Stradiji
GEO Roadmap Version 1 · Oct. 12, 2026

Why doesn't AI mention you? Learn it in 12 stages.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews decide which brands to name before anyone clicks. This roadmap explains how that decision is made, and what you can change, in what order. Free, no sign-up, updated every week.

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82.1%of U.S. commercial queries we tested showed an AI Overview
100+websites audited for our Three Doors study
241weekly SEOs Diners Club issues behind it
2009written by a team doing SEO since
First, what people get wrong

7 GEO myths, and what the data says

We checked each claim against a dated source. When new data changes the verdict, we update it here.

False Partly true Weak evidence
Myth 3 False

“A "best X" list that ranks us first will get us recommended.”

What we know: In Lily Ray's study of 100 B2B queries, Google cited a brand's own list without recommending that brand in 224 of 323 cases (69%). Sites scaling these lists lost 30% to 50% of visibility in January 2026.

Source: Lily Ray, Feb. and June 2026
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Myth 4 False

“Optimize for one query and you are done.”

What we know: Engines split one question into many sub-searches (query fan-out). You need topic clusters, and a page per sub-search risks looking like spam.

Source: Mike King (iPullRank)
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Myth 6 False

“Correct the error once and the model learns.”

What we know: Models look up sources again on every question. In our five-week tracking, a wrong founding year showed up in four of five engines every week. Fix the third-party sources that carry the error.

Source: Stradiji tracking, 2026
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Myth 7 Partly true

“Adding quotes, statistics and sources boosts visibility.”

What we know: The Princeton GEO study measured visibility gains of up to 40% from these methods, but in a test environment. On live engines, the effect varies by industry and query.

Source: Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024
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Part 1 · Stages 0-2

Foundations: the rules of the game

What do AI engines remember, and what do they look up live? You will see why most of good GEO is good SEO.

Part 2 · Stages 3-5 · The core

The three doors every recommended brand walks through

An engine has to reach you, then recognize who you are, then believe what it finds. If one door is shut, the others don't help. Each door has a matching section on the GEO Score Card.

Checkpoint · halfway there

You've read the three doors. How open are yours?

The GEO Score Card checks the same doors in about 10 minutes. Then come back and pick up where you left off.

Part 3 · Stages 6-7

Get cited, then measure

Once the doors are open, the work is content worth quoting and measuring change the right way. No rankings, only visibility share.

Stage 6 2 resources

Content that gets cited

What you'll learn: First-hand data, answer-first paragraphs, clear question headings and content no one else could have written.

Part 4 · Stages 8-11

The frontier

Agents that buy, ads inside AI answers, and the tools that make this work sustainable.

Stage 8

Agents and commerce

AI agents that browse and buy on a person’s behalf, and why accurate product data matters.

Stage 10

Tools and workflow

Tools to measure and fix AI visibility, with a free option next to every paid one.

Stage 11

Keep up

New findings land in the newsletter first, and the roadmap is updated from it.

How science moves

How the thinking changed

Every new finding tests the last one. GEO is a layer on top of SEO, and what we know about that layer changes fast. Where we were wrong, we pulled our own advice. Every claim on this page carries a date and a source.

SEO is the foundation. GEO is the layer on top. Tools are how you measure both.
  1. Nov. 2023 · Princeton GEO is named in academia A test environment showed that adding quotes, statistics and sources raised visibility in generative engines. arXiv: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization
  2. July 2025 · Google "Normal SEO" and no llms.txt Google said AI Overviews need no separate optimization and that it does not use llms.txt. Search Engine Land, July 24, 2025
  3. 2025-2026 · Stradiji We pulled our own advice We once recommended llms.txt and splitting FAQs into small chunks. When the evidence stayed weak, we withdrew both and marked it in the roadmap. How GEO actually works: 6 myths to drop
  4. Jan. 2026 · Lily Ray, Glenn Gabe Self-promotional "best" lists drop Sites scaling lists that rank their own product first lost 30% to 50% of visibility within weeks. Search Engine Land, Feb. 4, 2026
  5. May 2026 · Ahrefs The llms.txt data arrives 97% of llms.txt files across 137,000 sites got zero requests that month. Summary: Stradiji myths article
  6. June 2026 · Lily Ray Cited is not recommended AI Overviews cited self-promotional lists but did not recommend that brand 69% of the time. Search Engine Land, June 18, 2026
Who we learn from

Research worth your time

Studies we read, tested and brought into the roadmap, with what each one found and which stage it touches.

