AI Search Engine Optimization: Why Visibility Matters More Than Rankings

AI search engine optimization is changing how people find businesses online. You no longer have to rank #1 in Google to show up when your ideal client is searching for help.

With tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews becoming part of everyday search, a big shift is happening.

Your content can now be found by your ideal customer, whether it ranks on the first page of Google or not. In fact, a recent study found that 90% of the websites referenced by AI Search do not rank in the top 20 on Google.

 

This is a big opportunity for small business owners if you know how to optimize your content for Google and AI search.

  

Can AI Do Search Engine Optimization for you?

Yes and no.

AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, or Surfer SEO can help with parts of the SEO process. They can:

• Suggest keywords
• Help structure outlines
• Draft rough content
• Analyze existing posts for gaps

 

But AI tools can’t do SEO strategy. They also get things wrong, a lot. I personally don’t allow AI tools to do SEO keyword research for me because I’ve found that they’re not good at it. They’ll give you suggestions and say they’re verifying competitiveness or search demand, but in my experience, they hallucinate the information because it’s wrong. They don’t understand how to really determine if a keyword is a good potential fit for a website.

AI tools also don’t know your audience, your voice, or how to connect content to your offers. Now, you can train them to be assistants by teaching them about your ideal customer, your products or services, and your brand voice, but they can’t replace you and your background.

 

AI-assisted SEO is great, and it can save you time if you already know how to do SEO and can verify whether the tools’ suggestions are good or bad advice. For example, some AI-based tools are recommending you add text to your website page in the same color as the background so that it’s visible to the search engines but not to the reader. This is called cloaking and is not recommended; in fact, it will get you in trouble with Google. This was a common SEO tactic back around 2010, but it’s considered black hat SEO (cheater SEO) today. Please don’t do this. It will not work. 

 

However, having AI do SEO for you isn’t what I want to talk about. What I want to focus on here is how to do AI search engine optimization, meaning how to optimize your content and business information so you have a better chance of being shared by AI search engines.

  

What Is AI Engine Optimization or AI SEO?

AI engine optimization,  AI search engine optimization, answer engine optimization, AI SEO, generative engine optimization… whatever you want to call it, is about making sure your content shows up and gets cited inside AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others, not just on Google.

 

This means your content needs to be:

• Structured clearly with headings and short paragraphs, so it’s easy to read and scan
• Answering specific questions your clients are asking
• Full of helpful content, so AI can summarize or quote it
• Aligned with search intent, not just random keywords

 

This is where many people get a bit overwhelmed or stuck. They’re afraid they’ll have to learn something new and complicated, but what I want you to understand is that our core, traditional SEO, which we’ve always done, is also the foundation of AI search engine optimization.

 

There are some more things we do from an AI search engine optimization standpoint that are AI-specific, like formatting our content, using additional phrases in our header tags, or answering specific questions in our content, but the overall strategy is very similar.

  

How to Optimize Your Content for AI Search

You don’t need to create extra content to do AI search engine optimization. Your weekly content will still work. Continue creating great content each week that will help your ideal customer. Search for a keyword to use in Google, then format it for AI optimization. You still want to follow your traditional SEO best practices on your website, because so much of what we do for Google also helps us with AI search.

  

Answer Clear, Specific Questions to Boost Your AI Visibility

Look at what your ideal clients are typing or speaking into tools like ChatGPT. Then, create blog posts that address those exact questions. You can find ideas by looking at Google Suggested Search, Google’s People Also Ask, or even asking ChatGPT what type of questions people ask about your topic.

 

Example: instead of a post titled My Thoughts on Marketing, title it How to Get Traffic Without Social Media (Even as a Beginner).

  

AI SEO Tip: Use Simple, Structured Formatting

• H2s for key questions (like in this post)
• Bulleted lists for clarity
• Short paragraphs (1–3 sentences)
• Clear intros and conclusions

 

AI Content Visibility Tip: Write with Search Intent in Mind

• What does someone really want to know when they search this?
• What’s the next step they might take after reading?

When your content matches the question and offers a next step (like a program or opt-in), it becomes valuable to both AI tools and your ideal clients.

AI search tools are looking for content matches, not keywords. Keywords matter for Google, but they don’t matter for AI. This is one of the advantages of AI-based search: it makes it easier for smaller websites to be visible online than in traditional Google search results. 

   

Content Strategy Tip: Connect Your Content to Your Offers

Every piece of content should lead somewhere, whether it’s a free class, a program, or your email list. Content visibility is great, but without a conversion path, your business won’t grow. We don’t want to create content for the sake of creating content. We want to create content that can help bring interested people into our world.

 

When teaching my students how to do this, I teach them to choose four topic areas for their blog and to make sure each ties to their business. For example, I talk about Google SEO, AI SEO, marketing funnels, and podcasting on my blog because those four areas tie to my business.

 

You want to do this to make sure you’re bringing the right people into your world. Being visible for topics that don’t tie to your business won’t help you grow. Getting traffic, or being visible, is only part of the process – we need to make sure that you’re getting the right traffic or visibility so your business can grow. Irrelevant traffic or visibility can actually hurt your SEO efforts. 

 

Can you be Visible on AI Search and not rank on Google?

 

Yes, you can be visible in AI-based search even if you don’t rank at the top of Google. It’s not necessary to be on page 1 of Google to be cited by AI search. This is why AI-based SEO is such a big opportunity for small business owners. It’s leveling the playing field for smaller websites in competitive niches that have struggled with visibility and Google rankings. If you are creating great content that’s helpful to your audience and it’s easy for the AI search engines to understand, you have a good chance of being more visible there than you’ve been on Google.

  

When your website is AI SEO friendly, here’s what can happen:

• Be used in a ChatGPT response
• Appear in Google’s AI Overview
• Be summarized in Perplexity or Gemini
• All without ranking at the top of Google.

 

Why This Is the Best Time to Start AI SEO?

This is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs because so often the keywords we want to target are too competitive for our smaller websites. AI search has made it easier for us to be more visible, which is great. I’m also seeing a change on Google thanks to the hidden gems update, where smaller sites are beginning to be more visible in more competitive searches too.

 

These two factors together are changing the face of SEO for small businesses. It’s easier to be visible online today than it has been for a long time. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen without SEO for your content, but if you do it and follow best practices, you have a better chance of ranking higher on Google and being visible in AI search.

 

How to Get Started with AI Search Engine Optimization

If you’re ready to get started with SEO for Google or AI search engines, then I’d love to help you. This is what I teach.

 

Start by requesting copies of my Beginner’s Guide to SEO or Beginner’s Guide to AI SEO. Then take the free class and see how it works, and join me in Simple SEO Content, and let me guide you through the process step-by-step. I’m here to help you learn how to do this for your business.

 

Final Word on AI SEO

Search is evolving. People are searching for information on Google and in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the AI Overviews on Google. If you want your business to be visible where your ideal customers are searching, you need to optimize your content for SEO. Let me show you how. Start with the free guides, take the free class to see how AI search works, and then join me in Simple SEO Content, and I'll guide you through how to do this on your website.