Three things still differ from classic local SEO, and they shape every strategy below:
The answer names only a few businesses. In BrightLocal’s test of about 200,000 local searches, ChatGPT named 4.1 businesses per answer on average, AI Mode 3.5 and AI Overviews 2.5 (BrightLocal, September 2026). There is no page two.
Answers change from one try to the next. In the same study, a business that appeared once showed up again only about half the time on a repeat search. One check proves little.
Each assistant reads different sources. Google leans on its own Business Profiles; ChatGPT leaned on Yelp. Strength in one place does not carry over.
Homeowners also check before they call. In BrightLocal’s July 2026 survey, only 18% of people who started a local search with AI felt ready to contact the business it recommended; 43% went on to check Google (BrightLocal). The AI answer gets you on the list. Your profiles and reviews still win the call.
How each AI assistant picks the businesses it recommends
None of these companies publishes a ranking formula. They do publish which crawler or setting decides whether your site can be used. Add the independent studies and you get this picture:
| Assistant | What it leans on for local answers | What must allow your site | Where to measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Google’s search index and Business Profiles (used for virtually every location in BrightLocal’s study) | Googlebot, plus the Search generative AI control in Search Console (on by default) | Search Console Generative AI performance report |
| ChatGPT search | Web results; Yelp appeared in 80% of local answers in BrightLocal’s study | OAI-SearchBot | GA4 “AI Assistant” channel |
| Microsoft Copilot and Bing AI summaries | Pages split into short pieces that are “ranked and assembled into answers” (Microsoft) | Bingbot | Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance report |
| Perplexity | Its own search results, with links to the sources | PerplexityBot | GA4 referrals from perplexity.ai |
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google uses what it calls query fan-out: the model runs “a set of concurrent, related queries” to collect more results. Its example could come from a lawn care company: for “how to fix a lawn that’s full of weeds,” the fan-out might include “best herbicides for lawns,” “remove weeds without chemicals” and “how to prevent weeds in lawn” (Google). So ranking for the main search is not enough. In Ahrefs’ March 2026 study of 863,000 searches, only 37.9% of pages cited in AI Overviews also ranked in the top 10; Ahrefs points to fan-out: pages that rank for the follow-up searches get cited (Ahrefs).
For local businesses, Google says Business Profiles “can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results.” In BrightLocal’s data, Business Profiles made up 28.5% of all citations across ChatGPT, AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Chart: where the pages cited in Google AI Overviews ranked for the same search. Source: Ahrefs, “Update: 38% of AI Overview Citations Pull From The Top 10”, March 2, 2026 (863K keyword SERPs, 4M AI Overview URLs).
ChatGPT
OpenAI’s crawler page is the clearest rule any of them states: OAI-SearchBot “is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT’s search features,” and “Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers” (OpenAI crawler documentation). Beyond that, the evidence is from studies. In BrightLocal’s August 2026 study, Yelp was ChatGPT’s top source and “appeared as a source in 80% of all answers from ChatGPT.” ChatGPT also cast a wider net: 90% of the businesses it named were within 287 km (about 178 miles) of the searcher, against 38 km (about 24 miles) for AI Overviews (BrightLocal).
Microsoft Copilot and Bing
Microsoft has said the most about how answers are assembled. Krishna Madhavan of the Bing team wrote that “AI assistants don’t read a page top to bottom like a person would.” They break it into pieces, and “these modular pieces are what get ranked and assembled into answers” (Microsoft, October 2025). Since February 2026, Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report that “shows how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations,” including the “grounding queries” Copilot used to find your page (Bing Webmaster blog).
Perplexity
Perplexity says PerplexityBot “is designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity” and “is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models” (Perplexity crawler documentation). Perplexity was not in BrightLocal’s local studies, so there is no comparable source data yet. Let the bot in and make your pages easy to quote.
Strategy 1: Make sure every assistant is allowed to read your site
This is the cheapest fix, and a blocked crawler fails silently. Google and OpenAI separate the setting for showing your site in answers from the one for training AI models, and Perplexity says its search crawler is not used for training. You can say no to training without disappearing from answers.
| Crawler or setting | Company | What blocking it does | Our advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Googlebot | Removes you from Google Search, which also removes you from AI Overviews and AI Mode | Allow | |
| Search generative AI control (a Search Console setting) | Excluding your site stops your links and content from appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features. Default is include | Leave on include | |
| Google-Extended | Controls Gemini training and some grounding. Google says it “does not impact a site’s inclusion in Google Search” | Your choice | |
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | Opted-out sites “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers” | Allow |
| GPTBot | OpenAI | Training only. OpenAI: “Each setting is independent of the others” | Your choice |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Keeps your site out of Perplexity’s linked results | Allow |
| Bingbot | Microsoft | Removes you from Bing, where Copilot citations are measured | Allow |
Sources: Google Search generative AI control, Google crawlers, OpenAI crawlers, Perplexity crawlers.
Three checks to ask your web person for
- robots.txt and the firewall. robots.txt can allow a bot while the hosting firewall or CDN blocks it. When we audited our own site in September 2026, the host was returning errors to two AI crawlers that robots.txt allowed. Google’s advice names “any CDN or hosting infrastructure” (Google). OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach ChatGPT search.
