Generative Engine Optimization - how to get found in ChatGPT

By 2028, more visitors will come to your website via an LLM (such as ChatGPT) than they will via a search engine.

I for one cannot remember the last time I used Google Search to get the information I need.

Companies need to be planning now for how to get their products and services found and cited in LLM responses.

If you prefer to watch here is a 20-minute YouTube video that covers the content in this article.

What is Generative Engine Optimization?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of getting your company found and referenced by LLMs.

In much the same way that the practice of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) grew to help companies get their websites ranked highly in search engines like Google.

The naming definitions are still being worked out, so you may also come across AEO for Answer Engine Optimization or AIEO for Artificial Intelligence Engine Optimization.

Why it matters.

Referrals from LLMs are still in single digits for most platforms. Anything from 5-9% could be typical.

These numbers are increasing though with a recent study by TechCrunch showing that referrals to leading websites were up 357% in the 12 months to June 2025.

Many of these focused on specific verticals, especially technology, which makes sense because tech users are more likely to be embracing LLMs as their platform of choice.

SEMrush predicts that traffic from LLMs will overtake search traffic in just three years.

So now is the time to be thinking about how to get found and get ahead of your competition.

In the 2000s, search was the new frontier with Google. In the 2010s, it was social with Facebook. And today that new frontier is ChatGPT. Here's what you should be thinking about:

How to get found in ChatGPT

This is a new field. No one, including me, has all of the answers, but here are some tactical approaches that are proving successful in our clients.

Write for the machines

When you create content, consider it from the perspective of an LLM that is trying to navigate, read, and understand what's important. Long, vague, wandering prose does not help the LLM understand your point.

Instead, consider

• clear headings (H1, H2, H3)
• Structured content in the form of
  • bullet points
  • numbered lists
  • step-by-step guidance
  • tables
• Less design, avoiding heavy JavaScript and dynamic content that LLMs cannot traverse
• Avoid gating content behind passwords and authentication
• Consider creating dark content that's written just for machines in pure markdown or HTML and expose them at predictable URLs (e.g., articles/[slug]/markdown)

Write for quotability

LLMs crave unique perspectives and authority that are going to teach and educate their users.

Instead of generating vague content, look into your own business data and perspectives and write content that teaches.

• Concise factual statements, statistics, or definitions
• Blend authority with a human tone
• Avoid AI blog slop. Ask yourself,
  • Would you read it?
  • Would you learn from it?
  • Would you share it?
• Consider:
  • what questions does the ChatGPT user have?
  • and then answer the user's questions with authority!

Tell the machines where to look

Once you've written great authoritative content, it's time to help the machines know where this content exists so they can focus their search.

• Add schema markup (FAQ, author, article)
  • Helps LLMs (and search engines) to understand what a page contains.
  • schema.org
  • plugins are available via Yoast or RankMath and others.
• Add llms.txt
  • A proposed standard for guiding LLMs to your most important content
    • robots.txt guides search engines
    • sitemap.xml lists pages for search engine indexing
    • schema.org helps search engines and AI interpret your content
    • llms.txt guides LLMs to your valuable content.

Check you're not blocking the LLMs

Check your web host or content delivery network to ensure that they are not blocking the crawling by AI platforms.

Whilst you are keen for your content to get cited and referenced, others (paid news sites for example) are trying to prevent AI from having access to their content.

Leading hosters are now providing checkbox options to block or not block. Be sure you're comfortable with your own settings.

Make it easy for the humans

Whilst this is not a tactic that will help you be discovered in an LLM, it does help the user who is already on your website.

Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer that is researching your category, your company, or trying to figure out how to implement your product.

They've come to your website, they found your documentation. What is it that they actually want to do right now?

It's very likely that they want to discuss your documentation in the context of their own company, within their own ChatGPT or Claude account.

Consider adding a drop-down to allow humans to take your content and place it into the LLM of choice.

ChatGPT uses Bing for its web search

Good search engine optimization practices cover all search engines, but be aware that through OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft, they use Bing as the search engine that supports ChatGPT's web search.

It is recommended, therefore, to make sure you are optimising your presence in Bing:

• Bing Webmaster Tools
• Submit your sitemap and monitor it
• URL submission tool for important new content
• Prioritize schemas for your FAQ page and how-to pages

What you can do today

You do not need to be a technical expert or have a huge budget to start putting this into practice. Just follow these three steps:

1. Write high-value, authoritative content
2. Make it easily consumable by LLMs. (less styling, more structure)
3. Make it easy for LLMs to find

The most important is often the part companies want to find a shortcut for: writing high-value, authoritative content based on your company's unique perspective of the market.

If I had a thousand dollars to spend on Generative Engine Optimization, I'd spend $995 on writing high-quality content.

How can Kowalah help?

Your success in Generative Engine Optimization is going to be based on the content that you write, and that should be done by someone within your organization.

When it comes to helping you set up your llms.txt and helping you come up with your content plan, Kowalah is here to help. Sign up for Kowalah and get 5 free chats at kowalah.com