How do you Optimise your Website for AI?

Search is changing. It’s no longer just about climbing Google’s rankings. Your website now has to be ready for AI-driven search assistants like ChatGPT, Google’s SGE, and Perplexity. These tools don’t just pull links; they read, understand, and quote your content directly. 

At DRPG, our digital team have been testing how AI platforms actually ‘read’ and surface website content, and the insights are changing the way we think about SEO altogether.

So, how do you make sure your site isn’t invisible in this new era? It comes down to blending traditional SEO best practice with optimisation for large language models (LLMs); this new form of optimisation confusingly has two names - Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), or AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). We’ve gone with GEO for this article, but they are synonymous. 

This article outlines the principles, tools and methodologies for optimisation in the new world. Follow these steps and you’ll be able to get your site not just found, but trusted and cited by both search engines and AI.

If this is all a little too daunting, or you simply don’t have the time, our digital team have developed a future-facing audit approach that gives you a clear roadmap for this optimisation journey, and guide you every step of the way.

SEO still rules the game

Before we get carried away with AI strategies, let’s be clear: strong SEO is still the foundation. 

AI search engines don’t magically discover content hidden on page five of Google. They’re trained on and retrieve from the same pool of sources that traditional search engines rank highly. In other words, your AI visibility still depends on your SEO health.

Think of it this way: why would an AI engine waste its energy and resources digging through low-ranked, poorly optimised pages when it can pull instant authority from sites already trusted at the top of search results? Wikipedia is a perfect example - it consistently ranks near the top of Google, and as a result, it’s one of the most frequently cited sources by AI platforms. Its strength in traditional search naturally makes it the go-to reference for AI engines too. 

That’s why ranking well in traditional search is step one to becoming AI-visible. A strong SEO foundation of fast site speed, clean structure, high-quality content, and authority signals - doesn’t just boost your clicks, it makes your site a credible candidate for AI engines to read, understand, and quote. 

At DRPG, we often find that once clients strengthen their core SEO, AI citations start appearing organically. A great indicator that search and GEO are working hand-in-hand.

In short: if you want to win in the future of search, you still need to win the traditional way. 

The principles of modern website optimisation

Whether you’re optimising for Google, Bing, or ChatGPT, the fundamentals overlap. Implementation of sound SEO and GEO best practices will inevitably bolster one another, and quality, useful content will always triumph.  

Here are the pillars to focus on: 

• Crawlability & Indexing 
  If search engines and AI crawlers can’t easily navigate your site, nothing else matters. We check the technical health of your site, sitemaps, robots.txt, broken links, speed, to make sure you’re visible. 

• Structured Data & Schema Markup 
  Schema isn’t optional anymore. It helps Google create rich results and gives AI context clues about what your content means, not just what it says. 

• Content Authority & Trust Signals 
  High-quality content with clear authorship, citations, and credibility signals (think: E-E-A-T) builds the authority both search engines and AI are looking for. 

• Clarity & Context 
  AI loves content that’s structured and easy to digest: headings, short paragraphs, Q&A formats, and clear definitions. 

• Coverage of High-Intent Queries 
  Map what your audience is actually searching (and asking AI tools) and make sure your site directly answers those questions. 

• Recency & Update Signals 
  Fresh content gets prioritised. Visible “last updated” markers, newsy posts, and consistent updates show both Google and AI that your information is current. 

• Multimedia Data Accessibility 
  Images, video, and audio need descriptive alt tags, transcripts, and markup to be understood by algorithms. 

• Interlinking & Semantic Structure 
  A smart internal linking structure shows how your content fits together, boosting both SEO and AI comprehension. 

• Outbound Signals & Citations 
  Linking out to credible sources builds trust - for your human audience and the algorithms deciding whether to trust you. 

• Competitor Benchmarking 
  We compare your presence against industry leaders and disruptors, spotting gaps where you can overtake them.

