Optimization of Websites for AI: How to Adjust the Content and Technical Aspects of Your Website?

Optimization of Websites for AI: How to Adjust the Content and Technical Aspects of Your Website?

In the previous article Website Optimization for AI: How to Be Visible and Cited by AI Tools? we explained why AI optimization is the new pillar of online visibility and why "classic" SEO is no longer sufficient. You discovered that tools like Google Gemini or ChatGPT are changing the rules of the game, and in the era of "zero-click" searches, it is crucial for you and your brand to be an authority that AI cites. 

11 min read

• Veronika Verešová
• 7.8.2025

• SEO
• Artificial Intelligence
• Interesting Facts

In this article, we will move from theory to practical advice and answer a few important questions: 

1. What content should I create so that AI sees and cites me in its responses? 

2. How should I technically prepare my website so that AI can correctly read and cite it?

3. And what new metrics should I track and tools should I use for AI optimization?

Let's get started. 

1. Content Creation: What content should I create so that AI sees and cites me in its responses?

AI systems prefer content that meets several key principles. The first of these is the standard framework you are already familiar with from classic SEO. We are talking about quality and trustworthy content. And since AI is based on the same principles, this is something you should always keep in mind.

Studies even confirm that content modifications to increase authority can improve placement in generative search results by up to 89%, while modifications focused on trustworthiness can lead to an improvement by up to 134%. ¹

Build Quality, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)

E-E-A-T principles (experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness) from Google are key not only for traditional search engines but also for AI systems. ²

How to do it?

• Publish expert content: Avoid content where you don't delve into the depth of the problem. Instead, create content that showcases your expertise. 
• Make authors visible: Include detailed author biographies with links to authoritative profiles (e.g., LinkedIn), increasing transparency and trustworthiness.
• Cite reputable sources: Support your claims with links to reputable external sources and studies, strengthening the factual accuracy and trustworthiness of the information.
• Build domain reputation: Keep your content thematically relevant and build a strong domain reputation. You can achieve this through quality link building, i.e., gaining mentions and backlinks from diverse and trustworthy sources. If you're interested in the topic of link building, our previous article contains interesting tips on how to do quality and effective link building. 

Write in an "inverted pyramid" style

Since AI tools strive to provide immediate and relevant answers to questions, they need to quickly extract key information from your content. The most important facts should be used right at the beginning. 

• Use the "inverted pyramid": Present the most important information first, ideally in the first 1-2 lines or in the first paragraph.³
• Simple language: Write with clarity, favoring simple language over industry jargon, so your content is accessible to both AI and people. 
• Anticipate questions: AI tool users ask questions. Therefore, address them too - create FAQ sections, comparison tables, or "What is..." sections.⁴ 

Structured content and formatting for AI

You can make it easier for AI models to quickly read your content through well-structured content. 

• Hierarchical headings: Use correct hierarchical heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to create a logical overview.
• Short paragraphs and lists: Break the text into short paragraphs and frequently use bullet points and numbered lists to make the content scannable and easily extractable.
• FAQ sections: We've already mentioned above - FAQ sections are great for answering common questions users may have.
• "Ranch-Style" content: Consider an approach that includes short, targeted content blocks. Such "snacks" provide direct answers, making it significantly easier for AI to analyze and extract information.

Semantic keywords and long-tail phrases

While SEO optimization relies on keywords, AI optimization favors semantic understanding and context.

• Address user intent: Focus on creating content that thoroughly addresses user intent and comprehensively covers topics.
• Target long-tail keywords: Target long keywords in the form of specific questions. These phrases mimic the way users communicate with chatbots and are more likely to appear in AI responses.

Use visual and multimedia elements

Don't forget about multimedia elements, such as images, videos, or audio. For example, Google AI Overviews use multimodal models that understand not only text but also other content. 

• Include relevant visuals: Use relevant infographics, images, charts, and embedded YouTube videos.
• Optimize multimedia: Ensure correct alternative texts for images and accurate captions/transcripts for multimedia.

That's all about the content you should create so that AI finds and cites you in its responses. But remember, even the best-optimized content will be meaningless if AI tools cannot access it.

And that's exactly the question we'll answer below - How to technically ensure the web so that AI bots can access your content?

2. Technical Website Optimization: How should I technically prepare my website so that AI can correctly read and cite it?

If AI bots cannot access your content, it's as if it doesn't exist. Therefore, technical website optimization for AI is absolutely crucial. Let's look at the main pillars you need to have in place.

Schema Markup and Structured Data

Schema markup is like a translator that speaks the language of search engines and AI. It is a form of structured data that helps these systems understand the content of your website. These data provide them with additional context, telling them what is on your page – whether it's reviews, product details, recipes, or articles.

How to do it?

Implement relevant types of schema, such as: Organization, Product, FAQPage, Article, HowTo, Review, LocalBusiness, Event, Recipe, or Legislation.

Basic Types of Schema for AI Optimization

Crawlability and Indexability for AI Bots

Your website must be publicly accessible and indexable to even appear in AI citations.

• Robots.txt: This file acts as a gatekeeper, telling bots where they can and cannot go. Use it to allow specific AI user-agents (e.g., User-agent: GPTBot, User-agent: CCBot) to crawl the content. ⁵
• LLMs.txt: This text file is specifically created for AI tools and LLM to help them better understand web pages. Unlike robots.txt or sitemap.xml, which are intended for search engine bots, llms.txt is intended for AI.

