AI Search Optimization: Unlocking Success in 2025

From SEO to AI: The New Rules for Getting Found Online in 2025

As I was browsing on Facebook the other night, I came across an ad for getting you listed in ChatGPT. And I thought this was interesting….why? Because that’s just NOT how it works. To me this was an outright scam and I started to think about how so many businesses could easily fall for this.

AI technology has hit like a full force steam engine. It seems like every time I turn around, there’s another new one out there. Businesses are scrambling to get on the bandwagon because the truth is, traditional SEO is slowly disappearing.

Everybody wants to be showing up in AI searches, and why? Think about it. When you search online for an answer and the first thing that pops up is an AI response, you really don’t need to look much further. No reason to scroll, no reason to click into other websites to find what you are looking for. AI has all the answers and if you want more info, AI will even direct you to the websites it considers has the most relevant and trustworthy information. Understanding ai search optimization has become crucial for businesses looking to thrive in the AI-driven market.

It was after I saw that ad for getting listed in ChatGPT I started a conversation with Claude, an AI engine that I use quite often for gathering information. We went into a very in depth conversation about how AI evolved, how AI gathers it’s information, and then unexpectedly dove really deep into talking about businesses and getting found online.

Claude’s take on businesses claiming to get you listed in AI engines like ChatGPT is nothing but a big scam. And it prompted me to write this article because – well, I just don’t like the idea of scammers taking advantage of people.

the future of seo & what you need to know

According to Claude, companies claiming to get you listed in AI for a fee is impossible and misleading because AI DOES NOT index sites like traditional search engines do. I’m going to say it again – AI DOES NOT INDEX SITES. But because businesses are so desperate to get in on the AI bandwagon, they’ll pay not knowing it’s nothing more than a scam. AI gathers its information in a whole new different kind of way. And this is what I’ll be talking about in this article.

Traditional SEO requires meeting certain types of criteria. Your site must be well-structured, load fast, and keywords should be sprinkled evenly throughout the page. Backlinks remain very important. After all these steps are complete, you hope to get listed in the search engines database. But now, with AI in the game, it’s a whole new ballgame. Traditional SEO will not be sufficient anymore. To succeed, businesses must adapt to the changes brought by ai search optimization.

The Data That Changes Everything

The Zero-Click Crisis

Did you know that 58% of Google searches result in zero clicks? This concept of zero-click searches is when you search in Google and receive your answer right away without needing to click a link. So now the question becomes: how do you get the AI engines to mention your business? This is where the panic begins. (Source: Sparktoro and Cybernews)

Interesting Quick Facts:

For every 1,000 searches on Google in the United States, only 360 clicks make it to non-Google-owned properties (Source: Spark Toro)
Almost 30% of all clicks go to platforms Google owns (YouTube, Google Images, Google Maps, etc.) (Source: Cybernews)
Nearly 2/3rds of all searches stay inside the Google ecosystem after making a query which means these users don’t click external links (Source: Mediapost)

AI Growth Statistics

In just six short months (August 2024 to February, 2025), ChatGPT referral traffic increased by 800% (Sources: Search Engine Journal and OpenTools.ai)
ChatGPT’s CEO announces that they processes 1 billion messages per day as of December, 2024 (Source: Techcrunch)
OpenAI has 400 million weekly active users, up 33% in just three months (Source: Sparktoro)
Perplexity grew from 42 million visits in February 2024 to 110.4 million monthly visits by March, 2025 (Source: Search Engine Land)
Organic search results suffered a 70% drop in click-through rates when AI Overviews appeared (Source: Techcrunch)
Paid search dropped 12% in click-through rates with AI overviews (Source: Techcrunch)

So you can see that while AI tools are still small compared to Google’s massive scale, their growth rates are unbelievable. ChatGPT’s user base grew 33% in just three months, and referral traffic increased 8x in six months. The trend lines show rapid acceleration, even if the absolute numbers are still relatively small.

Why Single-Channel Strategies Are Dead

No more do you want to just rely on one search engine or one platform for all of your leads and traffic. I’ve been doing SEO now for 35+ years, and over the last decade or so all we ever really needed to worry about was getting listed in Google. But this is changing folks because that’s not how AI technology works!

Take HubSpot, for example – they’ve nailed a handful of key channels like blogs, social media, email, and video, and they use AI to make their customer interactions feel personal. Sephora does something similar, mixing their in-store experience with digital and social platforms, using AI to give smart recommendations that customers love. These companies show that focusing on a few important channels and using AI the right way can build stronger, more flexible marketing strategies.

