AI SEO
Aa-eye-ess-eee-owh
verb
making sure that content is optimised for discovery by AI agents, tools, and search engines to ensure businesses maintain visibility as the search landscape changes and AI becomes more heavily involved in peoples search practices.
synonym
Generative Search Optimisation (GEO), getting into AI Overviews, showing up on ChatGPT
First of all, AI SEO (or GEO) is really just ‘good SEO practices‘ but factoring new channels and processes of discovery. That being said, it is important to understand what it is.
What is AI SEO?
AI for SEO or Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of optimising websites for AI search including channels like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini as well as within search with AI Overviews in Google and Bing.
Fundamentally though to succeed in AI SEO, you just need to follow the best practices of intent led SEO, something which Google somewhat confirms when discussing how to optimise for AI Overviews.
Why has AI SEO become such a big topic?
The latest hot topics come and go but with AI SEO a lot of people are talking about it for positive and negative reasons.
On the positive side we are seeing an increase in traffic from sources like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which shows there is a trend in that direction that will only increase as these channels become more common in usage and even branch out into browsers, phone OS integrations, and more accessible agents.
For example one client has seen an increase of nearly 4000% on traffic direct from AI Chat tools in H1 2025, this has resulted in avg monthly traffic of around 60k per month from the tools. The flip side of this is that whilst it is increasing it is still 0.3% of overall site traffic compared to the 50-60% of traffic from ‘traditional’ search channels.
The negative side is that with AI elements such as AI Overviews, websites and publishers are frequently seeing an increase in impressions in search engines but a drop in click-through rate (CTR) as a direct result of their answers being given to them directly within the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
When it comes to AI SEO (or GEO if you want to call it that), ‘experts’ seem to be sharing best practices which have been around for a while now, it is just a case of adapting and moving with the changes in technology and what your audience are doing.
Mike – Senior Account Lead has been working with AI SEO since before it was a thing.
The Impact and Challenges for Businesses with AI Search
Businesses who have been dependent on SEO for their traffic, have seen the most significant impact, with established brands losing traffic to AI Overviews in Google and the introduction of native AI search on platforms like ChatGPT providing an opportunity for other businesses to gain ground.
This is resulting in businesses having to adapt whilst potentially dealing with a period of decreased traffic, which is a tricky thing to do.
The other challenge is this isn’t going away, in fact it is ramping up if anything, providing a wider, more diverse landscape for what search looks like for business, having to factor in AI Search platforms as well as the staples of Google & Bing. This makes ‘future proofing’ a more difficult task and one that requires a degree of flexibility and experimentation but can deliver excellent rewards when it comes off.
Why work with Samphire on your AI SEO strategy?
The challenges of AI SEO vary depending on the client, they do break down into a couple of key areas though; appearing in AI search / overviews, and improving CTR.
When it comes to appearing in AI Search / Overviews, we rely on adapting our experience in SEO and our knowledge of the AI search landscape to ensure the content of the site is optimised to be high quality, up to date, and intent led as well as ensuring key EEAT indicators are demonstrated both on page but also via structured data such as schema.
With improving CTR, this can be a multitude of things, some of which link to mark up and appearance, but it can also link to brand awareness and external trust indicators, making sure when a business is seen people are aware of them and are inclined to delve deeper and visit their site.
There is also an added element with AI SEO outside of the SEO itself, implementing a multi-channel approach to ensure that if there is a dip in SEO traffic that is being filled from elsewhere whilst the site recovers, whether via paid search campaigns on Google and/or Bing, social campaigns, affiliate marketing, or video marketing, businesses need leads / sales and we understand the need to continue to bring those in.
This would also include being aware of the advancements and opportunities in AI platforms from the inclusion of shopping in GPT to the integration of Paid placements in AI Searches.