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Getting found on Google and cited by AI: SEO, AEO and GEO for Quebec small businesses
What Google, Bing, OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity actually say, and what a service business can do this season on a modest budget.
To be found on Google and cited by AI assistants, a small business first needs solid SEO: a crawlable, fast site, pages that answer real questions plainly, a complete Google Business Profile and AI search crawlers allowed in. Google says so itself: AEO and GEO are still SEO. Nobody can guarantee a ranking.
In short
- Google treats optimizing for generative AI search as ordinary SEO: no special tag or file is required to appear in AI Overviews.
- Fundamentals beat tricks: indexing, speed, original content from people who know the trade, and an up-to-date Google Business Profile.
- AI engines run their own crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot); blocking them by accident keeps you out of their answers.
- Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026; a good FAQ still helps readers and answer engines.
- Measure with Google Search Console and Bing's AI Performance report, not with tools that promise rankings.
What do SEO, AEO and GEO mean for a small business?
SEO is about ranking in the classic results. AEO is about supplying the answer a search engine shows directly. GEO is about being cited inside an answer written by an AI. All three rest on the same foundation: a site robots can read and content worth quoting.
These acronyms show up in every agency pitch and LinkedIn thread. For the owner of a service business, they really describe three places a prospect might run into you: Google's list of blue links, the answer box at the top of the page, and the paragraph written by ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews.
Customers don't care about the labels. They type "blocked drain Laval Saturday" or ask an assistant "which roofer in Lévis does flat roofs?". What matters is that your business clearly exists online, that your pages answer that kind of question, and that crawlers are allowed to read them. Our glossary defines each term if you want the vocabulary.
| Approach | Where you show up | What helps most | What isn't enough |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO (search engine optimization) | Classic Google and Bing results | Indexed, fast, useful pages; links from other sites; a local profile | Repeating a keyword |
| AEO (answer engine optimization) | Snippets and direct answers at the top | A question as the heading and a plain answer right below | An FAQ copied from a competitor |
| GEO (generative engine optimization) | Answers in ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity, AI Overviews | Verifiable facts, current details, AI search crawlers allowed | A "magic" file or special markup |
Pilotiko summary based on Google Search Central documentation [1] and Bing [17].
What does Google say about AEO and GEO?
Google states plainly that, from its point of view, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for search, so it's still SEO. There are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Google Search Central's guide to optimizing for generative AI search, updated in July 2026, acknowledges that AEO and GEO are common terms online. It then makes clear that for Google this work is still SEO, and warns against "hacks" sold under those names [1]. It even lists things you can ignore: chunking content into tiny pieces, rewriting specifically for AI, chasing inauthentic mentions, or adding special "AI" markup.
Google's page on AI features says the same thing from another angle. To be eligible for AI Overviews, a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet; nothing else is required, and nothing is assured [4]. In other words, if your site isn't properly indexed today, no "GEO package" will put you in Google's AI answers.
The practical consequence: be wary of anyone promising a position. Google points out that no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems [1]. A serious agency talks about work to be done and metrics to watch, not promised rankings.
What does Google count as helpful content?
Helpful content is made for people first, not to manipulate rankings. Google asks you to show who wrote it, how it was produced and why it exists, and puts trust at the centre of its assessment.
Google's helpful content documentation offers self-assessment questions: does the page provide original information, analysis or experience? Would someone landing on it directly leave knowing what they came for? Does it contain easily verified factual errors [2]?
For a service business, originality is rarely the problem: you know things nobody else does. How long a quote really takes, what drives the price of a call-out, the mistakes your technicians see every week, the questions your front desk answers on the phone. That's exactly what Google means by content that goes beyond common knowledge [1].
Google also flags search-engine-first habits: publishing lots of content on many unrelated topics hoping some of it ranks, summarizing other people's pages without adding anything, or changing dates to look fresh [2]. If a page would have no reason to exist without Google, think twice before publishing it.
- Who: sign your pages (a person or the team) and say why you're qualified: years in the trade, RBQ licence where it applies, the area you serve.
- How: say where your figures come from and, if an AI tool helped draft the text, that a person reviewed and checked it.
- Why: every page should help a customer decide or act, not just attract a visit.
Why is publishing hundreds of generated pages risky?
Because Google penalizes scaled content abuse: mass-producing pages mainly to manipulate rankings, including with generative AI, without value for readers. The risk is losing visibility across the whole site, not just on the weak pages.
Google's spam policies define scaled content abuse and give concrete examples: using generative AI to create many pages that add no value, stitching together content taken from elsewhere, or publishing keyword-stuffed pages that make no sense to a reader [3]. Since May 2026, Google has also specified that these policies apply to its generative AI answers [5].
