What is LLMO?
LLMO is the long name for
a simple question.
Can an AI assistant find your business when someone asks for a recommendation? If yes, you're doing LLMO. If no, you're not. That's most of it.
The naming problem
Why there are three acronyms for the same thing
The industry hasn't settled on a name yet. If you've seen all three of these, you've seen the same work described three different ways.
What we use
LLMO
Large Language Model Optimization. Sounds like a male llama — that's an accurate complaint. We use it because "AEO" gets confused with a dozen other acronyms already floating around SEO circles, and "LLM" is unambiguous about what you're optimizing for.
Older term
AEO
Answer Engine Optimization. Predates large language models slightly — it was coined when voice assistants like Alexa and Siri were the main answer engines. Now most people using it mean the same thing as LLMO.
Newest term
GEO
Generative Engine Optimization. Coined to distinguish AI-generated answers specifically from older voice-search optimization. Some academic researchers prefer it. Some practitioners do too.
They all point at the same work: making sure AI assistants recommend you when someone asks. Pick one, don't argue about the name. AEO people and GEO people are welcome here. The work is the same.
The actual work
What LLMO, AEO, and GEO actually require
Four things. A regional engineering firm and a 30-person law practice need to do the same four things. They just have different answers to each one.
-
What's on your website that an AI can read
Most sites don't have an
llms.txtfile. It's a plain-text page that tells an AI what your business does, in a format the AI actually parses — the pamphlet at the front desk for a visitor who only reads English, while all your other materials assume industry knowledge. Without it, the AI guesses from your homepage copy. Most homepage copy was written for people who already know your category exists. -
What other websites say about you
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot trained on a large portion of the public internet before they ever answered their first question. If the trade publication in your sector, the industry review site, or the regional business journal describes you accurately, the AI learned to describe you accurately. If those sources ignore you or have outdated information, that's what the AI repeats. Most small and mid-size businesses have no B2B citation coverage at all.
-
What reviews, complaints, and forum posts say
Reddit threads. Industry Slack archives. Trustpilot. G2. Every time a real customer describes your business in specific language, an AI picks up that vocabulary. A business with ten detailed, specific reviews that describe actual outcomes outperforms one with fifty generic five-star ratings. "Great service" teaches an AI nothing. "They found the buried conduit in four hours when the utility locates had missed it for two weeks" teaches an AI quite a lot.
-
What structured data your site publishes
Schema.org markup lets search engines and AI tools read machine-readable facts about your business — name, address, hours, services, products, credentials. It's the UL sticker on the back of the appliance: nobody buys the appliance because of the sticker, but without it the appliance doesn't get stocked at the hardware store. Most small business sites publish none of it.
Limits
What LLMO is not
- A guarantee. Nobody can promise that ChatGPT recommends you. Anyone saying otherwise is selling something they can't deliver. The work changes the inputs the AI sees, not the outputs.
- A one-time project. AI assistants retrain. Your competitors publish new content. Your information changes. LLMO is ongoing maintenance, the same way keeping your Google Business Profile current is.
- The same as SEO. A high Google ranking does not mean AI assistants mention you. A low Google ranking does not mean they don't. The surfaces are different. Some signals overlap. The fixes are often different.
- A replacement for word-of-mouth. A good AI recommendation can't match a customer telling a colleague in person. LLMO matters when your buyers research online before they call anyone. That's a specific condition, not a universal one.
Next step
How to know where you stand
Two options, depending on how much detail you want.
Honest answer
Should you even care about this yet?
Depends on your business.
Yes, now
Your buyers research vendors online before calling anyone
B2B buyers, procurement teams, and businesses sourcing contractors or specialized services are already asking AI assistants for vendor shortlists. If that describes your buyers, they're looking for you right now and you may not be in the results.
Yes, especially
You're in a technical or regulated field
Engineering firms, healthcare organizations, legal practices, financial advisors — procurement in these categories is moving to AI faster than in consumer markets. An AI answer is often the first filter before a human even reviews a vendor list.
2–3 years
Your customers walk in or come by referral
If foot traffic and personal referrals drive most of your business, AI visibility is lower urgency today. It will matter. Plan for it in the next budget cycle rather than the current one.
FAQ
Five questions we get a lot.
What's the difference between LLMO, AEO, and GEO?
Mostly the same work, different names. All three refer to improving how AI assistants find and describe your business. AEO is the oldest, originally used for voice assistants like Alexa before ChatGPT existed. GEO is the newest. LLMO is the most literal. Pick whichever makes sense to your team — the four things you actually do are the same regardless of the label.
Can I do this myself?
Yes. Start with two things: publish an llms.txt file at your domain root (plain text, describe what your business does, who you serve, what problems you solve — 200–400 words), and add a Schema.org LocalBusiness or Organization block to your homepage. Both are free, both invisible to customers, both readable by AI assistants.
The harder work — accurate descriptions on third-party sites, review volume with specific language, external citations — takes months. That's where most businesses stall.
How much does it cost?
The free scan at /free-scan costs nothing and runs in 30 seconds. The $49 Visibility Report tests your business across five AI assistants against your category's common questions and returns a scored PDF. For full implementation — llms.txt, Schema.org markup, citation seeding, directory registrations, and before/after measurement — the self-serve audit is $2,000 and done-for-you implementation runs up to $15,000. See pricing for current tiers.
How long does it take to see results?
Depends on the AI system. Perplexity indexes new web content within days. ChatGPT trains on larger snapshots and updates more slowly — changes you make today may not appear in answers for several months. Gemini and Copilot fall somewhere between. You're working across five different systems, each on its own schedule.
How is this different from SEO?
SEO is for Google's ranked list of links. LLMO is for the sentence an AI gives when someone asks a direct question. Some signals overlap — structured data, external citations — but the targets are different. A business can rank well in Google and be invisible to AI assistants, and vice versa. Separate investments, some overlap.
Find out where you stand.
Free scan takes 30 seconds and checks the four things that matter. No account, no form.