AI Search
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Stay Ahead in AI Search & Traditional SEO
People ask ChatGPT direct questions, rely on AI Overviews for instant answers, and expect synthesized information from multiple sources.
So optimizing for AI systems determines whether your content gets cited and recommended, or stays invisible.
Use this guide to optimize for AI search, track your AI visibility, and stay ahead as AI reshapes how content gets discovered.
For a comprehensive technical deep-dive, check out our generative engine optimization guide.
AI search optimization is the practice of making your content frequently referenced and prominently featured by AI search systems like ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Perplexity.
AI search optimization is also known as generative engine optimization (GEO) or SEO for AI search. This large language model (LLM) optimization approach focuses on getting cited more often and positioned higher in AI-generated responses rather than ranking well in organic search engine results.
Success requires understanding how these platforms select sources and making sure your content consistently appears as a preferred citation, ideally as the primary or first-mentioned source.
SEO optimizes for search engine rankings. AI search optimization optimizes for mentions and citations.
AI search optimization isn't a replacement for SEO. It's the next layer of the same discipline, applied to AI-powered surfaces alongside search engine results.
The nuanced differences between AI search optimization and SEO can be confusing. They're leaving many marketers wondering whether the methods used to optimize for each are different in practice.
Think of it this way: AI systems now act as intermediaries between users and content. They filter and synthesize information instead of linking to it.
This changes how people search and consume information:
All of these differences mean you need to write differently. Focus on being easily referenced and cited, not on being comprehensive.
AI visibility is the next SEO frontier due to the increasing prominence of AI search and its effectiveness in generating conversions.
AI Overviews appear on about 16% of searches as of November 2025, after peaking near 25% in July, according to our AI Overviews research.
Even outside of AI Overviews, users of non-Google AI search systems like ChatGPT convert 4.4 times better than organic search visitors.
By the time someone finds you through an AI citation or mention, they're educated about your solution and closer to deciding whether to use it.
And the opportunity is massive.
Right now, AI search represents a largely untapped channel. While the search engine results pages are saturated with competition, AI platforms are citation-hungry, and the field isn't crowded yet.
This means there’s an unprecedented opportunity for newer or smaller sites to gain visibility by optimizing specifically for AI.
Our July 2025 research backs this up: ChatGPT cited pages ranking in traditional positions 21 or worse almost 90% of the time. Strong, extractable answers earn citations even when your page isn't on page one.
This visibility can also translate into revenue. That’s because your brand is more likely to be top of mind if your audience consistently sees it mentioned in AI output.
SEO expert Andrew Holland frames the broader opportunity in a LinkedIn post:
“The future of SEO isn’t GEO, it’s Organic Revenue Growth. Your brand search is going to become critically important. That is why SEO and GEO are tactical options within organic revenue growth. Of course, the biggest tactical option available to anybody is to increase the amount of search for their particular business. And I call this fame engineering, because that’s what you want to do: increase your relative fame within your market.”
So companies optimizing for AI visibility get in front of their audience while competitors fight over the same shrinking SERP real estate.
The window won't stay open forever. And you don't need to overhaul your entire content strategy to start getting AI citations.
Optimize for AI search by starting with the highest-impact changes below.
Verify AI systems can access your content, because they won’t be able to cite you if they can’t view your content in the first place.
Check your robots.txt file at yoursite.com/robots.txt. Look for blocks against common AI crawlers like:
If you see Disallow: / for these crawlers, you're blocking AI access.
Quick action: Search for your brand name or key topics on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. If your content never appears as a source, you may have accessibility issues.
Check that your most important pages aren't blocked by:
Also confirm your canonical tags are present and pointing to the correct pages. Broken or missing canonicals don't block AI crawlers, but they can cause AI systems to cite the wrong version of your content or skip it as duplicate.
Add specific statistics — with sources — to your content because AI systems reference content with specific, sourced data more often than content with vague generalizations.
Start with 2-3 articles that already rank well for your target keywords.
Replace vague statements like 'AI Overviews are appearing in many searches' with concrete data like the 16% figure from the Semrush AI Overviews study cited above. Use the source name, the date range, and the methodology when you can: "As of December 2025, Google’s AI Overviews appear in about 15% of search results according to Semrush Sensor. "
Like this:
This single change often produces the fastest AI citation improvements.
Quick action: Spend 30 minutes finding and adding 2-3 relevant statistics to your top-performing articles with proper attribution.
Test your topics on AI platforms to identify opportunities for plugging gaps in your content and improving its AI visibility.
If you're consistently missing from results while competitors appear, you've identified a content gap.
Analyze how AI systems phrase their responses. This shows you what structure and phrasing they extract cleanly. Then mirror that structure in your own content.
For example, if AI responses consistently use numbered lists or start with direct definitions, incorporate these elements into your articles.
Quick action: Test five questions related to your main topic across Gemini, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google's AI Overviews.
Document which sources get cited and analyze what they do differently from you. Then, identify one element from these sources to incorporate into your next piece of content.
Structure content for direct answers by ensuring each content section addresses its heading’s topic completely.
AI systems extract chunks of content. As a result, they can more easily understand and cite sections that provide direct answers. This is especially true if the sections make sense without context from other parts of the page.
Use question-based headings like "How to reduce website loading time" rather than vague titles like "Performance tips."
