You’ve probably seen the headlines.
“The rise of AI SEO!”
“Optimise your site for ChatGPT!”
“How to hack the algorithm behind Gemini!”
And sure, it sounds sexy. But let’s cut through the noise: AI SEO isn’t really a thing. Not yet, anyway.
Right now, showing up in AI-generated answers—whether it’s Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), ChatGPT, or Apple Intelligence—still relies on the same stuff that’s powered search visibility for years.
Great content.
Clear structure.
Credible citations.
And yes, good old-fashioned Schema Markup.
It’s not that AI isn’t changing things. It is. But the fundamentals haven’t shifted. Not yet.
What’s actually different with AI in the mix?
So why all the buzz?
Because yes, how people interact with search is changing:
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People are asking ChatGPT instead of Googling.
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Google is showing AI-generated summaries that pull content from multiple sources.
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Apple Intelligence is designed to process web info contextually, without search at all.
But how do these systems decide what to include in their answers?
That’s the kicker: they’re still using your website content.
And they still need it to be structured, clear, and credible.
Want to show up in AI results? Just do SEO properly.
There’s no AI-specific meta tag or secret handshake that gets you featured. For now, if you want to rank in AI-generated results, you need to approach it the same way you’d approach a strong SEO campaign:
1. Write genuinely good, helpful content
AI tools summarise answers from the web. If your content is clear, useful and genuinely answers common questions in your industry—you’re in the running.
2. Make your structure machine-readable
Use proper headings (H1s, H2s), bullet points, and summaries. These help both search engines and AI models understand your content quickly.
3. Add Schema Markup
This is where a lot of brands are still falling short. Schema helps AI (and search engines) understand the type of content you’re publishing—blog posts, products, services, team bios, FAQs.
And increasingly, we’re seeing OpenAI show up as a traffic source in client analytics. That means structured, visible content is being found and cited by ChatGPT users. Schema is part of how that happens.
4. Build trust with authorship and citations
Show who wrote your content. Link to reputable sources. These credibility signals matter more than ever in a world where AI is trying to avoid hallucinations and misinformation.
So… does AI change SEO?
Eventually? Absolutely.
We’ll probably see new formats, new ranking signals, and more sophisticated indexing beyond traditional crawlers. AI tools might start pulling from APIs or private indexes instead of just scraping the web.
But today? The best way to rank in an AI-generated result is the same way you rank in Google:
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Be useful.
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Be structured.
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Be credible.
That’s not new. That’s just good SEO.
What we’re doing at Stoke
At Stoke, we treat Schema Markup and structured content as table stakes. Every website we build includes Schema by default, because we know that clear, structured information is what machines (and people) need to trust you.
If you’re not sure whether your current site has it in place, ask your developer. Or better yet—ask us. We’re happy to review your site and point you in the right direction.
Because whether it’s Google, ChatGPT or whatever comes next, the brands that win are the ones that get the basics right.
