Google published a new documentation page to help websites optimize for generative AI features in Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The page, “Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search,” expands Google’s prior AI features documentation published in 2025. The earlier page explains how AI features work, how inclusion is controlled, and how performance is reported. The new guide focuses more directly on optimization advice and tactics Google says site owners can ignore.
Two sections are specifically worth highlighting. Google directly names popular optimization tactics it says aren’t necessary, and it redefines the AEO/GEO conversation as part of standard SEO.
Google Says AEO And GEO Are ‘Still SEO’
Google opens by confirming that foundational SEO best practices remain relevant for generative AI search. Its AI features are “rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems” and rely on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and query fan-out to surface content from the Search index.
On the terminology debate, Google is direct. It defines “AEO” as “answer engine optimization” and “GEO” as “generative engine optimization,” then states:
“From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”
This echoes positions Google employees have taken at conferences. Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin told Search Central Live attendees that GEO and AEO don’t require separate frameworks. The position now appears in Google’s published documentation, providing an official reference to cite.
What Google Says You Don’t Need To Do
The guide includes a “Mythbusting generative AI search” section listing tactics it calls unnecessary for Google Search. The guide is more explicit than Google’s prior AI features page, particularly in naming llms.txt, chunking, inauthentic mentions, and AEO/GEO directly.
The guide says site owners can ignore the following for Google Search.
On llms.txt files and other “special” markup, Google says you don’t need to create machine-readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in generative AI search. Google may discover and index many file types beyond HTML, but that doesn’t mean those files receive special treatment.
On “chunking” content, the guide says there’s no requirement to break content into small pieces for AI systems. Google’s systems “are able to understand the nuance of multiple topics on a page and show the relevant piece to users.” Danny Sullivan made similar comments in January 2026, saying he’d spoken with Google engineers who recommended against chunking.
On rewriting content for AI systems, Google says AI systems can understand synonyms and general meanings. Site owners don’t need to capture every long-tail keyword variation or write in a specific way for generative AI search.
On seeking inauthentic “mentions,” the…
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