# GEO/AEO Playbooks > Field-tested playbooks for generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) — earning brand citations inside AI answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Every page below states a definition, shows the evidence it was checked against, and gives an extractable answer. URLs are canonical. ## Pillars - [Generative Engine Optimization: What Actually Earns AI Citations](https://geoplaybooks.com/generative-engine-optimization/): GEO earns citations inside AI answers, not rankings. Only 3 of the 16 sources its own AI Overview cites rank in the top 10. Mechanics, evidence, workflow. - [Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): What It Actually Takes to Be the Answer](https://geoplaybooks.com/answer-engine-optimization/): Answer engine optimization (AEO) structures content so featured snippets, People Also Ask, and AI answers can extract and cite it. Checked against 49 live SERPs, July 2026. - [AI Visibility: What It Is and How to Actually Measure It](https://geoplaybooks.com/ai-visibility/): The three AI visibility formulas. A $0 prompt-sampling protocol to run them. How often to re-check. The vendor-neutral answer to the AI search black box. - [AI Crawler List: Every Bot That Reads Your Site (2026)](https://geoplaybooks.com/ai-crawlers/): Ten AI crawlers fetch your pages in 2026. This is the live table of their operators, robots.txt tokens, and how to verify each one. Plus when blocking is the right call. - [ClaudeBot: What It Is, How to Verify It, What Blocking It Costs](https://geoplaybooks.com/ai-crawlers/claudebot/): ClaudeBot is Anthropic's web crawler. Its robots.txt token is ClaudeBot. Verify it by IP, not the user-agent string. Block it and you leave Claude's answer pool. - [How to Choose a GEO Agency: The Hiring Guide (I Read the Whole SERP)](https://geoplaybooks.com/geo-agencies/): A GEO agency gets you cited in AI answers, not ranked in blue links. 74 of the top 88 results for "geo agency" sell one. Evaluate deliverables, pricing, and red flags before you sign. - [Are Answer Engine Optimization Services Actually Worth It?](https://geoplaybooks.com/geo-agencies/are-aeo-services-worth-it/): AEO services are worth it for off-site work you cannot do in-house. They are a waste when they are rebranded SEO. Of 98 ranked pages, 60 sell the service and 1 asks if it is worth it. ## Comparisons - [AEO vs GEO: What's Actually Different (I Checked the SERPs)](https://geoplaybooks.com/compare/aeo-vs-geo/): AEO targets extractable answers. GEO targets citations in AI-generated responses. Zero top-10 URL overlap between the two SERPs in July 2026 — the evidence, checked. - [AEO vs SEO: What Actually Changes in the Work (Effort-Scored)](https://geoplaybooks.com/compare/aeo-vs-seo/): AEO earns extraction — snippets, PAA, AI answers. SEO earns rankings and clicks. Nine practices scored by effort and impact on a July 2026 SERP snapshot. - [GEO vs SEO: What Actually Transfers (and Where Your Traffic Went)](https://geoplaybooks.com/compare/geo-vs-seo/): SEO earns rankings and clicks. GEO earns citations inside AI answers. 61 of 98 results explain the difference — here's the transfer data, checked. ## ChatGPT guides - [ChatGPT SEO: How to Actually Rank in ChatGPT (and Get Recommended)](https://geoplaybooks.com/guides/chatgpt/): "Rank in ChatGPT" is three games: get mentioned, cited, recommended. The mechanism (Bing index, OAI-SearchBot), a dated first-person test, and what moves it. - [How to Get Cited by ChatGPT: What the Citation Data Actually Says](https://geoplaybooks.com/guides/chatgpt-citations/): Crawl access, retrieval, and an extractable answer capsule — 72.4% of LLM-cited posts carry one. The citation data, a $0 test protocol, and six steps. - [How to Get Your Business on ChatGPT (and Actually Get Recommended)](https://geoplaybooks.com/guides/chatgpt-for-small-business/): 94 of 96 guides say "rank"; zero say "business". Get your business recommended by ChatGPT: a 5-minute test, six free fixes, one agent check. ## Technical & llms.txt - [llms.txt: What It Is, Who Actually Reads It, and What the Logs Say](https://geoplaybooks.com/llms-txt/): llms.txt gives AI systems a curated Markdown map of your site. Publishing is real. Crawler pickup is near zero. The dated evidence from both camps, refereed. - [llms.txt Examples: 12 Real Files, Fetched and Torn Down](https://geoplaybooks.com/llms-txt/examples/): 12 real llms.txt examples, fetched and annotated. See what Cloudflare, GitHub and Pydantic get right. See what Anthropic gets wrong. Plus copy-paste templates for four site types. ## Glossary - [GEO / AEO Glossary: Definitions for Generative Engine Optimization](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/): A glossary of GEO and AEO terms. Query fan-out, answer capsule, LLMO, GSVO, AI share of voice, agentic commerce, prompt volume. Each one defined and sourced. - [Query Fan-Out: Definition and How AI Engines Split One Prompt](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/query-fan-out/): Query fan out is when an AI engine splits one prompt into 5 to 15 sub-queries. It cites sources by how often they appear across the set. Here is how it works. - [Answer Capsule: Definition, Anatomy, and How AI Engines Extract It](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/answer-capsule/): An answer capsule is a short, self-contained 40–60-word answer under a heading. AI engines lift it into ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. - [LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization): Definition](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/llmo/): LLMO means large language model optimization. It gets AI models to cite your brand. It is GEO under another name. - [GSVO: What Generative Search Visibility Optimization Means](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/gsvo/): GSVO is Otterly.ai's label for GEO. See what it means. See where it came from. Then map it to GEO, AEO, and LLMO. - [AI Share of Voice: The Formula and Why It Matters](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/ai-share-of-voice/): AI share of voice is the share of AI answers that name your brand. You measure it against tracked rivals. The formula is your mentions over all tracked mentions, times 100. It is the core GEO metric. - [Agentic Commerce: Definition and Why It Decides AI Visibility](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/agentic-commerce/): Agentic commerce is when an AI agent buys for a person. What is real vs announced in 2026, and why it decides who AI recommends. - [Prompt volume: why it is estimated, not counted](https://geoplaybooks.com/glossary/prompt-volume/): Prompt volume is the estimated rate a prompt is asked of AI engines. It is the GEO analog of search volume. No platform counts it, so vendors guess it. ## Data studies - [llms.txt adoption in the Tranco top 1,000 (July 2026)](https://geoplaybooks.com/data/llms-txt-adoption-2026/): Original data study — we fetched /llms.txt on all 1,000 top Tranco domains. 8.5% serve a spec-valid file (12.7% of the 670 that responded); 1.5% also ship llms-full.txt. Disclosed methodology, 330 unreachable hosts reported separately, downloadable dataset (CC BY 4.0). - [Data studies index](https://geoplaybooks.com/data/): The hub for GEO/AEO Playbooks original, self-collected data studies — first-party crawls with disclosed methods and CC BY 4.0 datasets.