Can the bot read the page?
Search crawlers allowed in robots.txt and the firewall, text in the served HTML, pages indexed. If this fails, nothing else on the list matters.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews now answer the questions your customers used to type into a search box. Score your site on the five things that decide whether they cite you, and get the fixes in the order that pays back first.
Answer for your site as it is today. The answers start preset to a typical small business, so you can see a result first.
Whether AI crawlers can reach and read your pages at all. This is the gate: if it fails, nothing else can help.
Whether every source on the web describes the same business, in the same words.
Whether your pages hold short, direct passages an engine can lift as an answer.
Whether your claims carry the specifics that make them worth quoting: numbers, sources, people, dates.
Whether other people’s sites, reviews and lists vouch for you.
Partly visible
An assistant can probably find you, but it has little reason to quote you over a competitor. Work through the fixes in order.
10 smaller fixes not shown. Gains are points out of 100.
How it scores. Each answer counts Yes as 1, Partly as 0.5, and No or Not sure as 0. Within a pillar, questions are weighted by impact (1 to 3), and each pillar contributes its weight to a total of 100. Why these weights: access gets 25 because nothing else counts if crawlers cannot read the page, and the vendors document exactly how their bots behave.38 Evidence and off-site signals get 20 each because they have the strongest published support: a controlled test for evidence1 and large observational studies for third-party mentions.122 Answer-first content gets 20 because it is what an engine lifts, though no public test isolates it. Entity clarity gets 15 because its case rests on reasoning rather than tests. The gate: if A1 is No or Not sure, the score is capped at 30. The fix list ranks each gap by the points it would add divided by effort (1 low, 3 high). The weights are Clickhouse judgment from the evidence on this page, not a published standard. A high score raises your chances. It does not guarantee a citation, because each engine chooses its sources and the answers change from run to run.
Most GEO advice online is vendor blogs repeating each other. Every figure here is traced to the study, dataset or official documentation it came from. Where we could not confirm a claim at source, the row says Confirm.
| Benchmark or rule | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Citations, quotations and statistics, lab test | The authors report relative gains of about 30 to 40% for these methods on the study’s main measure of visibility in generated answers. Keyword stuffing scored below the unoptimized baseline. Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024.1 | Sourced |
| Who gains most from those edits | Lower-ranked pages. Citing sources lifted visibility 115.1% for pages ranked fifth, while top-ranked pages lost 30.3% on average.1 | Sourced |
| Whose content AI search cites | A 2025 study of AI search services found a strong, consistent preference for earned, third-party media over brand-owned and social content.2 | Sourced |
| GPTBot (OpenAI) | Crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI’s models. Blocking it is a training opt-out, and does not remove you from ChatGPT search.3 | Sourced |
| OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User (OpenAI) | OAI-SearchBot surfaces sites in ChatGPT search, and sites that block it are left out of search answers. ChatGPT-User fetches pages when a user asks, and robots.txt rules may not apply to it.3 | Sourced |
| ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User (Anthropic) | ClaudeBot collects training data. Claude-SearchBot indexes for search results. Claude-User fetches pages for a user’s question. Each is controlled separately in robots.txt.4 | Sourced |
| PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User | PerplexityBot surfaces and links sites in Perplexity results and is not used for model training. Perplexity-User fetches pages for a user’s question and generally ignores robots.txt.5 | Sourced |
| Google-Extended | A robots.txt token that controls use of your content for training Gemini models and for grounding. Google says it does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search.6 | Sourced |
| Eligibility for Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | The page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Google says no special optimization, AI text file or schema.org markup is required, and the snippet controls nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex apply.7 | Sourced |
| JavaScript rendering by AI crawlers | In Vercel’s December 2024 measurement, none of the major AI crawlers rendered JavaScript. Gemini (through Googlebot) and Applebot were the exceptions.8 | Sourced |
| Clicks when Google shows an AI summary | Users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits with an AI summary, against 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary on 1%. Pew Research Center, 900 US adults, March 2025.9 | Sourced |
| Top-result click-through with an AI Overview | A 58% lower average click-through rate for the page ranked first in December 2025, compared with the rate Ahrefs forecast, from December 2023 data, had AI Overviews not launched. Ahrefs, 300,000 keywords, February 2026.10 | Sourced |
| Organic click-through on AI Overview queries | Fell from 1.76% to 0.61% between June 2024 and September 2025. Brands cited in the overview had a 35% higher organic click-through rate (0.70% vs 0.52%) than those not cited, a correlation. Seer Interactive, 3,119 queries, November 2025.11 | Sourced |
| Signals linked to appearing in AI Overviews | Branded web mentions had the strongest correlation (0.664), ahead of branded anchors (0.527), branded search volume (0.392) and backlinks (0.218). Ahrefs, 75,000 brands, May 2025.12 | Sourced |
| Reach of Google AI Overviews | 2 billion monthly users, up from 1.5 billion in May 2025, as reported from Alphabet’s July 2025 earnings call.14 | Sourced |
| Whether AI engines use llms.txt | llms.txt is a proposal from September 2024, not a standard.13 Google says no AI text file is needed for its AI features. We found no statement from OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity that their answers use it, and are checking. | Confirm |
We took the thirteen claims we hear most from clients and graded each one by the best public evidence we could trace to its origin. This is our synthesis, not a new study, and the grades will move as better evidence appears.
