@tjrobertson52

All search is becoming AI search. It doesn't matter if you're searching on ChatGPT or Google, within a few months, all search results are gonna be generated and curated by AI. So let's talk about how SEO is changing as a result.

What are the biggest differences between ranking in traditional search and ranking in AI search? And how can you use that information to get recommended more often by AI search? Well, the first thing to understand is that in AI search, ranking is actually the easy part.

Traditional search is very competitive, and that's because humans only look at a few pages before making a decision. AI, on the other hand, might consider hundreds of pages. So as long as the title of your page and the content on that page is somewhat relevant for the topic you're trying to rank for, and you have some minimum amount of authority on your website, you're probably going to be in that result set.

The hard part in AI search is actually being cited. While AI is going to consider hundreds of pages, it's really only going to cite a few of those pages. So the question is, what is AI looking for when determining which pages to cite?

Well, ultimately, it's looking for an answer it can trust based on the user's prompt. The AI has one or more questions it's trying to answer, and it's looking for a direct, straightforward answer from a trustworthy source back by research If possible. So first and foremost, you must just very clearly answer the question.

And keep in mind, when AI is citing your page, it's not citing the entire page. It's citing a section of it, a chunk. And the most common chunk for it to cite is the one right at the top of the article.

And so that's why, in the first two to three sentences right after the title of the article, you want to very clearly answer t

the top of the article. And so that's why, in the first two to three sentences right after the title of the article, you want to very clearly answer the main question posed by the title, and then continue doing this throughout the article, after each heading. The other place you want to do this is after any chart, table, or graph.

AI loves structured data like this. It's one of the main ways you build trust within the content, which we'll talk about more in a second. But immediately after presenting that data, you should summarize the key finding.

Now, before we talk about the trust piece, I want to give one caveat. The goal of AI search is ultimately not to be cited. The goal is that when a user goes to AI looking for a recommendation, that the AI recommends your brand, product, or service.

And for that to happen, the content that AI sites needs to recommend your brand, product, or service. And so, whenever possible, when you're answering the question in a way that AI is likely to site, you want to try to pose your brand, product, or service as the answer. To that question, recommend yourself.

But of course, the second part of being cited is trust. Now, based on what the AI already knows about your brand and website, you have a static level of trust. And that's going to be somewhat dependent on the topic.

If it's a question about your brand specifically, you're already the number one authority. For more competitive topics, you're going to have less authority. But outside that static measurement of trust, there are things you can do within the content to make AI trust it more, and that's primarily by providing supporting facts and data.

So in addition to the tables, charts, and graphs that I mentioned earlier, you should also be citing facts, figures, and statistics aft

acts and data. So in addition to the tables, charts, and graphs that I mentioned earlier, you should also be citing facts, figures, and statistics after each answer you provide in the article. So in the end, what does this look like?

Immediately after your title, you're directly answering the question two to three sentences, and then immediately providing one to three facts or statistics to back up that answer. And then you're repeating that after each subheading in the article, sprinkling in a few tables, charts, or graphs, and clearly explaining the key takeaways after each.