AISQ Progress Update #8 – The Next Evolution of Squirrly SEO for AI Search

Search is splitting into two lanes right now — the old Google-typing habit, and the new “just ask an AI” habit — and this rundown is all about how Squirrly SEO is racing to cover both. From the new GEO Audit to a way to actually prove your AI traffic is real, here’s everything that dropped recently.

A Brand New GEO Plugin for the AI Search Era

Squirrly SEO rolled out its GEO Plugin, built to help WordPress sites get picked up, trusted, and quoted by AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude, alongside Google AI Overviews.

Rather than launching a separate product, it’s a major overhaul of the existing Squirrly SEO plugin, so anyone already using it can simply update rather than install something new. The plugin now works across three layers at once: traditional SEO for Google rankings, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) so AI tools serve your content as the direct answer, and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) so those same tools cite your pages by name. Every release from version 14.0 onward includes these new capabilities.

Check out the GEO Plugin here.

A Full Tour of the New AEO/GEO Feature Set

With search no longer just a Google game, we spent time figuring out exactly what earns a brand a citation inside AI answers — and packed the findings into what’s being called WordPress’s first AEO/GEO plugin. The update includes a GEO/AEO Audit that scores pages against eight ranking signals AI engines use and hands back clear fixes, plus an AI Brand Visibility feature showing actual traffic from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini along with estimated AI mentions.

There’s also built-in support for the llms.txt and llms-full.txt standard (which Claude AI reportedly started using as of May 2026), a revamped “14 Days Journey to GEO” learning path, custom schema controls you can generate with Claude AI, and a rebuilt Inner Links tool for finding smart internal linking opportunities.

The link-building system in particular got a ground-up rewrite and no longer depends on Focus Pages. Anyone with Squirrly SEO installed just needs to update to unlock it all.

Read the full rundown of new features here.

What’s Behind the New GEO Audit

The Audit checks every page you submit against eight signals AI engines weigh when deciding what to cite, such as whether the content leads with a direct answer, uses question-style headings, and stays fresh enough to be considered trustworthy. Results open with a prioritized “Fix These First” list so you know exactly where to start, and there’s a walkthrough video covering all eight checks.

The feature is available once you’ve updated to version 14.1.0, and it now also works on the cloud/SaaS side for those no longer running WordPress.

See how the Audit works here.

A Quick Win You Can Knock Out in Two Minutes

For anyone who wants a fast, practical starting point, we created a short video showing a single two-minute action you can take on any individual page to boost its odds of getting recommended by Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.

The video shows a simple way to check and improve just one page at a time.

This is a new, simpler way of working within the GEO Plugin. Watch the 2-minute video here.

Proof, Not Guesswork: Introducing AI Visibility

Once you’ve done the work to get AI-friendly, the natural next question is whether it’s paying off — and that’s what the new AI Visibility feature answers, using your connected Google Analytics data to track real traffic arriving from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude.

Other tools claim to show a brand’s “ranking” inside AI answers, but SparkToro’s study found AI tools don’t return consistent brand recommendations — you’d need to repeat the same prompt around 100 times to see a matching result twice — meaning there’s no fixed “position” to track the way there is in classic SEO.

Squirrly’s AI Visibility instead sticks to what can actually be verified: real site visits from AI engines, what percentage of your total traffic they represent, your top AI traffic sources, and an estimated count of brand mentions or recommendations.

It’s accessible from the dashboard once Google Analytics is connected.

Get the details on AI Visibility here.

AI search is moving fast, so stay tuned for the next update as more of these tools evolve.