The new SEO is AIOSEO

We’re living through the same kind of seismic shift that early web marketers saw with the rise of traditional search engines that first started gaining ground in the late 90’s. This time, it’s AI driving the change. Just like those who mastered SEO early ended up owning the first page of Infoseek, Alta Vista and Google for a decade, today’s winners will be the ones who optimize for AI agents first.

AI isn’t coming, it’s already here. It’s already comparing products, making recommendations, answering questions, and determining which brands users see first. A

recent study by The Verge and Vox Media, shared Feb 25, 2025, shows 53% of millennials and 61% of Gen-Z now prefer AI-powered search tools to Google for search. Gen Z is leading the shift even faster where 82% have already used AI search tools, and they’re more likely to search on TikTok or Instagram than they are on Google.

When someone asks ChatGPT “What’s the best CRM for small businesses?” or tells Claude “Find me lightweight hiking boots under $150,” it’s AI systems and not humans deciding what brand gets seen, considered, or ignored. If your content isn’t structured for AI agents, you may already be invisible. Essentially what this means is AIOSEO isn’t an optional task anymore. It’s the new front door to your business. You either walk through it, or your competitors will.

What This Means For Sites to be Found on Search Engines

For CMOs, VPs, Directors, and business owners guiding marketing in the AI age, here’s where to focus:

1. AI literacy is now foundational.
   You don’t need to code. But you do need to understand how AI agents interpret, evaluate, and recommend content. This is no longer a “nice to know” skill. It directly impacts whether your brand shows up in research, rankings, and recommendations.
   
2. Hands-on testing is non-negotiable.
   You can’t optimize what you don’t test. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the kinds of questions your customers ask. If you’re not in the answer, or worse, a competitor is, you have a deadly visibility problem. Treat these tools like live environments, not future trends. Build muscle memory through direct use, not just strategy decks.
   
3. Audit for visibility the way AI sees you.
   Traditional SEO audits aren’t enough. AI agents don’t just crawl, they compare and curate. Run a monthly check: ask three AI tools if they'd recommend your product or service. Then ask why. What they say and don’t say. This will show you where your content and structure are falling short. This should become a regular discipline, not a one-off review. AI can’t do this, you’ll need a person to have this part of their daily routine.
   
4. Share this playbook with your team and peers.
   If you lead, help others lead better. Forward this to your team, your agency, your founder network. The shift to AI-driven discovery is subtle, but fast. Many smart marketers are still missing it because they’re stuck in a search-only mindset.
   
5. Visibility is no longer about ranking. It’s about being selected.
   AI agents don’t just crawl, they choose. They decide what answers to present and what brands to elevate. You need to structure your content and strategy for that selection process. If you don’t, you’ll still be online. Just not found. The bigger threat is as each model evolves, the process will need to start again - just like when Google updated its search model, only these updates occur every few months, rather than every few years.
   

The 60-Point AI Agent Marketing Playbook

The following AIOSEO playbook is broken down into five categories so you can more easily assign owners: Content Optimization, UX Structure & Design, Technical & Developer Actions, and AI Strategy, Audits & Testing and Future-Proofing & Emerging Trends.

A Complete AI Optimization (AIO) Marketing Playbook

5 Key Tactics of AIOSEO

1. Use Structured Data and Semantic Markup Everywhere
   If AI can’t understand what your content is, it’s not going to recommend it. Mark up everything: FAQs, reviews, product specs, how-tos, even author bios. Schema gives AI agents clarity and confidence. The more context you give, the more likely they are to surface your content in responses.
   
2. Make Your Docs Public, Flat, and Easy to Parse
   Don’t hide value behind click-heavy menus or collapsible content. Long-form pages with anchor links, clear section headers, and full visibility make life easier for both users and AI crawlers. Think Wikipedia, not a slick app menu that no one can index.
   
3. Simplify Navigation and UX
   Clunky UX kills AI visibility. Overbuilt sites with buried content, heavy JavaScript, or dynamic loading break how agents crawl and interpret your content. Stick to clean layouts, fast-loading pages, and clear content paths. AI agents will reward clarity.
   
