How to Generate Traffic From the GPTs (AEO/GEO)

This topic has come straight from the Barflies Slack Channel (if you’re not a member, why not?!-  Go check it out). 

SEO in 2025 involves looking way beyond the blue links of Google and starting to think about how your website can appear in answer engines and AI-powered content generators. The old rules haven’t gone away, but now how search engines and large language models (LLMs) choose and surface your content matters more than ever.

In a nutshell, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) helps your brand’s content get chosen as the direct answer by AI bots (such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini), while GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) ensures your expertise is cited when users query ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini for longer term conversations (or where the GPT will Generate the answer / content for you – rather than citing it).

Moreover, as answer engines develop, it’s no longer enough to just drive website clicks; brands must now also track how often they’re cited, linked, or appear as authoritative sources in AI-generated results. Zero-click searches are becoming a new norm, with users often getting their answers directly from the AI interface, so metrics such as AI citations, mention share, and link frequency in generative results are becoming just as important as traditional organic traffic. 

Is SEO for AI Different?

At first glance, optimizing for LLMs and GPT-powered bots might feel like learning a whole new dialect. But here’s the thing… AEO and GEO fundamentally echo the principles we’ve been applying for years: Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (or EEAT). Both Google’s ranking systems and GPT-based bots want to recommend content that’s:

✅ Deeply knowledgeable (expertise)

✅ Clearly credible (authoritativeness)

✅ Trustworthy and well-attributed (trust)

✅ Demonstrably used in the context it covers (experience)

Just as in traditional SEO, these LLMs prioritize reliable, well-written and clearly attributed content. If anything, they are even more reliant on strong signals – they can’t judge intent or nuance on the fly, so they feed on clarity and explicit markers of credibility.

So, How Do You Actually Rank in LLMs? 

How do you actually help your content rise above the noise in AI-driven results?

The key is finding the right balance of SEO for your specific goals – the ratio between performance and effort. 

Like we’ve discussed, “enough SEO” means aligning your investment with real business goals, not chasing traffic for traffic’s sake. Whether you just need a few high-ticket leads per year, or you operate at scale, your approach to AEO/GEO needs to strike that “Goldilocks zone” – not too little (invisible), not too much (overoptimized and untrustworthy). 

Keeping on top of the stats is essential as it’s about reaching the actual destination – visible, authoritative and worthy of citation by both humans and machines.

1️⃣ Installing the LLMs.txt File

The first practical step in preparing your site for generative engines is the LLMs.txt file. This file – now supported by all of the major AI platforms – works like a signal beacon for bots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. It’s like the sitemap.xml, but for the bots.

It has two main functions:

1. Lists which parts of your site should/shouldn’t be indexed/crawled by language models.
2. Provides explicit permission or restrictions (similar to robots.txt, but specifically for AI crawlers).

Adding this is becoming best practice for agencies and clients whose IP, product specs, or sensitive content shouldn’t be freely surfaced in distilled answers. 

Installation is straightforward: place an llms.txt file in your site’s root directory (alongside your sitemap), specifying directives so AI agents know what’s fair game and what isn’t. This is particularly relevant in regulated or IP-heavy industries (i.e. finance, healthcare, SaaS) where content leaks can be costly. 😬

2️⃣ Attribution to Authors

GPT-style engines care deeply about attribution. Unlike the open web, AEO/GEO success depends on content that’s clearly credited to real, visible experts. This is because AI engines use author signals and citation frameworks as trust proxies – they want to cite (and sometimes even link out to) sources with:

• Named authors
• Detailed bios (ideally with credentials)
• Linked social/company profiles
• Consistent bylines across content

This enhances the perceived EEAT of your site and makes you stand out not just to Google, but to Gemini and ChatGPT as well. Never skip author fields, and use schema markup to reinforce those signals; it might take work, but it pays off in authority and visibility.

3️⃣ Where AEO/GEO Differ from SEO

So far, it all seems fairly straightforward – like “good traditional SEO” will be enough – but that’s not quite true… There are a few areas where LLM specific actions should be taken, such as:

• Content Structure: LLMs prioritize clear, structured data – pillar pages, comprehensive guides, bulleted summaries, FAQs. This is as much about discoverability as readability.
• Quality Signals: Video, tutorial flows, downloadable resources, and unique insights get scraped and surfaced in answer engines. The more original and well-explained, the better.
• Topical Depth: Content clusters and pillar frameworks still help, but now you’re training bots as well as search engines – more connected topics, more FAQ answers, more supporting detail.

Yet Another Reality Check 👀

As it has always been, if your site is invisible, thin, or poorly maintained, neither Google nor ChatGPT will trust (or suggest) your pages for complex queries. On the flip side, overoptimizing (i.e. overly engineered meta data, excessive keyword use, or chasing every possible directive) can cause algorithms and users to tune out. Your focus STILL needs to be measurable ROI without sacrificing user experience or brand credibility.

Some high-competition industries (such as finance, health, ecommerce) demand not just more content, but deeper authority, clearer attribution, and more technical hygiene – now including a robust LLMs.txt file, detailed bios and bulletproof schema. 

Moderate niches can often thrive on the fundamentals of freshness, expertise and clear author profiles. And for local businesses, Google My Business and local citations are still relevant (although answer engines like Bing Copilot and ChatGPT now display local results too!)

SEO for AEO/GEO isn’t static. As algorithms change, new engines emerge, and your business will always hit growth spurts (or slow periods). 

As always: maintain technical health, keep content current, and expect the “sweet spot” to shift with every major update or traffic pattern swing.

As of right now, the winners will be the sites with expert-driven content, robust attribution, transparent AI directives, and agile, ROI-focused SEO. If you or your client want to be surfaced as an authoritative source in the next wave of generative engines, start now – review, update, verify and prepare to iterate. 👌