GEO
The Three Surfaces of AI Search: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO
Each AI search surface behaves differently. Here is how each works and how to optimize for all three.
The three major AI search surfaces (ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews) each have different sourcing behaviors. A GEO strategy that works for one does not necessarily work for the others. Optimizing for all three requires understanding their differences.
ChatGPT Search relies heavily on its training data plus real-time Bing results for grounding. To be cited, you need to be in the training data (high-authority site, well-indexed) and have clear, extractable content that surfaces in Bing. Schema markup helps. External citations help more.
Perplexity does real-time web search per query and cites sources directly with footnotes. To be cited, your content needs to be highly relevant to the specific query and indexed in their search. Perplexity tends to cite more sources per answer than ChatGPT and rewards sites with clear, focused content on the queried topic.
Google AI Overviews uses Google's existing index plus its Gemini model to summarize. To be cited, traditional Google ranking signals matter (content quality, schema, backlinks, domain authority). AIO tends to cite the top organic results, so SEO authority directly translates to AIO citation. Optimize for all three by building genuine topic authority, clean schema, and strong external citations. Measure citation frequency by surface to understand where you are visible and where you are not.