Page Speed and Mobile Optimization

Page loading speed and mobile optimization are critical for visibility in AI search. AI systems often have a very limited time, approximately 1 - 5 seconds, to retrieve content. If your website is slow, AI may simply skip it.

How to do it?

Optimize images, use caching, and minimize reliance on JavaScript content. And make sure your website is responsive and displays correctly on various devices.

Web Content Accessibility (WCAG)

Compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is important not only for people but also for AI. It ensures that content is robustly structured and machine-readable.

How to do it?

Use correct HTML5 tags for headings, lists, links, tables, and multimedia with captions and transcripts. Follow WCAG 2.2 principles, such as perceivability, operability, understandability, and robustness. This will help AI process and understand your content while also complying with new accessibility rules that came into effect on June 28, 2025. In our previous article, you will find 10 most common mistakes that are not in compliance with accessibility.

Custom Meta Tags for AI

In addition to standard SEO meta tags, such as meta title and meta description, you can use custom meta tags to enrich indexing and filtering of content by AI systems.

How to do it?

These meta tags can be used to mark relevant pages or to insert instructions for AI. They can then be used to filter or enhance AI search results.

After proper content optimization and technical aspects of the website, you certainly expect to be included in AI model responses and citations. But how do you know that your work on AI optimization is yielding results? Read on. 

3. Measuring Success and Monitoring AI Visibility: What new metrics should be tracked and tools used for AI optimization?

While in SEO success was primarily measured by placement in organic search results and click-through rate, in the case of AI search the focus shifts to whether your brand is cited and included in conversations generated by AI. 

So how do you know if your AI optimization is successful?

What metrics should be tracked? 

• Brand mentions in AI summaries: Track how often your brand appears in AI-generated summaries.
• Visibility in conversational results: Monitor how often your content appears in AI conversational responses.
• Qualified clicks: Focus on the quality of clicks coming from AI Overviews. These users are often highly qualified and ready to act.

To monitor these metrics, you can also track referral traffic from chatbots (e.g., chat.openai.com, gemini.google.com) in tools like Google Analytics 4 or conduct regular testing to see if AI cites your brand.⁶

What are the key tools for tracking success in GEO?

SE Ranking: This tool is a pioneer in GEO. It allows you to track how your brand appears in AI responses, monitor competition, and even estimate how much traffic AI Overviews can bring you. It is a comprehensive platform that combines classic SEO with new GEO

OmniSEO: Offers a dual approach – a combination of its own AI platform for tracking and also support from a team of experts. It's not just a tool, but a complete service that helps you build a completely new GEO strategy. It focuses on diversifying traffic sources and accelerating revenue.

SurferSEO: Provides daily visibility reports in Google, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Helps optimize content so that AI models can find it more easily – identifies gaps, adds context, and fine-tunes content for better visibility. Its features also include automatic internal link insertion and content generation using AI.

Alli AI: Intelligently suggests internal links, improving page crawling by bots and increasing their authority. It also automatically generates relevant schema markup, which helps display rich results in search (so-called "rich snippets") and increases click-through rate (CTR). Essentially, it saves you hundreds of hours of manual work.

Ahrefs: The AI Content Detector tool can detect the percentage of AI-generated content on a URL. In domain overview, it shows AI citation metrics, which is ideal for research and trend analysis.

Final Recommendations

Congratulations - you have just completed the journey from AI optimization theory to practical tips. We hope you have a clearer idea of why it is crucial to adapt your strategy to the new era of digital marketing.

Classic SEO and AI optimization go hand in hand. Your task is to build on solid SEO foundations and complement them with specific strategies that ensure your content is relevant, understandable, and trustworthy for AI.

In conclusion, remember these key recommendations:

• Content Creation: Always prioritize quality, authority, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Write in an "inverted pyramid" style and anticipate questions your customers might ask.
• Structure and Technique: Ensure your website is technically prepared. Use structured data, correct HTML tags, and optimize the website for speed and mobile devices.
• Measurement and Monitoring: Don't settle for traditional metrics. Track how your brand performs in the AI era through brand mentions, visibility in conversational results, and qualified clicks. Use specialized tools that provide you with precise data.

Remember, AI optimization is not just a temporary trend, but a new key strategy in the digital environment. Be prepared and leverage its potential to your advantage today. 

Sources: 

1. How Does SGE Affect SEO? (And How to Counter AI Overviews), accessed July 21, 2025, https://www.seo.com/blog/how-does-sge-affect-seo/
2. Best Practices To Optimize Your Website For Google's SGE - Blue Compass, accessed July 21, 2025, https://www.bluecompass.com/blog/best-practices-to-optimize-your-website-for-googles-sge
3. Optimizing Content for AI Overviews: 7 Best Practices - The HOTH, accessed July 21, 2025, https://www.thehoth.com/blog/optimizing-for-ai-overviews/
4. How to Rank in AI Search: Boost Visibility on ChatGPT & Perplexity - Hearst Bay Area, accessed July 21, 2025, https://marketing.sfgate.com/blog/how-to-rank-in-ai-search-boost-visibility
5. How to Get Your Website Cited in AI LLMs | Studio 36 Digital, accessed July 21, 2025, https://studio36digital.co.uk/how-to-get-your-website-cited-in-ai-llms/
6. 5 Ways to Boost Brand Visibility in AI Search Results - Firebrand Communications, accessed July 21, 2025, https://www.firebrand.marketing/2025/05/5-ways-to-boost-brand-visibility-in-ai-search-results/