The classic trap for service businesses is city pages. Fifty pages called "Plumber in Boucherville", "Plumber in Varennes", identical except for the town name, help nobody. A page per area only makes sense if it says something specific to that area: real lead times, the type of housing, municipal rules, the work you actually do there. Our local SEO in Quebec guide shows how to decide which towns deserve a page.
AI can certainly help with drafting. Google simply asks you to fact-check manually, including titles, descriptions and structured data, before publishing [1]. The rule is the same as for hand-written text: if you couldn't defend a sentence in front of a customer, cut it.
Which technical basics should you fix before anything else?
Four basics: indexable, crawlable pages; a sitemap to help discovery; acceptable speed on phones; and properly linked French and English versions. Without them, neither Google nor AI assistants can reuse your content.
Start by checking that your important pages are in Google's index. A page blocked in robots.txt, tagged noindex or only rendered after a heavy script won't be ranked or cited. It's also the baseline condition for AI Overviews [4].
A sitemap mostly helps large sites and new sites with few external links. Google considers a site of about 500 pages or fewer to be "small", and notes that a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing [7]. For a small business it's still worthwhile and costs next to nothing when it's generated automatically.
On speed, Core Web Vitals set concrete thresholds, measured across 75% of page loads on both mobile and desktop [8]. Plenty of service customers search from their phone, sometimes standing in a flooded basement; a page that takes eight seconds to appear loses that customer.
Bilingual Quebec sites have one more job: telling Google that an English page is the counterpart of a French one. The method is called hreflang; each version must point to itself and to the other, using codes like fr-CA and en-CA [9]. Miss one side and Google may ignore the annotations.
| Metric | What it measures | "Good" threshold |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | Time to render the largest visible element | 2.5 seconds or less |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | Delay before the page responds to a tap or click | 200 milliseconds or less |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | Layout jumps while the page loads | 0.1 or less |
Thresholds measured at the 75th percentile of page loads, according to web.dev [8].
How do you get found locally in Quebec?
Google ranks local results mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. A complete, verified and active Google Business Profile, genuine reviews and clear service pages are the levers you control.
The Google Business Profile help centre is explicit: local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking [10]. Distance is out of your hands. Relevance depends on what you declare: category, services, service area, hours. Prominence depends in part on reviews and links pointing to your business.
Google also notes that a Business Profile helps a company show up in AI responses, not only on the map [1]. It's often the first source an assistant checks to answer "are they open Saturday?" or "who does this near me?".
The field-by-field detail is in our complete Google Business Profile guide, and the strategy for town pages and language versions is in the local SEO in Quebec guide.
How do you write direct answers an engine can reuse?
Put the real question in the heading, answer it in two or three complete sentences right underneath, then add the detail. Each answer should stand on its own, with figures that are sourced or clearly labelled as estimates.
Answer engines and AI assistants lift passages. A passage quoted out of context has to remain true and understandable. "It depends" isn't an answer; "Two to five business days, depending on parts availability; we confirm the date when we send the quote" is.
Google says there's no ideal page length and no need to break your writing into tiny pieces for AI [1]. The question-and-answer structure is first for the reader in a hurry; if it also helps engines, all the better.
An FAQ is still the simplest format for this, even though Google hasn't shown FAQ rich results since May 7, 2026 [5]. Our guide on writing an FAQ that ranks explains how to choose questions and what to honestly expect from the format.
Is structured data still worth adding?
Yes, but not for the reasons often given. It helps Google understand a page and makes it eligible for some rich results, without guaranteeing anything. It isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special "AI" markup.
Google generally recommends JSON-LD and reminds site owners that valid markup doesn't guarantee a rich result [6]. For a service business, the useful minimum describes the company (name, address or service area, phone, hours) and its pages.
The landscape has shifted: HowTo rich results haven't been shown since 2023, and FAQ rich results disappeared from Google on May 7, 2026 [5]. FAQPage markup is still valid in the schema.org vocabulary and other services may read it, but it no longer triggers a special display in Google.
Our structured data for small businesses guide covers which types to use, and the schema generator produces a JSON-LD block you can check before pasting it in.
Which AI crawlers should you let into your site?
If you want to be cited, let in the AI search crawlers: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT, Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User for Claude, PerplexityBot for Perplexity. Training crawlers are a separate decision that doesn't affect search.