4. Keep SEO Fundamentals Tight
   AI still leans on the web the same way we do. If you’re not ranking on search, you're probably invisible to AI. That means doing the basics well: title tags, meta descriptions, alt tags, internal links, site speed, and high-quality backlinks. It’s not sexy, but it still works.
   
5. Create Quote-Worthy, Summarizable Content
   AI agents don’t just summarize, they quote. So give them something worth citing. Use comparison tables, bold opinions, concise takeaways, and original data. Be the source they borrow from, not just another page in the stack and ideally original content that’s not AI generated. AI-generated content is already getting flagged and will be penalized more over time. Be the source of value, not the scrape.

The 60-Point AI Agent Marketing Playbook

Here's the comprehensive list broken into five categories for easy ownership: Content, Structure & Design, Technical & Dev, AI Strategy & Testing, and Future-Proofing.

Content Optimization

Owned by a copywriter or marketing manager.

1. Make upsells inline and text-based. Pop-ups may be ignored by bots.
2. Write short product summaries just for AI agents to read. Almost like an "AI cheat sheet."
3. Create pages that directly answer buyer queries. AI-friendly Q&A = higher pickup.
4. Encourage user reviews to include product names, specs, and comparisons.
5. Provide AI-readable brand voice guidelines. So agents speak your tone.
6. Include transparent product disclosures, with neutrality and clarity.
7. Make your "About" page factual and comparison-ready.
8. Answer 3-5 core buying questions by default on each product page.
9. Offer condensed knowledge cards. Almost like Wikipedia snippets for AI.
10. Use bullet points and summaries in addition to longform prose.
11. Use real CTA copy like "Get the full comparison chart" instead of "Learn more."
12. Optimize for natural language and voice search patterns. Write content that answers "What's the best..." and "How do I..." questions.
13. Create chain-of-thought friendly content. Structure information to support AI reasoning processes, not just fact retrieval.
14. Include multi-intent keywords in single pages. Combine popular search combinations like "best AND cheapest" or "lightest AND strongest."
15. Write conversational commerce-ready descriptions. Content that helps AI agents complete transactions or make recommendations.
    

UX, Structure & Design

Owned by a web designer or web developer (depending on your org structure).

1. Put docs in long-scroll pages with anchor links. Avoid JS-heavy nested menus.
2. Use HTML tables and bullets for comparisons. Structured > stylish.
3. Use semantic HTML properly. ,, >, >, and not just a mess of divs.
4. Add structured data everywhere (FAQ, Product, Review schema).
5. Add alt-text, real headings, and clean links. SEO basics have huge overlap with AIO basics.
6. Avoid CAPTCHA or modal walls on critical pages.
7. Make cookie banners non-blocking. Agents can click but it's friction. Degrade gracefully.
8. Don't hide anything behind logins or paywalls. Offer mirrors or previews.
9. Make sure lazy-loaded or scrolled content is also accessible.
10. Design with context window limitations in mind. Prioritize key information early on pages. This is basic good UX anyway.
11. Create mobile-first layouts that work for AI agents browsing on different devices.
12. Use consistent navigation patterns across all pages to help AI agents understand site structure.
    

Technical & Developer Action

s

Owned by a web developer.

1. Offer a clean, machine-readable product feed (XML or JSON).
2. Render everything important server-side. Avoid JS-only rendering.
3. Let AI see updates. Use "last updated" timestamps with years included.
4. Avoid putting specs in images or PDFs without HTML versions.
5. Create "For AI Agents" pages or sitemaps. Like a press kit for agents.
6. Simulate a crawl session by multiple AI agents. See what they actually ingest. Do not run them in parallel—watch each virtual browser view for each agent live.
7. Tag key pages or sections with internal AI-optimized labels.
8. Use meta directives to allow access to AI crawlers (ex: GPTBot).
9. Detect blocks in robots.txt or server config that might block AI bots.
10. Ensure no-JS fallback or graceful degradation for critical pages.
11. Implement real-time data feeds for pricing, inventory, and availability.
12. Create API endpoints for product catalogs, manuals, and support documentation.
13. Build multi-language content structure with proper hreflang tags for global AI agents.
14. Set up proper attribution tracking for AI agent referrals and traffic.
15. Optimize page load speeds specifically for AI crawling patterns.
    Strategy, Audits, and Testing
    

Strategy, Audits and Testing

Owned by a project manager, marketing manager, SEO manager, or technical documentation specialist.

