Playbooks & guides

The manuals for getting cited.

Every playbook and how-to guide we publish, free and ungated: the full AEO Playbook, and engine-by-engine guides for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.

1 playbook · 10 chapters · 35 plays · 7 how-to guides

The flagship playbook · Free, no gate

The AEO Playbook.

The answer engine optimization playbook, built as numbered plays from 1,237 measured AI citations. Ten chapters; read them in order and leave with your own 90-day plan.

10 chapters · 35 plays · Updated monthly

Open the playbook Start at chapter 1

How-to guides

Get cited by each engine

Standalone, engine-by-engine guides: exactly how to earn a citation in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.

How to show up in AI search in 2026

How to show up in AI search: how the engines build answers, the foundation that works on all of them, what differs per engine, and a checklist to run this week.

How to appear in ChatGPT search results in 2026

How ChatGPT finds and cites content: the three routes into an answer, why the memory route decides most buyer questions, and a 7-day checklist to get cited.

How to appear in Google AI Overviews in 2026

How Google AI Overviews pick citations, with data: the query fan-out, why only 37.9% of cited pages rank top 10, and the work that earns the citation.

How to appear in Google AI Mode in 2026

A specific guide to getting cited in Google AI Mode: how its wider query fan-out works, how it differs from AI Overviews, and a checklist to run this week.

How to appear in Google Gemini's answers in 2026

A guide to getting cited by Google Gemini: how grounding with Google Search works, what Google-Extended actually controls, and a checklist you can run this week.

How to get cited by Perplexity in 2026

A guide to getting cited by Perplexity: how its live search and inline citations work, the signals that win a source slot, and a checklist you can run this week.

How to get cited by Claude in 2026

A guide to getting cited by Claude: how its web search and citations work, why it favors verifiable sources, and a checklist you can run this week.

Go deeper

Appendix AEO tools, templates, and directories Every tool the plays use (free-first), where to get listed, and copy-paste templates. The data The study behind the playbook Who gets cited in AI search: 47 buyer questions, 1,237 citations, five findings. Free tool Free AI visibility checker Your baseline, automated: see whether AI cites you, in about 15 minutes. Done for you Have the playbook run for you Prefer Managed executes these plays end to end, reported against your own numbers.

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