AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews pull from the web to generate responses — but you might be surprised to learn that the SEO strategies you’ve been using won’t necessarily help your content get cited.
AIO (AI optimization) is quickly becoming a known term in marketing alongside SEO (search engine optimization). But why is it even something to worry about for a business at this still-early stage in the AI game?
Well, it all comes down to a fundamental — and intensely rapid — shift in consumer search habits. Gone are the days of anyone having the patience to click through and read search results to try to find what they’re looking for. Accurate or not, the AI overview at the top of Google search, and the answers ChatGPT serves up to users, are now answering your customers’ initial questions at a glance.
And if your content is cited there, in AI-generated output, guess what the user will click through on to get the answers to their deeper follow-up questions. Yep — the citation right there in the AI tool.
AIO opportunity by the numbers
As of Feb 2025, 63% of websites are now receiving AI traffic according to an Ahrefs traffic study.
This quote from Statista writer Tiago Bianchi makes some pretty bold predictions for the next few years:
In 2023, around 13 million adults in the United States claimed to have used generative artificial intelligence (AI) as their primary tool for online search. By 2027, this number is projected to reach over 90 million online users. Around 68 percent of adults in the country claimed to use generative AI for answering questions. As a result, the online search market is likely to be one of the most affected industries by the AI-powered search market trend.
Sparktoro notes that Google is becoming the place people go to after they have already done their initial investigation.
Even for us at Horizon Peak, AI search traffic is rising rapidly in the traffic rankings in our Google Analytics. Every month, it seems, Perplexity, ChatGPT and Gemini get higher in the percentage of website sessions they’re responsible for generating on horizonpeakconsulting.com. I can certainly see a day when AI is responsible for 50% of our traffic — and that day may come very soon.
As AI becomes more integrated into the daily lives of both businesses and customers, more data is emerging about how this new evolution of search actually works. For the first few years, there seemed to be an assumption that if your content performed well on Google Search and Bing, your content would eventually start showing up in AI searches as well.
That assumption is proving very wrong.
Traditional SEO metrics including backlinks, domain authority, keyword density, and even technical and on-page SEO optimization simply don’t seem to matter in regard to getting cited in AI platforms.
So, how does content get cited by AI? And what does the increasing prevalence of AI-driven search mean for your written content? Let’s break it down.
What AI chatbots prefer in content
Recently, Kevin Indig of Growth Memo conducted a fascinating analysis of what content works well in LLMs. He analyzed over 7,000 citations across 1,600 URLs to content-heavy sites, and his findings clearly revealed that traditional SEO metrics don’t strongly influence AI citations.
Instead, these models prioritize:
- Depth. Longer content with more sentences and words tends to be cited more often.
- Readability. A higher Flesch Reading Score (meaning clearer, easier-to-digest writing) correlates with more citations.
- Comprehensiveness. Content that thoroughly answers questions gets referenced more.
Here’s just one example from his research. A comparison of two articles on online psychiatry shows a clear pattern:
A guide from Verywell Mind: (10,000+ words, 1,500+ sentences, Flesch Score of 55) → 187 citations
A guide from Online Therapy: (3,900 words, 580 sentences, Flesch Score of 48) → Only 3 citations
Key takeaway: The best way to optimize content for AI citations is to create well-structured, in-depth, easy-to-read content.
This quote from Anton Riley sums it up well:
Now, it’s less about keywords and more about context, intent, and depth. People are asking questions, seeking nuanced answers, and engaging with conversational AI.
If you want to get found in AI searches, write like a human
SEO is dying — or evolving, if you want to put a positive spin on it. Traditional SEO tactics alone won’t serve your startup or enterprise tech company any longer. Now, if getting found online matters to you, you have to consider what the AI platforms need, too.
Turns out, what the AI platforms want is the same thing your customers want: Valuable, readable content.
I’m going to land this plane with three takeaways for your content strategy:
- Traditional SEO factors don’t strongly influence AI chatbot citations.
- Deep, comprehensive, and well-structured content is more likely to be cited.
- Readability matters — make your content clear and digestible.
AI-driven search is changing how your content gets discovered. To maximize visibility in AI chatbots, write like a human, with human readers in mind.
Would you like help making your content stand out in the AIO evolution? Let’s talk.