What are the most common GEO mistakes?
The most common GEO mistakes are blocking the AI search crawlers by accident, publishing pages that never answer a specific question, letting prices and facts differ between pages, betting on AI-only files instead of content, and judging results from a single chat answer. Each one is cheap to check, and fixing access comes before everything else.
Facts
- OpenAI says GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot are set independently, and that its systems take about 24 hours to follow a robots.txt change. (OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers)
- Google's guide, last updated on 10 July 2026, says Google Search does not use llms.txt files and that content does not need to be broken into small chunks for its AI features. (Google Search Central: Optimizing for generative AI features (July 2026))
- Google lists 3 snippet controls, nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet, that also limit what its AI Overviews and AI Mode can show from a page. (Google Search Central: AI features and your website)
- Pew Research found in March 2025 browsing data that people clicked a link inside Google's AI summary in 1% of visits to pages that showed one. (Pew Research Center: Google users and AI summaries (July 2025))
- In the KDD 2024 GEO study, adding citations, quotations and statistics raised a source's visibility in generative answers by up to 40%. (Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024))
Which GEO mistakes are the most common?
These eight come up again and again, each with a direct fix:
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| A firewall or CDN blocks AI search crawlers | Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Googlebot, then confirm reads in the logs |
| Pages talk about the company but answer no question | One page per buyer question, answer in the first sentences |
| Prices differ between pages or languages | One price, stated the same way everywhere |
| Claims with no number, date or source | Checkable facts with a named source |
| Text rendered only by client-side JavaScript | Serve the text in the HTML |
| nosnippet on key pages | Remove it where you want to be quoted |
| Relying on llms.txt or special markup alone | Put the effort into the pages themselves |
| Measuring by asking a chat once | Track crawler reads and AI visits over time |
Is it a mistake to write differently for AI?
Usually, yes. Google's guide says there is no need to write in a special way or chop content into small chunks for its AI features. What helps is a plain, direct answer with facts a reader can check, which is also what people want.
Why is measuring only clicks a mistake?
Because many AI answers are read without a click: Pew saw clicks on links inside Google's AI summary in 1% of visits. Measure AI crawler reads per page as well as visits from assistants, so you see whether your pages are being used at all.
How do I avoid these mistakes without checking everything by hand?
easyIndex checks them for you: it audits each page your coding agent writes before it goes live, verifies the page on the live site, notifies Bing through IndexNow and measures AI crawler reads and AI visitors per page.
Common mistakes
- Fixing content before confirming that AI crawlers can reach the site.
- Publishing many thin pages instead of one complete answer per question.
- Changing a price on one page and leaving the old one on another.
- Stopping after the first batch instead of following the data.
How easyIndex solves it
easyIndex catches these mistakes in each page's audit and on the live site, before they cost anything, and measures what AI crawlers and visitors do afterwards, for US$ 30 per website a month with a 7-day free trial.
Frequently asked questions
Is llms.txt a waste of time?
Google says its Search does not use it, though it is harmless for other services. It does not replace pages that answer questions.
Should I block GPTBot?
That is a choice about training. OpenAI says it is independent of OAI-SearchBot, so blocking GPTBot does not remove you from ChatGPT search.
Is buying mentions on other sites a good idea?
Google's guide says inauthentic mentions across the web are not as helpful as they might seem.
How often should I check for these mistakes?
Every time a page is published or changed. easyIndex audits each page before it goes live and checks it on the live site.
Continue reading
- What is the GEO checklist for a website?
- Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend my company?
- Which AI crawlers exist and how do I allow them in robots.txt?
- Does llms.txt work?
- How does easyIndex work, what do I need, and how long until results?
- How much does easyIndex cost?
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