If app developers continue to fine-tune software for performance and other operational needs, SEO experts also continue to develop ways to match the constantly evolving search queries. Gone are the days when people only used a browser to type in or dictate their research queries. Their search behaviour has now included AI systems, requiring you to optimise your site and content accordingly.
How does AI search work?
AI search algorithms don’t just match keywords used in the search query to deliver results. They use advanced natural language processing to dig deep into what the content really means and whether they’re useful to a reader.
- Build content for contextual understanding. AI search engines give more value to content that closely matches the intent behind a search query, which gives emphasis on providing in-depth explanations instead of just tips or facts.
- Implement structured data and schema markup. You need both to help AI better interpret your site’s content and relevancy, and gauge whether it has a spot in knowledge panels or snippets.
- Provide concise and in-depth content. This circles back to the importance of contextual understanding for many AI search engines. A topic that is thoroughly explained, contains more clarity than fluff, and provides comprehensive answers to a search query will surely satisfy AI’s search algorithms.
How do you create content that’s friendly to both AI and humans?
It’s easy to think that AI search engines are more complex because of how they go beyond matching a keyword to a search query. But if you consider the why of its algorithm, you can see that it ultimately serves exactly what the readers or searchers need.
- Create content with user intent in mind. Data analysis remains your best friend for effective decision-making in SEO. Use data to understand the core of specific queries, the underlying need behind them.
- Integrate semantic keywords to help AI understand the context behind every site’s content. Combine related terms and phrases with the main keyword for clarity.
- Refresh old content for AI search. Make sure to add new information and updated material that generative AI can use.
- Stick with writing simple, readable content with complex topics broken down into short paragraphs. Lists and bullet points are still the best writing style to use.
Optimise your website for AI crawlers
Just like how Google crawlers need access to your site to crawl and rank its pages, AI crawlers need permission to do the same thing through the site’s robots.txt file.
- Make sure the robot file isn’t blocking any of the main AI crawlers, such as GPT Bot, Claude-Web, and PerplexityBot.
- Open the text file and see if any of these crawlers are set to disallow, then update the file.
Check if a Firewall Blocks AI crawlers
Some firewalls consider AI crawlers as suspicious, preventing them from going further. Because not all crawlers are legitimate, whitelist the legitimate ones.
- Check what level of access your firewall allows. Some firewalls block AI bots by default, requiring you to update the feature to allow AI site scraping.
- Depending on the security software, you may have three options: to block AI training bots on all pages, block only on hostnames, or allow full accessibility.
These are just a few things you can do to optimize your website for both humans and AI. By creating content that aligns with AI algorithms and allowing a machine to crawl and index your site, your website will be relevant and invisible in AI search engines. If you need to boost your digital process through mobile app development, Rocket Lab (Increaseo) is the company to rely on.