- The Search Console setting. In Search Console, under Settings, confirm the Search generative AI control is set to include. Changes take a few days.
- Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow. Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools. If your website platform supports IndexNow, turn it on: it notifies Bing and other participating engines “when you add, update, or delete content.” Google is not on IndexNow’s list of participating engines.
Ask for proof, not a yes: a screenshot of the Search Console setting, the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard, and a test that shows each bot gets a normal page from your site. If your web or SEO person cannot get into Search Console, fix that first.
Then check what the bots can read. Microsoft warns that “AI systems may not render hidden content,” so prices, service areas and warranty terms should not sit only inside tabs, accordions or images.
Strategy 2: Be strong where each assistant looks for local businesses
For local questions, assistants lean heavily on profiles and directories. BrightLocal’s study of 1.97 million citations broke out service businesses:
Chart: share of AI citations for service businesses by source, across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Source: BrightLocal, “Top sources and directories for local AI search”, August 26, 2026 (1,355 US, UK and AU locations).
Google Business Profile for Google’s AI. Google’s local ranking factors are relevance, distance and prominence, and “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.” Google also says “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking” (Google Business Profile Help). Complete every service, service area and hour, and keep adding job photos.
Yelp for ChatGPT. BrightLocal’s first recommendation was: “Claim your Google Business Profile and your Yelp profile, then keep them up-to-date.” If you skipped Yelp because few leads come from it directly, ChatGPT is a reason to fix that. Claiming a free profile and keeping it accurate is not the same as buying Yelp ads; judge paid Yelp separately, on cost per booked job.
Two or three trade directories. Angi, Houzz, Thumbtack and BBB all showed up in the data. Pick the ones that fit your trade and make the name, phone and service area match your Business Profile.
Steady, real reviews with replies. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey, 74% of consumers looked for reviews from the last three months and 80% said they were likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews (BrightLocal). In July 2026 Google added a review guideline against “fake and undisclosed incentivized reviews” (Search Central changelog). Ask every customer; do not pay for reviews.
The listing checklist is in our guide to the basics of showing up in AI answers. The point here is the split: Business Profile work is aimed at Google, Yelp work at ChatGPT. Do both.
Strategy 3: Publish answers only your company can give
Google’s guide puts this above everything else: content people find “unique, compelling, and useful will likely influence your website’s presence in generative AI search in the long run more than any of the other suggestions in this guide.” It separates “commodity content,” such as “7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers,” from “non-commodity” content that gives “unique expert or experienced takes,” such as “Why We Waived the Inspection & Saved Money: A Look Inside the Sewer Line” (Google).
A home service company sits on that kind of material: real jobs, prices, permits, weather and housing stock. Examples:
| Trade | Commodity (anyone could write it) | Non-commodity (only you can) |
|---|---|---|
| HVAC | 5 Signs You Need a New AC | Repair or replace: what we told 3 homeowners with 15-year-old units this summer, and what each cost |
| Plumbing | How to Prevent Frozen Pipes | The pipe runs that froze most often in our county last winter, and how we fixed them |
| Roofing | How Long Does a Roof Last? | What we found when we opened up a hail-damaged roof, with photos and the insurance timeline |
| Landscaping | Spring Lawn Care Tips | Our weed control schedule for local clay soil, and what changed after one season |
| Remodeling | Kitchen Remodel Ideas | Three kitchen remodels in [your town]: budget, timeline, permit steps and what went over |
| Electrical | Do I Need a Panel Upgrade? | EV charger installs we did this year: when the panel was fine and when it was not |
Fill titles like these with your own jobs and numbers. The GEO paper points the same way: in tests on a research answer engine and on Perplexity, adding quotations, statistics and cited sources raised a page’s visibility the most (the paper reports “up to 40%”), keyword stuffing scored below doing nothing, and lower-ranked pages gained the most. It was a lab test on general questions, not local searches, so read it as a direction, not a forecast.
On every service page: a price range you actually charge (or what drives the price), how fast you can come, what is included, which towns you serve, your license number and photos of your own crews. An assistant needs those facts to name you; a homeowner needs them to call.
Strategy 4: Write so an answer can be lifted from the page
Google and Microsoft sound different here. Microsoft recommends “One- to two-sentence responses that directly address a question,” question-style headings, lists and tables, and warns against “long walls of text” (Microsoft). Google lists “chunking” content under things you can ignore: “There’s no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces for AI to better understand it” (Google).
One way of writing satisfies both, and suits homeowners reading on a phone:
- Use the homeowner’s question as a heading: “How much does a water heater replacement cost in [town]?”
- Answer it in the first one or two sentences under the heading, then give the details.
- Put comparisons in a table (repair vs. replace, tank vs. tankless, asphalt vs. metal).
- Keep one claim per sentence. “Same-day service in Mesa and Gilbert, 7 days a week” is easier to quote than a paragraph about “unmatched service.”
- Keep key facts in text, not only in images or behind “read more” buttons.
