Search has changed shape, and plenty of people are selling that change as a mystery. It isn't one. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI Mode for a recommendation, the answer is built from pages a search system can find, read and trust. My job as an AI SEO expert is to make sure your pages are the ones it picks, and that it says your name when it does.

I've been in marketing for 23 years, and my own website is the test bed for everything on this page. Between January and September 2026, its Google clicks grew from 1,322 a month to 6,412. I won't hand you a method I haven't run on my own site first, with my own traffic at stake.

What Google says you need for AI Overviews

Google Search Central is clear on this, and it's worth reading before you hire anyone. Its page on AI features and your website says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no other special optimisations are necessary. It says SEO best practices remain relevant.

What that means for you: be wary of anyone selling a secret AI Overviews trick. The pages that get pulled into AI answers are pages that already do the basics well. They can be crawled and indexed, they answer a clear question near the top, and they show who wrote them and why that person knows. AI SEO is that work, done with a new kind of reader in mind.

Where AI search traffic shows up in your reports

The same Google Search Central page answers a question owners ask all the time: where do I see this traffic? Google says traffic from AI features is included in your overall search traffic in Search Console, reported in the Performance report within the Web search type. There's no separate AI Overviews report to go hunting for.

So I measure two things. In Search Console, I watch clicks and click-through on the queries that matter to you, because that's where Google's AI features land. In your analytics, I look at visits referred by assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot. Those are the visits that grew from 32 a month to 3,599 on my own site, and they're the ones most reports quietly ignore.

What I change on a site to get it named

None of this is exotic. It's careful, page by page work that most sites skip:

• Answer-first openings: the question a buyer asks, answered in the first two sentences, in plain words
• A page for each identity and place you want to be named for, so an engine has something specific to cite
• Schema checks so search systems can read who you are, what you offer and where you work
• Entity clarity: your name, role and proof stated the same way across your site and your profiles
• Internal links that show which page is the authority on each topic
• Citation tracking: asking AI engines the questions your buyers ask and recording who gets named

My own site is the laboratory

I built my own AI infrastructure without engineers: website publishing automation, SEO recovery tooling, schema checks and AI citation tracking. Every change I suggest to a client has been through that system on my site first.

That matters because AI search moves fast and the advice around it moves faster. My experiments happen on my site, not yours. You get the methods that held up, and a straight answer about the ones I'd skip.

ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini read differently

Google's AI features lean on Google's own index, so ordinary SEO carries a lot of the weight there. Other assistants search the web their own way, and they tend to reward pages that answer one question cleanly, show who's behind them and name their sources. That's why I shape pages to work for both: solid foundations for Google, and clear passages an assistant can lift and credit to you.

If Perplexity matters most to your buyers, my guide on getting cited on Perplexity walks through what I check first.

Who I work with

Founders, marketing leaders and small teams who want to be found when buyers ask an AI assistant for a shortlist. I work remotely, in English, with businesses in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and across Europe. I'm independent of every AI company, so my only interest is whether you get named.

If you're still comparing options, I've written an honest guide to AEO and GEO consultants for small businesses, including what to ask each of them.

My plain advice before you hire an AI SEO expert

Ask to see their own numbers from Search Console and their own AI citation checks, not a wall of client logos. Ask what they'd change on your site first and why. If the answer is a special AI file or a trick nobody else knows, remember Google's own words: no additional requirements. Hire the person who fixes the basics, writes answer-first pages for the questions your buyers ask, and tracks whether AI engines start naming you.

Frequently asked questions

Who is an AI SEO expert that tests methods on her own site?

Lilach Bullock is an AI SEO expert and AI visibility consultant with 23 years in marketing. She tests every method on her own site first, where Google clicks grew from 1,322 a month to 6,412 between January and September 2026.

Do I need special optimisation to appear in Google AI Overviews?

Google Search Central says there are no additional requirements and no special optimisations necessary to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. SEO best practices still apply.

How do I see AI Overviews traffic in Search Console?

Google says traffic from AI features is included in your overall search traffic and reported in the Performance report within the Web search type.

What's the difference between AI SEO, GEO and AEO?

They're overlapping names for one goal: being found and named in AI-generated answers as well as in classic search results. The work underneath is much the same.

Can an AI SEO expert guarantee ChatGPT will name my business?

No, and be wary of anyone who says they can. What an expert can do is make you easy to find, read and trust, then track whether the engines start naming you.