SEO, GEO and AIO in practice

Start with a website that people can find, understand and use. SEO, GEO and AIO describe overlapping work on visibility in search engines and AI-generated answers. For your business, the important question is which relevant visits and commercial outcomes that work can support.

What do SEO, GEO and AIO mean?

SEO, search engine optimisation, makes pages accessible and relevant to searches. GEO, generative engine optimisation, is used for work aimed at representation or citations in generated answers. AIO is used in marketing for several forms of AI optimisation. It is not a single technical standard. Ask a supplier to explain the actual work and how it will be assessed.

Google states that the same SEO fundamentals apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode. There are no additional technical requirements or special AI optimisation needed for those features. Visibility is still not automatic: a page must be discoverable, understandable and useful. See Google’s documentation on AI features and websites.

What does visibility in AI answers require?

It requires the same foundation as ordinary search: pages that can be indexed, answers to the buyer’s questions, a clear sender and sources that can be checked. The steps below cover them in the order they usually take effect.

1. Make the right pages accessible

Check that important pages return correctly, can be indexed and have a clear canonical address. Internal links should help people and search engines find services, contact information and relevant detail. A sitemap can support discovery, but does not replace working navigation.

Give each language version a separate address and correct language relationships. Avoid putting important information only in images, videos or interactive components. Your message and offer also need to be available as readable text.

2. Answer the buyer’s actual questions

What do you help with? Who is it for? What is included? What does the first step cost? Who does the work? Write answers that people can understand before booking a sales meeting.

A clear service page needs a short overview and access to detail. Use concrete examples and explain limitations. A case study should state the starting point, work, measurement method and period. Make illustrative examples explicit, especially when numbers are involved.

3. Show who stands behind the information

Authorship, contact details and relevant experience help visitors assess content. Link to original sources when claims need support. Dates should reflect publication or actual changes, rather than being automatically refreshed to appear recent.

Structured data can describe an organisation, person, service or article. It should match what visitors see. Do not add invented reviews, client results or prices. Correct schema does not promise special search results or citations in AI answers.

4. Measure the effect in stages

Separate discovery, visits and business outcomes. Track visibility for relevant questions, traffic to the appropriate page and the next step on the website. Connect qualified enquiries to deals where possible.

A single answer from an AI service is an observation, not a stable market-share measure. Record the question, date and context when tracking mentions. State what you can observe and where evidence is missing. Web analytics and conversion analysis provide a basis for interpreting outcomes.

Backlinks that help the reader

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Start with material worth referring to: a practical checklist, a clearly scoped study or a case with a method and date. A link in a relevant guide can also bring a potential customer to your site.

Ask a partner to link when your work actually helps their readers. Leave the wording and context to the publisher. Mass outreach, paid ranking links and manufactured exchanges are not a sound foundation. Google describes these practices in its link spam policies.

On your own site, make the relationship clear: a guide explains the question, a service page describes the offer and a case shows the available evidence. Place a link where the next page supports a decision. See Google’s guidance on internal links and anchor text.

Checklist before your next publication

1. Offer: Can visitors understand who the page helps and what to do next?
2. Mobile: Are imagery, a short overview and an action visible without unnecessary empty space?
3. Evidence: Do numbers have a source, measurement period and explanation of limitations?
4. Links: Do descriptive links lead to relevant services, guides and primary sources?
5. Technology: Does the page respond correctly, with canonical URLs, language versions and structured data matching its content?
6. Follow-up: Who checks indexing, relevant visits and qualified enquiries after publication?

Download the text checklist. Use it in an editorial meeting or when handing work over to a web supplier. For help working through it, see SEO and marketing.

What do FAQ and llms.txt provide?

Concrete answers help readers. Schema.org can describe that same information in a machine-readable form, but Google removed FAQ rich results in May 2026. See Google’s changelog.

An llms.txt file can summarise content for systems that use it. Google says the file does not affect visibility or ranking in Google Search. Focus the main effort on the pages and their content. See Google’s June 2026 clarification.

What should you avoid?

Avoid large volumes of nearly identical pages, keyword repetition without context and AI-generated material that nobody has reviewed. Google explains that generating many pages without adding user value can violate its scaled content abuse policy. Read Google’s guidance on generative AI content.

Files such as llms.txt can collect information and links in a readable format. They should not be sold as a guarantee of indexing or AI visibility. Prioritise useful pages, sound technical foundations and verifiable information.

Start with a focused review

Choose pages close to a commercial decision: your main service, a relevant case and the contact page. Review their technical foundation, answers and next step. Then agree which changes to make, who owns them and what to measure.

Nikola Advisory Group helps with digital marketing and SEO, website strategy and delivery and measurement. Book a free review to identify a sensible first step.