Each vendor now separates crawling for search from crawling for model training. At OpenAI, a site that blocks OAI-SearchBot won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers, while blocking GPTBot doesn't touch search; the settings are independent [11]. At Anthropic, blocking Claude-SearchBot or Claude-User may reduce your visibility in Claude's answers [12]. At Perplexity, PerplexityBot is used to surface and link sites in results and isn't used to train foundation models [13].
At Google, the Google-Extended token controls whether your content is used for Gemini training and grounding; it doesn't affect inclusion in Google Search and isn't a ranking signal [14]. Blocking it won't remove you from results or from Search's AI Overviews.
The real risk for a small business is accidental blocking: a firewall or theme that refuses every "unknown" bot, or a robots.txt copied from another site. Our guide to showing up in ChatGPT and AI answers includes an annotated sample robots.txt.
| Vendor | Search or answer crawler | Training crawler | Effect of blocking the search crawler |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | OAI-SearchBot; ChatGPT-User (on a user's request) | GPTBot | Not shown in ChatGPT search answers |
| Anthropic | Claude-SearchBot; Claude-User | ClaudeBot | Reduced visibility in Claude's answers |
| Perplexity | PerplexityBot; Perplexity-User | None (not used for training) | Missing from Perplexity's linked results |
| Googlebot (Search and AI Overviews) | Google-Extended (a token, not a separate crawler) | Blocking Googlebot removes you from Search; blocking Google-Extended doesn't |
Based on the official pages of OpenAI [11], Anthropic [12], Perplexity [13] and Google [14], checked October 15, 2026.
Do you need an llms.txt file?
Not for Google: Google Search doesn't read llms.txt files, and they have no effect on your rankings. It's an open proposal that some assistants and agents use. Keeping one does no harm, but it isn't a priority.
llms.txt is a proposal published in September 2024: a Markdown file at the root of a site, with a title, a short summary and lists of links to key pages [15]. It isn't a formal standard, and support varies from tool to tool.
Google clarified its position in June 2026: these files aren't needed for Google Search and have neither a positive nor a negative effect on visibility, though you're free to keep them for other services [5]. Its optimization guide lists llms.txt among the things you can ignore for Google [1].
Our take: generate one automatically if it costs no effort, but don't pay anyone to write one on the promise of citations. That time is better spent on a service page that genuinely answers your customers' questions.
How do you measure visibility on Google and in AI answers?
With the engines' own tools: Google Search Console, whose performance report includes traffic from AI Overviews, and Bing Webmaster Tools, whose AI Performance report counts citations in Copilot. Add a manual check of a few typical questions.
Search Console shows traffic from Google Search by query, page and country, and lets you inspect the indexing status of a URL [16]. Traffic from Google's AI features is counted under the "Web" search type [4], and Google offers a generative AI performance report to track those appearances [1].
On February 10, 2026, Bing launched an AI Performance report in public preview. It counts citations of your pages in Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and select partner integrations, with sample grounding queries [17]. Bing notes that these figures don't measure rank or a page's importance.
For ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity there's no equivalent dashboard open to everyone. The most honest method is a regular manual check: the same ten questions, asked every month, with the date and the sources cited. Our guide to measuring AI visibility offers a template, and the AI visibility audit gives you a first snapshot.
How much time does this take each month?
For a service business, a few hours a month is enough once the basics are fixed. The heaviest lift comes first: fixing indexing, completing the Google Business Profile and rewriting the main service pages.
Where should you start in the next 30 days?
In this order: check what Google sees, let the right crawlers in, complete your Google Business Profile, rewrite your most profitable service page, then set up a monthly check.
- 1
Check indexing
Open Search Console, inspect your home page and service pages, and remove any stray noindex tag or robots.txt block.
- 2
Review AI crawler access
Make sure OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot aren't blocked; decide separately about training crawlers.
- 3
Complete your Business Profile
Real business name, a precise primary category, service area, hours, recent photos; reply to any reviews waiting for an answer.
- 4
Rewrite one service page
Pick the service that earns the most; turn real customer questions into headings with a two- or three-sentence answer under each.
- 5
Add basic structured data
One JSON-LD block describing the business, checked with Google's Rich Results Test.
- 6
Start a monthly check
Ten typical questions asked of Google, ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity; log the date, the answer and the sources cited.
What does Pilotiko do for your visibility, and what doesn't it do yet?
Pilotiko builds and hosts your business website and generates its structured data, sitemap, robots.txt and llms.txt. It also audits your current site. IndexNow submission and the Google Analytics connection are coming soon.
The website Pilotiko hosts for you is built so the technical basics in this guide are handled from day one: HTML pages robots can read, an up-to-date sitemap, a robots.txt that lets search crawlers in, linked French and English versions. The Google and AI visibility page details what gets generated.
