Google isn’t the only place people search anymore.
ChatGPT answers direct questions. Perplexity cites sources. Gemini summarizes articles. Claude picks the ones that have clean, direct answers in them.
So the question people are asking us: do we need two different content strategies now?
Short answer, no.
Long answer, your content needs a few small tweaks so it works in both places. Not a rewrite. Just a shift in how you structure the answer.
The real answer first
Most of what makes a page rank on Google also makes it quotable in AI answers. If you got the SEO basics right, you’re already most of the way there.
What’s actually new is this: AI assistants don’t read your whole page. They scan for the one paragraph that answers the user’s question clearly, and they pull it. Sometimes they credit you. Sometimes they don’t.
If your answer is buried in a 400-word intro, they skip you.
If your answer is in the first paragraph after the H2, you get picked.
That’s basically the whole game.
What’s the same
Both Google and AI search care about:
- A clear topic. One page, one subject.
- Clean structure. H1, H2s, short paragraphs.
- Real information. Not restated fluff.
- Signals that you know what you’re talking about. Author, source, dates, references.
- Fast, mobile-friendly pages.
If any of this is weak, fix it first. AI search optimization doesn’t help a page that Google already struggles with.
What’s different
A few things change when you optimize for AI search specifically.
Short, direct answers near the top. Not after a 3-paragraph warm-up. The AI picks the first clean answer it finds.
Question-style H2s. “What is the best CRM for small business?” works better than “Choosing a CRM.” AIs match headings to user queries.
Numbers and specifics. AI assistants love concrete answers. “5 ways to…” or “costs between $20 and $50” gets picked over “there are many ways” or “pricing varies.”
Lists and tables. They’re easy for an AI to parse and quote.
Clear attribution. Author name, date, credentials. The AI uses these to decide if your page is trustworthy enough to cite.
The 5 things to actually do
If you’re writing a new blog post this week, do these 5 things:
- Put a direct 2-sentence answer right under your H1 or first H2. Treat it like the TL;DR. Don’t be clever, just answer.
- Make your H2s match real questions. Pull them from Google’s “People Also Ask” or AnswerThePublic. Use them as section headings exactly.
- Add one list or table per 500 words. Lists get quoted. Walls of text get skipped.
- Name a few specific things. Tool names, prices, timeframes, example brands. Vague content doesn’t get cited.
- Add an author line and a date. AI assistants weigh these.
That’s it. These changes take about 20 extra minutes per post, and they help on Google too.
One quick test
After you publish, ask ChatGPT or Perplexity a question your post answers. See if it quotes you.
If it quotes someone else, read their page. Check which of the 5 things above they did and you didn’t.
Then fix it.
Where this is heading
AI search isn’t replacing Google yet. But it’s eating into questions-based search. “What’s the best SMS provider for Shopify?” used to send someone to Google, then to a blog. Now people just ask ChatGPT and read the answer in one screen.
If your blog isn’t the one being quoted, you’re not in the conversation at all.
Still worth running SEO. Still worth writing long guides. Just structure them so an AI can lift the useful parts without rewriting them.
