AI SEO: What Changes Compared to Traditional SEO

Blog · AI SEO

AI SEO is mainly about preparing your content so that AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can find your business, understand it and mention it in their answers. The foundation is still traditional SEO: crawlability, indexing and useful content. What changes is the goal and how you measure it. Ranking first in a list of links matters less than whether your brand appears in the answer, is cited as a source and is described correctly. The second meaning, doing SEO with the help of AI tools, is a way of working rather than a channel of its own.

In brief

AI SEO is first and foremost about being mentioned and cited in AI answers, not just ranking well.
Google says its AI features need no special optimisation; solid SEO is the entry ticket.
Evidence, clear structure, freshness and mentions on other websites carry more weight.
Success is measured differently: share of mentions, citations and accuracy alongside clicks and rankings.

Published 25 Sep 2026Nikolai Schöbel and Jeremias Burger9 min read

Nikolai Schöbel and Jeremias Burger

Co-founders of Scalableloops GmbH. Nikolai Schöbel leads online marketing and AI strategy, Jeremias Burger the AI architecture. Both build AI systems and train teams on them in their own agency work.

On this page

What is AI SEO?
Why is traditional SEO no longer enough on its own?
How does AI SEO differ from traditional SEO?
Do Google's AI Overviews need special optimisation?
Which measures get your content into AI answers?
How do AI tools help with search engine optimisation?
How do you measure AI SEO success?
Frequently asked questions
How to get started with AI SEO
Where the information on this page comes from

Definition

What is AI SEO?

The term is used in two ways, and mixing them up often costs the first half hour of a meeting. First: SEO for AI search. This covers everything that makes AI systems fetch your website, treat your content as reliable and name your business in their answers. You will also see it called generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO) or LLMO. We explain how these labels differ in our article on GEO, AEO and LLMO.

Second: SEO with AI tools. Here the goal stays the same as ever, good positions in traditional search. AI simply helps with the work, for example keyword research, outlines, meta descriptions or analysing large data sets.

This article covers both, with the focus on the first. That is where the definition of success and the content you need actually change.

The shift

Why is traditional SEO no longer enough on its own?

Traditional SEO follows a simple path: someone searches, sees a list of results, clicks and lands on your website. AI systems shorten that path. They read several sources, summarise them and deliver a finished answer. If you are not part of that answer, you are not seen for that question, even if your page ranks well in the links below it.

A representative Bitkom survey from November 2025 shows how far behaviour has already moved in Germany: half of internet users there at least sometimes chat with an AI instead of using a classic search engine. In the same survey, 42 per cent of those who use AI for search say they have received false or made-up information. Both matter for businesses: demand is moving, and what an AI says about you is not automatically correct.

Click behaviour is changing on Google itself, too. Pew Research Center analysed the browsing data of 900 US adults: when an AI summary appeared, users clicked a traditional search result in only 8 per cent of visits, compared with 15 per cent when there was no summary. They clicked a link inside the summary in about 1 per cent of visits.

None of this makes SEO worthless. It means the familiar metrics now capture only part of the effect. In our white paper “Visibility in AI Systems” we put it this way: being mentioned in credible sources becomes the new currency, because in many cases the click never happens. How Google builds its AI summaries is covered in our article on Google AI Overviews.

50 %

of internet users in Germany at least sometimes use an AI chat instead of a classic search engine.

Bitkom, November 2025

Comparison

How does AI SEO differ from traditional SEO?

Much of the underlying technology is the same. What differs is the question you ask yourself and how you measure the result. The table sums up the shifts we describe in our white paper and see in our audits.

Aspect	Traditional SEO	AI SEO
Goal	A high position in the results and the click to the website	Being named in the AI answer, cited as a source and described correctly
Query	Short keywords with measurable search volume	Full sentences and questions with context, often without comparable volume
Unit of content	A page optimised for one keyword	A section that answers one question on its own
Authority	Backlinks to your own domain	Mentions and confirmation on other credible websites
Evidence	Helpful for trust	Figures, quotes and cited sources used deliberately
Technology	Crawlability for Googlebot, speed, indexing	Also access for AI search crawlers and content readable without JavaScript
Success metric	Ranking, click-through rate, organic traffic	Share of mentions, citations, sentiment, accuracy, branded search
Measurement	Search Console, rank trackers	Repeated queries across several AI systems, because answers vary

Google

Do Google's AI Overviews need special optimisation?

Google explicitly says no. Its documentation for site owners states that there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no other special optimisations are necessary. A page has to be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.

Just as clearly, Google says you do not need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org markup for these features. That includes the much-discussed llms.txt file. What it can and cannot do is covered in our article on llms.txt.

A common misunderstanding concerns robots.txt. The Google-Extended control decides whether content may be used to train Gemini models. According to Google, it affects neither inclusion in Google Search nor ranking. Blocking Google-Extended therefore does not remove you from AI Overviews; blocking Googlebot removes you from Search altogether.

For Google, good SEO is the entry ticket. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude add crawlers of their own that you should know about. The specifics of ChatGPT search are covered in our article on ChatGPT SEO.

Actions

Which measures get your content into AI answers?

