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What is AI SEO (and LLM SEO)? A plain-language guide for local businesses

AI SEO (also called LLM SEO or GEO) is making your business show up in AI-powered search: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. It works by making your pages readable to AI crawlers, answering customers' questions, keeping your facts consistent, and being present on the sources AI reads.

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Two meanings of "AI SEO"

People use the term two ways: using AI tools to do SEO work faster, and optimizing to appear in AI search. This guide is about the second, because that's what decides whether customers who ask an assistant ever hear your name.

What LLM SEO involves

  1. Let the crawlers in: don't block OpenAI's, Perplexity's or Anthropic's search crawlers, and make sure your text is in the page HTML.
  2. Write answer-first pages for the questions your customers ask, with your name and area in the answer.
  3. Back claims with facts: licences, years, prices, service areas, each dated.
  4. Keep your business details identical everywhere they appear.
  5. Earn reviews and listings on the sites assistants cite for your trade.
  6. Measure, weekly, because AI answers change between runs.

What to avoid

  • Pages written for bots: keyword lists, hidden text, mass-produced near-duplicates.
  • Fake reviews or paid links.
  • Anyone promising a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT.

Keep reading

Sources

Questions

Questions people ask

Is AI SEO the same as GEO?

In practice, yes. AI SEO, LLM SEO and GEO all describe optimizing to appear in answers from AI assistants and AI search features.

Do I still need regular SEO?

Yes. AI assistants with web search start from search results, and Google's AI features use Google's index. Regular SEO is the base.

Can I block AI crawlers and still appear in AI answers?

If you block an assistant's search crawler, it can't read your site, which makes it less likely to cite you. Check your robots.txt.

How do I know if AI search mentions my business?

Ask the assistants your customers' questions with your city, note who they name and which sites they cite, and repeat over time. RealBooster's free check does it in about a minute.

Is there an official AI SEO checklist from OpenAI or Google?

Google says its AI features rely on the same fundamentals as Search. OpenAI and Perplexity document their crawlers so site owners can allow them.