1. Conduct monthly AI visibility audits. Run regular prompts against key searches inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc. Create a standard benchmark for brand visibility and document performance.
2. Keep content evergreen and/or visibly updated.
3. Before launch and during QA for important pages or product launches, simulate AI agent sessions. Use multiple platforms and providers.
4. Build plugins/integrations for ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc. as needed.
5. Publish API endpoints or public product documentation for agents to access (ex: vacuum manuals by make and model).
6. Run key searches on multi-intent prompts ("best AND cheapest...") to find most popular combinations for your offering.
7. Design your marketing with voice agents and agents-as-buyers in mind.
8. A/B test AI-optimized content vs traditional content to measure performance differences.
9. Test across different AI model versions as they update frequently.
10. Monitor competitive AI presence - track how competitors appear in AI responses over time.
11. Create prompt libraries for different use cases (research intent vs purchase intent vs troubleshooting).
12. Test cross-platform consistency - ensure brand presentation is uniform across all AI platforms.
    

Future-Proofing & Emerging Trend

s

Owned by marketing strategy or innovation team.

1. Prepare for conversational commerce integration. Structure product information for AI agents that can complete purchases.
2. Develop voice-first content strategies for smart speakers and voice assistants.
3. Create AI agent personas - understand different types of AI behaviors and optimize accordingly.
4. Establish AI ethics and legal guidelines for agent interactions and data usage.
5. Build relationships with emerging AI platforms before they become mainstream.
6. Design attribution models for AI-driven customer journeys to measure ROI from AI optimization efforts.

Testing Prompts to Use Monthly

Run these across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, You.com, and emerging platforms:

• “What are the top X# [product/service type] options for [target audience]?”
  Example: "What are the top 5 accounting platforms for freelancers?"
  What this does: Tests ranking, inclusion, and clarity of positioning.
  
• “Who are the most trusted brands in the [category] space?”
  Example: "Who are the most trusted brands in smart home security?"
  What this does: Reveals brand recall and perception strength in AI memory or indexed sources.
  
• “Compare [Your Brand] and [Competitor] for [specific use case].”
  Example: "Compare EcoLock and August Smart Lock for short-term rentals."
  What this does: Tests how accurately AI agents describe your value props vs. others.
  
• “What does the AI know about [Your Brand]?”
  Example: "What does Perplexity know about Bloomly CRM?"
  What this does: Raw brand comprehension test—shows how well your brand is represented.
  
• “Rank the best [category] products under [$X] for [job or situation].”
  Example: "Rank the best projectors under $500 for outdoor use."
  What this does: See if you're surfaced in price-sensitive or situational queries.
  
• “Write a quick buying guide for choosing between [Your Brand] and [Top Competitor].”
  What this does: This exposes if your messaging is clear, differentiated, and quotable.
  
• “What’s the best [product type] for a small business owner in [city/state]?”
  What this does: Tests for local and contextual visibility and is great if you serve specific regions.
  
• “What are common problems with [Competitor] and alternatives worth considering?”
  What this does: If your competitor shows up, this tests if you are being positioned as the better option.
  
• “Troubleshoot [Product Model] that isn’t working. Include manuals or support links.”
  What this does: Validates whether your help content is crawlable and usable in real-world use cases.
  
• “Give me a shortlist of sustainable, highly rated [category] products. Include pros and cons.”
  What this does: AI loves clear criteria. If you're not in the list, you're not optimized for these summary-driven queries.
  
  

Need help, with your search strategy? Book a free 15 minute consultation