Method. For each claim we looked for the original experiment, dataset or platform documentation, read it, and graded the claim by the strongest of those we could open. Secondary articles were used only to find originals. Every source is listed under the figures table.
Limits. AI engines change their models and source selection often, so documented behavior can change between editions. Lab results may not transfer to every engine. We will re-check each grade at every quarterly edition.
Generative engine optimization is not a new trick. It is the work of being reachable, recognizable and worth quoting, for systems that write an answer instead of listing ten links.
Search crawlers allowed in robots.txt and the firewall, text in the served HTML, pages indexed. If this fails, nothing else on the list matters.
One name, one address, one description, everywhere. An engine that finds “Harbor Dental” and “Harbour Dental Studio LLC” may think it found two businesses.
A direct answer in the first lines, headings that match real questions, prices and timelines in text. Engines quote passages, not whole pages.
Specific numbers, named sources, quotations from real people, a named author and a date. This is where the controlled evidence is strongest.
Press, trade bodies, reviews, directories and independent roundups. AI search leans on what others say about you more than on what you say.
Each engine picks its sources and changes them between runs. A high score improves your odds. Anyone who guarantees a ChatGPT citation is selling something they do not control.
Each AI company now runs several crawlers, and they do different jobs. Training bots collect text for future models: GPTBot, ClaudeBot and the Google-Extended token. Search bots build the index an assistant cites from: OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot.345 User fetchers visit a page because someone asked about it: ChatGPT-User and Perplexity-User, and robots.txt may not bind them.
OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot.
Googlebot, which also feeds AI Overviews.7
GPTBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended. Blocking them is a training opt-out.
Blocking Google-Extended does not affect Google Search.6
The common mistake is not in robots.txt at all. Bot protection in a firewall or hosting plan often blocks unknown user agents by default. Check both, then confirm in your server logs that the search bots are getting pages back.
The term generative engine optimization comes from a 2023 paper by researchers at Princeton University and IIT Delhi, presented at KDD 2024.1 They rewrote source pages nine ways and measured how much of each page showed up in generated answers across a benchmark of 10,000 queries.
Citing sources, adding quotations and adding statistics scored highest. Keyword stuffing scored below the baseline.
The gains were largest for pages that ranked lower to begin with, which is good news for smaller businesses. A later study found AI search engines lean heavily on earned, third-party media.2 Read both with care: the models tested are older than today’s, and most tests ran on a research engine, not on ChatGPT or AI Overviews. They show what tends to work, not what is guaranteed.
GEO builds on ordinary search foundations. If those are missing, fix them first, because AI features mostly draw on the same indexes.7 Skip GEO for now if:
For everyone else, the first pillar is usually an hour of work and the most valuable hour on the list.
Illustrative composites, not clients, each scored with the tool above.
Crawlers get in and the Google Business Profile is strong, with 300 reviews. But the service pages say “affordable, gentle care”, with no prices, no sources and no named dentist. Evidence scores 1.7 of 20 and answers 1.7 of 20.
Named partners, cited case law, dated guides. Uncapped, it scores 78. But the hosting firewall blocks unknown bots, including OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, so the gate caps it at 30. Engines that cannot fetch the guides cannot quote them.
The storefront loads product names, specs and prices with JavaScript after the page opens, so an AI crawler that does not run scripts sees an empty template. Some categories are not indexed. Reviews and listings are in good shape.
Cost the fixes in hours and weeks, then check the one thing most small businesses get wrong without knowing: whether the web describes them the same way everywhere.
109 to 248 h of work
At your rates that is $9,205 to $21,360. At 10 hours a week, about 13 to 26 weeks of calendar time.
Earned mentions take months to show in answers. The hours above are the work, not the wait.
Assumptions. Hours are Clickhouse estimates for a site of 20 to 60 pages with about 10 key pages, shown as a low to high range. They are effort estimates, not quotes. Rates default to editable starting points: set them to your own team’s or supplier’s rates. Rates are capped at 2,000 an hour and capacity at 80 hours a week. The currency setting changes the symbol only and does not convert. Phases run one after another, access first, and the week ranges per phase use the high estimate. Earned mentions and reviews keep paying off for months after the hours are spent. Results in AI answers are not guaranteed.
