Optimising a website for AI search does not start with a special file or trick. The essentials are technical accessibility, clear content, unambiguous entities, credible sources and a coherent information architecture.
1. Check crawlability and indexation
Priority pages need to be accessible to relevant search and AI-search crawlers. robots.txt, meta robots, canonicals, sitemaps and redirects must not accidentally block core content.
2. Answer important questions directly
Key sections should begin with a clear definition or answer, then add detail, examples, limitations and sources. This helps both users and machine processing.
3. Clarify entities and relationships
The organisation, services, topics, authors and important terms should be named consistently and linked meaningfully. Structured data can reinforce visible information.
4. Strengthen originality and evidence
Original expertise, real experience, transparent methods and first-party data are more valuable than interchangeable AI copy. Cite sources where claims should be verifiable.
5. Measure impact
Prompt sets, classic search data, conversions and – for Google – the Search Console generative-AI performance report help determine whether optimisation work is creating meaningful results.
What Google explicitly recommends in 2026
Google describes optimisation for generative AI features as part of good SEO: valuable non-commodity content, a clear technical structure and a strong user experience matter more than special AEO/GEO hacks.
Official sources for further reading
Google Search Central: Optimising for generative AI features in Search ↗