Before AI, search engine optimization was one thing. Now, it’s a whole different ball game.
From “AI Overviews” on search engine results pages to users not even using search engines at all and instead heading straight to their preferred AI-powered search engines—be that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or others—getting your site seen is no longer just about inserting keywords and meta tags.
So, the answer to the question that’s on many minds (“Does SEO still matter in the age of AI?”) is a resounding yes! It’s just that the approach needs to be tweaked a bit.
To optimize for AI-driven search, you need to understand how these systems work. Put simply, it’s mostly about how your website content aligns with AI’s criteria for:
- Relevance
- User intent
- Quality
On top of that, there are technicalities to consider to make sure your website is easily crawlable and indexable by AI-powered search engines.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the essentials you need to know to optimize your website for AI-driven search. That way, AI, Google, or both, will be quite pleased with what they find on your website, and will recommend it to users when prompted!
We’ve divided it into 4 parts:
- The Content Side Pt. 1: The Writing
- The Content Side Pt. 2: The Formatting
- The Technical Side
- The Work-in-Progress Side
Let’s get into it.
The Content Side Pt.1: The Writing
On the content front, the #1 piece of information to remember is that AI-powered search engines rely on natural language processing (NLP) to understand and rank content. This means that instead of scanning for specific keywords, AI looks out for context, semantics, and user intent.
Here’s how that should reflect on your content:
1. Understand (& Meet) User Intent
AI always prioritizes content that aligns closely with user intent (i.e., what the user is actually looking for).
To do this, search engines use NLP to analyze the entire query and identify the underlying meaning behind it. This means that your content shouldn’t only include relevant keywords but also address the topic or question in-depth.
Follow these steps:
- Identify the core intent behind your target keyword(s).
- Research the content that’s currently ranking for those keywords.
- Analyze the language and structure used in the top-ranking results.
- Use this information to create comprehensive, user-friendly content that directly addresses the user intent.
For example, if your target keyword is “best productivity tips,”
✅ User intent → Find actionable advice, practical tools, and strategies tailored to improving productivity.
❌ User intent → Learn about the history of productivity tools.
2. Go Deep
Speaking of addressing topics/questions in-depth, it’s been the norm for a long time to “get straight to the point” and keep content short and concise.
However, AI-driven algorithms actually favor content that’s more comprehensive and thorough. This means going beyond the basics without being afraid to go above and beyond with your word count.
When creating content about a topic, think about all the potential relevant:
- Questions
- Concerns
- Interests
Address these to the best of your ability without sacrificing quality.
Circling back to the “best productivity tips” topic,
✅ Providing actionable steps and examples for each tip. For instance, if a tip suggests prioritizing tasks, elaborate on how to effectively categorize tasks using methods like the Eisenhower Matrix or time-blocking.
❌ Only listing the tips without examples or detailed explanations.
3. Bring In Fresh Insight
If one thing’s true, it’s that AI tools have seen it all and heard it all. As such, these tools are hungry for fresh insight. Rather than rehashing the same old information that can be easily found elsewhere, offer original thoughts and perspectives on the topic.
Here are a few ideas:
- Conduct original research or experiments on the topic.
- Interview experts or individuals with firsthand experience on the subject.
- Utilize data and statistics to provide evidence and support for your points.
- Add personal anecdotes or experiences to make the content more relatable and engaging.
4. Write for Today’s Audience
People have shorter attention spans than ever and are constantly bombarded with information from various sources. To capture their (and AI’s) attention, you must prioritize clarity, simplicity, and readability.
Some tips include:
- Use bullet points or lists to break up large chunks of text.
- Keep paragraphs short (2-4 lines) and focused on one main idea.
- Use simple language that’s easy to understand.
- Write in a conversational tone, as if you’re speaking directly to the reader.
- Incorporate visuals such as images or infographics to make the content more visually appealing.
5. Optimize for Voice Search
Directly related to the previous point, voice search is continuing to grow, with more than 1 billion searches happening through voice every month. With this in mind, it’s worth it to focus on optimizing your content for “natural language” queries—the ones people use when they’re talking to their digital assistants.
A few pointers are:
- Think about how people would phrase their search query if they were speaking it out loud, and use those phrases in your content (tools like Answer The Public can help with this).
- Incorporate long-tail keywords that mimic natural language to increase your chances of showing up in voice search results (e.g., “best Italian restaurants in New York City” instead of just “Italian restaurants”).
- Include questions and answers in your content, as this is how people tend to ask for information through voice search.
- Make sure your content is easily scannable, as most voice search results are read by the digital assistant out loud.
The Content Side Pt.2: The Formatting
That was all on the content side relating to the writing aspect. Now, just as important is the formatting side of things. This relates more to how AI categorizes your content, not only understands it.