  
  

Top 10 hints & tricks (You’re probably not doing yet)

Even if you’ve nailed the basics of SEO, there are plenty of next-level tactics that can give you the edge in both traditional search and AI visibility. Here are ten that most brands still overlook: 

1. Add “Last Updated” Dates 
   Both AI and humans love knowing your content is current. Show readers (and crawlers) that your content is regularly maintained. 

2. Build FAQ Blocks Into Pages 
   Don’t just have a separate FAQ page - weave them through your content naturally.

3. Use Schema Beyond the Basics 
   Most stop at Article or Product schema. Layer in FAQPage, HowTo, Speakable, or VideoObject schema to give richer context. 

4. Write TL;DRs or Key Takeaways 
   Kick off long posts with a summary list or close with a quick recap - it’s like spoon-feeding snippets for AI engines. 

5. Optimise for “People Also Ask” Questions 
   Scan Google’s “People also ask” boxes and AnswerThePublic for natural-language queries, then answer them directly on your site. 

6. Create Multimedia with Accessibility in Mind 
   Add transcripts, descriptive alt text, and captions to videos and images. It’s good for accessibility - and makes your content machine-readable. 

7. Link Out to Credible Sources 
   Don’t be afraid to reference external authorities. Outbound links to trusted sites build your own trust signals with AI and search. 

8. Benchmark AI Citations 
   Test whether Bing Chat, Google’s SGE, or Perplexity are surfacing your content. If not, review how directly you’re answering the questions. 

9. Implement Model Context Protocol (MCP) (experimental but emerging) 
   An ai.json file can map your site for AI crawlers - think of it as “schema for LLMs.” Getting ahead here could future-proof your visibility. 

10. Don’t Block AI Crawlers 
    Check your robots.txt. If GPTBot or Bing’s AI crawler are blocked, your site might be invisible to next-gen search engines. 

Where risks can creep in:

Over-Optimisation: If you over-optimise for AI by cramming in Q&As or TL;DRs at the expense of natural user experience, your content may look thin or forced and negatively impact your SEO. Don’t be heavy-handed; as a rule of thumb, if it’s good for a human, it’s good for search.

Misconfiguration: tweaking robots.txt to be optimised for AI could unintentionally add restrictions to Google or Bing crawlers; do this carefully. 

Getting Model Context Protocol wrong: MCP development is arguably the most progressive tactic in GEO practices that will no doubt be a future direction. However, it is complicated and can cause duplication or confusion to leading SEO crawlers. It needs to be thoroughly tested before implementation and monitored heavily in the early stages. 

If this all sounds a bit too technical, don’t worry - that’s exactly where working with digital partners, like us, can make a real difference.

Our Audit approach

To start your journey into the world of GEO, we would strongly suggest an extensive audit of your website performance. This lays the foundations so you know what needs to be improved and generates a roadmap of updates and enhancements that can be introduced over time.  

Our Website + AI Audit blends classic SEO with emerging GEO methodology. We’d love to perform this for you, but if you want to take a crack yourself, make sure you cover the following: 

1. Run a deep crawl to check technical health. 

2. Analyse schema, structured data, and indexing signals. 

3. Audit your content authority, clarity, and trust markers. 

4. Map high-intent queries and compare with competitor coverage. 

5. Check freshness signals and multimedia accessibility. 

6. Review interlinking, outbound credibility, and semantic strength. 

7. Benchmark your performance against direct competitors. 

8. Deliver a clear report with practical recommendations that balance short-term wins with long-term strategy 

Why this matters:

Your website isn’t just battling for top spots on Google anymore - it’s competing to be the voice inside AI assistants. That means the stakes are higher, but the opportunity is huge. When AI tools consistently pull from your content, your brand becomes the go-to authority your audience trusts.

Ready to optimise for the Future of Search?

We’re helping forward-thinking brands get ahead of the curve with audits and strategies built for both SEO and AI visibility. Our digital team are here to help you future proof your website - not just for search results, but for the AI assistants shaping how people discover and trust information.

So Let’s talk.