Google printed a brand new documentation web page to assist web sites optimize for generative AI options in Search, together with AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The web page, “Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search,” expands Google’s prior AI features documentation printed in 2025. The sooner web page explains how AI options work, how inclusion is managed, and the way efficiency is reported. The brand new information focuses extra immediately on optimization recommendation and techniques Google says website house owners can ignore.
Two sections are particularly value highlighting. Google immediately names fashionable optimization techniques it says aren’t mandatory, and it redefines the AEO/GEO dialog as a part of normal search engine optimisation.
Google Says AEO And GEO Are ‘Nonetheless search engine optimisation’
Google opens by confirming that foundational search engine optimisation finest practices stay related for generative AI search. Its AI options are “rooted in our core Search rating and high quality programs” and depend on retrieval-augmented technology (RAG) and question fan-out to floor content material from the Search index.
On the terminology debate, Google is direct. It defines “AEO” as “reply 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 expertise, and thus nonetheless search engine optimisation.”
This echoes positions Google workers have taken at conferences. Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin told Search Central Live attendees that GEO and AEO don’t require separate frameworks. The place now seems in Google’s printed documentation, offering an official reference to quote.
What Google Says You Don’t Want To Do
The information features a “Mythbusting generative AI search” part itemizing techniques it calls pointless for Google Search. The information is extra express than Google’s prior AI options web page, significantly in naming llms.txt, chunking, inauthentic mentions, and AEO/GEO immediately.
The information says website house owners can ignore the next for Google Search.
On llms.txt recordsdata and different “particular” markup, Google says you don’t have to create machine-readable recordsdata, AI textual content recordsdata, markup, or Markdown to look in generative AI search. Google could uncover and index many file varieties past HTML, however that doesn’t imply these recordsdata obtain particular remedy.
On “chunking” content material, the information says there’s no requirement to interrupt content material into small items for AI programs. Google’s programs “are in a position to perceive the nuance of a number of matters on a web page and present the related piece to customers.” Danny Sullivan made similar comments in January 2026, saying he’d spoken with Google engineers who advisable towards chunking.
On rewriting content material for AI programs, Google says AI programs can perceive synonyms and basic meanings. Website house owners don’t have to seize each long-tail key phrase variation or write in a particular means for generative AI search.
On looking for inauthentic “mentions,” the information acknowledges that AI options can floor what’s mentioned about services throughout blogs, movies, and boards. However it says looking for inauthentic mentions “isn’t as useful because it may appear” as a result of core rating programs deal with high quality whereas different programs block spam.
On structured information, the information says it isn’t required for generative AI search and there’s no particular schema.org markup so as to add. It recommends persevering with to make use of structured information as a part of an general search engine optimisation technique for wealthy outcomes eligibility.
A number of suggestions run counter to recommendation that seems in some AI search optimization guides. A number of GEO resources have promoted chunking and structured information as priorities for AI search visibility.
What Google Says To Focus On
The optimization recommendation follows acquainted search engine optimisation territory, although Google contextualizes it for AI options.
Google places specific emphasis on “non-commodity content material.” It contrasts commodity content material (“7 Ideas for First-Time Homebuyers”) with a non-commodity various (“Why We Waived the Inspection & Saved Cash: A Look Contained in the Sewer Line”). The excellence is whether or not content material gives distinctive perception past widespread data.
On the technical aspect, pages have to be listed and eligible for snippets to look in generative AI options. Google recommends following crawling finest practices, utilizing semantic HTML the place potential, following JavaScript search engine optimisation finest practices, offering good web page expertise, and decreasing duplicate content material.
Native and ecommerce optimization will get its personal part. Google recommends Service provider Heart feeds and Google Enterprise Profiles for product and native enterprise visibility in AI responses. It additionally mentions Enterprise Agent, a conversational expertise that lets prospects chat with manufacturers on Google Search.
Agentic Experiences Get Preliminary Steerage
A brand new part on agentic experiences describes AI brokers as “autonomous programs that may carry out duties on behalf of individuals, resembling reserving a reservation or evaluating product specs.”
Google notes that browser brokers could entry web sites by analyzing screenshots, inspecting the DOM, and decoding the accessibility tree. The information hyperlinks to internet.dev’s guide to agent-friendly website best practices and references the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) as an rising protocol that “will permit Search brokers to do extra.”
Google announced UCP earlier this year, and Vidhya Srinivasan’s annual letter mentioned it was co-developed with Shopify with greater than 20 corporations endorsing it.
Why This Issues
This information provides Google’s most express steerage but on what it’s best to and shouldn’t do for generative AI options in Search. It consolidates positions that had been beforehand scattered throughout convention talks, podcast appearances, and weblog posts right into a single reference.
The mythbusting part carries essentially the most weight. Google is now telling you in its personal documentation to skip techniques {that a} rising trade of AEO/GEO providers has been selling. That doesn’t settle the talk for non-Google AI platforms like ChatGPT or Perplexity, which can weight alerts in a different way. However for Google’s personal AI options, the steerage is now on document.
The agentic experiences part places browser brokers and UCP into Google’s official documentation for website house owners. The steerage is early, and Google frames it as non-compulsory for companies the place agent entry is related.
Wanting Forward
Google’s closing part says you don’t want to perform the whole lot within the doc to succeed. It notes that “loads of content material thrives in Google Search (together with generative AI experiences) with none overt search engine optimisation in any respect.”
The agentic experiences steerage is labeled as one thing to discover “if that is one thing that’s related to your corporation and you’ve got further time.” That means Google sees agent optimization as forward-looking fairly than pressing.
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