Start your practical generative engine optimization steps by improving what makes each page unique, compelling and useful to its audience (Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search). For Google Search, leave special AI files and markup out of your inclusion checklist.
Start with the groundwork in our earlier article: How to get your website cited in AI search overviews
How do I put generative engine optimization into practice in 2026?
Prioritize useful, distinctive page content: Google’s guidance says this will likely influence your presence in generative AI search over the long run more than its other suggestions. Treat the work as page improvement, not a guarantee: meeting Google’s requirements and best practices does not guarantee crawling, indexing or display.
If your content draws on other sources, start by checking that it avoids simply copying or rewriting them and instead provides substantial additional value and originality (Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content). A rewritten explanation still needs that additional value; changing the wording alone does not satisfy Google’s content-quality question.
Make the title a descriptive, helpful summary of the content the reader will actually find on the page (Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content). When the title promises an answer, use that promised answer as the test of whether the heading accurately summarizes the content.
Organize the explanation for a human reader, using paragraphs, sections and headings that provide a clear route through the content (Google’s AI optimization guide). Let each heading identify the subject of the section beneath it, so readers can navigate the explanation without treating every paragraph as a separate destination. Keep the writing easy to follow within those sections, rather than relying on the headings alone to supply clarity.
Make important information available in textual form, including information you also present through images or video (AI features and your website). Use high-quality images and videos to support that text when they are applicable, rather than making them the only place important content appears. Make the page easily findable through internal links elsewhere on your website, not merely available at its own address.
Give readers clear sourcing and relevant background about the author or publishing site so they can assess why the information deserves trust (Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content). Where author background is relevant, a link to an author page can provide that context; a site’s About page can explain the publisher. Add accurate authorship information, such as a byline, where readers would expect to know who created the content.
If the page uses structured data, check its assertions against the visible text and correct any mismatch (AI features and your website). Where applicable, check that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is current as part of the same improvement work. Include the overall page experience in your review, alongside the accessibility of the text and the quality of supporting media. Before making page improvements, use the earlier setup guide linked above to check that robots.txt, your CDN and your hosting infrastructure allow crawling.
Page-level GEO improvement checks
| Action | Rule behind it | How to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Review originality | Content drawing on other sources should add substantial value and originality rather than simply copying or rewriting. | Compare the page with its sources and identify the substantial additional value. |
| Check the title | The main heading or title should give a descriptive, helpful summary. | Compare the title with the page’s actual content. |
| Organize for readers | Readable paragraphs, sections and headings help readers navigate. | Read through the page and check whether its headings and sections make the content easy to follow. |
| Check text and internal links | Important content should be available as text, and internal links should make it findable. | Confirm important information appears in textual form and the page has internal links leading to it. |
| Check structured-data consistency | Structured data should match the visible page text. | Compare the structured data with the information readers can see. |
Do I need llms.txt, special schema or short content chunks for Google’s AI answers?
No: Google Search does not use llms.txt or other special machine-readable files, AI text files, markup or Markdown for inclusion in its generative AI capabilities. You do not need to break content into tiny pieces for Google to understand it, because its systems can understand multiple topics on a page and show the relevant piece to users.
Keep the file advice scoped to Google Search; it does not automatically describe the requirements of other generative engines. Remove creating an llms.txt file from work justified solely as a requirement for appearing in Google Search’s generative AI features. The same distinction applies to a separate Markdown version: Google does not require that format for inclusion in Search.
Do not confuse the absence of an AI-specific schema requirement with a reason to abandon ordinary structured data (Google’s AI optimization guide). Google still recommends using structured data within your overall SEO strategy because it helps with eligibility for rich results.
Choose page length for your audience and subject matter, rather than an assumed need to produce short AI-ready chunks (Google’s AI optimization guide). Shorter or longer pages can both work depending on the audience and subject, so there is no ideal page length to implement.
Sources
Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, Google Search Central, last updated 10 July 2026developers.google.com
Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Google Search Central, last updated 5 October 2026developers.google.cn
AI features and your website, Google Search Central, last updated 10 December 2025developers.google.com
