Have you wondered how to optimize your pages differently to show up more in AI searches? Well you’re in luck! That’s what today’s episode is all about. My intention is that today’s episode will shed some light on the subject with tangible tactics.
Enjoy the episode!
🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is UpWork.
I have been dipping back into that to find help for smaller one-off projects. Like a Make automation fix. Because I don’t care what anyone says, AI doesn’t always have the answer and I’m really tired of going in circles.
🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is Why Willpower Never Actually Changes You with Peter Crone on the School of Greatness podcast.
I have been binging Peter Crone content the past couple of weeks. His perspective is refreshing and fits my spiritual journey. He does talk fast though so I find myself rewinding and relistening and pausing a lot. I’ve learned a lot about myself just by watching some of his videos… he does these masterminds and shares some of the real life calls he has with people. It’s fascinating.
If you listen to the episode, let me know how you like it!
Find other recommended episodes here.
Other Resource Links
https://nectivdigital.com/blog/the-perfectly-optimized-page-for-aeo-ai-search
https://www.growth-memo.com/p/the-science-of-how-ai-pays-attention
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tbdHave you wondered how to optimize your pages differently to show up more in AI searches? Well you’re in luck! That’s what today’s episode is all about.
How is an AI search optimized page different from a traditional SEO optimized page? Mostly, it’s formatting. And frankly, most of us are so used to doing things a certain way, it’s hard to see the difference. My hope, I can’t believe I just used that word so let me give you a different one, my intention, is that today’s episode will shed some light on the subject with tangible tactics.
The primary difference between traditionally search optimized pages and those that you want to have show up more in ChatGPT, perplexity, AI overviews, all the AI search engines, is formatting.
The old way was to have paragraphs of copy with variations of search phrases and wrap those in sub headings with visual breaks in between that keep the reader engaged and support the copy.
The new way is to have highly skimmable pages using quote like sentences, tables, bullet lists, and the topic point answered near the top of the page.
Does this mean takeaway the stories or the reading style? No. It just means that we need to be aware when we create our pages that while people are in fact reading them, it first gets read by machines in order to appear in the search engines for the people to read it.
Here are 4 more ways that traditional SEO pages and AI optimized pages are different…
[1] The “proof is in the pudding” is different. It used to be probably you could get away with general statements such as… for an event planner… they might have this on their website… Proven experience bringing large-scale gatherings to life with flawless precision.
Today, it’s more effective to put a number on it… here’s a rewrite example… Managed over 350+ corporate conferences, galas, and product launches in 2026, hosting a total of 140,000+ attendees.
By providing numbers, it’s more concreate for AI search engines to digest.
[2] It’s no longer a 1-1 ratio being one keyword for one page. It’s more about many to one page. One question or topic inevitably instigates further questions, and rather than the old school method of link to other pages for those follow up questions, include them in that page.
There can still be the separate pages if the topics are a meatier topic and is warranted. Like if you can fill a page without having to fluff it with crap content just to make it longer.
[3] Use quoteables. The fancy term these days is “liftable passages.” A self contained sentence that can be lifted right out of the article. Basically, think about it like giving a script to the AI search engine for what you want it to say to the reader. Sentences that if said alone, make sense without having to read the whole page.
[4] Put the most important information at the top. Kevin Indig of Growth Memo, one of my top resources, says put it in the first 20% of the page content. It used to be that you’d make the page lengthy not only for depth of knowledge but it also helped signal to Google that the longer someone was on a page or the more engaged they were with it, it was a worthy page. AI is looking for more direct information, so putting things near the top and immediately following headings is more beneficial.
Back in episode 117, titled You’re Optimizing Your Website for 3 Searchers, I made the point about having to optimize for (1) Google traditional SEO, (2) AI search engines like ChatGPT, and (3) AI agents.
This will definitely evolve over time. What we can do is work in our optimizations in a planned way so we don’t go crazy trying to get through all our pages at once. And most of us, most of our content is barely “seen”, but it’s needed to express depth of knowledge and for some of us to use it in a customer experience kind of way.
The Takeaway
By formatting pages just a little bit differently, there’s more opportunity to have your website cited or recommended inside AI search engines answers.
If you’re not sure what this might look like specifically for your website, that’s a good question to bring to a Clarity Call with me. It’s a paid 90 minute session, where you bring a specific question or problem and leave with a clear answer or a clear action.
I’m here when you’re ready.
About This Show
The Get More Website Traffic Podcast covers the strategies, tools, and tactics that help small business owners get more people to their website and turn that traffic into leads. Host Barb Davids breaks it down in plain language every week, with bonus episodes featuring other business owners sharing their expertise on topics that matter to running a small business. Produced by Compass Digital Strategies.
