It’s no secret that AI has completely changed the game when it comes to what information you are being served, and because of this, ranking in AI search has become a crucial part of making sure your content is reaching your audience.
With the rise of AI, relying solely on common SEO strategies simply isn’t enough to reach your maximum marketing capacity. Ranking on Google will bring some engagement to your content, but with the implementation of AI Overviews on not only this search engine, but on countless more, you won't be getting the visibility that you would have in the past. The choices AI is making about what content to serve you is now taking over traditional search engines as well.
By choosing to adapt now through the use of these strategies, you can go beyond common techniques, like the use of keywords, and tailor your content so that it’s favoured by AI, ensuring that it stands out in a crowded climate of information.
If you are looking to learn the best ways to optimize your content so that AI will serve it to as many people as possible, you have come to the right place.
1. Learn How AI Search Algorithms Work
When it comes to ranking in AI search, Answer Engine Optimisation, or AEO, is going to be your main goal, and to do this you need to understand how search algorithms function.
There are two types of data that AI uses to generate answers:
1. Training data - information that has been fed to the AI search engine to train it
2. Internet data - information that is picked up from internet content
Typically, both of these data types will show up when AI is presenting you with a response. The majority of popular AI search engines are going to pull data from either Google or Bing.
Since AI search engines are tailored to meet the specific needs of the individual asking the question, it becomes incredibly customisable; so, to prompt AI to refer to your content it is important to remember that in-depth content is best. If you explain yourself well and include a breadth of reasoning behind each key point, you are more likely to respond to more specific questions that are being asked of AI, meaning it is more likely to pull from your internet data.
2. Format Content Effectively
The way that you structure your content can have a great effect on how you rank, and there are various strategies that you can use to optimize it simply through formatting. Many of these formatting tips are useful not only for AEO, but for SEO as well, and ranking well on general search engines, as I will discuss later, is an important part of being recognised by AI:
1. Use informative headings - this will allow for not only people, but AI to recognise exactly what it is that you will be discussing, improving your chances of being featured.
2. Use lists, bullet points and tables - formatting your content into easy-to-understand chunks like this means your content is already presented in a way that AI can use for ‘how-to’ or short answers.
3. Give succinct and straightforward answers - AI is going to be looking immediately for information that it can use, so presenting your content in a way that is not convoluted, and repeating the question in your response are good ways to make sure the actual information is what stands out.
3. Make your Content Easily Accessible
It is critical that your content is easily accessible not only for AI, but for humans too. Even if it might feel like you are trying to target AI search engines with your content more than you are people, you need to remember that reaching real people is the end goal, and AI is the tool through which you are going to do that.
AI is programmed to present you with the information best suited to your question, meaning that content that is both concise and easy to understand for humans is most likely to be served to you. Since AI is constantly taking in new information, you must update your content to reflect current climates so that it remains relevant for people today, and is therefore desirable to AI search engines.
Using a conversational tone or phrase can also help with AEO, because with the personalized nature of AI question and response, writing in the conversational way in which AI is likely to answer makes your content desirable to the search engine.
Instead of relying on the use of keywords, like you would for SEO, focus on your style of communication. Does it feel like your content would suit an interactive, personalised search environment?
4. Don’t Ignore SEO
While SEO may seem like it’s rapidly diminishing in importance, in reality, the similarity between AI Overviews and responses and high ranking content on traditional search engines, especially Google and Bing, is extremely prominent.
If you have already been a long-time prioritiser of SEO techniques, this has likely worked well in your favour when it comes to AEO; many AI search engines are trained using content that has ranked well on traditional search engines in the past, meaning it’s likely your content is already a part of the AI knowledge base.
Making your content easily crawlable can be an advantage of SEO. Ensuring that your content has wide-spread distribution, for example, through the use of a CDN; optimising your content for mobile devices and making your content a secure source, are some of the various SEO methods that can prove effective in targeting AI search engines.
5. Develop Yourself as a Trustworthy Source
The AI algorithm is looking to serve you what you want to see, so AI search engines commonly pull data from sources that have developed an authority with humans, so that the answers you are being provided are more likely to be credible and accurate.
Authority is a key feature measured by AI search engines when it crawls your content. The best way to establish authority is through developing a strong internet presence where you present yourself as an expert in your field and a trustworthy source. How AI search engines measure the EEAT principles in relation to your content will greatly impact how you rank.
To increase your authority it is important to:
1. Be backlinked by other sources
2. Have a strong social media presence
3. Disclose who is producing your content and why they are qualified
4. Regularly publish detailed content
By doing these things you can establish yourself as a dependable source not only for people, but for AI search engines when data is being collected.