Here are some reasons why you no longer want to rely on a single channel:

Algorithm changes can kill your traffic overnight: Google makes a major update and just like that you’ve lost your traffic and your income. It can happen that fast. This is one major reason you shouldn’t rely on just one platform.
Different audiences discover businesses different ways: There’s a big variety of different platforms – Google, YouTube, voice assistants, social media. Limiting yourself to just one channel means you’ll be missing out on many opportunities.
Changing user behavior: More and more we’re seeing where people just want quick answers from AI tools, chatbots or social media searches rather than clicking through many websites looking for a specific answer.
Competitive advantage: Some of your competitors are probably already active across multiple channels, getting the audiences you aren’t reaching.
Resilience and stability: When you work with more than one channel, it creates a more stable traffic base. If one channel isn’t working anymore (a good example is a Google algorithm update that knocks you off page one), the other channels can compensate.

The New Rules of Getting Found Online With AI

The traditional “build a website and optimize for Google” approach is becoming obsolete. Today’s discoverability requires a multi-pronged strategy because AI is fragmenting how people find information. People now search within ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI tools that may not even visit your website but still need to find and cite your content. Content needs to be structured not just for human readers, but also for AI systems to understand, extract, and properly attribute.

For example, you may have been in a forum discussing a tech problem. You gave your expertise on the subject backed up with reliable resources. Someone searches AI on the exact subject you discussed, and AI, finding your credible information picked up on this and provides a link to your website (linked in your bio) as one of it’s resources. Other AI engines may just summarize your post in its own words. Some AI engines will summarize its results and others will provide actual links. The point I’m trying to make is that AI does not have to come and visit your site and index it like traditional search engines do. They gather their information in a whole different way!

If the forum had blocked AI scrapers from gathering information, there would never be any citations. None for the forum owner or anybody posting in there. If you use a CDN, such as Cloudflare, there are options to block AI crawlers and assistants from using your content to learn or index. Is this starting to make sense? This is just one small example of how getting found online with AI works.

And this is another example of why you should NOT block AI assistants from access to your website. Because if you do, you are blocking them from finding, reading and potentially citing your content. AI crawlers on the other hand is a whole other story and something we’ll get into in another post. There are behavioral differences between AI crawlers and AI assistants. And of course, you would never want to let them ALL in.

1. Reasons to allow AI Assistants into your website

Increased discoverability: Your content could be used as a reference in AI-generated answers.
Potential backlinks: Some AI tools (like Perplexity) directly link to your source in responses.
Authority building: Being cited by AI assistants can increase your perceived credibility.

There are downfalls to this as well that you should be aware of. AI could end up summarizing your content instead of providing links for users to click through to your website. And some publishers may prefer to not have their content used in AI responses without explicit credit. And then there’s the problem of increased traffic and load on your server. Many of these bots do not follow rules like in your robots.txt file either.

Recommended Approach

Do not block all AI assistants from accessing your website
Make sure that your content is crawlable and indexable (check for noindex tags)
Use clear signals such as structured data, bylines, organization schema so that AI knows HOW to cite you
Keep your website clean. And by this I mean, fast loading, mobile-friendly, proper metadata, etc. etc.

2. Multi Platform Discovery

Searching no longer means just typing in Google. Your potential customers are now discovering businesses through:

AI Chatbots: People ask ChatGPT “What’s the best CRM for small businesses?” instead of googling it
Social Media Platforms: Searching TikTok for “how to fix leaky faucet” or LinkedIn for “marketing automation tools”
Voice Assistants: “Alexa, find me a good restaurant nearby”
Platform-Specific Discovery: Pinterest for DIY ideas, YouTube for tutorials, Reddit for honest reviews

So why does this matter? Each platform has different ranking factors, content formats, and user intent. A blog post optimized for Google might completely miss someone searching for the same information on TikTok.

2a: Social Media As a Primary Discovery Channel

Social platforms aren’t just for “engagement” anymore – they’re genuine search engines:

TikTok: 40% of Gen Z uses it as their primary search engine
Instagram: Visual search for products, services, and inspiration
LinkedIn: B2B professionals discovering thought leaders and solutions
Pinterest: Planning and purchasing decisions often start here

2B: Voice Search, AI Search, Traditional Search Integration

The winning approach treats these as complementary, not competing channels:

Traditional SEO: Still matters for direct website traffic and credibility
AI Search Optimization: Structure content so AI can easily extract and cite your expertise
Voice Search: Answer questions in natural, conversational language
Social Discovery: Create shareable, platform-appropriate content that drives awareness

2C: Platform Specific Discovery

TikTok Discovery: Tutorials, videos and hashtag optimization
LinkedIn Discovery: Leadership posts that spark discussions, industry insights, company updates and articles
Instagram Discovery: Reels featuring quick tips, content and a hashtag strategy
YouTube Discovery: Tutorials optimized for “how-to” searches, educational content that establishes expertise, YouTube shorts for algorithm-driven discovery, thumbnail and title optimization for click-throughs
Pinterest Discovery: Visual guides that get saved and shared, step-by-step pins for DIY, product catalogs, rich pins with business information
Reddit Discovery: Participation in subreddits, helpful answers which show expertise, sharing resources
Google My Business Discovery: Regular posts about services and events, photos of your work and location, review management and responses and especially local keyword optimization in your business description

3. Authority Over Keywords: The New Currency of Online Discovery

The old SEO playbook was simple: find high-volume keywords, stuff them into your content, and hope to rank on page one. But in 2025, that approach is not just ineffective—it’s counterproductive.

