Google Search Is Dead. Long Live AI Search.

The game has changed. People aren’t just typing queries into Google anymore—they’re asking AI models for answers. And those AI models are deciding which brands to cite, which products to recommend, and which companies to ignore.

Traditional SEO got you ranked on page one. LLM SEO gets you cited as the answer. There’s a massive difference.

Let’s break down exactly how to make your brand visible in this new world of AI-powered search.

Why LLM SEO Matters Right Now

The shift is already happening. Millions of people use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini as their primary search tools. They’re not scrolling through ten blue links—they’re getting direct answers.

And here’s what that means for your brand: if AI models don’t know about you, trust you, or have quality information about you, you don’t exist in their responses.

Traditional SEO focussed on ranking. LLM SEO focusses on being the source AI models cite when they answer questions in your domain. It’s about becoming a reference point that language models trust and pull from consistently.

The opportunity? Most brands haven’t figured this out yet. You can build AI visibility now whilst your competitors are still optimising for algorithms that matter less every day.

Research & Keywords for the AI Search Era

Forget single keywords. AI models respond to conversational queries.

People don’t ask AI “best CRM software”—they ask “what CRM should I use for a 20-person B2B sales team that needs Salesforce integration?” The more specific and natural the query, the more valuable the answer needs to be.

Start using conversational queries in your content strategy. Think how, what, why, and best. These trigger informational searches that AI models love to answer. Structure your content around these natural language patterns.

Map entities to your brand. AI models understand the world through entities—people, products, places, companies. If your brand isn’t clearly linked to relevant entities in your space, you’re invisible.

Who are the key people in your company? What products do you offer? What problems do you solve? Make these connections explicit and consistent across all your content.

Cluster search intent strategically. AI models categorise queries by intent: informational (teach me), transactional (help me buy), and prompt-driven (do this for me). Create content for each intent type in your domain.

And here’s a move most brands miss: audit your competitors’ AI citations. Search for topics in your space using ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Which brands get mentioned? Which sources get cited? That’s your roadmap for visibility.

Creating Content That AI Models Actually Use

AI models don’t want fluff. They want clear, structured, authoritative answers.

Write answer-first content. Put the direct answer at the top. No throat-clearing, no SEO filler, no “in this article we’ll discuss.” Start with the information people actually want.

Think about how you scroll past five paragraphs of backstory to find a recipe. AI models do the same thing with your content. Make the answer obvious.

Use Q&A and FAQ formats religiously. These are gold for LLM SEO. AI models can easily parse question-answer pairs and cite them directly. Every piece of content should include a FAQ section addressing common questions in your niche.

Add structure that machines can read. Lists, tables, checklists, and examples aren’t just good for human readers—they’re perfect for AI parsing. When content is well-structured, language models can extract and cite specific information more easily.

Include stats, case studies, and concrete examples. AI models love citing specific data points. “Companies see a 30% increase in conversion rates” is more citation-worthy than “companies see significant improvements.”

Share unique insights, not generic text. If your content sounds like everyone else’s, AI models have no reason to cite you specifically. Original research, proprietary data, unique frameworks—these make you irreplaceable.

Building Authority That Makes AI Choose You

Trust matters more in AI search than it ever did in traditional SEO.

Add author bios and credentials. E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) isn’t just a Google thing anymore. AI models evaluate source credibility. Clear author credentials signal that your content comes from someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.

Publish original research or case studies. This is the fastest path to AI citations. When you create data that doesn’t exist anywhere else, you become the primary source. AI models have to cite you because there’s nowhere else to go.

Even simple original research works. Survey your customers. Analyse your industry. Share findings no one else has published.

Earn backlinks from relevant, trusted sites. Yes, backlinks still matter—maybe more than before. When authoritative sites link to your content, it signals to AI models that your information is reliable. Focus on quality over quantity.

Industry publications, academic sites, government sources, and respected media outlets carry weight. A single link from a trusted source beats a hundred low-quality directory listings.

Collect reviews and testimonials. Social proof tells AI models that real people trust your brand. Customer reviews, case study quotes, and testimonials add credibility that influences how models evaluate and cite your content.

Use schema markup for products, FAQs, and reviews. Schema helps AI models understand exactly what your content is about. Mark up your FAQs, product information, reviews, and key pages. Make it easy for machines to extract the right information.