60% consistent
4 mismatches and 4 variants across 15 compared details. Fix mismatches first: they can make one business look like two.
| Source | Business name | Address | Phone | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Variant | Match | Match | Match |
| LinkedIn page | Mismatch | Variant | Blank | Mismatch |
| Main directory | Match | Variant | Mismatch | Mismatch |
| Industry directory | Variant | Match | Match | Match |
How it compares. Your website is the reference. Names ignore case, punctuation and legal suffixes such as LLC or Ltd, and count as a variant when one contains the other. Addresses treat common abbreviations as equal (Street and St, Suite and Ste) and count as a variant when parts are missing. Phone numbers compare digits only, ignoring +1 and +44 prefixes. Descriptions compare shared meaningful words: 50% or more counts as consistent, 25% to 50% as drifted. A spelling difference such as Harbor and Harbour counts as a mismatch, because a machine may read it as a different business. Nothing you type leaves this page.
The technical work is quick. The evidence and the earned mentions take longer, and they are where most of the gains are.
Score the site, then list 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask and record by hand what ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews answer today.
Run the questions by hand, from a clean browser, and save every answer with its date.Allow the AI search crawlers, get key text into the served HTML, fix indexing, and make the name, address and description identical everywhere.
Check server logs to confirm the search bots are getting pages back.Answer-first openings, question headings, decision pages, and specific evidence with named sources and quotes on the ten pages that matter most.
One page done well beats ten pages touched lightly.Reviews, directories, trade press and independent roundups. Re-run the same buyer questions each month and compare with the baseline.
Expect variation between runs. Judge the trend over months, not a single answer.GEO is the work of making your website easy for AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to find, understand and quote when they write an answer. The term comes from a 2023 research paper presented at KDD 2024. In practice it covers crawler access, a consistent business identity, answer-first pages, specific evidence and mentions on other sites.
Make sure OAI-SearchBot can crawl your site, publish pages that answer your buyers’ questions directly with specific facts, keep your business details identical everywhere, and earn mentions on credible third-party sites. None of this guarantees a recommendation, because ChatGPT chooses its sources, but each step removes a reason to leave you out.
It builds on SEO rather than replacing it. Google says AI Overviews draw on pages that are indexed and eligible for a snippet, so search foundations still come first. GEO adds more weight on quotable passages, cited evidence and what other sites say about you, and it measures success in citations and mentions as well as rankings and clicks.
It is a business decision. OpenAI documents GPTBot as the crawler that collects training data, so blocking it opts you out of training. It does not remove you from ChatGPT search, which uses a separate crawler, OAI-SearchBot. If you want to appear in ChatGPT answers, keep OAI-SearchBot allowed whatever you decide about GPTBot.
No. Google says Google-Extended controls use of your content for Gemini training and grounding, and does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search. AI Overviews follow the normal Search controls: Googlebot access in robots.txt, and snippet rules such as nosnippet and max-snippet.
Not as far as anyone has shown. llms.txt is a September 2024 proposal for a plain-text guide to a site. Google says no AI text file is needed for its AI features, and we found no statement from OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity that their answers use it. It costs little to publish one, so we do, but do not expect it to change your visibility.
Google says there is no special schema.org markup you need for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Organization or LocalBusiness markup still states your name, address and official profiles in a machine-readable form, which supports a consistent identity. Treat it as tidy housekeeping, not a ranking lever.
Often not fully. In Vercel’s December 2024 measurement, the crawlers of OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity did not run JavaScript, while Gemini, through Googlebot, and Applebot did. If your text is added by scripts after the page loads, use server-side rendering or prerendering for the pages you want quoted.
For many informational searches, yes. Pew Research Center found users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits that showed an AI summary, against 15% without one. Ahrefs found the top-ranked page’s click-through rate on keywords with an AI Overview was 58% below its forecast from December 2023 data, a correlation. Commercial and local searches can behave differently, so check your own Search Console data.
Access fixes can take effect within days, once crawlers revisit; OpenAI says robots.txt changes for its search bot take about 24 hours. Content changes show as pages are recrawled, usually over weeks. Earned mentions and reviews build over months. Plan on six months before judging the trend.
No. Each engine chooses its own sources, and answers vary from one run to the next even for the same question. An honest agency can improve the odds and show you the trend over time. Treat any guarantee of ChatGPT or AI Overview placement as a warning sign.
Write down 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask, run each one by hand in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google, and record who is named and which sources are cited, with the date. Repeat monthly with the same questions. Check each service’s terms of use before using any tool that queries it automatically. Doing it by hand avoids the question.
In the KDD 2024 GEO study, pages that cited sources, quoted people and included specific statistics gained the most visibility, by about 30 to 40%. Pages that answer a question directly, use the words buyers use, and are backed by independent mentions are the ones an engine can quote with confidence.
When your site is not indexed, when a local business has no Google Business Profile, when your offer is unclear, or when your buyers do not research online. Fix the foundations or the offer first. GEO amplifies a business that is already easy to understand. It does not make one.
Clickhouse is a strategy-first marketing agency. Decisions before deliverables: we decide what a business should be known for, and by whom, then build the pages and the proof that make search engines and AI assistants say so. We measure the result in inquiries, customers, revenue and margin, not likes.
Send us your score and your site. A Clickhouse strategist checks the answers that matter most against the live site and tells you, in plain words, what to fix first and what to leave alone.
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