AI SEO, for the answers
buyers read before they click.
Your business made clear, consistent and easy to cite across Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, and measured in the visits and enquiries they send.
Buyers now meet AI answers at the top of Google and inside ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot, often before they visit a website. Those answers are written from pages the tools can find, read and trust, with links to their sources. No one can buy a place among them, and no one can promise one. The work is to make your business a source worth citing.
AI Search Optimisation is part of our SEO service within Digital, and rests on the same foundations. It is planned from our Norwich office, for businesses across Norfolk and the UK.
The questions buyers ask, checked every month.
We agree a set of questions your buyers ask before they choose a supplier, then put them to Google’s AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot each month. We record which sources each answer cites, whether your business is among them, and whether what it says about you is right.
The answers change from day to day, so this is a trend to watch, not a ranking to report. The work goes into the pages and sources the answers are drawn from.
What AI search optimisation covers.
Most of it strengthens your SEO as well. The plan sets out which parts your business needs first.
AI visibility checks
Buyer questions put to Google’s AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot each month, with the sources each answer cites recorded.
Crawler access
Robots rules and firewalls checked so Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot can reach the pages you want found.
Pages that answer plainly
What you do, for whom, where and to what standard, stated in text near the top of the page, where an answer can quote it.
Buyer questions answered
Content written around the questions buyers actually ask, each one answered directly by people who know the subject.
Consistent facts
Your name, services, locations and credentials made the same on your site, your Business Profile and the listings AI tools read.
Structured data
Markup that matches what each page shows. Google says no special markup is needed for its AI features, so none is added for show.
Mentions and reviews
Coverage in trade press, reviews and listings, since AI answers often draw on what others say about a business.
Tracking
Citations from Bing Webmaster Tools, and visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot recorded in Google Analytics 4.
Where you stand, then what changes.
What happens, and when, from the day the work begins.
Tell us where you’re goingBaseline.
Month one.
We agree the buyer questions with you, put them to each AI tool, and record who is cited today. Crawler access and your key pages are checked at the same time.
You see where the business appears now, and where competitors appear instead.
Fix.
Months two and three.
Crawler access is corrected, key pages are rewritten to answer questions plainly, and the facts about the business are made consistent wherever they appear.
Nothing on your site changes until you have approved it.
Build.
Month four onwards.
New content, mentions and reviews are added each month, and the same questions are checked again.
The monthly report shows citations, AI referrals and the enquiries they led to.
AI search, in practice.
All Projects
Questions about AI SEO.
What is AI SEO?
The work of making a business easy for AI search tools to find, understand and cite: Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. It is also called generative engine optimisation, GEO, LLM SEO or answer engine optimisation, and it rests on the same foundations as SEO.
Can you guarantee we will be cited?
No. Each AI tool decides for itself which sources to cite, and its answers change from day to day. What we can do is remove the reasons a business is left out, and report honestly on how often it appears.
Does Google need anything special for AI Overviews?
No. Google says there are no extra requirements, and no special markup or files. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet in normal search, and the usual SEO best practices apply.
Should we add an llms.txt file?
Google says no new machine-readable or AI text files are needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. We add one only where there is a clear reason to, and never in place of the work on the pages themselves.
How do ChatGPT and Perplexity find our site?
Through their own search crawlers, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, which a robots.txt file or firewall can block by accident. Both companies recommend allowing them for a site to appear in their answers. Microsoft Copilot draws on Bing’s index.
Can we stop AI tools training on our content?
Yes, separately from appearing in their answers. OpenAI’s GPTBot covers training, apart from OAI-SearchBot for search. Google-Extended covers some of Google’s other AI systems, while AI Overviews and AI Mode follow the normal Googlebot rules. We set each one to match what you want.
How do you measure AI search?
Through the monthly check of buyer questions and the sources cited, the citations Bing Webmaster Tools reports for Copilot and Bing, and the visits and enquiries from AI tools in Google Analytics 4. Google counts AI Overviews and AI Mode within Search Console’s overall figures.
Is AI search a separate project from SEO?
No. Google says the same SEO best practices apply to its AI features, and the other tools read the same web. It is planned as part of your SEO, with its own checks and its own lines in the monthly report.
How is it priced?
Every engagement has a defined scope and a stated fee, agreed in writing before any work begins. Tell us where you’re going and we’ll tell you what it would involve.
Alongside AI search.
All of SEOReady to talk about your next stage of growth?
Tell us where you’re going. We’ll tell you, candidly, whether we’re the right agency to take you there.
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