aeo-geo

# AEO/GEO Intelligence

## When to Use This Skill

Activate this module when the user's request involves any of the following:

- **AI Visibility**: Questions about how a brand, product, or person appears in AI-generated answers (ChatGPT, Perplexity, **Google AI Mode**, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini, Claude)
- **Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)**: Optimizing content so it gets selected as a source for AI-generated answers
- **Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)**: Structuring content and entities so generative AI platforms accurately represent a brand
- **Citation Tracking**: Monitoring which sources AI models cite when answering queries related to a brand or industry
- **Entity Consistency**: Ensuring brand information is uniform across all knowledge sources that AI models train on or retrieve from
- **Knowledge Graph Optimization**: Improving how a brand is represented in Google Knowledge Graph, Wikidata, and other structured knowledge bases
- **Structured Data for AI**: Implementing schema markup and structured data specifically to improve AI comprehension and citation likelihood

**Trigger phrases**: "AI visibility," "how does ChatGPT describe my brand," "Perplexity results," "AI Mode optimization," "AI Overview optimization," "answer engine," "generative engine," "LLM optimization," "AI citations," "entity consistency," "Knowledge Graph"

**Google AI Mode (May 2026 — treat as a distinct surface)**: At Google I/O on 19 May 2026 AI Mode became the default search experience for opted-in users, crossed ~1B MAUs, and switched to Gemini 3.5 Flash as the base model. AI Mode is **not** the same as AI Overviews — it is a separate conversational tab with deeper reasoning, multi-turn follow-ups, and a citation pattern that frequently diverges from AI Overviews for the same query. Brands must audit AI Mode independently. Practical implication: an AEO program that only tests AI Overviews + ChatGPT + Perplexity now has a measurable blind spot.

**Additional I/O 2026 announcements that change AEO scope** ([source: blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/search-io-2026](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/search-io-2026/)):

- **AI Overview → AI Mode follow-up flow** is live worldwide (desktop + mobile) — users can ask a follow-up directly from an AI Overview and flow into a conversational AI Mode session. AEO implication: the *first* impression in an AI Overview is now also a gateway to multi-turn citation. Optimize for being the foundational citation, not just the brief snippet.
- **Personal Intelligence in AI Mode** is expanding to ~200 countries and 98 languages, no subscription required, with Gmail / Photos / Calendar connections. AEO implication: AI answers are increasingly personalized — generic brand-search results will be reweighted against the user's own context. Brand schema completeness and entity consistency (NAP, services, hours) matter even more.
- **AI Information Agents** (user-created, monitoring blogs/news/social 24/7) launch for AI Pro & Ultra subscribers in summer 2026. AEO implication: brands that publish structured, dated updates on owned channels will be more legible to user-configured agents than those relying on third-party PR pickup.

**Official Google guidance on AI search optimization** (updated 15 May 2026 — [Google AI Optimization Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)):

- **No `llms.txt` file is needed.** Google's official position: "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in generative AI search." Do not waste time generating `llms.txt` for Google AI Features. (Other AI search engines may or may not consume it; current Anthropic / OpenAI / Perplexity public positions are also that they do not require it. Document any client pressure to ship `llms.txt` as a low-priority deliverable with no measurable upside.)
- **No special AI-specific schema is needed.** "Structured data isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special schema.org markup you need to add." Schema continues to matter for classic SEO and rich results.
- **Eligibility is standard Search.** "To be eligible to be shown in generative AI features on Google Search, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet, fulfilling the Search technical requirements."

**Opt-out and AI training controls** ([Google AI Features doc](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)):

- For AI Overviews and AI Mode (inside Google Search): use existing snippet directives — `nosnippet`, `data-nosnippet`, `max-snippet`, `noindex`. Robots.txt for Googlebot is the canonical control. **There is no AI-specific robots/meta directive.**
- For Google's *other* AI systems (Gemini app training, Vertex AI grounding outside Search): use the **Google-Extended** user agent in robots.txt. This is a distinct control from Googlebot.
- **NEW (3 June 2026):** Search Console now ships an **opt-out toggle** at the property level — flip it to exclude the site from grounding AI Overviews / AI Mode responses without editing robots.txt. See `/digital-marketing-pro:gsc-ai-performance` for the decision framework on when to use it.

**EU AI Act Article 50 (applicable 2 August 2026)** — for AI-generated marketing content surfaced in EU markets, see `skills/context-engine/eu-code-of-practice.md` for the voluntary Code of Practice (WG1 providers / WG2 deployers) and the C2PA `c2pa.ai-disclosure` assertion path. Compliance is plugin-level and applies to `c2pa-metadata` outputs.

## Brand Context (Auto-Applied)

Before producing any marketing output from this module:

1. **Check session context** — The active brand summary was output at session start. Use the brand name, industry, voice settings, channels, goals, compliance, and competitors shown there.
2. **If you need the full profile**, read: `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json`
3.