LR Lily RayAmsive
Self-promotional listicles get cited, but the brand is not recommended 69% of the time. June 2026Stage 5
GG Glenn GabeG-Squared Interactive
Sites scaling commodity content and self-serving listicles got crushed in the January 2026 update. 2026Stage 6
MK Mike KingiPullRank
Query fan-out: one question becomes dozens of searches, and content should be built for it. WebinarStage 2
AS Aleyda SolísOrainti
The AI Search Optimization Checklist, with a worksheet. Updated May 2026Stages 3-6
MH Marie HaynesMarie Haynes Consulting
Navboost: how Google uses user interaction in ranking. GuideStage 1
MY Metehan YeşilyurtPeec AI
Which sources AI platforms cite, and the patterns behind it. Jan. 2026Stage 5
KI Kevin IndigGrowth Memo
Has Google demoted listicles? A data-led read. 2026Stage 6
PA Pranjal Aggarwal et al.Princeton, KDD 2024
The academic paper that named GEO and tested content methods. Nov. 2023Stage 0
Stage 10 · Toolbox

What we use to measure and fix

Some links are affiliate links and are labeled. That never changes what we recommend, and every paid tool sits next to a free one.
GeoGenie We use it
Tracks how often your brand appears and gets cited in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity answers. We are a GeoGenie partner, so you can get your license through Stradiji.
Semrush We use it
The core tool in every client project. We pipe its data straight into Claude through the Semrush MCP. Keyword research, site audits, position tracking and AI visibility. Affiliate link.
Surfer Affiliate
Optimizes content for topic coverage and tracks AI search analytics.
vidIQ Affiliate
Keyword and channel research to get your YouTube videos found in search and recommendations.
Peec AI Paid
Brand and source tracking across AI answers.
Ahrefs Brand Radar Paid
Tracks brands and sources in AI Overviews.
WhitePress Affiliate
A publisher network for earning independent coverage (the Believe door).
Google Search Console Free
Crawling, indexing and search performance.
Bing Webmaster Tools Free
AI performance reporting for Bing and Copilot.
Microsoft Clarity Free
See what visitors from AI tools do on your site.
Behind the scenes

How we run this work with Claude

We run our SEO and GEO projects with Claude working like a teammate. Each day has one focus, every fact lives in a single source of truth, and nothing changes on a live site without a human sign-off. Semrush, Search Console, GA4 and Clarity data flow straight into Claude through MCP connections. We show the setup step by step on YouTube.

Monday Analytics GA4, Search Console, Clarity and rank tracking; weekly summary.
Tuesday Technical SEO Site audit, crawl errors, fix recommendations.
Wednesday GEO and entity Live AI tests, schema, profile consistency, Wikidata.
Thursday Content and video Topics and drafts for the newsletter, blog and YouTube.
Friday Distribution PR, partnerships and the weekly report.
The rule Approve first, then go live Claude analyzes and drafts. A person decides what ships.
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ME
Written by Mert Erkal Mert has worked in SEO since 2009 and founded Stradiji in Istanbul in 2010. He writes SEOs Diners Club in English and Dijital Pazarlama Notları in Turkish every week. Every recommendation here has been tested on client projects and in our own measurements. Author page →

Someone is asking an AI about your company right now. You didn’t write the answer. Send this map to your CEO, your CTO, your marketing lead.