AI search optimisation: what actually works

What the different names mean

The labels are newer than the work. You'll hear all of these used for much the same job, so ask what someone will actually do rather than which acronym they sell.

How much it's worth today

It's small and growing. We measured 76 Australian websites from August to October 2026, and the median site got 0.64% of its sessions from AI assistants. ChatGPT sent 97.2% of those sessions.

AI sessions rose 54.2% in 90 days across the 61 sites we could compare, though only from 0.32% to 0.37% of all traffic. AI visitors engaged and converted about the same as organic visitors. So I'd treat this as part of your SEO, not a reason to drop it. Referrals also miss anyone who reads an answer and never clicks.

What to do, in order

1. Check you can be foundGoogle's guidance says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Fix that first, because nothing else counts until it's right.
2. Let the right crawlers inOpenAI and Anthropic run separate bots for search and training. You can allow OAI-SearchBot and Claude-SearchBot while blocking GPTBot and ClaudeBot. Check your firewall as well as robots.txt.
3. Write down the real questionsList what buyers ask before they choose someone like you, including the follow-ups. Google says its AI features can run several related searches for one question, so those follow-ups can matter.
4. Add what only you can sayPut prices, limits, comparisons and first-hand detail on your pages, in plain text. A rewrite of what everyone else says gives an AI answer no reason to use your page.
5. Earn mentions elsewhereKeep your details consistent, and get real mentions on sites people trust in your market. Ahrefs found branded mentions tracked AI Overview visibility far more closely than backlink counts.

What you can skip

• Special AI files. Google says you don't need them for its AI features. Here's my view on llms.txt.
• Special schema. Google says no special structured data is needed for AI features. Use schema to describe what's on the page, and keep it accurate.
• A single visibility score. Answers change between runs, so one number from one tool can give you false confidence.
• Guaranteed citations. Google says meeting its requirements doesn't guarantee a place, and nobody outside the platforms controls the answer.

How to measure it

• Search Console. Google's generative AI reports, introduced in June 2026, show impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. They don't show clicks, and your property may not have them yet.
• A fixed list of questions. Ask the same questions on a schedule, several times each, and record how often you're named.
• Referral traffic. Track sessions from each assistant in your analytics, then compare them with your enquiries.
• New customers. Ask how they found you. It catches people who saw your name in an answer and searched for you later.

Guides on AI search

New guides appear here as they're published.

• Do you need an llms.txt file?

  What llms.txt is, what Google, OpenAI and Anthropic have actually published about it, and what to do with your time instead.

• How do you get a business cited in AI answers?

  The full playbook, from crawler access to third-party mentions.

• How much traffic do AI assistants send Australian websites?

  Our study of 76 Australian sites, with the method and what it can't see.

Want a hand with it?

If you'd rather have this done for you, here's how I work on AI SEO with the team at Uppercut Digital, and the Australian research behind it.

Common questions