How To Optimize Your Content For AI-Enabled Search

One of the hottest digital marketing trends of 2025 and beyond is going to be getting your content marketing picked up by AI search engines.

While this might sound a technical and arduous chore, I have some good news.

If you’re already creating high-quality content that satisfies search intent, adheres to what Google laid out in its helpful content update, and targets various SERP features, there’s very little to change.

TLDR: The best quality content will still win. 

For the longest time, I’ve preached that if you “create the best version available online”, then search engines will reward you with a high ranking.

Sure, there are some other mitigating factors:

• You need to build trust with search engines over time
• You must demonstrate authority on topics over time
• Your content must be formatted for a great reader experience

If you’re doing all this, you’re already ahead of a ton of competitors when it comes to getting your content found via AI search.

What AI says about AI-enabled search

In the spirit of AI, I asked both ChatGPT and Perplexity what I should include in this blog post.

I entered the prompt:

“I’m writing a blog post titled “How To Optimize Your Content For AI-Enabled Search”, after a peer asked me “Any thoughts as to how AI-enabled search will change SEO strategies” – what are some key points I must include?”

Here’s what ChatGPT told me to include:

• Understand how AI pulls content rather than ranks links
• Shift from keywords to intent & context
• Optimize for featured snippets & AI summaries
• Create high-value, unique content
• User experience matters more

Here’s what Perplexity told me to include:

• Understand how AI pulls content rather than ranks links
• Shift from keywords to intent & context
• User experience matters more

I’ve summarized the responses somewhat, but you’ll see that both these “AI search engines” told me to do the same thing. 

Why?

Because they’ve pulled from sources across the web they deem are the best.

Ring any bells?

Steps to optimize your content for AI search engines

1 – Understand how AI pulls content rather than ranks links

Instead of organizing blog posts and web pages in a traditional Google ranking order, AI search is scouring the internet to compile a comprehensive response that satisfies your search intent.

Depending on the platform a searcher uses, you may get a link to your content cited as the referring article.

Google

Looking at Google’s AI Overview for my search of “how can I improve my content marketing”, we can see a number of things going on:

• Two different sources have been used to form an AI overview, much like a traditional featured snippet. You can identify these by the 🔗 icon included at the end of each paragraph.
• The referenced articles within the AI overview are listed along the right hand side, much like the traditional search engines we’re used to.

In the case of Google, there’s still very much a chance of obtaining the holy grail of organic content marketing: the click!

ChatGPT

When searching the same query using ChatGPT, you’ll notice there is no citation and no links to any further web content.

Here, ChatGPT has used its understanding of the request to create a conversational approach rather than the featured snippet style we saw on Google.

In some cases, ChatGPT will use links and references. However, that would run the risk of redirecting you out of its platform—something it’s not keen to do if it can be helped.

Perplexity

Using Perplexity, we’re back to a similar approach to Google:

Here, we have the article used to compile an answer listed first (left to right) and a detailed response with clickable numbered footnotes after each point. 

These coincide with the articles referenced above the main response.

The main takeaway when trying to understand how AI pools information and forumulates responses is that it is scraping the content from somewhere.

While you may not always get credit for influencing the AI output, there is still a chance and therefore still a chance of a searcher clicking through to your website.

Take this course to write articles that get more traffic: How To Write Blog Posts That Get 500,000 Views

2 – Shift from keywords to intent & context

Old-fashioned, programmatic approaches to SEO and content marketing aren’t going to cut it when it comes to being found by AI search engines.

Creating the same content for different target keyphrases may have worked for large organizations with hundreds-strong marketing teams, but we’ve already seen a major shift with this type of content.

Look no further than the decline of G2’s content marketing efforts that used to dominate Google.

Recognizing that users want answers to their questions—ones that are now being asked longer tail and more conversationally—with applied context, simply flashing up templated scorecards and review collections isn’t going to cut it.

When creating content to be found online via search engines, make sure you put the intent and context first. Otherwise you risk falling into the void.

Add 1,000s more views to your content: 50 Places To Distribute Content

3 – Optimize for featured snippets & AI summaries

Appreciating that searchers want answers rather than articles is the first step you must take if you want your content to get picked up in AI searches.

