LLM SEO: How to Get Your Business Cited by ChatGPT & AI

Key takeaways

LLM SEO (also called LLMO) means making your business easy for AI models to find, understand and quote in their answers.
AI models reach your content two ways: what they learned in training, and what they read live when they search the web. Each company uses separate crawlers for each.
The original GEO study found that adding quotes, statistics and cited sources raised a page's visibility in AI answers by 30 to 40%; keyword stuffing did not help.
You do not need special files or schema. You need crawlable pages, clear facts, consistent business data and mentions on other trusted sites.

30–40%visibility gain from adding quotes, statistics or sources in the original GEO study

115%gain for sites ranked fifth in search when they cited sources, same study

80%of Reddit posts cited by AI tools had fewer than 20 upvotes (Semrush)

What is LLM SEO?

LLM SEO, or large language model optimization, is the work of getting your business found, understood and cited by AI models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. It builds on normal SEO, but the goal is different: being named inside an AI answer, not only ranking as a blue link.

You will see the same idea under several names: LLMO, GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO (answer engine optimization). The differences are mostly marketing. GEO, the term from the original research paper, is the broadest, so I use it for the GEO hub; "LLM SEO" puts the focus on the models themselves. For a business owner, the practical question is the same with any name: when someone asks an AI who to hire or what to buy, does it mention you?

How do LLMs find your content?

Through two separate paths. The first is training: models learn from huge amounts of web text collected months earlier. The second is live search: when a question needs fresh information, the assistant searches the web and reads pages in real time. Each AI company runs different crawlers for each path, and you control them separately.

This matters because blocking the wrong crawler can make you invisible. The companies publish their crawler names:

Company	Training crawler	Search and answer crawlers	What blocking the search crawler does
OpenAI	GPTBot	OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User	Your site stops appearing in ChatGPT search answers
Anthropic	ClaudeBot	Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User	Less presence in Claude's search responses
Perplexity	None (PerplexityBot is not used for training)	PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User	You stop appearing in Perplexity results
Google	Google-Extended (Gemini training and grounding)	Googlebot (AI Overviews and AI Mode use the Search index)	Google-Extended does not affect Google Search

OpenAI states that each setting is independent: you can block GPTBot from training on your content and still appear in ChatGPT search through OAI-SearchBot. For most businesses that want customers, the search crawlers should be allowed. Google is simpler: its AI features use the normal Search index, and Google says there are no extra technical requirements beyond being indexed.

LLM SEO in 7 steps

This is the order I work in, from the cheapest fix to the slowest:

Let the search crawlers in. Check robots.txt and your firewall for OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot and Bingbot. A security plugin blocking them is more common than you would think.
Put the important content in the HTML. Prices, services, hours and FAQs hidden behind tabs or loaded late by JavaScript are harder for crawlers to read.
Answer first. Open each key page with one or two sentences that say plainly what you do, for whom, where and for how much. That is the sentence an AI can quote.
Add facts with sources. In the original GEO study, adding quotations, statistics or cited sources raised a page's visibility in AI answers by about 30 to 40%.
Keep your business data identical everywhere. Same name, address, phone, services and description on your site, Google Business Profile, Bing Places and directories. Mismatches confuse AI models.
Earn mentions on other sites. AI answers lean on reviews, comparison articles and forums. In a Semrush study of 217,000 prompts, Reddit was among the three most cited domains in Perplexity, ChatGPT search and Google AI Mode.
Measure it. Test the same buyer questions every month and track who gets named. Step-by-step below.

Notice that five of the seven steps are classic SEO. That is not a coincidence: the study behind GEO found that its methods helped lower-ranked sites the most. Pages in fifth position gained 115% visibility when they cited sources, while the top result actually lost some. In other words, LLM SEO is where a smaller business can catch up with a bigger competitor, but only if the basics are solid. My GEO audit checks all seven.

What should you skip in LLM SEO?

Skip keyword stuffing, fake mentions and magic files. In the GEO study, keyword stuffing scored worse than doing nothing. Fake reviews and paid forum posts break platform rules and US law. And an llms.txt file is optional: Google says you do not need AI text files or special schema to appear in its AI features.

The llms.txt proposal (llmstxt.org) is a plain text map of your site for AI tools. It costs little, and I keep one on this site, but a Google representative compared it to the keywords meta tag, and no AI company I know of has said it uses it to rank or cite pages. Spend your first hours on steps 1 to 5, not on a file. If you want the details, read the llms.txt guide.

How do you know if LLM SEO is working?

Run a fixed list of buyer questions in each AI assistant every month and count how often you are named and which sources are cited. Add the official reports: GA4's AI Assistant channel for chatbot visits, Bing's AI Performance report for Copilot citations, and Search Console for Google's AI features.

One answer is not a result, because AI answers change from run to run. What you want is a trend: named in 3 of 24 questions this month, 7 of 24 three months later. GA4 now groups visits from chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot in an AI Assistant channel; note that Google's own AI Overviews and AI Mode are not in it, they count as organic search. Bing Webmaster Tools shows citations in Copilot and Bing AI summaries. If you want to see how AI already talks about your business, the GEO hub explains the rest, and you can start with a free 30-minute check with me, or go back to the home page.

Frequently asked questions

Is LLM SEO the same as GEO?

Practically, yes. LLM SEO, LLMO, GEO and AEO describe the same goal: getting your business found and cited in AI-generated answers. GEO is the term from the original research.

Should I block GPTBot?

That depends on whether you want your content used to train OpenAI's models. Blocking GPTBot does not remove you from ChatGPT search, which uses OAI-SearchBot. Most businesses that want customers allow the search crawlers.

Do I need llms.txt for LLM SEO?

No. It is optional and cheap, but Google says no AI text files are needed for its AI features, and no AI company has said it uses llms.txt to choose sources.

How long does LLM SEO take?

Crawler and page fixes can show in live-search answers within weeks. Mentions on other sites and changes in what models learned take months.

Can a small business compete in LLM SEO?

Yes. The original GEO study found the biggest gains for pages that were not ranking first. Clear facts and good sources matter more than size.

About the author

Juan José Giraldo is an SEO consultant in Medellín, Colombia, with 5+ years of experience. He works on technical and local SEO for 600+ US car dealerships at Reunion Marketing, an Inc. 5000 agency, and supervises the SEO of 18 US online stores with more than 3 million products at Prontomowers. Read more · LinkedIn.

LLM SEO: how to get large language models to cite your business.