How ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI choose which businesses to recommend

01What changed in search

People now ask full questions and get one written answer, often with a handful of cited sources. If your business is not one of those sources, you are invisible in that answer, even if you rank on page one of the classic results.

The good news is that the rules are not secret. The companies behind these tools publish how their crawlers work, and independent researchers have tested what helps a page get cited.

02Let the search crawlers in

Each AI company uses separate crawlers for search and for training, and you can allow one without the other.

• OpenAI: Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. OpenAI also notes it can take about 24 hours for a robots.txt change to apply. ³
• Anthropic: blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce your site's visibility and accuracy in user search results. ⁴
• Google: its AI features use normal Search crawling, so the page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. ²

Check your robots.txt and any firewall or CDN bot settings. Many sites block these crawlers by accident.

03Put the answer first

AI answers quote passages, not whole pages. A page that opens with a short, direct answer to its main question is easier to quote than one that builds up to the point after three paragraphs.

• One main question per page, stated in the main heading
• A two to three sentence answer straight after it
• Headings that read like the follow-up questions people ask
• Short paragraphs, lists and tables for steps and comparisons

Every article on this site opens with a “Short answer” box for this reason.

04Add evidence: numbers, quotes and sources

The best-known study of this, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization by researchers from Princeton and partners, tested how changes to a page affect how often generative engines show it. The authors report that GEO can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses. ¹ Their methods include adding citations, quotations from relevant sources and statistics.

In practice: give a real figure where you have one, name where it came from and link to the original. It helps people trust you, too.

05The SEO basics still decide

Google is direct about this: There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary. It adds that you don't need new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup. ²

What it does recommend is the usual list: allow crawling, link to important pages internally, give a good page experience, keep key content in text and keep structured data consistent with what is visible on the page. ²

Google also says that of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, trust is most important. ⁵ Real names, real addresses, real reviews and honest claims count.

06A one-month plan

1. Week 1: check robots.txt, CDN and firewall rules for OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot and Bingbot
2. Week 2: rewrite your five most important pages to open with a direct answer
3. Week 3: add figures, sources and FAQs to those pages, plus matching structured data
4. Week 4: fix speed issues and claim or update your Google Business Profile

Then ask the AI tools the questions your customers ask, and note who they cite. That is your new competitor list.

FAQQuestions people ask

SRCSources

1. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al.)arXiv, Princeton University and partners
2. AI features and your websiteGoogle Search Central
3. Overview of OpenAI crawlersOpenAI
4. Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler?Anthropic
5. Creating helpful, reliable, people-first contentGoogle Search Central

Every figure links to its original source. Checked on 18 October 2026.