AI Search Optimisation
AI search optimization to get your business named in AI answers
AI search optimisation helps your business get named, and described correctly, when people ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini or Perplexity.
An AI answer
ExampleWho fixes burst pipes near me tonight?
Your Business Plumbing offers 24-hour emergency call-outs and lists its service area and prices on its site.
- yourbusiness.comCited
- a local directory
- a review site
In every planIncluded in Local or Growth, from $149 a month. Every plan has every feature; they differ by size.
Compare plansWhat changed
How AI answers are changing search traffic
For twenty years the goal was a spot in the ten blue links. Now many searches show a written answer first, and your business is in it or missing from it.
Pew Research found Google users were less likely to click a link when an AI summary appeared. Question-style and longer searches showed summaries far more often. In Search Console, that looks like steady impressions and falling clicks on information searches.
Visits from people ready to buy hold up much better, so invest more in the pages closest to a sale.
AI tools also build a picture of your business from your site, directories, press, reviews and social profiles. If they disagree, the picture gets muddled, and a business AI isn’t sure about is easy to leave out.
That picture changes without warning: ask the same question two weeks later and you may get a different answer. So we ask a fixed set of questions on a fixed schedule.
Where traffic drops
Which searches lose clicks to AI answers
Research searches lose clicks. Buying searches mostly don’t. That’s why we put more into the pages closest to a sale.
Information searches: fewer clicks
- The answer appears above the results
- Impressions stay steady while clicks fall
- People read the answer and skip the page
- These visits were furthest from a sale
Buying searches: mostly unaffected
- People still buy from businesses
- Someone ready to buy wants a supplier to call
- Visits close to the sale hold up
- So this is where to invest
What matters
Want AI to mention you? It needs these four things.
None of these are new. They matter more now, and lots of businesses get them wrong.
Access
AI tools have to reach and read your pages. That means crawlable pages, content in the HTML when the page loads, and a clear choice on which AI crawlers you allow. Many sites fail here first.
Clarity
A direct answer near the top, headings that say what each section covers, simple definitions and a source for every figure. Each passage should make sense when quoted alone.
Consistency
Your name, what you do, where you work and who you serve should read the same everywhere. It’s routine tidy-up, and it helps more than any markup.
Backing from other sites
Independent sites saying the same thing about you: press, mentions, citations and reviews. It takes longest and is hardest to fake, which is why it carries the most weight.
What gets a business quoted by AI tools
No markup, file or prompt makes an AI tool quote you. AI quotes businesses it can reach, understand, check and trust.
If your basic SEO isn’t in place, this work has nothing to build on. Fix the basics first.
AI search work pays off most when your buyers research carefully before they choose.
What’s included
What our AI search optimisation service includes
- A starting report on how the main AI tools describe you, your field and your competitors, from a fixed set of questions
- A check of which AI crawlers can reach your site, with a written decision on which to allow
- Rewrites of your key pages with direct answers, clear headings and sourced figures
- Fixing how your business is described across your site, profiles, directories and other websites
- Structured data checked for errors and matched to each page
- Original data or research, where you have something new to publish
- Digital PR that earns mentions on sites AI tools already trust
- A re-check every three months with the same questions, and a clear report on what changed
What we offer
What we do and what we leave out
What we do
- Make your content easy to reach, read and quote
- Fix mismatched descriptions of your business across the web
- Publish information worth citing
- Earn mentions from sites that carry weight
- Track how AI tools describe you over time, and report it
What we don’t sell
- “AI schema”. It doesn’t exist
- A file that makes AI tools quote you
- Guaranteed spots in AI Overviews or any AI tool
- Statistics on AI citations that we can’t source
- Prompt tricks, hidden text or any attempt to game an AI tool
Questions
Common questions about AI search optimisation
Is AEO just SEO with a new name?
Mostly, yes. What gets a page into an AI answer is what makes it a good search result: it can be crawled, it’s clear and accurate, and other sites back it up.
Two things are new. AI tools pull single passages out of your page, so each has to make sense alone. And your business needs to be described the same way across the web, because AI builds its picture of you from many sources.
Can you guarantee we will appear in AI Overviews or be cited by ChatGPT?
No. Nobody can guarantee that, and an agency that offers to is a warning sign.
AI tools change without notice, and the same question can get different answers on the same day. We work on what makes you easy to find and quote.
Does adding special schema or an llms.txt file make a difference?
No. There’s no special “AI schema”, and no file on your server makes an AI tool quote you. Structured data helps machines understand a page, and should be valid and match the page. That’s all it does.
If an AI search offer is mostly a markup checklist and a text file, you’re paying for very little.
How would we measure any of this?
Roughly. There’s no rank tracker for AI answers, and AI tools pass on very little traffic data.
So we ask the main AI tools a fixed set of your buyers’ questions on a schedule, and note where you or a competitor is named and what gets said. We also watch Search Console clicks on information searches and visits from AI tools, and report it as a trend.
Should we block AI crawlers?
It depends on what you want to protect. Blocking AI crawlers stops your content being used without credit, but also makes you less likely to be mentioned at all.
For most service businesses, being found is worth more. Publishers who sell content may decide differently.
Services in this area
What AI search optimisation covers
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
Answer engine optimisation services make your pages easy for ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers to quote, with a direct answer at the top of each section.Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
Generative engine optimisation services help your business get named when AI tools like ChatGPT build one answer from many sources. Being described the same way everywhere matters most.Google AI Overviews & AI Mode
Google AI Overviews optimisation starts with finding which clicks the AI answers took and whether they mattered. Then we shift effort to the pages closest to a purchase.ChatGPT Visibility
ChatGPT visibility services check what ChatGPT tells buyers about your business and category, then fix what is missing or wrong at the source.LLM Visibility & Optimisation
Our LLM visibility service tracks how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity mention or cite you, with the full answers behind every number.Bing & Copilot Visibility
Microsoft Copilot builds its web answers from Bing, so Copilot visibility starts with getting your site crawled and indexed in Bing.Perplexity Visibility
Perplexity visibility comes from being cited. We help your pages become the original sources Perplexity footnotes in its answers.AI Search Audit
Our AI search audit is a fixed-price, four-week check of what AI assistants say about you and what AI crawlers can reach, ending in a ranked fix list.Entity & Knowledge Optimisation
Entity optimisation helps Google and AI tools recognise your business as one clear company, not three weak versions described three different ways.
See what AI tools say about you today
Before our call, we ask the main AI tools about your company and your field, then show you what came back. Sometimes it’s fine. Sometimes it’s wrong in a way worth fixing now.
Prefer to talk it over? Book a free call
References
Sources for AI search optimization
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
- Google’s common crawlers, including Google-Extended
- OpenAI: overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website
- Google: top ways to ensure your content performs well in AI experiences
- Pew Research Center: do people click on links in Google AI summaries?
- Bing Webmaster Guidelines
Related
More on AI search optimisation
- what answer engine optimisation meansA short explainer on the term.
- how we run this every weekThe same questions, asked on a set schedule.
- answer engine optimisation servicesMake a page easy for AI tools to quote.
- generative engine optimisation servicesGet named when AI builds an answer from several sites.
- Google AI OverviewsWhat Google’s AI answers did to your clicks.
- ChatGPT visibilityWhat ChatGPT says when people ask about your field.
- organic searchThe groundwork everything here depends on.
- our standardsThe specific things we rule out.
Where we offer AI search optimisation
Problems AI search optimisation can fix
Last updated · Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor · We check this page every three months. Next check: .