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Kinsta’s Roger Williams offers commentary on how to get noticed and not disappear in AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.
Search engine optimization (SEO) was once the baseline online method for companies to build their brand, get noticed and generate traffic. However, today, individuals increasingly use AI applications such as ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity as search engines instead of a traditional Google search. As a result, organizations need new approaches to ensure they are appearing in these applications. Companies need to build content-matching AI outputs to reach this goal.
The approaches for artificial intelligence optimization (AIO) are not the same as traditional SEO. While traditional search engines remain popular, AI search presents a transformative change. AI better understands natural language and semantics, is contextually and intent aware, and provides users with a conversational pathway to learn more. AI-powered search is better at understanding intent, which is crucial for its ability to provide users with a time-saving productivity tool.
Is traditional SEO disappearing? It will need to evolve, but it won’t become obsolete anytime soon. AI-driven search is altering how users find information, but user experience, authoritative content and technical optimization remain essential for both SEO and AIO. To stay relevant, businesses need long-term visibility in both models, so they need a forward-looking AI-focused content strategy complemented with traditional SEO practices.
While AI assistants like ChatGPT are experiencing rapid growth, reaching 400 million weekly active users as of May 2025, their traffic is still significantly overshadowed by Google Search. Google processes approximately 13.7 billion searches per day in 2025 , maintaining a dominant 90.14% share of the global search engine market. Despite the surge in AI tool usage, traditional search engines like Google continue to be the primary source of online information discovery.
AI-generated search looks for clarity and context. It appeals to users because it outputs direct answers and offers relevant questions to continue the conversation. To appeal to this dynamic, companies need content that is easily digestible by large language models. Traditional SEO focuses on backlinks and keywords, while AI search needs authoritative and conversational content that accounts for user intent. Here are some tips:
Use expansive FAQ sections and concise summaries (consider using AI tools to develop more FAQs) so AI can extract relevant information efficiently. Structured data like FAQPage and HowTo schema make it easier for the AI engines to understand and then output content.
Review existing content to ensure it offers an authoritative and conversational voice and matches expected AI search outputs. For example, traditional SEO focused on short keyword phrases, like “Best hosting WordPress”. But now people are more likely to search using full questions, such as “Which is the best hosting provider for WordPress?” Test common queries with various AI tools, compare the results to your current FAQ and other pages and adjust if there are disconnects. (Be sure to always keep traditional SEO in mind as Google remains the main driver of traffic for the near future.)
Focus on the underlying intent of users, not the keywords. For example, if users are searching for “How to choose the best barbeque grill,“ create content with a specific step by step guide, not just broad information.
Use heading tags such as H2 and H3, which are often used for questions, and make sure the accompanying content clearly answers each one.
Ensure the content pages load quickly by using fast hosting. If your page takes too long to load, it may not be crawled or fully read. A fast-loading page ensures the AI crawlers can access and interpret your content without interruption.
Strong E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) helps ensure your content is seen as credible and valuable by AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. These models prioritize information from reliable, well-structured sources when generating answers. By clearly demonstrating first-hand experience, expert knowledge, and a trustworthy digital presence, you increase the chances that your content is cited or surfaced in AI responses, not overlooked.
Making the right changes to optimize content for AI also requires staying abreast of the latest AI search platforms and the quickly changing landscape.
Businesses should focus on AI search platforms that align with their industry and audience. For example, Google’s AI Overviews and Bing’s AI-powered search are key for broad visibility, while ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude influence AI-driven discovery. Optimizing for these platforms requires brands to develop structured, conversational and authoritative content. Creating this content enables AI models to then reference and summarize the information in a way that works with the typical AI query output.
Google’s introduction of AI Overviews and the new AI Mode is a clear signal that search is moving toward a more conversational, assistant-like experience. Instead of listing links, AI Mode focuses on providing direct, contextual answers, reshaping how users interact with Google. As this article from iLoveSEO explains, AI Mode is designed to guide users through multi-step queries, suggesting follow-up questions and offering richer responses, making it feel more like a conversation than a search.
When businesses want to offload technical burdens or lack deep expertise, managed hosting platforms built for WordPress can offer a reliable foundation. While these platforms don’t fix SEO or content strategy directly, they ensure that well-built sites are delivered securely, quickly, and consistently—critical factors for visibility in both traditional search engines and AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Claude. Traditional SEO depends on metadata, keywords, and backlinks, while AI models favor contextual relevance and structured data. A quality hosting partner helps maintain fast load times, proper content delivery, and performance monitoring—ensuring the work you’ve done to optimize content actually reaches users and models alike.
Traffic from AI tools like ChatGPT tends to convert better than search traffic because users arrive with clearer intent. AI answers often highlight trusted sources directly, so if your brand is featured, visitors are more likely to be engaged and ready to act.
Companies can use AI-powered marketing tools to improve optimization. These tools can:
Automate keyword research (Be sure to include traditional SEO tools to include search volumes.)
Predict search intent behind terms
Group keywords by funnel stage (TOFU/MOFU/BOFU)
Suggest keyword clusters based on semantic relevance
Improve content creation
Creating content briefs
Adjusting the content for readability and improving the paragraph structure and flow
Suggest internal links based on context.
Offer real-time trend analysis
Perform competitor research
These marketing tools can streamline processes but lack SEO agencies’ critical thinking and expertise. The ideal approach is to blend AI-powered insights with human expertise. This hybrid strategy gives content teams and leadership visibility that expands both traditional and AI search, ensuring content reaches the most eyes and produces optimal results.
AI search’s players and processes change rapidly, so companies need to respond with an agile approach. They can test their queries across different models to ensure company content appears in results and make content adjustments if necessary. Business leaders and content teams also need to stay informed about emerging AI models. They can follow research hubs, check for updated news from big developers such as Anthropic or OpenAI, engage with AI search communities and use resources including Search Engine Journal to stay informed of shifts in the SEO landscape. Developing partnerships with SEO and AI specialists can increase this visibility and help companies adapt quickly to new developments.
Companies must adopt a dual-optimization strategy to stay competitive in both AI and traditional search. This means crafting context-rich and conversational content—ideal for AI queries—while also adhering to SEO fundamentals such as keyword targeting, internal linking and structured data. With emerging models such as DeepSeek, which blends retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with real-time search data, content must go beyond keywords and focus on intent, freshness and semantic depth.
Content teams need to start adapting their content production to AI search. By auditing content for AI readiness and employing a strategy that covers both AI and traditional SEO, companies can best position themselves for the future while maintaining present visibility and authority.
This article was written by Roger Williams on July 24, 2025
Roger Williams is a community builder and WordPress advocate who loves sharing insights on web hosting and the open web.
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