Over the last few years, the way people search for information has evolved at breakneck speed. Traditionally, people would use a search engine like Google or Microsoft Bing to get the answers they need. These days, however, search has evolved into a multi-faceted approach.
Nowadays, people are using AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Perplexity to find answers to their problems, and this presents both a challenge and an opportunity for brands and businesses.
The challenge AI presents is that these AI platforms provide ‘the answer’. No longer does a user have to click to visit a website to find out more information, which in turn means fewer visitors to your website. On the other hand, if you are chosen as a ‘source’ in the AI results, you gain increased brand visibility and trust.
In many cases, businesses that have successfully transitioned to AI search have seen a significantly higher conversion rate of traffic from AI platforms, indicating that AI search is quickly becoming a key source of traffic and conversions.
So then, how do you optimise your website for this new and highly profitable traffic stream? Below, we have outlined a few SEO techniques you can focus on that will not only allow your website to continue to improve its SEO performance but also feature prominently in AI search results.
1. Conversational Search & Natural Language Queries
One of the unique benefits of AI platforms is their unrivalled ability to understand detailed or complex search queries. For example, say you are searching for a short break in New York.
Previously, you would type ‘short breaks to New York’ and then visit some of the websites on the search results pages. Now with AI, users are more likely to search ‘best short breaks to New York from Manchester airport’. AI can then provide users with specific advice and recommendations that they can trust.
How To Optimise:
- Answer Questions: Utilise FAQ functionality and ensure that you incorporate questions into your subheadings. Where possible, write your answers in a conversational tone
- Semantic SEO: Focus on creating content ‘clusters’ around a specific topic. Blogs, FAQs, and case studies all create context for AI
- Tonality: Write content in a natural way that is similar to how your target visitors speak
Why It’s Important:
When your content and conversational tone align with your target users’ intent, AI platforms are more likely to include you in their answers and recommendations.
2. Structured Data & Schema Markup
Due to the complex technical nature of AI platforms and their systems, they rely on a range of structured data types to help them generate their answers and recommendations. Schema markup is one of the most effective ways to structure your content for optimal AI performance.
How To Optimise:
- Product Schema: If you have an eCommerce store, then it’s highly recommended to include product schema (especially price, availability, reviews, offers). This will also help boost your eCommerce SEO performance.
- FAQ Schema: Utilise the FAQ schema to organise your frequently asked questions. Make sure both the question and the answer are included
- Article Schema: If you have blogs or news articles on your website, make sure these use article schema so that AI can better understand their content
- Local Schema: If you have webpages that target a specific area, like a service page or contact us, make sure you use local schema so AI can better understand your locality. This will also help boost your local SEO performance too
Why It’s Important:
When you implement structured data and schema markup correctly, it enables AI platforms to understand your business and content better, which in turn vastly improves your chances of being included in AI answers and recommendations.
3. Content & AI Optimisation
One of the common ways AI crawls and interprets content is by extracting it in short snippets. If your content uses large text blocks with multiple paragraphs, it makes it difficult for AI platforms to summarise. When you structure your content for better summarisation, you will be more likely to be included in AI search results.
How To Optimise:
- Headings & Subheadings: Ensure your content is organised into more manageable sections. Utilise sub-headings to add more context to each section
- Bullet Points: Bullet points are a great way to summarise a large section of text and make it easy for AI platforms to summarise their answers
- Concise Summaries: When you provide concise introductions and summaries, AI can better understand the context
Why It’s Important:
When your content is optimised for AI performance, it becomes easier for AI platforms to interpret and summarise, giving you a much higher chance of being featured in AI answers and recommendations.
4. Content Freshness & Authority
One of the key fundamentals that drives AI platforms is how fresh and authoritative its data sources are. If your content is outdated or lacks authority signals that AI platforms trust, your website will not be included in AI search results.
How To Optimise:
- Freshness: Make sure all your blogs, news articles, case studies, etc, are all fresh and use up-to-date data, statistics and trends
- Trend Driven: When you publish content that resonates with the latest trends, AI platforms will likely include you as a source
- Authority: Always include links to trusted third-party websites to add an extra layer of trust to your content
- Internal Linking: Always make sure your content is internally linked to provide more context for AI platforms
Why It’s Important:
When you publish high-quality, fresh, and up-to-date content, you send a strong signal to search engines and AI platforms that your website is a reliable source and that your content is always current. This is precisely what AI platforms look for.
5. Domain Authority & Trust
Although domain authority and trust signals have been fundamental to SEO for the last 20 years, these same techniques are also crucial for AI. The more your domain is linked and your content cited across the Internet, the better chance your content will be a source for AI answers and recommendations.
How To Optimise:
- Digital PR: A digital PR campaign can get your domain and content featured in high-value publications, which vastly improves your domain authority and trust
- Partnerships: When you reach out and collaborate with key industry thought leaders and influencers, you can boost your domain authority even further
- Uniqueness: When you research and identify unique insights, this makes you become a thought leader and a trusted source of information in your industry
- Guest Posting: Reaching out to other websites in your industry and offering to provide guest posts helps establish your domain as a trusted source
Why It’s Important:
Boosting your domain authority by attracting high-quality backlinks and citations from trusted publications and sources, along with the creation of unique, insightful and trusted content, gives AI platforms more of an incentive to include your website as one of their sources.
6. Speed & User Experience
Even though you may think that AI platforms would not consider website load speed and user experience, you are wrong. In fact, website load speed and user experience (specifically Google’s ‘core web vitals’) are key signals to AI platforms when considering which websites to include as sources for their answers and recommendations.
How To Optimise:
- Hosting: Where possible, always use a fast, reliable, and secure hosting provider, preferably one that is located in or has servers located in your country or the country where most of your users are based
- Mobile First: Always design your website with a ‘mobile first’ approach. As the majority of AI searches are conducted on mobile devices, AI platforms always consider the mobile performance of their source websites
- Compression: Always look to compress images and significant file-size assets on your website. Content delivery networks (CDNs) and lazy loading can significantly enhance your website’s speed and user experience
- Navigation: The main navigation is the cornerstone of every website. Ensure your website’s navigation is straightforward, structured correctly, and enables users to find all your key content quickly and easily
Why It’s Important:
Website page load speed and user experience signals have been fundamental to SEO for many years, and AI is no exception. When you have a fast-loading website that provides a great user experience, you will not only benefit from AI search results, but your SEO will also perform to its maximum potential.
Winning The AI & SEO Battle
If search marketing plays a key role in generating traffic and conversions for your website, then you must approach your marketing with an AI mindset.
Being ranked highly in search engines for specific keywords is no longer the ultimate goal; nowadays, you need to factor in AI platforms to avoid missing out on this valuable source of high-converting traffic.
By implementing the SEO and AI techniques outlined above, you can future-proof your search marketing performance, secure these crucial traffic and conversion streams, and ensure your website remains at the forefront of this rapidly evolving landscape.
Ready For The SEO & AI Battle?
Here at Greyhound Search Marketing, we have been implementing SEO & AI strategies for our clients, enabling them to benefit from these highly valuable traffic streams.
By combining the best of traditional SEO with cutting-edge AI elements, we ensure our clients are constantly on the front foot when it comes to maximising their organic and AI traffic acquisition, and converting this traffic into high-quality leads and sales.
Get in touch with us today by completing our quick and easy contact form to see how we can help your business maximise its SEO & AI potential!