6. Implement Schema Markup
Structuring data using schema markup makes it so that search engines can properly categorize your content by understanding its content and relevance to search queries. As a result, your content can then get featured in snippets, knowledge graphs, and other rich search results.
Some of the most popular types of schema markup are:
- FAQs for frequently asked questions
- How-tos for instructional content
- Articles for blog posts, news stories, and articles
- Local business or product for specific offerings (service/product pages)
7. Structure Content for Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are one of the most important parts of the SERPs, given that they show up at the top of the page and provide quick, relevant answers to user queries. Even with AI, they’re frequently used in responses.
That’s why optimizing for these can make a great difference in your visibility both in search results and AI citations.
Increase your chances of being featured by following the below:
- Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content.
- Include relevant keywords in your title tag, meta description, and throughout your content.
- Provide brief, concise answers to common questions, and preferably, integrate the question into the answer.
- Example: For a search query on “How to lose weight fast?”, your snippet could be “Losing weight fast can be achieved through a combination of healthy eating and regular exercise.”
- Organize information using lists and tables to make it easier for AI to extract key information.
- Leverage text fragments to highlight important information and make it easier for AI to interpret (simply append a URL with #:~:text= followed by the targeted text to define both start and end points within your content).
The Technical Side
Now that we’ve wrapped up the content aspect of your site, the second part is the technical one. Given how AI-driven algorithms are implemented to retrieve and analyze information, you must make sure that you have a strong technical foundation to support your content. Below are the key elements that you need to consider:
8. Optimize for Mobile
It should come as no surprise that most internet users are now accessing content through their mobile devices. This means that your website needs to be optimized for mobile viewing to reach a wider audience and provide a better user experience (while, of course, increasing your chances of ranking higher on AI search results)
Below are some straightforward tips:
- Make sure your website is responsive and can adjust to different screen sizes.
- Compress images and videos to improve loading speed on mobile devices.
- Use larger fonts, buttons, and icons for easy navigation on smaller screens.
- Avoid using pop-ups, as they can be difficult to close on a mobile device.
- Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to improve loading speed in different geographical locations.
- Enable browser caching to reduce the load time for returning visitors.
9. Secure Your Site
Security is no longer an optional feature for websites—it’s a necessity. With the increasing number of cyber threats and attacks, it’s become essential for websites to have proper security measures in place.
As a result, it’s also one of the top ranking factors. Luckily, it’s now very easy to obtain a secure connection through an SSL certificate (and that adds the HTTPS to your site’s URL).
In addition to that, here are some other ways you can make your website more secure:
- Regularly update your software and plugins to prevent vulnerabilities.
- Use strong and unique passwords for all user accounts.
- Implement two-factor authentication for added security.
- Use a web application firewall (WAF) to block malicious traffic.
- Regularly backup your website’s data in case of a security breach or loss of data.
The Work-in-Progress Side
Finally, some elements fall in between both categories (content and technical). They also aren’t a box to tick but rather a continuous process to build up.
10. Build Authority Using E-E-A-T
AI systems are no longer ranking content based on purely keywords—they now prioritize experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). This is evaluated using multiple factors, including:
- Published articles
- Backlinks
- Social media engagement
- Endorsements from high-quality third-party sources
Again, this isn’t something that builds up overnight, but it can be done.
To improve your website’s E-E-A-T, here are some steps you can take:
- Regularly publish expert-level content in your niche or industry.
- Be active on social media, build a following, and engage with your audience.
- Build relationships with other authoritative websites and try to get backlinks from them.
- Get featured in high-quality publications and obtain third-party mentions.
- Always provide author credentials and biographies for content creators on your website to help AI recognize their credibility.
11. Focus on AI-Specific Performance Indicators
Last but not least, traditional SEO metrics will always be important, but now’s the time to add AI-specific performance indicators to your toolbox. That way, you’ll get a 360-degree view of how your website is performing and can make more informed decisions about optimizing for AI.
The most important ones include:
- Snippet performance (how often your website appears as a featured snippet) using Google Search Console
- Voice search performance (how well your content ranks in voice search results), also using Google Search Console
- User engagement metrics (such as bounce rate, time on page, and pages per session)
Just like the previous point, this one is a work in progress. You need to constantly keep an eye on your AI optimization strategies and make adjustments as needed.
The Bottom Line: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
The old playbook for SEO won’t cut it anymore. With the rise of AI and machine learning, search engines are becoming smarter and more human-like in their ability to understand content. This means that traditional optimization tactics like keyword stuffing and link building are no longer enough to stay competitive.
Sure, some of the rules and best practices of SEO still apply, but now, serving people is more important than pleasing algorithms. And to our luck, by doing so, you’ll simultaneously please the algorithms!
But if, after reading this guide, it all feels overwhelming, that’s understandable. But the good news is: you don’t have to do it all alone. At ShiftWeb, we can do 100% of the work for you. It’s what we do day in and day out. If you need our help, just reach out.
