Google is rewriting search, but you don’t need a tech team to stay visible. Here are some strategies we are using.
You’ve heard the noise. ChatGPT. AI Overviews. Zero-click searches. And somewhere in that noise, a quiet fear: How will people find my business?
You’re not imagining it, and you are not alone. We have seen click-through rates to websites drop 30–40% when AI summaries appear. Traffic to some publishers has collapsed by as much as 80%. The rules for being found online seem to be changing faster than many small businesses can keep up.
But here’s something that’s never usually anyone’s first thought about change: this shift creates new opportunities for businesses willing to adapt. The playing field is being reset – and the winners won’t be the ones with the biggest budgets. They’ll be the ones who understand what AI actually wants.
That’s where we come in. We’ve already reached out to many of you about many of these points, and we’re building a clear strategy to keep your business visible in this new search landscape.
Also, remember this! It’s early days. A lot has changed, and changes will continue, but there is time to adapt.
Some of these actions are things you can help with, or might be things that you want to do. We expect to do the heavy lifting while you focus on running your business. We want to make sure AI knows you exist, which might be things we can do by ourselves, or things we need your help with. Either way, you won’t be left behind.
These 12 points are worth knowing. Think of dual goals:
- Still show up in regular search results.
- Also, be the source that AI tools quote or rely on when they answer people’s questions.
12 AI-SEO Actionable Items That Matter
We have approached many of you about some of the things in this list. Eventually, we will cover all of them, but it’s good to know what’s ahead and, if you want to help, how you would do that.
1. Break Your Content Into Sub-Questions
AI doesn’t read pages – it breaks questions into smaller pieces and hunts for answers to each one.
Action: Structure your pages so each section answers one specific question completely. Think “What does this cost?” “How long does it take?” “Who is this for?” Each answer should stand alone – clear, complete, liftable.
2. Get Your Facts Into Trusted Places
AI trusts neutral sources such as Wikipedia, industry directories, and community forums more than it trusts your marketing page.
Action: Publish definitions, FAQs, and helpful content in public, trusted locations where AI models learn. Don’t just ask “How do I rank this page?” Ask “Where will AI learn the truth about my industry – and how can I be that source?”
3. Write Paragraphs That Can Be Quoted
AI doesn’t cite entire pages. It pulls specific passages.
Action: Treat every section heading as a standalone answer. Include the claim, the proof, and the context – all in one tight paragraph. Make your content the cleanest “reference paragraph” on the web for your topic.
4. Package Your Evidence for Easy Reuse
AI needs to justify its answers. It favors content with clear, structured proof.
Action: Use tables, bulleted comparisons, and stat-backed claims. Pair every strong statement with a number and a source. Make it easy for AI to lift your facts as “the proof block” inside its answer.
5. Drop the Sales Pitch (Where It Counts)
AI is trained to avoid promotional language. Salesy copy gets filtered out.
Action: Lead with facts and third-party validation on pages you want AI to cite. Keep opinions and positioning in separate sections. You can still sell – just don’t try to be the lawyer and the judge in the same paragraph.
6. Make Your Brand Story Consistent Everywhere
AI builds an understanding of your business from everything it finds online. Conflicting information confuses it.
Action: Define your core facts – who you are, what you do, who you serve – and make them consistent across your website, directories, partner listings, and media profiles. You’re training AI on who you are, not just what your homepage says.
7. Show Up in “Best Of” and Comparison Content
When someone asks AI, “What are my options for X?”, it pulls from comparison-style content across the web.
Action: Get your business into objective, third-party comparisons. Publish honest comparisons where you and your competitors are both treated fairly. Encourage reviews and analyst coverage that includes you in the shortlist. Become part of the default peer set AI thinks about.
8. Be Present Across the Surfaces AI Uses
AI doesn’t just pull from Google. It blends information from documentation sites, Q&A forums, reviews, news, and more.
Action: Design your online presence as an ecosystem, not just a website. For each topic you care about, identify the top non-Google surfaces AI uses in your niche – and get credible, consistent representation there.
9. Turn Your Expertise Into Reusable Frameworks
AI loves structure. It snaps to specifications, step-by-step guides, and decision trees.
Action: Turn your knowledge into explicit frameworks: “To qualify as X, something must meet A, B, and C.” Document your methodologies. Give AI something better than marketing copy – give it a schema it can reuse.
10. Seed Your Best Content Where AI Learns
AI pulls from public datasets, open documentation, PDFs, and industry reports.
Action: Place your best explanations in formats and locations likely to be picked up – public guides, downloadable resources, industry reports. Treat every public artifact as a potential training seed.
11. Prevent AI From Making Things Up About You
When AI doesn’t know enough about your business, it fills in the blanks – often incorrectly.
Action: Publish short, high-signal fact sheets about your business, services, and pricing in multiple trusted locations. Eliminate conflicting public information. Monitor how AI describes you and correct inaccuracies with targeted content.
12. Aim for Citations, Not Just Mentions
In AI answers, there are three levels: not mentioned, mentioned but not cited, or mentioned and cited as evidence. Citations carry the most weight.
Action: Engineer your pages for both narrative value and citation quality – clear purpose, tight scope, strong metadata, structured data. Build third-party coverage so you can be cited even when your own site appears in the narrative. Track where you stand and design efforts to move up the ladder.
I hope this helps and answers some questions. We don’t know everything yet, and this is not a perfect list, but we are working on it and will continue to research to find the best way(s) forward.
If you have questions, please let me know.