The key points at a glance
- No magic: Google officially says it needs no special measures for its AI Overviews. Good, technically clean websites have the best chances.
- Clarity wins: AI systems cite pages that answer a question directly, factually and verifiably.
- Consistent company data: Name, location, services and prices should be identical everywhere and machine-readable.
How AI search engines build answers
ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Google’s AI Overview work in a similar way: they find web pages that match the question, read the most relevant sections and formulate an answer from them, often with source citations. Whoever appears as a source gets visits with high purchase intent, because the person has already refined their question.
It follows that to appear in an AI answer, your page must first be found, then be easy to read, and then answer the question better than others.
Good SEO remains the foundation
AI search engines rely on search indexes. What Google or Bing can’t find, no AI can cite either. So the fundamentals still apply: indexable pages, fast loading times, sensible titles and headings, content directly in the HTML rather than loaded later via JavaScript. Our free SEO check shows whether that’s the case for you.
One point deserves particular attention: check whether your robots.txt or your bot protection is blocking crawlers from AI providers. That may be intentional. If not, you’re giving away visibility.
Clear facts instead of marketing speak
“We are your innovative partner for holistic solutions” tells an AI nothing. “We build made-to-measure kitchens in the Bern area, from CHF 25,000, delivery time six to eight weeks” answers three questions at once. Here’s how to write for people and machines:
- Answer first: Start sections with the key statement, with details following afterwards.
- Concrete figures: Prices, service area, opening hours, delivery times, certificates.
- One page per service: A dedicated page for each main service beats a long list on a single page.
- Evidence: References, case studies and the names of real people behind the company build trust, even with machines.
- Consistent everywhere: Name, address and phone number identical on the website, in your Google Business Profile, on local.ch and on LinkedIn.
Structured data and FAQ
Structured data following Schema.org describes your company in a form machines can’t misunderstand:
| Type | What it’s for | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Organization / LocalBusiness | Name, logo, address, opening hours, contact | high |
| Service / Product | Services and products with prices | medium |
| FAQPage | Frequently asked questions with short, clear answers | medium |
| Article | Blog posts with author and date | medium |
An FAQ section pays off twice over: the questions reflect what customers really want to know, and the answers are exactly the short, quotable passages that AI search engines prefer.
And what about llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposal from 2024: a text file in the root directory that gives language models an overview of the most important content. Some technology companies already use it. As things stand, though, neither Google nor OpenAI confirm that their search products evaluate the file. Our recommendation: it can’t hurt, it’s quick to set up, but it replaces none of the measures above.
How to check your visibility
- Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google the three questions customers should use to find you. Note who gets mentioned.
- Check whether the details given about your company are correct. Wrong opening hours often come from outdated listings.
- Watch your analytics for visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or copilot.microsoft.com.
- Repeat the test every quarter. AI answers keep changing.
Ready for Google and AI search?
Start with the free SEO check: it also checks whether structured data is in place. For a strategy covering content and schema data, book a free initial consultation.
