How to keep your website visible in AI searches

With the advent of artificial intelligence, a small revolution has been brewing in the search engine business. Instead of just displaying links, AI systems are increasingly delivering the right answer immediately. This is changing the face of the search engine.

Increasingly, Google is displaying AI Overviews (AIO) for search queries – AI-generated summaries that appear directly above the search results and contain links to several sources. Many of us are already familiar with these new boxes, which provide comprehensible information and guidance right at the top of the results page.

This creates a zero-click experience, because we get the information we are looking for without needing to click anything. As a result, the number of clicks on websites is falling, even if they are cited as the source.

At the same time, an alternative is beginning to gain ground: ChatGPT now has 700 million active users (Google AI Overviews: 2 billion as of July 2025) and easily answers questions by accessing up-to-date information. This success shows that expectations of search engines have changed. Instead of lists with links, people want clear, relevant and reliable answers.

For companies, this raises the key question of how their website and important content can remain present or even be visible at all in this new search landscape and become a cited source in AI answers. This article explains how traditional SEO and answer engine optimization (AEO) work together, how to strengthen your technical foundation, content and trust signals in a targeted manner, and how to measure success in a practical way.

Comparing AEO and traditional SEO

Before we address answer engine optimization (AEO), it’s worth taking a quick look at the closely related fundamentals of search engine optimization. SEO refers to all measures used to optimize websites and their content so that they can be found more easily in organic search results. The aim is to appear at the very top of the search page for relevant search queries. This is achieved by having a clear technical foundation and helpful content as well as building trust for a domain.

AEO expands traditional SEO to include the goal of appearing in answers from Google’s AI search, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. Essentially, SEO ensures that people find your company, club or agency, while AEO ensures that machines use and cite your content in answers.

SEO and AEO – a direct comparison

These changes indicate that website findability is being redefined – via mentions, citations, structured content and the technical setup. The role of a digital presence (including social media) is thus shifting from a pure driver of traffic to a trusted source of knowledge. If you make your content machine-readable and citable, you’ll still achieve greater reach with fewer clicks.

Is traditional SEO obsolete?

The short answer is: traditional SEO is still relevant. Although AI assistants such as ChatGPT are rapidly gaining traction, they’re still a long way from matching the usage of established search engines. While ChatGPT currently processes around 2.5 billion requests per day, Google is significantly higher, with an estimated 14 billion requests. Also, research indicates that only about 20% to 30% of ChatGPT requests have a search intent and contain multiple requests per chat.

Additionally, AI Overviews are not yet being generated for all search queries, with current studies putting the figure at around 10% to 30%. That’s why a high organic ranking in Google searches based on traditional criteria (keywords, Core Web Vitals, etc.) is still relevant.

However, the clicks resulting from an AI answer can be particularly valuable, as they come from an already informed customer base with a high willingness to buy. Optimized forms and checkout processes are therefore all the more important for success.

Important:
Although AI Overviews seem to favor domains that already have a strong organic ranking, this doesn’t automatically mean that the highest-ranked links are cited. Google’s and ChatGPT’s artificial intelligence also gather information from websites that would rank far lower in a traditional Google search (e.g. subpages, blog posts, help centers, etc.) as long as the domain is considered to be of high quality and the content is suitable.

Nevertheless, SEO’s transformation from search engine optimization toward search everywhere optimization cannot be ignored, as search results from AI-powered search engines are no longer solely influenced by keywords. Rating, social media, PR and video-on-demand portals are increasingly being searched for relevant information and are being cited as sources.

What concrete steps can be taken to boost the chances of being cited in AIO or by chatbots? The following sections provide an overview of the key points in respect of the technical foundation, the right content structure and the question of how to monitor progress.

SEO content: information frequently referenced by AI

AI favors content that matches search intent, answers questions clearly and is easy to summarize.

Keep the following in mind:

• Give the answer first: pages and paragraphs should start with one or two sentences that clearly answer the core question. This creates a citable passage that AI systems can easily use.

• Choose keywords carefully: informational search terms (“How to grow white strawberries”) are more likely to get content cited than transactional keywords. Long-tail queries (“How to choose black shoes for men”) are the perfect match for AIO.

• Structure content clearly: start with short definitions, followed by detailed explanations. Step-by-step instructions, numbered lists, FAQs and comparison tables increase the likelihood of a mention.

• Keep your content up to date: content should be regularly reviewed and supplemented with the latest figures, examples and references. Even small adjustments, such as updated headlines and new statistics, can make a difference.

• Use a variety of formats: “What is…?” articles with clear definitions, tutorials with easy-to-understand steps, comparison pages with tables and articles with original data such as studies and benchmarks are some of the most frequently cited formats.

