(03)Resources

Notes on being the answer.

Guides on generative engine optimization — how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews decide who to cite, and what it takes to earn a place in the answer.

Latest

Technical2026-07-306 min read

Which AI Crawlers Should You Allow in robots.txt?

GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended each do a different job, and blocking the wrong one can quietly remove you from AI search results without touching your Google ranking at all.

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Strategy2026-07-30

AI Overviews Are Eating Your Clicks: What Still Gets Traffic in 2026

AI Overviews correlate with a 58 percent drop in click-through rate on top-ranking pages. But branded queries are up 18 percent, which points to where real traffic still exists.

6 min read

Industry2026-07-30

AI Search Optimization for Law Firms: What Bar Advertising Rules Mean for GEO

Getting cited by ChatGPT for legal questions works differently for law firms than for any other business, because every piece of content still has to clear attorney advertising rules first.

6 min read

Technical2026-07-30

Do You Need an llms.txt File in 2026? What It Actually Does (and Doesn't)

OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Meta have not committed to reading llms.txt in production. Here's who's actually using it, and who's wasting an afternoon on a file that does nothing for their AI search visibility.

5 min read

Industry2026-07-30

How Marketing Agencies Can Add GEO Services Without Building an AI Visibility Team

Agencies don't need to hire a dedicated AI search team to offer GEO. Most are adding it as a $500 to $2,000 per client line item on top of existing SEO retainers, using tooling instead of headcount.

6 min read

Foundations2026-07-30

GEO vs. SEO: What's Actually Different

The technical foundations overlap more than people think. The content strategy, success metrics, and even the traffic itself don't overlap at all.

5 min read

Foundations2026-07-30

How AI Answer Engines Choose Who to Cite

ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews don't rank pages. They select sources. Here's the actual mechanism behind that selection, not just the theory.

5 min read

Industry2026-07-30

How Independent Consultants Get Cited by ChatGPT (LinkedIn's New Role in AI Search)

LinkedIn more than doubled its domain rank on ChatGPT between December 2025 and mid-February 2026, and became its fifth most-cited source. For solo consultants, that changes where visibility work should actually happen.

6 min read

Foundations2026-07-30

Third-Party Corroboration: Why AI Engines Won't Cite Your Website Alone

AI engines scan for agreement across independent sources before confidently citing a claim. A well-written page about yourself carries less weight than the same claim echoed independently elsewhere.

6 min read

Research2026-07-30

9 Content Tactics That Actually Boost AI Citation (What the Research Shows)

A 2024 Princeton, Georgia Tech, and Allen Institute study tested nine specific content tactics across roughly 10,000 queries. The effect sizes vary enormously, and one common tactic actively hurt performance.

6 min read

Industry2026-07-30

Why ChatGPT Won't Recommend Your SaaS Product (Even With Great Content)

AI engines treat G2 and Capterra listings as a prerequisite for software citations, not a nice-to-have. Here's what that means for a SaaS marketing team's actual priorities this quarter.

6 min read

Technical2026-07-30

Why Schema Markup Matters More for AI Search

Structured data used to be a nice-to-have for rich results. For answer engines, it's close to how they figure out who you are and what you actually offer.

5 min read