Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI, in plain language
Google published a guide in May 2026 on optimizing your website for its generative AI features, which means AI Overviews and AI Mode. The short version is that the work that helps you in ordinary Google Search is the work that helps here, and several things people worry about are unnecessary. This guide walks through what Google recommends, what it says you can skip, and the honest gap: Google covers Google, not ChatGPT, Perplexity or the rest.
What Google published
In May 2026, Google Search Central added a page on optimizing a website for generative AI features in Google Search. Those features are AI Overviews and AI Mode. The page's main message is that these features are built on Google's core Search ranking and quality systems, so the work that helps in ordinary Search is the work that helps here.
Google also frames AEO and GEO as names for the same discipline as SEO when it comes to Google Search. That is a useful thing to know if you have been told you need a separate AI strategy just for Google. For example, a plumber in Manchester who already keeps a clear services page and a complete Google Business Profile does not need a second set of pages aimed at AI.
What Google recommends
The recommendations are practical and mostly familiar. Each one matters because Google's AI answers draw on the same index and quality signals as its regular results. If a page cannot be indexed or shown as a snippet, it cannot appear in an AI answer either.
- Make sure pages are indexed and eligible to show a snippet. A page that cannot be shown as a snippet cannot appear in an AI answer.
- Follow crawling best practice, use semantic HTML, follow JavaScript SEO guidance so text is readable without scripts, and give a good page experience.
- Reduce duplicate content, and write content that offers something beyond common knowledge: your own prices, data, experience, examples.
- Use structured data as part of normal SEO so pages qualify for rich results. Keep a complete Google Business Profile if you serve customers locally. Use Merchant Center feeds if you sell products.
- For agent-driven experiences, Google points to its agent-friendly web guidance and the Universal Commerce Protocol. Most small businesses can leave this for later.
What doing this looks like in practice is less work than it sounds. For example, a dentist in Leeds might check that the practice page loads without JavaScript, that the opening hours and services are in plain text, and that the Google Business Profile lists the same hours. That is the whole job for many local businesses.
The content point is the one worth slowing down for. Google is asking for something beyond common knowledge. For example, a bakery in Dublin might add its actual sourdough schedule and the flour it uses, rather than a general paragraph about baking bread that could appear on any site.
What Google says does not help
Google is unusually direct about things that do not help. Knowing these saves time and money, and it stops you paying for work that has no effect on Google's AI features.
- Special files for AI such as llms.txt, Markdown copies of pages or AI-specific markup. Google indexes many file types and gives these no special treatment. See llms.txt.
- Splitting pages into small chunks. Google's systems handle several topics on one page.
- Rewriting pages for every long-tail phrasing or in a special style for AI. The systems understand synonyms and meaning.
- Seeking inauthentic mentions. Ranking systems focus on quality, and spam systems act against manufactured mentions.
Each of these matters because they are common pieces of advice. For example, a software company in Berlin might be told to publish an llms.txt file and to rewrite its homepage in short, robotic sentences for AI. According to Google, neither helps. The same company would do better to make sure the homepage is indexed, readable and specific about what it sells.
The point about inauthentic mentions is worth repeating. Buying or manufacturing mentions does not fit how Google's ranking systems work, and its spam systems act against it. If a mention is not genuine, it is not a shortcut.
What the guide does not cover
The guide covers Google. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek, Copilot and Sarvam each have their own crawlers, indexes and habits. Google's advice is a good base but not the whole job. See how to rank in ChatGPT and Perplexity SEO.
It also gives no separate report. Search Console counts AI Overviews and AI Mode clicks and impressions inside ordinary web totals, so you cannot see from Google alone whether an AI answer named you. Bing does offer such a report for Copilot. See Bing Webmaster Tools AI search.
The only way to know what Google's AI answers say about your business is to ask them the questions your customers ask and read the answers. Vasukai does this for Google AI Mode and AI Overviews together with the other assistants, on a schedule, and shows who is named instead. Plans start at $19 a month, and there is a free check with no card.
A checklist from the guide
If you want a single list to work from, this is the one the guide supports. It is short on purpose, and most of it is ordinary SEO housekeeping.
- Indexed and snippet-eligible pages.
- Readable text without JavaScript.
- One clear topic per page, but no artificial chunking.
- Structured data where a rich result exists.
- Google Business Profile complete.
- Merchant Center for products.
- No AI-only files.
- No manufactured mentions.
Then there are the parts Google leaves to you: the questions customers actually ask, the sites the assistants cite, and a regular check of the answers. For example, a hotel in Jaipur might list the questions guests ask before booking, then check whether Google's AI answer names the hotel or a nearby competitor.
Questions
Is GEO just SEO, then?
For Google's AI features, Google says yes. For the other assistants the basics overlap but each has its own crawler and sources, so the measurement is different.
Should I remove my llms.txt?
No need. It does nothing for Google and nothing against it.
Does Search Console show AI Overview traffic?
Not separately. It is included in the web search totals.
Where is the original guide?
On Google Search Central, under the documentation for appearing in Google Search, titled along the lines of optimizing your website for generative AI features.
