In May 2026, Google published its first official guide on generative AI optimization, and it’s the reset a lot of marketing teams needed.
Every week brings a new batch of AI-search optimization “hacks,” like llms.txt files, content “chunking”, AI-specific schema, or inauthentic brand “mentions”, and most of them aren’t worth the time. Google’s guide cuts through it.
ChatGPT doesn’t search the web for every question. In Semrush’s February 2026 clickstream data, web search was enabled for just 34.5% of observed queries.
That narrows the opportunity for getting a new page cited in a live search response. But it doesn’t make citation strategy irrelevant.
Semrush’s 17-month analysis and Ahrefs’ study of 1.4 million prompts tell us something more useful than “optimize for AI.”
They show how ChatGPT search behavior is changing, which retrieved pages are more likely to get cited, and why the usual SEO assumptions don’t always hold up.
Not every pattern is a ranking factor. And not every correlation gives you something worth optimizing.
Here’s what the data actually says.