What is AI SEO? The key techniques, and why they matter now

A few years ago, someone looking for a bookkeeper, a bakery or a marketing tool typed a few words into Google and clicked one of ten blue links. Today, more and more people skip the links. They ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini a full question — “Which bookkeeping firm in Malmö is good for small companies?” — and get a short answer with two or three names in it.

If your business is one of those names, you win a customer without a single click on an ad. If it isn't, you may never know the customer existed. That is what AI SEO is about.

What AI SEO means

AI SEO — sometimes called GEO, generative engine optimisation — is the work of making sure AI assistants can find your business, understand what it does, trust it, and mention it when it's a good answer. Classic SEO aims for a high position in a list of links. AI SEO aims for a place inside the answer.

The two are closely linked. When an assistant needs current information, it searches the web:

• Gemini grounds its answers in Google Search.
• ChatGPT searches the web with OpenAI's own crawler and search partners, and shows the sources it used.
• Claude can search the web too, and cites the pages it read.

So the pages that rank and are easy to read are the pages the assistants read. But being read is not the same as being recommended — and that's where the new techniques come in.

Why it matters now

An answer has room for a handful of names, not ten pages of results. The assistant picks the businesses it can describe with confidence: the ones whose websites say clearly what they do and where, and that other sites talk about too. Businesses that are vague, hard to read or invisible elsewhere simply don't make the list.

The key techniques

1. Let the AI crawlers in

Assistants can only use what they're allowed to read. Your robots.txt file can accidentally block crawlers like GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended. Some website builders and security plugins block them by default. Check it — it's a two-minute fix with a big effect.

2. Say plainly what you do, for whom and where

AI assistants answer from text. A homepage with a slogan, three photos and a “Contact us” button gives them almost nothing. Write the sentence a friend would use to recommend you: “A family-run bakery on Södermalm known for sourdough and cardamom buns, open from 7 every day.” Repeat the important facts — services, area, prices, opening hours — in plain words on the pages where they belong.

3. Answer the questions customers actually ask

People ask assistants full questions, and assistants love pages that answer them directly. A good FAQ, a page per service, or an article that answers “how much does X cost?” gives the assistant a ready-made, quotable answer — with your name next to it.

4. Add structured data

Structured data (schema.org, written as JSON-LD) is a small block of code that tells machines exactly who you are: name, type of business, address, opening hours, products, reviews and FAQs. It removes the guesswork. Our structured data tutorial shows you how, with examples you can copy.

5. Be talked about elsewhere

Assistants trust businesses that other sources mention: industry directories, review sites, comparison lists, local news, partners and customers. This is the slowest part, and the part most businesses forget. Your own website says what you want to be known for; other sites confirm it.

6. Keep the basics in shape

Clear page titles and descriptions, one main heading per page, a sitemap, fast pages that work on phones. These classic SEO basics still decide which pages get found — by Google and, through search, by the assistants.

7. Measure it

AI answers change from day to day and from person to person, so one test proves little. Ask the same set of customer questions regularly, across several assistants, and follow the trend: how often are you named, and who is named instead?

Where to start

Start with what's quick: check that AI crawlers are allowed, fix your titles and descriptions, and write the one clear sentence about what you do. Then add an FAQ and structured data. Then work on being mentioned elsewhere.

Our step-by-step guide walks through it in order — or let SEO Joe check your site and ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for you, and get a short fix list of what matters most.