I have heard that AI is impacting SEO on websites. What are some things I can do to make sure my SEO is still working effectively?
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
Yep, AI is changing SEO. Search is becoming more conversational, more zero-click (meaning people are reading the answers and not necessarily clicking through to websites as much), and more AI-summarized, so the goal is shifting from simply ranking for blue links to becoming a source that AI systems trust and cite.
What’s changing
AI-powered search features can answer simple questions directly on the results page, which often reduces clicks to informational pages like basic definitions, list posts, and top-of-funnel content. People finding infromation is spreading beyond Google to AI chat tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc), and social platforms, and community sites.
Search is also placing more emphasis on entity relevance, brand authority, and intent instead of just keyword matching. In practice, that means generic content is easier to replace, while original, expert, and well-structured content is more likely to be surfaced or cited. So writing more in-depth about your services or related topics can help you become an AI source.
What to do
Build content around topics and questions, not isolated keywords. Create pillar pages and supporting articles that answer related follow-up questions and long-tail conversational searches. Create new pages or blog posts to write in-depth articles that are answering questions that your clients may commonly ask, or about common problems that you have solutions for, or feature testimonials that talk about real-world problems that you helped to solve.
Strengthen authority signals. Use your real expertise, original examples, citations, testimonials, across your site and other channels.
Add structured data where it makes sense, especially FAQ, product, article, and local/business schema. This helps AI machines understand and reuse your content. Reach out for help with adding structured data to websites.
Keep technical SEO solid. Make sure pages are easy to crawl, and are fast, mobile-friendly, and free of indexing issues or duplicate content.
Write for humans first, but format for easy extraction. Short direct answers, subheads, bullet points, and clear definitions help both users and AI systems.
Diversify visibility beyond your website. For many businesses, that means maintaining a strong presence on YouTube, Pinterest, social posts, reviews, and community mentions, not just blog content. Reddit has become very popular and is a great place to engage with people, answer questions, and become an expert for your services. It is ideal to reference your blog content and link to your blog posts and pages in your social media posts and encourage viewers to visit your website for more in-depth information.
Do not copy other people's content, or use straight content provided by AI. Become THE original source for comprehensive information for topics you want to be found for. Add your own in-depth experience and knowledge to answer questions or provide helpful information to the audience you want to be in front of.
All of this advice is pretty much the same advice I've always provided in my SEO Consultations and Packages – SEO, even with AI, is still all about becoming the expert on the topics you want to be found for. Reach out for a free SEO estimate »
If you want help getting your website's SEO improved to be found in AI, I can help.
I also offer Website Design, illustration, infographic design, logo design and Graphic Design services.
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