From our GEO audit and the research literature we derive six areas of work. The order is deliberate: without the first two, the rest has little effect.

01
01
Allow access
Check whether the search crawlers of AI services may fetch your site, for example OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search. According to OpenAI, sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers. Training crawlers such as GPTBot can be controlled separately. Watch out for firewalls and hosting protection as well: in one of our audits, the web application firewall of a mid-sized manufacturer blocked every AI crawler we tested, even though robots.txt did not exclude them.
02
02
Make content readable without detours
Key statements such as services, prices, contacts and core messages belong in the HTML the server delivers. Content that only loads through JavaScript is invisible to some crawlers. Fetching the page without a browser quickly shows what actually arrives.
03
03
Lead with the answer
Answer the core question of each section in the first one or two sentences, then add explanation and detail. Phrase subheadings as the questions your customers really ask, and write sections that make sense on their own.
04
04
Work with evidence
Specific figures with a source, direct quotes from experts and links to recognised sources make content easier for AI systems to use. The research paper “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization”, presented at KDD 2024, found that such optimisations can boost visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40 per cent. That is a maximum for individual methods, not an average.
05
05
Structure and structured data
Tables in real HTML, numbered steps, a visible FAQ block and clear headings help AI systems break your content down. We recommend structured data such as Organization, Article, Product and FAQPage as a clean foundation, always matching the visible content. It is no magic fix; as noted above, Google requires no special markup for its AI features.
06
06
Mentions beyond your own website
AI systems check statements against other sources. Trade articles, business directories, review platforms, association pages and press coverage confirm what your business stands for. Keep your company name, address and description of services consistent everywhere so AI systems attribute every mention to the same business.

Tools

How do AI tools help with search engine optimisation?

The second meaning of AI SEO concerns your own work. AI tools speed up a lot: collecting topics and questions, outlining content, drafting meta descriptions, sorting long crawl lists or grouping queries by intent. For recurring tasks the time saved is noticeable.

The limits are just as clear. A language model can invent facts, distort statements about your business or produce text that sounds interchangeable. For AI SEO that is a contradiction: you want AI systems to trust you as a reliable source, and that takes verified statements, first-hand experience and traceable evidence. Our rule is simple: AI delivers drafts and suggestions, a person checks the facts and signs off.

Our AI training shows your team how to use AI tools in marketing safely and effectively, tailored to the tasks in your business.

Measurement

How do you measure AI SEO success?

An AI answer has no position in the traditional sense. That is why our AI visibility analysis uses different metrics: how often is your brand named for relevant questions compared with competitors? Are you merely mentioned or cited as a source? In what tone and at what point in a list of recommendations do you appear? And are the statements an AI makes about your products correct?

To find out, we put realistic questions from your target group to several AI systems, from general information needs to choosing a specific supplier. Because AI answers vary from one query to the next, we repeat the same questions before drawing any conclusion. We also track signals outside AI, such as searches for your brand name and direct enquiries by phone or email.

How to start measuring yourself and which tools help is explained in our article on how to measure AI visibility. A full analysis including a competitor comparison is available from our GEO agency.

Frequently asked questions

Is AI SEO the same as GEO?

When it means optimising for AI answers, the two terms mean largely the same thing: preparing content so that generative AI systems find, understand and name it. AI SEO is also used for applying AI tools to traditional search engine optimisation.

Does AI SEO replace traditional SEO?

No. Crawlability, indexing, fast pages and useful content remain the foundation. Google explicitly lists no additional requirements for its AI features beyond good SEO. AI SEO widens the view to include evidence, structure, mentions on other websites and new metrics.

Do I need an llms.txt file for AI SEO?

Not for Google's AI features: Google says no AI text files or new machine-readable files are needed. Whether the file is still worthwhile in your case depends on what you want it for. Our llms.txt article covers the details.

Should I block AI crawlers in robots.txt?

Distinguish between training and search. Crawlers that fetch pages for an AI service's search feature, such as OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT, should stay open if you want to be visible there. Training crawlers such as GPTBot, or the Google-Extended control, can be managed separately.

Does structured data help with AI SEO?

Structured data such as Organization, Article or FAQPage is a clean foundation that helps machines identify your business and your content without ambiguity. Google does not require special markup for its AI features, though. What matters is that the markup matches the visible content.

How quickly does AI SEO work?

Technical fixes such as opening up robots.txt take effect once crawlers fetch the page again. Content changes and mentions on other websites take longer. Nobody can seriously promise a fixed timeline or guaranteed mentions, because the providers do not disclose how they select sources.

What now

How to get started with AI SEO

01
Check access
Open your robots.txt and ask your host whether a firewall or bot protection blocks the search crawlers of AI services.
02
Collect questions
Write down ten questions customers ask before buying or getting in touch, and check what ChatGPT, Gemini and Google answer.
03
Revise your key pages
On your most important pages, put the answer first and add figures with sources, tables and a visible FAQ block.
04
Plan your outside presence
Decide on which trade portals, directories and media your business should be mentioned, and keep your company details consistent everywhere.

AI SEO does not require a new craft, but a new perspective: what counts is not only your website but everything the web says about your business, and what an AI makes of it.