Your Customers Are Searching With AI – How to Get Ahead
AI, AI, AI… It’s a topic you just can’t escape these days.
Just when you thought you’d found the perfect way to tune out, you realise that your potential customers are using AI to search. It’s tiring, I know.
Not only does this show a big shift in consumer behaviour, but it also means the best practices for content marketing are shifting again.
From Google’s AI Overviews to using Chat GPT as a search engine, everything’s in a flux. But this isn’t always a bad thing. It’s just time to pivot with newly-emerging AI SEO strategies and some good-old fashioned research. Keyboards at the ready!
Before we dive in, note that no one’s 100% worked these out yet. It’s too soon to see the real impact of AI on SEO, and we need more time to compile the results. But clear trends are emerging.
Ready to play with the robots? Grab the tinfoil hat, and let’s go.
How Are People Using AI To Search?
For now, let’s look at Google’s AI Overviews and Chat GPT as a search engine.
Google AI Overviews
Google AI Overviews are revolutionising search results by providing quick, AI-generated summaries that answer user questions right at the top of the page.
You don’t even have to do anything. Just search as usual and they sometimes appear (30% of U.S. searches bring them up, but they’re not fully rolled-out in Europe and the UK yet).
Instead of sifting through multiple links, users get concise, relevant information instantly. Why click a website when the info is right there?
Well, Google crawls web content to create the AI overviews, and links back to where it took the information from. So, your new goal is to get your website featured in the overviews.
Chat GPT & AI Chatbots
Meanwhile, ChatGPT and other conversational AI tools are gaining popularity as alternative “search engines.” Likewise, younger searchers are also using TikTok as a search engine.
However, Google is still the top dog. In January 2025, Chat GPT had 1.639 billion visitors, but Google had 86.57 visitors. You do the math.
What attracts people to AI search? Well, people are turning to these AI chatbots to ask complex questions in natural language and receive detailed, tailored answers.
Search queries are more conversational and context-driven, which challenges traditional SEO tactics focused solely on keywords. After all, you can’t ask a blog follow-up questions!
Why does this matter? These bots sometimes recommend brands. Where possible, you want that to be your website or name.
How To Optimise Your Content for AI
Now for the big question: Can you optimise your blog content for AI?
The answer is yes, you can. But as with all SEO efforts, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get into an overview or Chat GPT recommendation.
Through trial and error and lots of number crunching, SEO leaders have suggested potential best practices for the new era of search. These focus on clear structure and expertise, ensuring Google can easily crawl your website and see your authority rather than stuffing keywords.
Get the lowdown on proper blog structure now.
It’s likely that the goalposts will change slightly in the next few years. But here are the most important ways to optimise your content for AI right now:
- Write clear and concise content: AI prefers content that is straightforward and easy to summarize. Save the lengthy sentences for your journal. Sorry.
- Stop focusing on broad “how to” keywords and start targeting ready-to-buy searches. Rather than “How to Select the Best Gardening Tools,” go for “Professional Gardening Tool Sets.” Think like your customer at the point of purchase instead of awareness.
- Use structured data and schema markup: These are techy SEO terms, but are important as they help AI understand your content’s context and improve your chances of being featured in rich snippets and AI summaries.
- Focus on user intent: What are your customers really searching for? Create content that directly addresses those needs, rather than targeting generic keywords.
- FAQs and casual language: Adding FAQs into blogs has been routine for a while now, and it continues to be valuable for AI search. Likewise, writing in a natural tone can increase your visibility in AI-powered responses. Again, skip the jargon!
- Build topical authority: Lastly, don’t just sit on the surface. Dig deep with topic clusters and cover related ideas in depth. Connect your content via internal links to signal expertise and relevance to AI algorithms.
AI SEO Content, It’s A Lot
Between the ever-appearing chatbots and self-proclaimed AI SEO experts, there’s a lot to consider right now.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Research from Inbound Blogging found that 92.9% of SEO experts still think content is king, so don’t cancel your monthly articles just yet. Instead, follow the new commandments and you’ll ride the robot wave.
One more ray of sunshine? Rand Fishkin’s “AI Will Replace All the Jobs” Is Just Tech Execs Doing Marketing” article confirmed one thing: There’s no data to support the message that AI is replacing jobs at scale.
Things are moving and shaking, and it’s time to dance along to the beat.
Need a helping hand? I’m an SEO content writer ready to help you fine-tune your messaging while ticking the best practice boxes.
