seo-geo

# AI Search / GEO Optimization (May 2026) ## Primary Source: Google's AI Optimization Guide Google's official position, published under Search Central docs: > "Optimizing for generative AI search is **still SEO** from Google's > perspective. AEO and GEO are rebranded labels for the same work." Read `references/google-ai-optimization-guide.md` for the full synthesis, myth-busting list (`llms.txt`, chunking, AI-rephrasing, mention-farming — all rejected by Google as ineffective), and the Who/How/Why test for content quality. Audits should frame GEO findings as **SEO fundamentals applied to AI-search surfaces**, not as a separate optimization discipline. When community recommendations contradict Google's primary source, defer to Google and note the contradiction in the report. ## Key Statistics | Metric | Value | Source | |--------|-------|--------| | AI Overviews reach | 1.5 billion users/month across 200+ countries | Google | | AI Overviews query coverage | 50%+ of all queries | Industry data | | AI-referred sessions growth | 527% (Jan-May 2025) | SparkToro | | ChatGPT weekly active users | 900 million | OpenAI | | Perplexity monthly queries | 500+ million | Perplexity | ## Critical Insight: Brand Mentions > Backlinks **Brand mentions correlate 3x more strongly with AI visibility than backlinks.** (Ahrefs December 2025 study of 75,000 brands) | Signal | Correlation with AI Citations | |--------|------------------------------| | YouTube mentions | ~0.737 (strongest) |...