You’ve probably already realized there’s value in appearing in AI answers that appear in response to user prompts in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Gaining visibility in AI tools is called AI SEO, which is an extension of traditional SEO.
Below, you'll learn exactly how traditional SEO differs from AI SEO, how and why you need to adapt your activities, and how to track performance across both your SEO and AI SEO efforts.
What Is Traditional SEO vs. AI SEO?
Traditional SEO focuses on improving a website to be more visible in search engine results pages, while AI SEO focuses on improving content to appear in AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews.
Do You Need Both SEO and AI SEO?
Yes—you need both SEO and AI SEO to ensure your brand is visible to your target audience on traditional search engines and within AI systems.
People still use traditional search engines like Google and Bing every day. In fact, people use Google alone for five trillion searches per year—an average of around 13.7 billion queries per day.
But Semrush data suggests traffic from large language models (LLMs) will surpass traffic from traditional organic search in 2028. This means you also need to optimize for AI platforms alongside traditional search engines to maintain brand visibility in the long run.
Plus, the interfaces of search engines like Google and Bing are now a mix of traditional organic results (blue links and other non-AI powered SERP features) and AI features like AI Overviews and Bing’s AI-powered summaries.
Here’s an example of an AI-generated summary that appears for a query on Bing:
Plus, outside of search engines’ AI experiences, people are also using other AI tools more often. ChatGPT is estimated to have 700 million weekly active users. But several experiments have shown that ChatGPT at least partially relies on Google search to answer user queries.
So, you should optimize for AI platforms alongside traditional search engines. This lets you reach a wider audience than you can through traditional search engine optimization alone.
What Actually Changes When You Incorporate AI SEO into Your SEO Work?
Incorporating AI SEO into your SEO tasks primarily involves a shift in priorities.
Here’s a summary of key SEO tasks and what their AI SEO equivalents look like:
| Task | Traditional SEO | AI SEO Equivalent |
| Research | Find queries your target audience types into Google | Find conversational prompts your target audience enters in AI tools |
| On-Page Optimization | Optimize title tags, headers, and internal links for target keywords | Write for easy AI extraction with direct answers and self-contained sections |
| Technical SEO | Optimize for crawlability, site speed, mobile-friendliness, and indexation | Perform the same foundational tasks while also making sure AI crawlers can find and render your content |
| Link Building | Build backlinks from relevant and high-authority domains | Conduct digital PR for brand mentions (even without links) across review sites, directories, industry publications, and forums |
| Measurement | Track rankings, organic traffic, click-through rate (CTR), and conversions | Track AI mentions, AI citations, branded search volume, share of voice in AI responses, and sentiment analysis |
Keyword Research and Topic Planning
AI SEO involves mapping entire topic areas, rather than optimizing for one or more particular terms.
Due to the conversational nature of AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, users may prompt them with what can seem like an infinite number of variations on your typical “keyword.” And the AI tools themselves use query fan-out to perform numerous related searches at once.
Plus, compared to keyword targeting, prompt targeting generally involves longer strings of words.
To illustrate the difference in words per query, I analyzed all the keywords pet feeder brand Petlibro ranks in the top 10 for in Google using Semrush’s Organic Research tool.
After removing duplicates (where the site ranks multiple pages for the same keyword), Petlibro ranks for 1,886 unique terms. And the average length of these keywords is four words.
I then used Semrush’s Visibility Overview tool to find all the prompts for which Petlibro appears in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and AI Overviews.
After removing non-English language prompts and duplicates, there are 625 AI responses Petlibro shows in. The average length of the prompts Petlibro appears for is eight words—twice as long as the average keyword.
With AI SEO, you’re often targeting more specific terms than you would with traditional SEO. So, understanding your target audience and the intent behind their keyword or prompt is key.
On Page Optimization
On-page optimization for AI SEO is mostly focused on how you write your content—using direct language and standalone sections that make it easy for AI systems to extract and use in responses.
With traditional SEO, on-page optimization involves tasks like keyword placement, internal linking, and optimizing images.
One of Petlibro’s blog posts that appears for relevant water fountain filter queries and prompts does a great job of using clear language and sections that make sense on their own. It answers key related questions immediately and directly under the corresponding headings.
AI systems extract chunks of content and combine them with information from other sources. So, each section needs to make sense without context from other parts of your page.
Not great structure:
"As we mentioned earlier, there are several approaches to consider to improve this. Let's explore the next factor that impacts performance ..."
Better structure:
"Website loading time depends on three factors: image optimization, server response time, and code efficiency. Here's how each of these factors works:"
Optimizing your content to be as clear and direct as possible increases the chances that your site will appear in AI responses and AI-powered SERP features like Google’s AI Overviews.
Monitor your presence in Google’s AI Overviews by going to the Organic Research tool, typing in your domain, and clicking “Search.”
Go to the “Positions” tab. Then click “SERP Features” > “Domain ranks” > “AI Overview.”
You’ll see your domain’s appearances in AI Overviews over time. And you can scroll down to see the specific keywords you’re appearing in AI Overviews for.
