LLM SEO is the work of making a business visible in answers generated by large language models: AI Overviews in Google, answer engines, and assistants that summarize the web instead of listing it. The field runs ahead of its evidence, and it is currently sold under many names (GEO, AEO, AI SEO) at prices that assume it is a new discipline. Most of it is not. The systems assembling AI answers read the same crawled web as search engines, and the documented levers are extensions of known SEO work plus a few genuinely new switches. This page separates what is known from what is sold.
What is actually known about how AI answers choose sources
Google is unusually plain about its own systems: its documentation on AI features in Search says there are no special requirements or markup to appear in AI Overviews, and that the path in is the same as ranking generally, indexable pages that satisfy the standard search guidelines. Independent research points the same direction with useful additions: pages that cite sources, quote identifiable authorities and carry concrete statistics get included in generated answers measurably more often, while an authoritative writing tone and keyword repetition move inclusion approximately not at all. The pattern is coherent: generation systems assemble answers from passages they can attribute and verify, so content built from checkable evidence is content they can use. What nobody outside these companies has: a ranking formula for AI answers, a way to guarantee inclusion, or stable measurement across assistants. A vendor claiming any of the three is describing their pitch, not the systems.
The work that follows from the evidence
First, the unglamorous gate: AI systems can only cite what their crawlers can fetch, and many sites block AI crawlers without knowing it, through firewall defaults, bot management settings or blanket robots rules. Auditing what your infrastructure actually serves to these crawlers is step zero, and it is a configuration check, not a retainer. Second, make pages quotable: state facts plainly with numbers and named sources, structure content so a passage answers one question completely, and keep authorship and dates visible, because passages are the unit these systems lift. Third, keep doing real SEO, since Google's own documentation ties AI Overview inclusion to ordinary indexing and ranking; how search works has not been replaced underneath the new interface. Fourth, measure what you can: AI referral traffic where analytics can see it, your brand's presence in answers for your money queries checked by hand monthly. That list is the current state of the art, and none of it requires a proprietary platform.
How to buy this without being fleeced
The market currently sells three things. Audits and configuration fixes (crawler access, structure, evidence density): legitimate, bounded, and priceable as a project. Content programs that make key pages citable in the way described above: legitimate where the writing is real, and identical in shape to good content work generally. And AI visibility platforms or retainers promising tracked and improved presence across assistants: treat with caution, because inclusion cannot be guaranteed, measurement across assistants is unstable, and several such offerings are ordinary SEO reporting with a new label. Sensible tests for any vendor: ask which specific mechanisms they act on and which document or research each traces to; ask what they would say is unknowable; ask for reporting denominated in leads, not in an invented visibility index. For a local service business, this work should arrive folded into an ordinary home services SEO engagement rather than as a second retainer, because the substrate (crawlable site, evidence-rich pages, real reviews) is the same substrate.
What position to take while the ground moves
The defensible posture is regret-minimizing. Everything the evidence supports (crawler access, citable pages, standard SEO health) also improves classic search performance, so the work pays even if AI answer traffic disappoints. The zero-click risk is real, an answer engine may serve your expertise to a reader who never visits, but businesses selling services rather than pageviews are partly insulated: an AI answer that names your firm as the credible local option delivers the lead even when the click never happens, which is why presence in the answer matters more than the visit. What is not defensible is paying premium retainers for guarantees nobody can make, or blocking AI crawlers in reflexive protest while competitors become the sources these systems learn to cite. Hold the work to the same standard as the rest of your marketing: named mechanisms, checkable changes, and reporting in inquiries.
Questions people ask about llm seo
Is LLM SEO different from normal SEO?
Mostly no: Google states that AI Overviews draw on ordinary indexing and ranking, so the foundation is shared. The genuinely additional work is narrow: verifying AI crawlers can reach your site, and making key pages citable with plain facts, numbers and named sources that an answer system can lift and attribute.
Can anyone guarantee my business appears in AI answers?
No. There is no submission path, no markup and no placement to buy, and Google says as much for its own AI features. Vendors can improve the conditions for inclusion and measure what happens; a guarantee is the clearest available signal that you are talking to the wrong vendor.
Should I block AI crawlers from my site?
For a business that wants customers, blocking is usually self-defeat: you vanish from the answers your buyers increasingly read, while competitors become the cited option. The trade-off differs for publishers selling content itself. Either way, decide deliberately; many sites block by accident through security defaults.
How do I measure AI search visibility?
Imperfectly, for now. Watch referral traffic from AI surfaces where analytics exposes it, check by hand monthly whether answers for your money queries mention your business, and watch branded search volume as a downstream signal. Distrust any single-number AI visibility score; the assistants do not report their workings.