Search is evolving fast. It’s no longer just about ranking on page one of Google, AI search is now playing a huge role in how your business is found in search. AI search is all about your business being THE answer when a customer asks Google, ChatGPT, Alexa or their preferred social media platform a question.

How to appear in AI searches

AI search has added at least two new acronyms to the already jargon-filled world of Search Engine Optimisation:

• AEO – Answer Engine Optimisation
• GEO – Generative Engine Optimisation

In truth, whatever the terminology, optimisation for AI search follows very similar rules and guidance to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – write high quality unique content that answers a user’s question better than other websites.

Why is AI search different from Google search?

In traditional searches users typically enter really short questions, according to SEMRush, most Google search queries are 3 to 4 words long.

However, when it comes to how to appear in AI searches via ChatGTP, Perplexity or other Answer Engines, users will employ much more fluid conversational prompts. These prompts could be very long and detailed, and include more natural language than would be typically used in a typical Google search. It’s also not uncommon for people to add please and thank you to their prompts – though these people are crazy.

Unlike standard Google search results, which show website links with SEO titles and meta descriptions, AI engines will collate the relevant information for you in a more conversational way and may provide links to the source websites.

Crucially, AI search isn’t limited to pulling information from your website; it will also pull from social media posts, video, news articles, reviews and a whole load of other sources.

Recently, Google has begun rolling out AI results above organic, search engine-optimised results.

AI search plays by different rules

To appear in AI searches:

• Content must be conversational, using natural language and answering “what”, “why”, “how” and “when” questions.
• Structure is key: use clear headings, short paragraphs, bullet points, FAQs, and schema markup so answer engines can extract your content easily.
• Your writing needs to be concise but authoritative, offering a quick, accurate response while building credibility.
• We’ve always advocated writing this way. People absorb information much easier if you speak in natural language patterns and avoid jargon.

AI search loves long tail content

Another way to appear in AI searches is to ensure that your content also answers longer, more detailed queries called long tail searches.

Long tail searches, because they are more detailed, are often lower volume searches, but if your page or content matches that search best, then you will be shown as the result.

AI search loves long tail content because it provides the best basis to answer detailed queries.

Long tail content is as old as the internet, with Chris Anderson publishing his 2006 book: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More.

Optimise for AI readability

Making sure that your content is easy for AI engines to understand is key to appearing in AI searches:

• Keep opening paragraphs shorter, aim for just one or two lines.
• Use subheadings, numbered lists, and bold statements.
• Start with a direct answer, then dig deeper.
• Use FAQ sections with schema markup

AI search in action

We applied the AI search strategy to our blog “Content shoots for social media marketing“. And very shortly, it began to appear as a linked source for Google’s AI overview section as well as a high rank in the organic listing.

Tracking AI rankings is difficult

AI search produces highly personalised results, which in theory will be unique for each user. This makes tracking positions and rankings very difficult indeed. Over the years, the SEO industry has built tools to track the positions of search keywords with a good degree of accuracy even if they are only snapshots in time.

So far, there’s not really a reliable way to track which queries your content will appear for, the main tool for success is to monitor Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from and look out for ChatGPT and other AI tools.

We’ve seen people quote figures as high as17% of users now preferring AI over search engines, I’m not sure it’s that high, but it’s undeniable that AI Search referral traffic is becoming a serious acquisition channel for a lot of businesses.

Here’s how to start tracking it in a few simple steps:

This isn’t a perfect solution, but it will at least give you some indication if your website is getting any visitors from AI Search.

• Login to Google Analytics 4 → Go to Explore > Blank > Set dimension to “Page Referrer”
  > Filter for: chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, claude.ai
• What to measure (as a start)
  Sessions from each AI Search Engine
  Landing pages AI users hit
  Conversion rates by AI source

Keep your technical SEO up to date

You need more than great copy to appear in AI searches —you need a rock‑solid foundation:

• Ensure your site is mobile‑friendly with fast loading speeds.
• Use clean, crawlable URLs, and keep sitemaps and schema markup up to date
• A well‑structured site supports visibility both for traditional search and AI‑driven results.

Build authority through citations and EEAT

AI answer engines look for signals of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT). EEAT is something Google have been talking about for a very long time and should really form the basis of your SEO efforts already

To strengthen your presence in AI search results:

• Use credible sources and link appropriately.
• Increase your use of Digital PR. PR stories, even without links, build your business’s credibility, which AI search loves.
• Incorporate case studies, third‑party data or quotes from experts.
• Keep your content accurate and up to date, AI reads freshness as trustworthiness

How do we know our content approach is working?

A good test is to add your search term into Google AI mode or ChatGPT to see if you’re appearing there. That’s exactly what I did just now and for the term “How to appear in AI searches”, this article is one of 12 websites used as references alongside posts from Search Engine Land, Google for Developers and The Hoth.

So, how do you appear in AI searches?

Any business that has been using SEO as a marketing strategy should already be following most of these rules, as they are all SEO best practices that will help your website rank, help customers navigate your content and hopefully buy from you.

AI search is a concern for many marketers as it threatens the standard model or Search Engine Optimisation as we know it, and is more of an unknown entity at this early stage.

However, by following the points in this blog, and keeping an eye on how AI Search develops and evolves over time, you’ll learn to merge your traditional and AI optimisation approaches, and begin to appear in AI searches.

AI search isn’t going away, so as optimists, we welcome the potential new opportunities it will offer us and our clients.

AI Ads are now available on ChatGPT

ChatGPT Ads are now available in the UK as part of a Beta Test which we are part of, our blog gives you an early insight in to how they are working.

How to appear in AI Search Webinar

We recently ran a webinar on how to be found in AI Search, which goes into much more detail. Here’s the recording of the session, which we hope will add a little more context for you.