How I build websites AI search engines recommend
AI search engines don’t rank pages — they cite sources. AI SEO (also called GEO and AEO) is the work of making your site the source they trust and quote. I build it into the website itself: clear entity, structured data, answer-first content, and a fast, crawlable foundation.
The method
Define the entity
Before a search engine can recommend you, it has to know exactly who you are. I set a single, consistent description across the site, add Person and Organization structured data with sameAs links, and make sure your brand reads as one clear entity — not a scatter of pages.
Write answer-first content
AI engines quote the sentence that answers the question. I lead each page with a direct, self-contained answer, then back it with specifics, structure it with clean headings and lists, and mark up FAQs and how-tos so the answer is easy to lift and cite.
Build a fast, crawlable foundation
If a page is slow or a bot can't read it, it never gets cited. I build on Next.js or hardened WordPress for speed, clean HTML and crawlability — and make sure the site is indexed everywhere that matters: Google, Bing (ChatGPT & Copilot) and Brave (Claude), not just Google.
Earn authority and citations
AI trusts what others corroborate. I shape the on-site signals — original, citable claims and data — and set up the off-site footprint (profiles, listings, mentions) so independent sources point back to the same entity, which is what turns a mention into a recommendation.
Common questions
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO is optimizing a website so AI search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Claude — understand it, trust it and cite it in their answers. It is also called generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO). Unlike classic SEO, the goal is being named in the answer, not just ranking a blue link.
How is AI SEO different from traditional SEO?
Traditional SEO competes for ranked positions on a results page. AI SEO competes to be the source an AI quotes. It leans harder on clear entity definition, structured data, answer-first content and being indexed across Google, Bing and Brave — because different AI engines pull from different indexes.
Which AI engines can a website be optimized for?
The main ones are ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot (which use the Bing index), Google AI Overviews and Gemini (Google index), Perplexity (its own hybrid index) and Claude (the Brave index). Being citable everywhere means being crawlable and indexed in all of them — a step most sites skip.
Do I need a new website to do AI SEO?
Not always. Existing sites can be retrofitted with structured data, answer-first content and a technical cleanup. But AI SEO works best when it is built in from the start, which is how I approach new builds — search visibility baked into the foundation rather than bolted on later.