Content that not only provides a definition, but also contains contexts, examples and structures that can be copied into answer boxes works particularly well.

Trust signals and authority (E-E-A-T)

Quality alone is not enough, because Google and AI pay close attention to whether a source is credible and relevant. E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) is the guiding principle for this.

Keep the following in mind:

• Show experience: practical reports, case studies, own tests and customer results indicate that content is not only theoretical, but practical.

• Emphasize expertise: author pages with biographies, certificates and specialist articles demonstrate competence. AI favors clearly identifiable subject-matter experts.

• Build authoritativeness: backlinks from relevant sources, mentions in the media and thought leadership content (e.g. guest articles, podcasts, webinars) strengthen reputation.

• Demonstrate trustworthiness: clear contact information, secure SSL pages, separation of facts and opinions, and regular updates create credibility.

Instead of just optimizing individual keywords, topical authority is becoming increasingly important. If you offer content grouped around a core topic and consistently send out these signals, you’re more likely to be cited by AI systems.

Off-site SEO: visibility beyond your website

In addition to your own website, external signals play a role. AI Overviews also cite sources and channels that are present not only on your domain, but in the wider digital space as well.

Keep the following in mind:

• Backlinks through added-value content: your own studies, white papers, tools and data analysis are ideal link magnets that can also serve as credible sources for AI.

• Targeted use of PR: mentions in industry portals, the media and awards strengthen your brand. AI tools prefer to extract content from these kinds of reliable sources.

• Use social proof: reviews, customer testimonials and community contributions matter not just to users, but also for a brand profile.

• Implement entity optimization: it’s important to keep your profiles consistent across all platforms (website, social media, industry directories, Google). This increases the chance that a brand will be firmly anchored in Google’s knowledge graph.

External signals show that a brand is established and perceived as relevant by third parties.

Measure success: from click to impact

AI Overviews are also changing how success is measured. Clicks and rankings alone are no longer enough, and it’s still difficult to measure AI citations.

Nevertheless, some factors can already be taken into account:

• New KPIs: mentions in AI Overviews, brand impressions and citations from answer engines are becoming the new currency.

• Ask qualitative questions: what content is cited, which competitors appear and which formats or page types (pillar pages, subpages, studies) are displayed?

• Expand the focus: success is not only measurable in clicks, but also in how often a brand is recognized and represented in AI contexts and AI-generated answers.

In addition to clicks and mentions, it’s also worth looking at searches for your brand name and visibility in AI Overviews. These show how visible a brand is in AI answers.

For initial monitoring, try checking Search Console or conducting a quick overview in GA4. Since mid-2025, ChatGPT has been tagging some outgoing links with utm_source=chatgpt.com, which provides initial indications of AI traffic. However, the data may still be incomplete, as not all platforms currently send referrer or UTM parameters. More precise tracking is currently possible via log file analyses and server-side evaluations.

Nevertheless, by combining these strategies, you can already get an idea of the potential for improving your website as well as the advantages of other websites.

Technical SEO: machine-readability

Finally, let’s look at the technical framework, the foundations on which all other measures rest. Content, E-E-A-T and off-site signals have significantly less chance of being considered by AI systems without proper indexing, structured data and stable performance. Schema markup and structured data are the language machines understand.

Keep the following in mind:

• Use schema markup: by adding extra details in the source code (schema.org markup), you can clearly describe content for machines. For example, this helps Google understand that it is dealing with a product page, a guide or an FAQ, and not just a block of text. This clarity increases the chance that content will be correctly captured in AI Overviews and by chatbots.

• Check indexing: the blocking of robots.txt files, unintentional use of noindex tags and outdated XML sitemaps can make it harder for search engines and answer systems to find your content. An up-to-date XML sitemap, lastmod tags and regular Google Search Console checks can help to quickly index new content.

• Identify entities: organization markup, sameAs links (e.g. social profiles, industry directories) and consistent NAP data strengthen the position in the Knowledge Graph.

• Ensure performance: fast loading times, mobile optimization and a consistent HTML structure (titles, meta tags, H-tags, canonicals, hreflang) help to ensure that content is captured and processed smoothly.

• Optimize media: descriptive file names (e.g. ai-overview-example.png), meaningful alt texts and captions help ensure that AI can also contextually interpret images and charts.

The smoother and quicker a website runs, the easier it is to read content and integrate it into AI Overviews.

Conclusion

SEO remains the foundation, AI is simply changing the rules of the game. It’s no longer just the ranking that matters, but whether content is cited in AI Overviews and by chatbots. If you approach technology, content and trust signals holistically and continuously refine your strategy based on experience, you’ll remain relevant in a zero-click future.

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