Getting Your Website Found In AI Assisted Search

Search is undergoing a significant transformation, and AI is at the centre of this. 

Traditional keyword-driven search is no longer the only way users discover content. With the rise of AI-powered search tools, and even AI assistants within devices and apps, how your website is found, and what content is surfaced, is changing.

Chat GPTs and Perplexity’s have even announced that they will be releasing their own web browsers.

Do I Need To Completely Change What I’m Doing?

Whether it’s Google’s AI Overviews, their recently announced AI mode, or the increasing influence of machine learning in ranking algorithms, we must consider if these changes require us to alter how we build and manage websites in 2025 and beyond. 

To cut to the chase, at the moment, no.

If you’re already doing the fundamentals right, you’re in a good spot. If you aren’t nailing the basics, then now is the time to get on that.

So, how can you future-proof your website and make sure it remains visible in this new era of AI-enhanced discovery?

Where Things Currently Stand

Unsurprisingly, since ChatGPT arrived on the scene, and AI Overviews began rolling out in Google search in May 2024, we’ve seen hoards of people rebrand themselves as AI optimisation experts and other versions of the same thing (GEO, AIO etc). 

Personally I wouldn’t trust someone making these claims at this point, as nobody can honestly claim to be an expert in this area yet, as it’s currently developing, evolving, and is full of unknowns.

There will be the usual people selling short term solutions, trying to game the system with exploits (or selling straight up snake oil). But these always eventually fail, and can do more harm than good. Don’t fall prey to this and don’t go looking for a magic bullet. Are short-term gains worth potential long-term damage?

I’ve already seen people selling some very sketchy AI SEO tools, that when you delve into reviews reveal some very concerning practices.

For website developers, owners, and marketers, it is important to closely watch and understand the changes that are rolling out, and to be aware of how user behaviour changes in-step. 

What We Do Know

Change is afoot, but when has it not been in organic search? For those of us who have been in this industry for a long time, we’ve seen Google completely transform its search engine. 

We’ve weathered every major shake up of the algorithm, seen hype about the next big thing in search come to nothing, and have heard the regular shouts of ‘SEO is dead’. It hasn’t died yet, and it isn’t dying any time soon. It’ll just continue to evolve, but the fundamentals will remain the same, because they’re fundamental for a reason.

• High quality, useful, natural content that speaks to your audience and their intent.
• Websites that are technically sound, fast, and accessible.
• Proper implementation of schema.
• Ensuring crawlability and rendering.
• Creating a solid user experience.

Prioritise The Tried & Trusted Approach

Before panicking and throwing a bunch of changes at your website to see what sticks, make sure you are doing the fundamentals right. These have always been key to doing well organically, because they prioritise users and their needs.

Focus On Clear, Structured, And Authoritative Content

AI search tools work by extracting information from multiple sources to answer queries conversationally. They don’t just rely on keywords, they look for clarity, structure, and trustworthiness. That means:

• Use clear headings, semantic HTML, and well-structured content that’s easy to interpret programmatically.
• Write for people first, but with enough detail and precision to make your content easily parseable by AI.
• Include FAQs, how-tos, and definitions, all useful for AI systems trained to answer questions and summarise.
• Ensure each page has a clear purpose and focal topic.

Establish Trust And Topical Authority

AI search models tend to pull data from sources that are perceived as authoritative and reliable. For brands and organisations, that means:

• Build a content strategy that demonstrates deep knowledge in your niche.
• Build out in-depth content clusters around key topics to show expertise. Link related content to build clusters and keep users engaged.
• Keep content up to date. AI systems prefer fresh, relevant information.
• Ensure your authors or brand are cited and visible. Human-led content, with transparent sources, is valued more than ever.

Optimise For Featured Snippets And Rich Results

In traditional SEO, featured snippets, FAQs, and other rich results can boost visibility, and AI search uses many of the same signals. Make sure to:

• Mark up key content with schema.org structured data. Things like star ratings, product info, FAQs, organisation, and events provide context which is used to better understand and represent your content and your brand. 
• Plugins like Yoast can help you implement certain types of schema markup with ease, whilst your CMS or developer may be able to help you with other types.
• Use concise summaries or TL;DRs at the top of articles to help AI find what it needs fast.
• Use question-based headings and FAQ blocks.
• Design content for skimming, with key points front-loaded.
• Add alt text, captions, and context to visuals.

Consider Conversational Search Patterns

People search differently with AI. They ask full questions, not just type keywords. Which means:

• Anticipate the natural questions your audience might ask and answer them directly.
• Use conversational tone and include long-tail queries in your headings or subheadings.
• Structure content so it flows logically and supports a question-and-answer format.
• Write as your audience speaks, rather than highly corporate speak littered with jargon and industry buzzwords.

Prioritise Website Performance, Security & Strong Technical Foundations

AI still relies on strong foundations. Your WordPress website should be technically sound.If your site is slow or difficult to navigate, AI search tools may deprioritise it. Make sure to:

• Use tools like PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix, and Lighthouse to measure performance metrics like Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, and CLS). Work with developers to ensure your website is hitting acceptable benchmarks. Whilst Google have said that the importance of Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal has been overstated, these benchmarks are a useful target for delivering solid performance.
• Avoid bloated themes, clunky page editors, or overusing plugins that slow down your site.
• Use modern image formats like AVIF or WebP to reduce image load time without sacrificing quality.
• Keep your XML sitemaps and robots.txt properly configured.
• Make sure your content is crawlable and able to be rendered by AI bots, because most of these bots can see Javascript, but can’t yet execute it.
• Use a modular system (block-based editing) for future adaptability.
• Keep plugins, themes, and your CMS updated to avoid security risks and performance dips.

Ensure UX And Accessibility Are Top-Notch

All sites should be fully responsive. Optimise for mobile-first, as many AI queries happen on mobile devices or smart assistants, just as a many traditional search queries do. This includes:

• Maintaining accessibility best practices to ensure inclusivity and better machine parsing.
• Providing logical, contextual navigation across your website.
• Linking related articles and pages with descriptive anchor text.
• Using breadcrumbs and contextual CTAs.
• Providing transcripts for videos and podcasts.
• Ensuring consistency across pages.
• Offering multilingual support if your audience is global.

Thinking Beyond Just Organic Search

AI will increasingly bring users answers directly in the search results, reducing click-throughs. This makes your brand visibility and click-worthiness more important than ever. 

Look at building brand awareness, and creating a connection with your target audience, so that you are front of mind when it comes to your niche or expertise.

• Digital PR and thought leadership.
• Social Media & community building (hello Reddit).
• Brand consistency across channels.
• Reviews of your business or products.
• Video content on platforms like YouTube.
• Awareness campaigns via PPC and Paid Social.
• Optimising your Google Business Profile and other reputable listings.

Finally, don’t fall into the trap of knee jerk reactions because of declining clicks. Making lots of sudden and broad reaching changes can be disastrous. Approach things logically and strategically.

Useful Tools

I will add any useful tools or articles I come across over the coming months here:

What Does The LLM See

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If you’d like to learn more about our website redesign approach and if it could be a good fit for your organisation, drop us an email or give James a call.