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AI search, GEO & AEO — explained
Clear, evidence-based answers to how AI assistants pick and cite the products, tools and sources they recommend — and what genuinely moves the needle in 2026 versus what’s hype.
AI searchWhat is AI search, and why does it matter for ecommerce?AI search is when people use an AI assistant — ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot — to research and decide what to buy, instead of scrolling a page of blue links. It matters for ecommerce because the assistant often names a short list of specific products or brands, so being one of the sources it draws on increasingly decides who gets discovered.ReadGEOWhat is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your content more likely to be cited or recommended by AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI features. In 2026 the evidence points to genuine credibility — original data, real statistics, expert quotations, clear citations and off-site brand mentions — rather than keyword tricks or superficial 'authoritative-sounding' rewrites.ReadAEOWhat is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is structuring your content so answer engines — Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, featured snippets, and assistant answers — can lift a clean, direct response straight from your page. In practice that means leading with a concise answer, using question-shaped headings, and presenting comparisons as tables or lists.ReadGoogle AI OverviewsWhat are Google AI Overviews, and how do you show up in them?Google AI Overviews (and the fuller AI Mode) are AI-generated summaries shown above the classic results for many queries, with links to supporting sources. Google states these features run on its core Search ranking and quality systems and draw from the same index as organic Search — so ranking well organically is the primary way to become a source, and no special 'AI schema' is required.ReadHow ChatGPT picks productsHow does ChatGPT decide which products to recommend?When ChatGPT recommends products it blends two things: patterns learned during training (how often a brand or product is discussed across the web) and, when it searches live, sources it retrieves and cites in the moment. There's no pay-to-rank slot for organic recommendations — being widely and credibly discussed across third-party sites is what makes a product likely to surface.ReadHow AI engines cite sourcesHow do AI answer engines choose which sources to cite?AI answer engines retrieve candidate pages, then cite the ones that most credibly and directly answer the query. Across engines the strongest observed signals are off-site: how often and how credibly your brand is mentioned across the web — not raw backlink counts or how many pages you publish. Being an already-ranking, clearly-written source is what gets you into the citation set.ReadGEO vs SEOGEO vs SEO: what's the difference in 2026?SEO optimises for ranking in classic search results; GEO optimises for being cited and recommended by AI engines. In 2026 they're deeply linked rather than separate: because Google's AI features use the same index as organic Search, strong SEO is the foundation of GEO — GEO adds the off-site credibility and answer-ready structure on top.ReadDoes llms.txt work?Does an llms.txt file help you rank in AI search?Almost certainly not, as of 2026. A large study of 137,210 domains found 97% of llms.txt files received no requests at all, and named AI retrieval bots fetched them only a couple of hundred times combined. Google has said it doesn't use them, and there's no evidence they change your visibility in ChatGPT or Perplexity — so llms.txt is, at best, a low priority.ReadGetting cited by ChatGPTHow do you get your brand cited by ChatGPT and other AI assistants?There's no submission form. Assistants cite sources they can find, trust and easily extract an answer from — so the levers are: be present where they look (review sites, Reddit, YouTube, high-authority roundups), be structured so your page is easy to quote (a direct answer up top, question-style headings, clear sections), and build enough third-party mention that your brand reads as a credible option.ReadAI product researchWhat is AI product research, and how is it different?AI product research means finding products to sell based on what AI assistants are surfacing to shoppers — the items ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity name when someone asks what to buy — rather than only what's winning in social-media ads or classic search. It's a newer discovery signal that sits alongside ad-spy and trend tools, not a replacement for them.ReadChatGPT shoppingHow does shopping in ChatGPT work?When a shopper asks ChatGPT for buying help, it can respond with specific products — sometimes with images, prices and links — drawn from web sources and product data rather than a single store. Which products appear depends on what ChatGPT can find and trust across the web, so being well-reviewed and widely referenced is what gets a product into the answer.Read