AI systems don’t just look for keyword matches; they evaluate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. When ChatGPT or Perplexity answers a user’s question, they’re not pulling from the page that mentioned “best marketing software”. They’re citing the source that demonstrates genuine knowledge and gets referenced by others.

Traditional keyword optimization assumes that matching search terms equals relevance. But AI systems are sophisticated enough to understand context, expertise signals, and content quality. They can tell the difference between keyword-stuffed content and genuine expertise.

Instead of asking “How can I rank for this keyword?” successful businesses now ask: “How can I become the source that others reference?” When industry publications quote you, when other experts link to your insights, and when AI systems consistently cite your content – that’s when you know you’ve built real authority.

This shift means focusing on becoming genuinely helpful rather than just searchable. It’s about depth over breadth, expertise over optimization, and building content so valuable that it naturally gets discovered, shared, and cited across multiple platforms.

Create quality content that gets cited by others
Build genuine expertise vs. gaming algorithms

4. The 3-4 Channel Sweet Spot: Why Less is More

When businesses realize they can’t just rely on Google anymore, their first reaction is usually to jump onto every platform they can find. LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit – and before you know it, you’re creating 15 different pieces of content daily and seeing minimal results on any platform.

Why Trying to Be Everywhere Fails:

While the temptation is to rush onto every platform possible, businesses that try to be everywhere end up succeeding nowhere. The most successful companies in 2025 focus on mastering 3-4 carefully chosen channels rather than spreading themselves thin across a dozen platforms. This focused approach allows for deep platform knowledge, higher quality content, and genuine relationship building with each audience.

The math is simple: posting excellent content three times per week on three platforms beats posting mediocre content daily on ten platforms. When you concentrate your resources, you can learn each platform’s algorithm, understand audience behavior, create professional-quality content, and build sustainable systems that don’t lead to team burnout. Your content quality improves, your results become measurable, and your ROI becomes trackable.

The key to choosing your 3-4 channels isn’t following the latest trends – it’s understanding where your specific customers actually discover solutions. A local HVAC company might focus on Google My Business, Instagram, and TikTok for visual problem-solving content. A B2B software company might prioritize LinkedIn for thought leadership, industry publications for credibility, and YouTube for detailed product demonstrations. E-commerce brands often find success with Pinterest for discovery, Instagram for engagement, and Google Shopping for purchase intent. The magic happens when you go deep rather than wide, building genuine authority in the spaces where your audience already spends their time.

Examples by business type:
- Local businesses: Google My Business + Instagram + TikTok
- B2B: LinkedIn + industry publications + thought leadership
- E-commerce: Pinterest + Instagram + Google Shopping + email

So why does this matter? Each platform has different ranking factors and user intent. A blog post optimized for Google might completely miss someone searching for the same information on TikTok.

AI Bot Management: Strategic Access Control for Maximum Citation Value

Now that you understand the importance of focusing on 3-4 key channels rather than spreading yourself thin, there’s another critical piece of the puzzle: controlling which AI systems can actually access and cite your content. Simply creating great content isn’t enough – you need to strategically manage which AI crawlers can find it, process it, and potentially reference it in their responses. Not all AI systems provide equal citation value, and some can overwhelm your server resources while giving nothing back. This is where AI bot management becomes essential for maximizing your visibility in the new AI-driven discovery landscape.

Practical Steps for 2025

Audit your current channels: where is your traffic actually coming from?
Identify where your customers discover competitors
Choose 3-4 channels that make sense for your business
Create content that serves each platform’s unique audience
Use AI tools to scale content creation
Build direct relationships: email lists, communities
Monitor AI mentions of your brand/industry

The businesses that will really thrive in 2025 are the ones that focus on building true authority and expertise. They won’t try to be everywhere at once and active on a few key channels – maybe three or four. Instead of relying solely on platforms, they’ll use AI to support their human know-how, helping them build real, direct connections with their customers.

