AI Search Optimization: A guide to grow you company in 2025

After helping many B2B companies recover from losing their organic traffic due to Google’s core updates, I’ve learned a key lesson: traditional SEO is fading, but search optimization is not.

In this guide, I will try to show as much as possible how to optimize your content for AI search.

(Advice: this guide is not for those who are still stuck in 2022 and are afraid of using ChatGPT to write their blog content. The arena has changed.)

Want to future-proof your AI-search visibility? Book a free AI SEO audit to see how your content performs in AI search results and get a tailored optimization roadmap.

What is AI search optimization (and why it matters for B2B)

AI search optimization means shaping your content so AI search engines can easily find it, understand it, and include it in their answers.

Unlike classic SEO, where the goal is to rank high in search results, AI search optimization aims to get your content featured inside the actual AI-generated response.

When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question about your niche, you want your insights to show up.

This is important because nearly all companies that depend on SEO have seen traffic drop. Research shows that:

• Google users who encounter an AI summary are less likely to click on links to other websites than users who do not see one.

• Google users are more likely to end their browsing session entirely after visiting a search page with an AI summary.

That means there’s a big shift, and you must work to increase your AI search visibility. 

A research showing what users typically do when there's an AI summary on their search page vs. what they do when there is no AI summary on the search page. 

How AI search platforms choose content to feature

AI search tools don’t work like Google. They don’t rank whole pages. Instead, they break content into smaller chunks and pull out the most useful parts to build an answer.

Kevin Indig studied over 7,000 AI chatbot citations and found three key patterns:

• Content depth matters most

  Pages that get cited the most in AI search are longer and more detailed. When your content goes deep into a topic, it’s more likely to answer a wide range of questions. That gives AI tools more chances to find and include your insights.

• Brand popularity increases mentions

  AI tools are more likely to mention brands that people search for often. There’s a clear connection between how popular your brand is and how often it gets picked up in AI answers. If your brand is well-known, you’re more likely to show up.

• Some traditional SEO signals matter less

  Old SEO metrics like backlinks and domain authority don’t have as much weight in AI search. What matters most now is how complete and helpful your content is.

Bottom line: If you want your company to show up in AI answers, focus on writing content that is deep, clear, and easy to understand.

According to Kevin Indig's research, these are the factors that influence AI search visibility the most.

Optimize your content structure for AI retrieval

AI search platforms scan content in chunks, not full pages. This means every section of your content needs to stand alone.

Make each section self-contained

Following Aleyda Solis's AI Search Checklist, structure your content so each passage can be understood independently:

• Use clear subheadings (H2/H3) for every subtopic
• Start each section with a direct answer
• Keep passages semantically tight and focused on one concept
• Avoid relying on previous sections for context

Use a natural language Q&A format

AI platforms love content that directly answers questions. Structure your sections like this:

Question: What is predictive maintenance?

Answer: Predictive maintenance uses data analysis to predict when equipment will fail, allowing companies to perform maintenance just before problems occur.

This format makes it easy for AI systems to extract and cite your information.

Implement structured data

Add schema markup to help AI models better classify your content:

• FAQ schema for question-answer sections
• Article schema for blog posts
• Organization schema for company information
• Product schema for software descriptions

Create citation-worthy content that AI platforms trust

Getting cited by AI platforms requires content that meets high trust and clarity standards.

Include specific, verifiable claims

Your content should include:

• Specific data points with sources
• Expert quotes from industry leaders
• References to studies and research
• Up-to-date statistics (refresh regularly)

You can't compete with the big guys in everything. But if you use tools like AI automation, generative AI content creation, you can at least beat the big guys in one thing and then just max it out. - Lari Numminen 

Show expertise and authority signals

AI platforms prioritize content that demonstrates E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness):

• Add author bylines with credentials
• Include company information and contact details on the "About Us" page and in the structure data
• Link to authoritative sources
• Show real-world experience through case studies

Keep content Fresh and Current

AI systems prefer recently updated content (who doesn't, right?).

Add timestamps to your articles and refresh key statistics regularly.

This shows that your information is up to date and reliable.

Imagine a site visitor reading a blog post titled "The Best Tips for [Something] in 2025," only to find that it was last updated in 2022.

That's not the best proof of worthiness.

A list of quick fixes by Matt Diggity

💡Would you like to improve your company's AI search visibility with a trustworthy GEO agency? We created a list of the top GEO agencies that can help you.

