5 Ways to Optimize Your Content Strategy for AI SEO

TL;DR:

• LLM's are cannibalizing massive amounts of organic traffic
• Content teams need to adjust their strategy
• This strategy should include, glossary sections, interactive content elements, visual tools, language clarity, and regular content updates
• These elements in tandem with A/B testing will normalize traffic and future proof content

A tool that analyzes your content for AI SEO
A tool that analyzes your content strategy for AI SEO
A tool that shows you the best content update cadence based on your industry for AI SEO

SEO has split into two camps:

• Optimize for Google
• Optimize for LLM's

ChatGPT is now the most popular Google alternative for search. Google itself has adopted AI snippets at the top of the SERP. This has created a new frontier for SEO. The old formula for high ranking content simply no longer applies.

I'll give you an example:

This is HubSpot's organic traffic over the past decade:

Their strategy was to crank out helpful marketing content that related to a wide customer base. This created a backlink juggernaut that consistently pulled in millions of visits.

Now look at 2024.

Google's AI snippets, and ChatGPT made clicking a link no longer required to answer a question. HubSpot lost 80% of their traffic in a matter of months.

This is an extreme example of what is happening across the SEO industry. Impressions are steady but organic traffic is cratering.

LLM's have created an environment that divorces impressions from clicks. Gemini's AI snippet shows a user the answer to their search without the need for clicking a link.

As content marketers, we need to get more creative about how we offer the reader value. Readers need a reason to click beyond what they can get from LLMs.

The other big piece to this puzzle is that content itself is becoming far more abundant. The more content, the more competition. This combination has made it harder than ever to rank well.

To be fair, Google is still clearly dominate when it comes to search traffic.

Here is some 2024 platform data:

This trend shows no sings of slowing down. LLM's are simply more useful. People will continue to transition to AI search as these tools mature. Traditional search engines will continue to shrink. Content strategies need to change along with customer behavior.

To help get the ball rolling on some of these changes, I have created a tool specifically for analyzing content for AI SEO readiness. More features soon to come, but i'll drop the beta version here:

The first step in making these adjustments is redefining the goal of your content. Previously, ranking in the Google's SERP was the objective. Getting that top spot for a high volume keyword is no longer the only way to get organic traffic. You can now position your content to be cited by ChatGPT or other LLM's when it is answering a users question.

This strategy will require a different approach to content. The gist is:

• Content must be highly optimized to be read, believed, and used by LLM's
• Content must provide the reader value beyond what they can get out of the summery.

When both are done well, LLM's will recommend your content via a link when people ask a related query.

For reference, here a table outlining the main differences in SEO for google and AI Citation SEO for Gemini and ChatGPT:

The increase in users opting for LLM's to search creates a problem for established businesses. Large, high domain authority sites should be terrified. The foundation they built their empire on is falling out beneath them.

Small, agile businesses (that are willing to think outside the box) should be ecstatic. They have a unique opportunity to usurp the old guard by creating content designed around this new form of search.

So this all begs the question, how do we create this new kind of content?

1) Create a glossary section

A glossary section tailored around your industry's jargon checks a few major AI SEO boxes. It also greatly expands your internal linking capacity. These terms are a perfect way to be referenced by AI.

The trick here is offering value to the reader beyond what the LLM will use in it's summery. Structuring your terms properly have a huge impact. The 'ideal structure' for glossary terms is still a bit of a mystery, but here is a good place to start:

Glossary term outline:

Term Title: (What is 'Your Term')
Synonyms:
High level summery: Two or three sentences that define your term in the clearest way imaginable. No branded words, links, or anything else to muddy the waters. Just the most accessible and industry specific definition you can develop.
Full Definition: The in depth version of what you just gave.
Challenges: The common challenges associated with your term. This section is designed to help associate your link with people who are looking for solutions to their specific problem. Many use LLM's to solve in context problems. This will help you be the link that is used when people are searching for a solution via generative AI.
Your Role: The branded part. This is where you talk about how the term relates to your brand specifically.
Related terms: Allows the user to click through to other related terms. Increases CTR and engagement.
Related Content: More opportunity to CTR and engagement with your other content that mentions this term or similar terms.

Mix in an embedded tool related to the term, a few charts, videos, and you have a winning formula to be THE link referenced in related AI queries.

2) Update your best content regularly

This is especially true for fields/industries that are subject to change.

Doing this with content that is already performing well will show LLM's that your content remains relevant and can prevent competition from taking your place.

If you are unsure of the best update cadence to adopt, I built a tool to help:

3) Create interactive content elements

Only text and images is no longer enough. Your content needs to offer solutions that cannot be directly replicated by an AI summery.

Content is no longer how people will do research, content will have to directly help someone solves their problem. This can be accomplished by developing tools that allow the users to interact directly with your content. You will have noticed some of these tools already in this article.

Using ai coding environments like cursor or codex, can greatly accelerate the development process of these tools. Creating these is so much easier than you might think. I am currently beta testing a platform to help content marketers create these tools automatically:

Give it a look here

4) Prioritize Clarity

LLM's behave more like a real reader than Googlebot. They do not want to be sold to and will not recommend content with heavy sales terms or lots of brand specific elements.

Create lists, tables, bullet points, and easy to grasp sentences. These will be easier for the AI to digest and recommend to readers.

This is true for your backend as well. Having your site schema in order vitally important to being easily scannable. Go beyond your normal schema and create a process for labeling your data more completely.

5) Put Charts, Tables, and Graphs Everywhere

ChatGPT loves dropping in related graphs and charts when it is asked for information. Including visual data adds authority, makes you easier to recommend, and gives users more value than what can be summarized.

Having high quality visual assets will increase the likelihood of LLM's choosing your site to summarize and deliver to a reader. It will often then include your chart to complement its summery. This creates a link back to you and an opportunity to increase traffic.

Bonus: Have something to say

All of the methods listed here are about getting noticed by LLMs, but LLM's are not the end goal. The reader is.

Creating highly optimized content that is empty of real substance will not add any value to the reader. Using AI to help outline or edit is fine, but using pure AI generated content will not work.

AI content is designed to be generic. LLM's predict what words they should use based on what is most common. This goes in direct opposition to creating content that connects with an audience.

It's a loud world and generated content does not have the voice to breakthrough the noise. Use it to write faster, edit better, brainstorm, and fill in a few gaps, but the real content has to come from you.

Bonus #2: Use This to Analyze Your Current Content Strategy for AI SEO Readiness:

If you found this article helpful and what to receive the next one in your inbox: