AI Search

AI SEO in 2026: The Complete Guide to GEO, AEO, and Getting Cited by AI Search

The way people find businesses has fundamentally changed. In 2026, 37% of consumers began their search with an AI tool rather than Google, according to research from Eight Oh Two and Search Engine Land. ChatGPT reaches 900 million weekly users. Google AI Overviews appear in over 25% of all searches. Perplexity processes more than 500 million queries every month. This shift has created an entirely new discipline: AI SEO Services – the practice of optimizing your digital content so that AI-powered search engines cite, recommend, and feature your business in their responses. You may also see it called generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO), or LLM SEO. The terminology varies, but the discipline is the same. This guide covers what the discipline involves, how AI search engines decide what to cite, which platforms matter, how to structure content for AI extraction, how to measure results, and why local […]