This means you write an article knowing full well that it might not get a click—but it might get summarized in an AI overview and help someone out. 

Is this fair? Probably not.

Is there anything else we can do about it? No.

So, yes, this does mean your traffic is going to drop. 

If you can answer a searcher’s query in a paragraph, a table, a list, etc., then that’s what the search engine is going to use. The AI has decided the searcher doesn’t need the entire article.

It will always choose what it deems the best possible answer + format to show.

As Brett McGrath mentions in his post on featured snippets, we must move away from measuring clicks as a sign of marketing success:

The good news here is that this should encourage better content that’s less focussed on word count and trying to stuff as many keyphrases and irrelevant questions in.

We should see a decrease in the number of “What is XYZ?” sections in articles written for already-savvy audiences.

Learn Gaetano DiNardi’s SEO strategy for dominating BOFU search terms in your industry: Enroll in Bottom-of-funnel SEO to win in tough niches

4 – Create high-value, unique content

As we move away from templated posts, reusable content, and basic queries being answered in more technical content, we have a huge opportunity to stand out.

If you focus on creating the best content available online for your target topic, you stand the highest chance of:

1. Ranking top or high on Google
2. Being featured in an AI overview
3. Earning backlinks from trustworthy sources
4. Building authority in your niche
5. Positioning your company/author as a thought leader

🚨 Note: Only when you create what is genuinely the best content available online can you expect to rank top of Google and be found in AI overviews. If you’re compromising based on timescale, subject matter experience, or writing ability, you have no right to expect to be top of Google.

In a previous blog titled, Why Your UC Blog Isn’t Working, I highlight that one major downfall of UC vendors attempting content marketing is they have the wrong person or persons assembling their blog posts.

Here’s what I included:

“When you get any old person in your business to write a blog post, it’s just that.

It’s not a marketing asset. It’s just a blog post. 

Back in the days when a blog was a literal “web log” and people used to follow for journal entries, if you were a person of interest to a specific audience, you could simply update your blog and fans and followers would read it.

When used for content marketing, however, you need a person or team of people to make sure that blog post contains everything it needs to succeed as a marketing asset.

I’ve created a Venn diagram of what that person of team of people needs to include skillswise:

• Subject matter expertise
• High-quality writing skills
• Deep understanding of SEO

Only when you combine these skills can you expect a blog post to have success. People will find it on Google, become informed about the topic they’re searching for, and respect your brand for being able to speak with authority.

Need an expert UC writer: Hire one of these 12 available for commissions

5 – User experience matters more

Be it in an AI summary or reading your article on your website, the experience you provide your reader matters more than any time in internet history.

In fact, you might argue that any type of content faces this challenge. Take Freida McFadden’s best-selling book series, The Housemaid. These books are written with marketing tactics applied throughout:

• Every chapter contains a hook and keeps you reading to the next chapter.
• The sentences and paragraphs are short, punchy, and easy to read.
• Detail is kept to a minimum and flow is prioritized throughout. 

This is done quite intentionally, I’m sure. The fight against constant distractions (work, TikTok, your Apple Watch telling you you’re 300 steps short for the day, etc.) is one we’re all losing.

And, especially in the case of B2B content, it’s easier and more tempting than ever to click away from content that’s hard to read and choose another option. 

Searchers want the quickest answers while expending the least effort.

When you get this wrong, not only is this a disaster for your content, it means AI search engines already know this so won’t present your content in the first place.

Here’s how to guarantee the best user experience within your content:

• Use short paragraphs.
• Go big on white space.
• Use subheadings to split topics.
• Break up lists using bullet points.
• Make your website fast and responsive.
• Add imagery to help explain your points.
• Use tables when comparing two (or more) options.

Ultimately, if there’s a better way of expressing something than a wall of text, choose that one.

The final word on AI-enabled search

If I was tasked with helping a business become more visible in AI overviews, I’d take the exact same approach as I always have to content marketing:

Create the best version (of that topic’s content) available online.

Do you need help creating high quality content for your UC/CC brand?

I have limited slots available in Q2 and Q3 — so please fill out my contact form and we’ll set something up.