6. Build a Presence on Third Party Sites
Being mentioned on third party sites is not only a method of developing authority, but it is also a critical component of AEO. When your content is being referenced by others, that is doing more than establishing you as a trustworthy source, it is also populating the increasingly crowded digital space with mentions of your content.
Being mentioned on as many different sites and platforms as possible means that AI search engine crawlers are going to be continuously exposed to your content, and are then more inclined to use and serve that data in responses.
If you’re selling a product or providing a service, appearing in a ‘best of’ list is a great way to get noticed. Regardless of what your content is about, making sure it is of the best possible quality is imperative to getting referenced by others.
7. Create Top Quality Content
I’m sure that by now it has become very clear: the quality of your content is crucial to ranking in AI search.
Though it may be tempting to have AI create the entirety of your content for you, this is not conducive to ranking well on AI search engines. Taking the time to produce quality content by researching, collecting a wide breadth of data, adding personal advice or anecdotes and formatting in a logical way, will give you the edge over recycled AI generated content.
Since AI search engines act as a collector and redistributor of data to fit specific inquiries, researching and editing are two critical steps that cannot be skipped. Once you have a proper foundation of content, you will be able to measure how it is performing, and adjust further content accordingly. Once your content reaches top quality standard, the likelihood that it will be used by AI increases.
Creating top quality content consistently is no easy feat, which is why it could be valuable for you to partner with a B2B podcast agency to ensure that you are producing the best possible content on a regular basis. Through the use of a podcast system that turns just one episode into a variety of content ranging from blog posts, videos snippets, social media posts and more, the agency handles the entire process of generating further marketing assets for you, meaning no extra strain on you or your business, and your content always remains first-rate.
8. Optimise for Featured Snippets
One of the biggest changes that has come with the growing presence of AI is AI Overviews, or Featured Snippets, showing up on the first page of general search engines. This has led to a rapid increase in zero-click searches, making it a major advantage for you if your content shows up here.
The schema types most likely to show up in featured snippets are articles, which are used to generate summaries; how-to guides, which can be generated into step by step responses; and frequently asked question pages, which can be directly repurposed by AI as concise responses.
When you consistently become referenced by AI Overviews, this increases your authority in the eyes of AI search engines, which allows for your content to rank.
9. Diversify Content Media
Another way to rank, other than depending on boosting credibility through snippets, is to try to combat zero-click searches, and a key way to do this is through diversifying the ways in which you present your content.
Creating content assets, like Youtube videos, infographics, images and graphs, rather than relying exclusively on conveying information through writing means that instead of taking your information and repurposing it, AI search engines will instead present the inquirer with your specific content assets, helping you to rank.
Presenting information in a way that is original, visual and easy to understand, has proved to be extremely effective, with Youtube citations on Featured Snippets increasing more than 300%.
10. Encourage Content Engagement and Reviews
The level of engagement that your content is bringing into your site is something AI search engine crawlers are going to be looking for. A high degree of interaction coming from your audience is a positive indicator that what you are producing is something that people want to see. This makes your content valuable to the AI search engine.
Evaluating the amount of user activity can mean measuring how long people are spending on your site, which content is getting the most clicks, and how often people are interacting directly through things like comments and reviews.
By encouraging your audience to respond to your content, you will see not only what is garnering the most interest, but you can also gauge what people would like to see you do differently. By catering to your audience and fulfilling their needs, your content becomes useful, which is something crawlers will pick up on.
11. Focus on Getting your Content to Rank Right Out of the Gate
Though this may seem easier said than done, ensuring that you are utilising the strategies that you have just learned as early as you can is going to be critical to the continued optimisation of your content. Once your content starts to rank highly, and you have therefore become a recognised source, your content is going to continue to be favoured by AI engines.The ripple effect that occurs when your content is consistently being referred to by AI search engines because it is ranking, will allow for it to continue to rank, meaning the content you produce later on will be influenced by your early success.
Conclusion
As we’ve been shown over and over again, AI search engines are truly the future when it comes to reaching the widest possible audience, and ranking through AEO is the best way to do it. By using these strategies to your advantage, you can set your content above the rest.
Adapting to changing technology may seem like no easy feat, but like I said before, the faster you adjust, the better results you will see long term.
So, do you have any other tips that have helped you rank in AI search? If you’ve found something that works well for you, let me know!
Written by Eva Geimer
-
Jony Studios is a content marketing agency specializing in B2B podcasting and audiobook services. They have worked with many clients, from startups to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio, and many others.