Pilotiko's drafting agents prepare text and an editorial calendar from your real business data, but nothing is published without your approval. That fits what Google asks for: content checked by people who know the trade. Pilotiko doesn't promise any ranking or citation.
Which mistakes cost the most?
Blocking crawlers without knowing it, publishing cloned town pages, buying reviews or a ranking promise, and neglecting the Business Profile. Each of these cancels out the rest of your effort.
To see how this work fits with the rest of the business, our guide to automating a service business covers what can be delegated and what should stay with a person. To compare plans, see pricing.
- A robots.txt inherited from an old site that disallows everything, or a firewall that turns away AI crawlers.
- Dozens of cloned town pages: that's exactly the scaled content abuse Google describes [3].
- AI-generated text published without review, with wrong prices or lead times.
- A Business Profile name stuffed with keywords, or an address that isn't real.
- A contract promising "the top spot" or "getting cited by ChatGPT": nobody controls those outcomes.
- Comparing month-to-month numbers without logging what you changed in between.
Frequently asked questions
Do AEO and GEO make SEO obsolete?
No. Google writes that, for its purposes, optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO. AI answers draw on pages that are indexed and rank well; without solid basics, no AI-specific technique makes up for it.
How long before I see results on Google?
There's no set timeline. A technical fix can be picked up on the next crawl, while a new page often takes weeks to settle. Track the trend in Search Console rather than relying on a promise.
Should I block GPTBot to protect my content?
That's a business decision, not a visibility one. According to OpenAI, blocking GPTBot keeps your content out of training without affecting ChatGPT search, which relies on OAI-SearchBot. The two settings are independent.
Does an llms.txt file help my Google ranking?
No. Google clarified in June 2026 that Google Search doesn't use these files and that they have no effect on visibility. Some other tools may read them, so keeping one does no harm.
Do FAQs still show up as rich results?
No. Google stopped displaying FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026. A well-written FAQ is still useful to visitors and can supply passages for snippets or AI answers.
Can I pay Google to rank higher on the map?
No. Google says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Ads exist, but they're labelled as ads and don't change how profiles rank.
Can I use AI to write my website pages?
Yes, Google accepts it as long as the content is helpful and checked. Google asks you to review and fact-check manually, including titles and descriptions. Mass-producing hundreds of pages with no added value, however, counts as spam.
How can I tell whether ChatGPT cites my business?
There's no official report open to everyone for ChatGPT. Ask the same typical questions regularly and log the sources cited, and watch your analytics for visits coming from chatgpt.com. For Copilot, Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report counts citations.
Does my bilingual site need two URLs per page?
Yes, that's the clearest setup: one URL for the French version, one for the English, linked by reciprocal hreflang annotations. Each version must point to itself and to the other, using codes such as fr-CA and en-CA.
Do I need an agency to do all this?
Not necessarily. The basics in this guide mostly take rigour and knowledge of your trade, which you already have. Outside help is useful for the technical side or when time is short; in that case, ask for tasks and metrics, never a promised rank.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Optimizing for generative AI search (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, Latest Google Search documentation updates (FAQ rich results removed, llms.txt clarification) (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, Introduction to structured data markup (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, Learn about sitemaps (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- web.dev (Google), Web Vitals (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, Tell Google about localized versions of your page (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Anthropic, centre d'aide Claude, Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler? (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Perplexity, Perplexity Crawlers (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google, Google's common crawlers (including Google-Extended) (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- llmstxt.org, The /llms.txt file (proposition) (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Google Search Central, Get started with Search Console (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Microsoft Bing, Webmaster Blog, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview (10 février 2026) (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- IndexNow.org, IndexNow (accessed on October 15, 2026).
Read next
Local SEO in Quebec: getting found in the towns you serve
Town pages, French and English versions, Google profile, compliant reviews: how a Quebec service business gets found near its customers without cloned pages.
Showing up in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity: what a small business controls
Which AI crawlers to let in, how to write robots.txt and what content AI engines can actually cite. A practical guide for Quebec service businesses.
Structured data for a service business: what to mark up in 2026
JSON-LD, LocalBusiness, Service: which structured data a service business should publish, which no longer helps on Google, and how to test it properly.
Measuring your visibility in Google and AI engines, without fooling yourself
Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and a fixed set of questions tested monthly: a simple way to see whether Google and AI assistants cite your business.
Google and AI visibility audit for your website
Check in 20 seconds whether your site is ready for Google and AI assistants: title, structured data, FAQ, sitemap, llms.txt, AI crawlers and mobile readiness.