Your Website Might Look Great — But Can AI Find It?
ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of users. Perplexity answers hundreds of millions of queries every month. Google SGE is rolling out AI-powered search to more regions every week.
The question isn't "Will AI search matter?" It's "When AI search becomes the default, will your website still be visible?"
Most businesses are waiting to see what happens. The ones preparing now will have an advantage that compounds over time.
How AI Search Actually Works
Traditional search engines look for keywords and count backlinks. If your page has the right words and enough links pointing to it, you have a chance to rank.
AI search works differently. It reads your content the way a person would — not just matching keywords, but understanding meaning, clarity, and usefulness.
The shift:
Old search: "Does this page contain the keyword?"
AI search: "Is this the clearest, most useful answer to this question?"
If your site is slow, poorly structured, or hard to parse, AI tools won't recommend it. They'll choose competitors with clearer, faster, better-organised content instead.
Read how website performance affects AI discoverability
The 6 Technical Foundations AI Search Needs
These aren't optional extras. They're the baseline for AI visibility. You don't need to be technical to understand them, but you do need to implement them.
1. Speed — AI Crawlers Won't Wait
AI crawlers operate under strict time budgets. If your page takes too long to load, the bot times out and moves on to the next site.
Slow page = invisible to AI.
We typically see this threshold around 2-3 seconds for initial content. Anything slower and you're losing coverage.
What we typically implement:
- Image optimisation (WebP format, proper sizing)
- Remove unused JavaScript
- Edge caching for static assets
- Lazy loading for below-fold content
Target: First Contentful Paint under 1.5 seconds on 4G mobile. Faster is always better for both users and AI systems.
See our guide to website speed optimisation
2. Structured Data — Giving AI Clear Labels
AI doesn't guess what your page is about. It looks for explicit signals in the form of structured data (schema markup).
Think of it as adding machine-readable labels to your content:
- Organisation schema → Your company information
- Product schema → Service/product details with pricing
- Article schema → Blog posts and guides
- LocalBusiness schema → Physical location and hours
- FAQ schema → Question-answer pairs
We see sites with proper schema markup appearing in AI answers 40-60% more often than competitors without it.
Implementation checklist:
✓ Organisation schema on homepage
✓ Product/Service schema on offering pages
✓ Article schema on all blog posts
✓ LocalBusiness schema if you serve a geographic area
✓ FAQ schema on key pages
Validate with Google's Rich Results Test before deployment.
Learn more about structured data implementation
3. Content Hierarchy — Headings That AI Can Parse
AI tools scan your heading structure to understand how your content is organised. Poor hierarchy means poor AI comprehension.
What doesn't work:
Long walls of text with no clear structure
What works:
One H1 (main topic) → Multiple H2s (main sections) → H3s where needed (sub-points)
Write headings the way people ask questions:
- "What is AI search?"
- "How can my website appear in AI results?"
- "Why does page speed matter for AI crawlers?"
This helps both human readers and AI systems understand your content architecture instantly.
If you're unsure how your content hierarchy affects AI discoverability, this is exactly what we analyse in a technical SEO audit.
4. Mobile-First — The Version AI Sees First
AI crawlers primarily evaluate the mobile version of your site, just like Google does for traditional search.
If your mobile experience is poor, you're disadvantaged before AI even reads your content.
Quick mobile check:
- Open your site on a phone
- Can you read text without zooming?
- Are buttons large enough to tap easily?
- Does it load fast on mobile data?
We typically find mobile performance issues cost businesses 20-30% of their potential AI visibility. The fix is often simpler than expected.
Read our mobile optimisation guide
5. Semantic HTML — Structure AI Can Understand
Under the surface, your website is built with HTML. Semantic HTML uses tags that describe what content is, not just how it looks.
Instead of wrapping everything in generic div containers, use meaningful elements:
- header for page headers
- nav for navigation menus
- main for primary content
- article for standalone content pieces
- section for grouped content
- footer for page footers
These structural signals help AI systems (and screen readers) parse your content more accurately. Sites with proper semantic HTML are easier for AI to process and quote.
6. FAQ Sections — Optimised for AI Answers
AI tools excel at extracting question-answer pairs. FAQ sections are perfectly structured for this.
On important pages (homepage, services, key blog posts), add FAQs with real questions your audience asks:
- "How does your service work?"
- "What results can I expect?"
- "How long does implementation take?"
Answer each in 2-3 clear sentences.
This helps:
✓ Visitors get immediate clarity
✓ AI tools find ready-made answers to quote
✓ Search engines display FAQ rich snippets
Add FAQ schema markup to make these sections even easier for AI systems to identify and use.
See our FAQ schema implementation guide
AI Readiness Self-Assessment
Use this checklist to evaluate your current state:
Performance:
☐ Pages load in under 2 seconds on mobile
☐ First Contentful Paint under 1.5s
☐ Images optimised and properly sized
Structure:
☐ Organisation schema on homepage
☐ Product/Article schema on relevant pages
☐ Clear H1/H2/H3 hierarchy throughout
Mobile:
☐ Readable without zooming
☐ Tap targets properly sized
☐ Fast loading on mobile networks
Technical:
☐ Semantic HTML elements used correctly
☐ FAQ sections on key pages
☐ FAQ schema implemented where relevant
Getting 80% of these right puts you ahead of most competitors. Getting 100% creates a compounding advantage as AI search grows.
The Compounding Advantage
Sites optimised for AI search are already seeing measurable increases in:
- Referral traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude
- Brand mentions in AI-generated answers
- Quote attribution when AI tools cite sources
- Indirect search traffic from users who discovered you via AI first
This advantage compounds over time. Early preparation means more AI training data includes your content. More inclusion means better future visibility.
Most businesses are waiting to react. The ones preparing now will be harder to displace later.
What To Do Next
You don't need to rebuild your entire site overnight. We typically recommend this sequence:
Week 1-2: Fix critical performance issues
Week 3-4: Implement structured data
Week 5-6: Optimise mobile experience
Week 7-8: Add FAQ sections and semantic HTML
Small, systematic improvements compound faster than sporadic large changes.
If you want an objective assessment of where your site stands for AI search readiness, a technical audit identifies exactly what to prioritise.
Questions We're Often Asked
Is AI search actually replacing traditional Google search?
Not replacing — complementing. AI search handles different query types (conversational, research, comparison). Traditional search still dominates navigational and transactional queries. Optimising for both maximises total visibility.
Do I need to rebuild my website for AI search?
No. Most AI readiness improvements work within your existing site: adding schema markup, improving page speed, restructuring headings, and adding FAQ sections. Rarely do we see sites that need complete rebuilds.
How long until AI search matters for my business?
It already does for some industries (SaaS, education, professional services). For others, it's 6-18 months away from material impact. The question is whether you prepare now or react later when competitors already have the advantage.
If you want to understand exactly where your site stands for AI search — and what specific changes would have the highest impact — a structured technical audit removes the guesswork.