For example, start with "You can reduce website loading time by optimizing images, enabling compression, and choosing faster hosting" before diving deeper.
Quick action: Rewrite the headings in one existing article to directly answer your audience’s questions. Then, rewrite each heading’s opening paragraph to provide a complete answer before you expand on details.
Make your content quotable by including expert quotes, case study results, and concrete examples, because these make your content more citation-worthy.
Generic statements like "Our approach works well" are vague and lack credibility. Instead, mention numbers, timeframes, and measurable outcomes.
For example: "When we reduced client page load time from 4.2 to 1.8 seconds, organic traffic increased 43% within two months."
This short case study gives AI systems something concrete to reference when supporting broader claims about site performance.
Beyond making your content quotable, establish yourself as a quotable source.
Add your credentials and experience to your author bio. AI systems look for authority signals when deciding which sources to cite.
Quick action: Add one specific statistic, case study result, or named expert quote to your highest-traffic article.
These changes won't transform your AI visibility overnight, but they create the foundation that makes other AI search optimization techniques more effective.
Keep your content updated, because AI search systems prefer citing recent content.
This is the case even for evergreen topics:
Other AI systems also prioritize recency. Metehan Yeşilyurt, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at AEO Vision, posted about this on LinkedIn:
“ChatGPT prioritizes RECENT over PERFECT. That amazing guide from 2022? It's losing to mediocre content published yesterday.”
Quick action: Look for pages that are critical to your business and any pages losing visibility. UseGoogle Analytics 4 to find pages with diminishing traffic.
Then, optimize these pages’ content for AI search by:
Optimize for query fan-out to improve your content’s visibility for a wider range of topics.
Query fan-out is the process of AI systems splitting user prompts into related sub-queries, and then using information relevant to each sub-query to synthesize an answer to the initial prompt.
By optimizing your content for query fan-out, you position it as an information source for multiple related topics, which increases the likelihood of AI systems mentioning and citing your content.
Your content can't just answer users' main questions; it also needs to address the predictable sub-questions AI systems generate.
Quick action: Run your target topic through an AI tool and note the sub-topics, entities, and follow-up angles that the tool explores while generating an answer.
Then, check whether your content addresses each of these angles. And plug content gaps accordingly.
Check out our detailed query fan-out guide for more information on optimizing for it.
Optimize differently for each AI platform, because they retrieve and cite content differently from each other, and optimizing for one platform doesn’t guarantee visibility on others.
For example, we’ve observed that:
Optimize your content according to these characteristics. For example, to get your content cited in Google AI Overviews, ensure that your content is in Google’s index and fulfills Google’s Search technical requirements.
Quick action: Run the same question across different AI platforms. Note where your competitors appear in each platform's answer and where your site isn't cited. Then optimize your content for the platforms where you have less visibility.
Build entity authority beyond your site, because AI systems evaluate a brand's credibility using both on-site and off-site signals: what your site says about your brand, and what the rest of the web says.
Build off-page entity authority by taking steps like:
Quick action: Run a web search in ChatGPT or Perplexity for your top three target topics. Then check whether the cited sources mention or link to your brand. If your brand isn't mentioned, pitch those sources for coverage.
Use schema markup to help search systems better understand your content and improve your AI visibility.
Schema markup is a way of formatting your page's content to match standardized data structures that search systems understand. Schema comes in many types. For example, Article schema looks like this:
Using schema markup can improve your organic search rankings, which AI systems reference when finding trustworthy content to cite.
Prioritize using these schema markup types:
Quick action: Use Google’s Rich Results Test to check if your top 3-5 pages contain schema markup. If they don’t, use a tool like the Structured Data Markup Helper to add Article, FAQ, or other suitable schema markup to them.
Check out our schema markup article for detailed guidance on implementation.
Avoid common AI search optimization mistakes that hinder your efforts to improve AI visibility.
These mistakes include:
Use tools like Semrush’s Enterprise AI Optimization (AIO), AI Visibility Toolkit, and Google’s Rich Results Test to optimize for AI search.
That's because while free manual testing works when you're getting started, you can't scale this approach across dozens of topics on multiple AI platforms.
Enterprise AIO monitors your brand mentions across AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. It provides comprehensive visibility into how your brand appears in AI-generated responses.
Enterprise AIO also benchmarks your AI visibility against competitors. You can track brand mentions, sentiment, and market share across AI search platforms in one place.
Other AI monitoring and optimization tools worth considering:
Brand mention tracking:
Technical validation:
Start with free testing methods for 2-3 core topics before investing in paid tools. Then, when you need a testing framework that scales, use Enterprise AIO for:
AI search visibility isn't a separate discipline. It's where the SEO fundamentals you already practice (extractability, authority, recency, presence) land on a new set of surfaces. The brands that earn citations now build a head start that compounds as AI search keeps growing.
Start this week with the action plan below.
Today (30 minutes):
This week:
That's it. Start with these six actions before diving deeper.
Carlos Silva
Carlos Silva leads the editorial pipeline for the English blog—coordinating writers, editors, strategy, and building AI workflows that boost content quality and AI visibility. With 10+ years of experience writing and editing across in-house and agency roles, Carlos blends content strategy, SEO, and AI to help marketers stay ahead of an evolving search landscape.
Learn how generative engine optimization helps you appear in AI-powered search results.
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