Structured data: keep it honest, do not expect magic
Google says “Structured data isn’t required for generative AI search, and there’s no special schema.org markup you need to add,” while still recommending it for rich results. If you use LocalBusiness markup, the name, address, phone and hours must match what the page and your Business Profile show; Google’s AI features page asks you to make sure “your structured data matches the visible text on the page” (Google). Note that Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026. Keep FAQ sections because they answer real questions, not for a rich result that no longer appears.
Strategy 5: Answer the follow-up questions on the page you already have
Because of fan-out, the pages that get cited are often the ones that answer the next question. For a water heater replacement, the follow-ups a homeowner asks are predictable: cost, tank or tankless, how long it takes, whether a permit is needed, what happens to the old unit, financing. Answer those on your water heater page.
Do not spin up a new page for every variation. Google warns that creating separate content for every possible variation or fan-out query “primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses” violates its scaled content abuse policy, and since May 2026 it states that its spam policies apply to AI responses too (Google). Fifty near-copies of a city page with the town name swapped is the classic version of that mistake. Build city pages only where you have real jobs, reviews and photos from that city.
Your own data tells you which follow-ups matter: Search Console’s Performance report lists the searches that already reach your site, and your office manager knows the five questions every caller asks. Both lists belong on your service pages.
Strategy 6: Measure each assistant where it reports
Each company now reports some data, in different places and units. Check monthly and expect noise.
| Assistant | Where to look | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Search Console, Generative AI performance report | Impressions: “how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature.” Rolled out to all sites as of August 31, 2026. Clicks from AI features also count in the regular Performance report under “Web” |
| Microsoft Copilot and Bing | Bing Webmaster Tools, AI Performance (public preview) | Total citations, average cited pages per day, grounding queries and citations per page |
| ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot visits | GA4, “AI Assistant” default channel | Sessions from sources “like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, or Grok.” Google counts AI Overviews and AI Mode as Organic Search, not here |
| Perplexity visits | GA4 referral traffic | Google’s channel definition does not name Perplexity, so look for perplexity.ai in the source list |
| Who gets named | Your own prompt checks or a tracking tool | Which businesses each assistant names for your trade and town, and which sources it shows |
Two habits keep the numbers honest. Run the same 10 to 20 homeowner questions every month, because single checks vary so much. And add “ChatGPT or another AI app” to your “how did you hear about us?” question, since many people read the AI answer and then call from Google. The prompt list and spreadsheet method are in our guide on how to track your business in AI search; our review of AI visibility tools compares the trackers.
What to skip: GEO and AEO tactics that do not pay off
Google’s guide has a section on “AEO/GEO hacks” you can ignore. These are the ones a home service company is most likely to be sold:
llms.txt files. Google says it ignores them for Search: creating one “will neither harm nor help your site’s visibility or rankings in Google Search.” Fine to have, not worth paying for.
Rewriting the site “for AI.” Google: “You don’t need to write in a specific way just for generative AI search.” Write for homeowners; the structure in Strategy 4 is enough.
Buying mentions. Google: “seeking inauthentic ‘mentions’ across the web isn’t as helpful as it might seem.” Real local press, sponsorships and supplier listings are a different thing and still worth having.
Special AI schema. There is none. Keep your normal LocalBusiness markup accurate.
Keyword stuffing. In the GEO paper it scored below the unedited page.
Guaranteed AI rankings. Google says no outside tool sees its internal systems. Ask any vendor to show you before-and-after data from Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
A 90-day order of work
Do these in order; each step makes the next one count for more.
| When | What to do | Which assistants it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Check robots.txt, the hosting firewall and the Search generative AI control; verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools; turn on IndexNow if your platform supports it | All four |
| Weeks 1 to 2 | Complete Google Business Profile; claim and update Yelp; fix name, phone and service area on two or three trade directories | Google AI (Business Profile), ChatGPT (Yelp) |
| Weeks 2 to 6 | Rewrite your three most profitable service pages: question headings, direct answers, real price ranges, service towns, license and crew photos, no key facts hidden in tabs | All four |
| Weeks 4 to 12 | Publish one job story a month from a real project (photos, problem, fix, cost range, timeline) | All four, mostly through Google fan-out |
| Every week | Ask every finished customer for a review on Google, then Yelp; reply to all reviews | Google AI, ChatGPT |
| Every month | Run your prompt list; check the Search Console and Bing AI reports and the GA4 AI Assistant channel | Measuring all four |
Most of this your office can do in small weekly blocks. If you would rather hand it off, our AI SEO and GEO team runs this order of work for home service companies and reports from Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, not a black-box score.
The bottom line
Getting recommended by AI in 2026 comes down to four things: let each assistant’s crawler in, be strong on the sources each one trusts (Business Profile for Google, Yelp for ChatGPT), publish answers only your company can give, and measure each assistant where it reports. None of it needs a secret file or special markup, and all of it also helps your regular Google rankings and the calls that come from them.
About the sources: every claim above links to its source where it appears. The main ones are Google’s guide to optimizing for generative AI features, Microsoft’s guide to inclusion in AI search answers, BrightLocal’s study of 200k local AI searches and the GEO research paper (KDD 2024). All pages read October 23, 2026.