Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO

Sr. Digital Marketing Manager @s_Wellows. 17 yrs in SEO, now deep in GEO: getting brands cited in AI Overviews, AI Mode & ChatGPT. Field notes, no hype.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

@lilyraynyc Brand teams miss this. ChatGPT cites what its own search retrieves, not what was written for marketing. In a Toronto study of 468K citations, retrieval explained 32% of citation variation vs 2.8% for page features. Log every cited URL, not just mentions.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

@frontmostai That's a useful split. So 43 of 51 never name the AI bots at all, which means the default rules decide. Most of those sites probably haven't chosen anything on AI crawlers. I'd check the wildcard rules first.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

Blocking Google-Extended won't keep you out of AI Overviews.

It only covers Gemini Apps and Vertex AI training/grounding. Google says it doesn't affect Search inclusion or ranking.

AIO and AI Mode run on Googlebot. To control them, use nosnippet, max-snippet or data-nosnippet.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

@lilyraynyc Agreed. A citation only proves the page got read. What counts is what the answer says after reading it.

I'd track which brand the answer recommends for each prompt, not just which URLs get cited. Cited while a competitor gets named is a loss dressed up as a win.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

Source: https://t.co/dQGvfeT90d

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

One ChatGPT check proves nothing.

On-Page AI ran 50 queries through ChatGPT 3 times each. 85% of cited URLs showed up in just 1 run.

What I'd track instead:
▪️ 10–20 buyer questions
▪️ Each run 3+ times
▪️ Log it: mentioned? cited? which source?

Trends, not screenshots.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

@superskybuilds Agree, the baseline comes before any fix. Otherwise you're guessing which change moved anything. That's the "10–20 buyer questions re-checked monthly" step, just started on day one.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

Most new sites are invisible to ChatGPT, and it's not because of schema.

Here's the GEO checklist I'd use on a brand-new site, in order 🧵

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

@frontmostai Honestly, that heading is accurate. Google-Extended is a training/grounding control, so that owner got it right.

The mistake is expecting it to change AI Overviews.

Curious: how many of the 51 were blocking GPTBot or ClaudeBot?

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

@mdrifatcom Exactly, it's a trade.

That's why I'd reach for data-nosnippet before nosnippet. Wrap only the parts you don't want quoted and leave the rest of the page free to show in regular results and AIO.

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

Measuring it:

GSC folds AI Overviews and AI Mode into the normal Performance report, so you can't split them out. Bing Webmaster Tools now shows AI citation data.

Add 10–20 buyer questions you re-check monthly.

What's the first thing you check on a new site?

[Bilal Asif | GEO + SEO @BilalAsif_]

So the order for a new site:

▪️ Bots get the full page (verified, not assumed)
▪️ Indexed in Google and Bing
▪️ Content in the raw HTML
▪️ One consistent entity
▪️ Pages that fully answer real buyer questions
▪️ Then: get mentioned where AI already looks