Those building genuine authority and expertise
Multi-channel presence without spreading too thin
Using AI to enhance rather than replace human expertise
Direct relationships with customers vs. platform dependence

Conclusion: Adapt or Get Left Behind

Optimizing for AI search isn’t just a passing trend. It’s the new way people find businesses. As you wonder whether to jump on TikTok or are considering if AI search optimization is a temporary craze, your competitors are making their mark. If you keep using old-school methods, you’re likely to lose visitors to businesses that quickly adapted.

To start, assess where your website traffic actually comes from. Identify where your customers are finding your competitors. Then, focus on building real authority on just 3-4 channels that are relevant to your business. At All Systems Good, we take a look at all things SEO, including AI search optimization. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in a free consultation.

The businesses that are going to kill it in 2025 and beyond? They won’t be the ones trying to trick the system. They’ll be the ones who are genuinely connecting with their customers, wherever they happen to be looking. Oh, and watch out for those “get listed in ChatGPT” scams!

FAQ

What’s the difference between AI-powered SEO and traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO focuses on optimizing your website based on known search engine ranking factors, like keywords, backlinks, and website structure. AI-powered SEO takes this a step further by using artificial intelligence to predict search engine behavior and personalize optimization strategies. It can analyze vast amounts of data to identify emerging trends, understand user intent more deeply, and create more effective content and targeting strategies than traditional methods alone. Think of traditional SEO as following a recipe, and AI SEO as having a chef who can adapt the recipe based on the diners’ preferences and available ingredients.

Can ChatGPT help with my SEO?

Absolutely! ChatGPT and similar AI tools can be valuable assets for your SEO efforts. You can use them to generate content ideas, write compelling website copy, create engaging social media posts, and even summarize complex topics into easy-to-understand language. However, it’s important to remember that ChatGPT is a tool, not a replacement for a skilled SEO professional. Always review and refine the content it generates to ensure accuracy, relevance, and alignment with your brand voice.

Is AI going to completely replace traditional SEO?

While AI is revolutionizing SEO, it’s unlikely to completely replace traditional methods. Instead, AI is enhancing and augmenting SEO. The fundamental principles of SEO, like creating high-quality content and building a strong online presence, still apply. AI simply provides us with more powerful tools and insights to execute those principles more effectively. Think of it as upgrading from a hammer to a power drill – you still need to know how to build, but the power drill makes the job faster and more efficient.

What’s the “best” AI tool for SEO?

There’s no single “best” AI tool for SEO, as the ideal choice depends on your specific needs and budget. Some popular and effective AI tools for SEO include:
Keyword research tools: These help you identify relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition.
Content optimization tools: These analyze your content and provide suggestions for improving its readability, relevance, and search engine ranking.
Link building tools: These help you identify potential link partners and automate outreach.
Website analytics tools: These provide insights into your website’s performance and user behavior.
It’s best to research and test different tools to find the ones that best fit your workflow and business goals. Many offer free trials or basic versions to get you started. Some of our favorite tools are aHrefs, Google Search Console and Screaming Frog to name a few.

How can AI-powered SEO benefit my small business specifically?

AI-powered SEO can be a game-changer for small businesses by leveling the playing field against larger competitors. It can help you:
Identify niche keywords: Discover less competitive keywords that are highly relevant to your target audience.
Personalize content: Create content that resonates with specific customer segments, increasing engagement and conversions.
Automate tasks: Free up your time by automating repetitive tasks like keyword research and link building.
Improve website speed: Optimize your website for faster loading times, which is a crucial ranking factor.
Track performance: Monitor your SEO progress and identify areas for improvement with AI-powered analytics.
Ultimately, AI search optimization can help you attract more qualified leads, increase website traffic, and grow your business more effectively.

What about using AI to write your content? Will it hurt my rankings?

Using AI to write content has its advantages and drawbacks. Here’s a quick look at the pros and cons:
Pros:
Speeds up content creation: AI can draft articles, blog posts, and social media content quickly.
Helps overcome writer’s block: Generates ideas and outlines when you’re stuck.
Fills content gaps: Can cover topics or angles you might miss.
Supports consistent publishing: Helps maintain a regular schedule, which is good for SEO.
Provides language assistance: Improves grammar, style, and clarity in drafts.

Cons:
Risk of low-quality content: AI might produce generic, repetitive, or shallow content if not carefully edited.
Lacks genuine expertise and voice: Content can feel impersonal or miss your unique brand tone.
Potential for duplicate content: AI might generate similar text others use, risking SEO penalties.
Needs human review: Requires careful fact-checking and refinement to ensure accuracy.
Overreliance can hurt creativity: Relying too much on AI may stifle original ideas and deep insights.
*Google’s John Mueller has said AI-generated content isn’t banned—it just needs to meet quality guidelines. Focus on helpful, original content, and you’ll be fine.

*You may also like: SEO Consulting Services and How We Can Help