Over the years, SEO tactics have evolved to stay effective in response to changes in modern search engine algorithms. However, with the introduction of AI, many of the traditional methods that make it easier to get your content found online are changing.
Many of these changes are due to the growing interest in AI-powered search tools and answer engines. With the right tools at their disposal, individuals can leverage tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and other generative AI tools to quickly find answers to their questions without needing to go through the traditional search and find format when using Google Search.
The Rise of AI Answer Engines
Most people have become accustomed to using smart speakers and home assistants for a wide range of automated tasks on a daily basis. One of these common tasks is to search for information without needing to navigate to a search engine. AI-powered answer engines are what make these conversational interfaces work so efficiently.
These systems are able to source through a large amount of up-to-date information across the web and can pull answers from a variety of helpful sources, allowing them to provide quick and easy answers to user queries.
Today’s AI-enabled web crawlers are much more adept than traditional ones that would only reference keywords and phrases across indexed site pages. Now, AI crawlers are able to understand the context of written or spoken content and are able to look for accurate, structured, and easy-to-understand information to train their AI models and deliver the best results to users.
Because of this, it’s critical for content creators to understand how each AI model functions and structure the information on their site so it’s not only high quality and relevant, but also formatted in a way that’s easy to scan and reference when used in AI-search tools and answer engines.
Key Answer Engine Optimization Tools to Know
1 . Google AI Overviews
Google AI Overviews are the AI-generated answer summaries provided to users after they make specific queries in Google Search. Instead of having to scroll through endless SERPs, users can get a quick, summarized response above the fold on the first page of results, sourced from some of the most relevant information resources.
To increase the likelihood of your content being featured on AI Overviews, it is essential to focus on answering specific user questions directly on your site. You can do this by using question-format headers and including well-structured paragraphs with bullet points and key summaries to make it easier for AI to find and extract relevant information.
As Google runs AI Overviews, it’s also critical to focus on making sure all your content regularly meets Google’s E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines.
2. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an incredibly popular conversational AI assistant that interacts with users by leveraging human-like dialogues. It can answer complex questions and help users summarize documents or generate large text documents. All of this is powered by a highly capable Large Language Model (LLM).
ChatGPT doesn’t use up-to-date information found online to drive its answer engine. Rather, it leverages the more recent data on which its AI model is trained. Although optimizing your site content for ChatGPT isn’t the same as following traditional SEO practices, you can focus on producing clear, well-structured knowledge articles on your site. This means framing your content in a way that provides a clear and direct answer to common questions that users often ask an AI assistant.
3. Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that blends conversational AI with real-time search engine data. Using advanced search intent analysis, Perpelixty first focuses on identifying what users are actually needing from their searches to get more accurate results. It will then look across the web, analyze all of the top results provided, and create detailed responses based on the information that closely matches what users are looking for.
Because Perplexity always cites the sources it locates information from, one of the best ways to increase online visibility is to ensure your content is referenced more often. This involves deeper topic coverage when writing blogs and articles, and ensuring all the information you provide is based on original research, data, and expert opinions or advice.
4. Claude
Claude was developed by Anthropic and is a part of a family of AI models designed to provide helpful and honest resource information. The platform allows users to interact with conversational AI assistants while generating custom content and automating different tasks using advanced machine intelligence.
The platform is built on its proprietary Conversational AI frameworks that use a distinct set of ethical principles that help to avoid AI hallucinations and stay away from producing any harmful content.
Because Claude is highly focused on safe content management practices, creating content that represents those same values is key for individuals wanting their sites to be used as reference points. Any content produced should be carefully vetted to ensure that the information being presented is factually accurate and contains multiple proven viewpoints.
5. Gemini
Google Gemini is the AI model that powers all of Google’s AI-powered tools and services across its suite of products, including Google Search. It’s considered “multimodal,” meaning it's able to process and connect information from multiple sources at once and in real-time.
Gemini is capable of understanding text, imagery, and video. This means to optimize your content for it, you’ll want to ensure you’re configuring all your site elements in a way that will be easy for the model to understand.
You should write descriptive alt text for any of your images and create video transcripts whenever possible. It’s also essential to ensure all of your articles are well written and provide detailed explanations surrounding any topics or subtopics you’re covering.
6. Grok
Grok is an AI model designed by Elon Musk’s xAI organization. It leverages information provided directly from X’s live feed and incorporates more personality than most other AI models do. When using its real-time public discourse available on X, it can leverage real-time insights and trending topics to provide helpful answers to user questions.
To optimize content so that it's referenced on Grok, having an active presence on X is important. Brands should have a substantial number of followers and be considered a trusted source for information. Grok also tends to focus on resources with a strong voice on top news releases and that offer insightful commentary.
7. Llama
Llama is a collection of open-source language models that was developed by Meta. All of these AI models are free to use and provide researchers and developers the tools they need to create their own AI platforms.
Like other LLMs, Llam generates text-based prompts to interact with users. However, these platforms can be fine-tuned by developers to carry out more specific tasks that may be limited by other proprietary AI tools.
To optimize for Llam, it’s important to create technically accurate information that provides clear solutions to problems. This can include code snippets, in-depth tutorials, or detailed technical explanations.
8. Deepseek
Deepseek is a Chinese AI startup that is similar to platforms like OpenAI and Google. DeepSeek uses a “chain-of-thought” process that mimics the way humans think when trying to solve a problem. This involves using a series of logical steps before it draws a conclusion.
Because of this more intricate information retrieval process, it’s important to optimize your content so that it mirrors the ways DeepSeek models operate. To do this, you’ll want to create a structured layout when covering more complex topics, designing a hierarchical way of viewing the information.
For example, make good use of headings (H1-H4) and create a natural progression in the content you create. If providing how-to information on your site, make sure each step is clearly numbered. This will help to match your content with the AI model’s chain of thought process.
AEO Content Optimization Strategies
1 . Content Format Best Practices
When writing content on your site specifically for answer engines, it’s important to provide helpful information and clear answers right from the start. Try to keep all your answers to heading and subheading questions to the first two to three sentences.
You should also make sure you structure each of your subheadings so they include logical bulleted sections and are descriptive enough to clearly state the purpose of each block of content you create. This guides both readers and AI crawlers through the content more efficiently.
2 . Semantic & Structural Enhancements
By using structured data on all your content pages, you make it more likely that your content gets featured in Google’s rich snippets. This helps to increase click-through rates (CTR) and increases the chances of this information being referenced more in AI-enabled search tools.
When creating content designed to answer specific questions, include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. This allows you to answer questions directly and in a way that’s more conversational and easier to reference.
3. Authority & Citation Building
To establish your content as a reliable source, it's important to show where your information comes from. Whenever you present facts or make claims, try to support them by linking out to respected studies, research papers, or known experts in the field.
Taking this step helps to build more credibility with your audience and signals to search engines that your site's content is safe to link to. This also makes it easier to gain more backlinks from high-authority sites that add more credibility to your own.
You also never want to overlook the value of linking between your own pages. When you connect your related articles to each other on your site, it helps your readers discover more of your content more easily and also shows search engines the full scope of your knowledge on a subject.
In Summary
User search habits are changing every year, and the rise of AI answer engines is a big part of that shift. To ensure your content continues to reach a wider audience, it’s essential that you not only follow best SEO practices but also present your information in a structure that AI-powered search engines can easily work with.
By understanding how AI models and answer engines work and structuring your content to be more likely to be used and referenced when creating AI-generated results, you’ll ensure that your brand gains the visibility needed to increase web traffic and establish your voice as a trusted authority in your field.