Build topical authority through content clusters 

AI search engines use query fan-out techniques, breaking complex searches into multiple related sub-queries. This rewards sites with comprehensive topical coverage.

Create a pillar and cluster content

Develop a hub-and-spoke content model:

• Pillar pages: Comprehensive guides covering broad topics
• Cluster pages: Detailed articles on specific subtopics
• Cross-linking: Connect related content to show relationships

For example, if you sell integration software, create:

• Pillar: "Complete Guide to API Integration"
• Clusters: "REST vs SOAP APIs," "API Security Best Practices," "Integration Testing Methods"

Cover multiple user intents

Covering multiple intents for the same topic increases your chances of being featured. Create content that addresses:

• Informational queries ("What is...")
• Comparison queries ("X vs Y")
• How-to queries ("How to...")
• Best practices ("Best ways to...")

Optimize for multi-modal AI search

AI search systems increasingly use images, charts, and videos alongside text. This creates opportunities for richer content experiences.

Make visual content AI-accessible

Following Aleyda's recommendations:

• Use descriptive alt text that includes topic context
• Add captions to images and videos
• Serve images via clean HTML (avoid JavaScript-only rendering)
• Use HTML tables instead of image tables for better machine readability

Structure visual elements properly

Use semantic HTML markup:

• <figure> tags for images with captions
• <table> tags for data tables
• <ul> and <ol> for lists
• Proper heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3)

This helps AI systems understand and extract your visual content more effectively.

Ensure technical compatibility with AI Crawlers

AI platforms need to access your content to feature it. Technical issues can completely block your visibility.

Allow AI Bot Crawling

Check your robots.txt file and ensure you're not blocking important AI crawlers:

• GPTBot (OpenAI)
• GoogleBot and Google-Extended
• BingBot
• ClaudeBot
• PerplexityBot

Blocking these bots means missing opportunities for AI citations.

You can check whether AI bots are crawling your site by using Screaming Frog's log analysis. 

Optimize for server-side rendering

Many AI systems can't render JavaScript-heavy content. Ensure your key content is:

• Rendered server-side
• Accessible without JavaScript
• Available in clean HTML format
• Fast-loading and mobile-friendly

Monitor and measure your AI search performance

Unlike traditional SEO, AI search optimization requires different measurement approaches.

Track AI platform mentions

Monitor when your brand or content gets mentioned in:

• ChatGPT responses
• Perplexity citations
• Google AI Overviews
• Claude conversations

Set up Google Alerts for your brand name plus AI-related terms to catch mentions.

Some tools cost more, some tools cost less. I found Writesonic to be quite useful without costing too much. 

Measure content performance

Look beyond traditional metrics such as impressions and traffic. Here are some content performance metrics you should take into account instead:

• Citation frequency: How often your content gets referenced
• Answer accuracy: Whether AI platforms represent your information correctly
• Brand association: What topics AI platforms connect with your company
• Referral traffic: Clicks from AI platform citations back to your site

Test and iterate

Regularly test your content in different AI platforms:

• Ask the same questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing Chat
• Note which content gets cited most frequently
• Identify gaps where competitors appear but you don't
• Update content based on AI feedback and performance

Common mistakes companies make with AI search optimization

From working with dozens of companies, I've seen these recurring mistakes:

• Focusing only on traditional SEO metrics: Rankings and backlinks matter less for AI visibility than content quality and structure.
• Creating generic, AI-generated content: AI platforms can detect and avoid citing low-quality, generic content. Your expertise and unique insights matter more than ever.
• Ignoring technical SEO: Many companies accidentally block AI crawlers or serve content that AI systems can't parse properly.
• Not optimizing for question-based queries: AI search is conversational. Your content needs to directly answer the questions your audience asks.
• Overlooking brand authority signals: AI platforms prefer citing recognizable, trustworthy brands. Building authority through PR and thought leadership directly impacts AI visibility.

Let's wrap up this AI Search optimization guide

AI search optimization is ultimately about providing better, more accessible answers to your audience's questions. Focus on that, and the visibility will follow.

The future of search marketing belongs to companies that can adapt quickly to new technologies.

AI search optimization is your opportunity to get ahead of that curve and capture attention while your competitors are still figuring out the rules.

Ready to optimize your content for AI search? Book a discovery call with our team of AI Search experts.