Brand Signals & Technical Foundations

Visibility in AI search requires building entity authority.

Create or maintain a Wikipedia page. If your brand or key executives have Wikipedia presence, you’re significantly more likely to be cited by AI models. Wikipedia is a primary training source for most language models.

Can’t get on Wikipedia? Focus on Wikidata. It’s easier to contribute to and still builds entity recognition.

Build a Google Knowledge Panel. Knowledge Panels signal authority. They tell AI models that your brand is a recognised entity in your space. Claim your panel, keep it updated, and ensure the information is accurate.

Get mentioned in forums, news, and podcasts. AI models train on diverse sources. When your brand appears in reputable forums, news articles, and podcast transcripts discussing your industry, you build topical authority.

Reddit threads, industry news sites, podcast appearances—all of these contribute to how AI models understand your brand’s relevance.

Tie your brand consistently to key topics. If you want to be cited for “sales enablement,” make sure your brand appears alongside that term consistently across multiple sources. Topical association matters.

On the technical side, the fundamentals still apply—but for different reasons.

Add schema markup everywhere. FAQ schema, HowTo schema, Product schema—these help AI models parse and cite your content accurately. Schema is basically an instruction manual for machines.

Group content into topic clusters. Don’t scatter related content randomly. Create hub pages with supporting articles that link together. This helps AI models understand your depth of expertise in specific areas.

Keep site speed, mobile usability, and Core Web Vitals strong. Whilst AI models don’t directly care about load times, these factors affect whether your content gets crawled, indexed, and prioritised. Technical SEO hygiene matters.

Refresh and update content regularly. Stale content loses authority. AI models favour recent, updated information. Audit your top pages quarterly and refresh them with new data, examples, and insights.

Tracking Your AI Visibility

You can’t optimise what you don’t measure.

Monitor citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. Manually test queries in your domain. Which brands get cited? Are you showing up? Where do you appear in the response?

This is tedious but necessary. Set aside time monthly to run 20-30 queries related to your business and document the results.

Optimise for direct answers (AEO-style). Answer Engine Optimisation is different from traditional SEO. You’re not trying to rank—you’re trying to be the quoted source. Structure content to be easily extractable and citable.

Track AI share of voice. Use tools like Peec, Profound, or Semrush AIO features to monitor how often your brand appears in AI-generated responses compared to competitors. This is your new visibility metric.

Audit both SERP and AI-driven visibility. Don’t abandon traditional SEO metrics, but add AI visibility as a key performance indicator. Track both to understand your complete search presence.

The brands winning in AI search are the ones measuring it deliberately.

Future-Proofing Your LLM SEO Strategy

The AI search landscape is evolving fast. Here’s how to stay ahead.

Be transparent with clear sources and disclaimers. As AI-generated content becomes more common, human-created, well-sourced content will stand out. Cite your sources. Add disclaimers where appropriate. Transparency builds trust with both humans and AI models.

Ensure accessibility. Readable, inclusive content isn’t just good ethics—it’s good for AI parsing. Use clear language, describe images properly, and make content accessible to screen readers. What helps humans with disabilities also helps AI models understand your content.

Publish proprietary stats and unique data. This is the ultimate future-proofing move. If you’re the only source for specific information, you can’t be ignored. Create data that’s too valuable not to cite.

Industry benchmarks, original surveys, performance studies—invest in creating reference material that becomes indispensable in your niche.

Test voice search, hybrid formats, and AI ranking experiments. Voice search queries are even more conversational than typed ones. Optimise for how people actually speak. Test different content formats and track which ones get cited more often.

AI search is still the wild west. Experiment, measure, and adapt quickly.

The Bottom Line on LLM SEO

Traditional SEO isn’t dead, but it’s no longer enough.

The brands that win in the next era of search are the ones building authority, creating citable content, and making themselves impossible for AI models to ignore.

This isn’t about gaming algorithms. It’s about becoming the definitive source in your domain—clear, authoritative, and consistently valuable.

Start with the fundamentals: answer-first content, strong entity signals, technical optimisation, and original research. Then layer in AI-specific tactics like monitoring citations and optimising for conversational queries.

The opportunity is massive. Most brands are still figuring out what LLM SEO even means. You can build visibility now whilst the competition is asleep.