Technical Optimization
Technical SEO for AI primarily involves making sure the LLMs can actually see your content. This includes making sure you’re not blocking AI crawlers or relying too heavily on JavaScrip.
A Vercel analysis suggests that none of the major AI crawlers render JavaScript (although Gemini can by leveraging Google’s infrastructure). This means JavaScript-heavy websites may have issues with their visibility in AI tools.
Traditional technical SEO might involve:
- Making sure your site is crawlable and indexable
- Setting up a robots.txt file
- Fixing redirect chains and loops
- Improving your Core Web Vitals metrics
- Implementing a user and search engine-friendly site structure
- Using HTTPS for security
- Implementing schema markup
(These are all tasks you should still be doing as part of your AI SEO strategy.)
Before AI tools can crawl your content, they must be able to access it. This means you shouldn’t block AI crawlers in your robots.txt file, which looks something like this:
In the example robots.txt file above, the site in question allows crawling from AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT. But the site disallows crawling from Perplexity.
Use Semrush’s Site Audit tool to see if you’re blocking AI search tools. Just enter your domain, follow the audit setup steps, and look for the “Blocked from AI Search” widget.
Click on any of the numbers next to the blocked crawlers to see exactly which pages you’re telling them to avoid crawling.
Building Links and Brand Mentions
AI tools value mentions of your brand across the web (even unlinked mentions). While brand mentions may also help with traditional SEO, search engines tend to reward sites with many high-quality links pointing to them.
Getting featured in news articles, expert roundups, review sites, and industry publications now gets you the backlink (traditional SEO value) and the brand mention (AI SEO value). Even if the publication uses a nofollow link that makes the link itself less valuable for SEO, AI tools may still consider the mention when answering user queries.
For example, I asked Google’s AI Mode which clothing brands are ethical. One of the recommendations was Nudie Jeans.
One of the sources AI Mode used for this recommendation was an article from the Guardian. It mentions Nudie Jeans as a brand that offers a garment repair program. But it does not include a link to the Nudie Jeans website.
So, getting your brand mentioned, even without getting a backlink, can help improve your AI SEO.
How to Track SEO and AI SEO Performance
Measuring success across SEO and AI SEO involves tracking both traditional ranking metrics and new AI visibility signals to understand your overall online presence.
Track Traditional Metrics That Still Matter
Continue tracking traditional SEO metrics like:
- Organic traffic by page: To see which content drives visits
- Keyword rankings: To uncover position changes for target terms
- Click-through rate (CTR): To measure how compelling your titles and descriptions that appear in search results are
- Conversion rate: To track whether traffic turns into leads or sales
Use Google Analytics to track organic traffic and conversions. And Google Search Console to track CTR and rankings for up to 1,000 terms.
To monitor the specific terms you most care about, use Semrush’s Position Tracking. The tool shows your overall visibility for your tracked keywords and gives you a keyword-level breakdown, including position and traffic changes over time.
Further reading: SEO Tracking: Key Metrics to Monitor Your Success
Track the Metrics That Matter for AI SEO
For AI SEO, track metrics like:
- AI mentions: How often your brand is mentioned in AI responses
- AI citations: How often your brand is cited as a source in responses
- Share of voice: How visible and prominent your brand is in AI tools versus your competitors
- Sentiment: How AI tools describe your brand (i.e., positively or negatively)
To track AI SEO metrics, use Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit.
The "Brand Performance” dashboard gives you a breakdown of your site’s share of voice and sentiment compared to your rivals. (You can check these metrics across different AI platforms.)
The “Perception” dashboard highlights brand strengths and areas to improve. These are areas that are affecting your brand’s sentiment in AI tools.
The “Narrative Drivers” dashboard shows prompts related to your brand. You can add filters to focus on prompts where your brand is “Not present” in the response and that your rivals are appearing for.
Track your brand’s visibility in these prompts over time to understand if your AI SEO efforts are paying off.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Optimize for AI Overviews?
To optimize for AI Overviews specifically, start each section of your content with a direct sentence that answers the question in the title or header. Also ensure that each section of your content is self-contained and makes sense when taken out of the broader article’s context.
Is Traditional SEO Dead?
No, traditional SEO is not dead. Traditional search engines still drive traffic to websites, and Google still sees five trillion searches per year. While AI search traffic is likely to grow, AI SEO builds on SEO foundations rather than replacing them.
What's the ROI Timeline for AI SEO Efforts?
The ROI timeline for AI SEO efforts will vary depending on the optimizations you make and your specific niche.
Will AI Replace Traditional Search Engines?
AI will probably not replace traditional search engines, at least not fully. AI search is growing, but different users prefer different search methods depending on their task. Optimizing for both ensures you capture users across a wider range of search behaviors.
Use AI SEO to Boost Your Brand’s Visibility
AI SEO and traditional SEO work together. And a comprehensive strategy aims to capture visibility across the entire search ecosystem.
If you’re ready to expand to AI SEO, use Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit to see where your brand appears across AI tools and get ideas to improve your results.
