Boost Your Visibility in Search and AI Search LLMs

Last Updated on March 31, 2025

SEO means moving beyond simple keyword optimization. SEO means much more than keywords. Make your content meaningful and connected with the reasons behind what people search. (Nothing new about that). Think about the people, places, things, or ideas related to your topic, and how they connect. (Old news too).

Entertain. Engage. Educate. Empower.

Focus on problem-solving instead of chasing keywords; you’ll help search engines and AI systems better understand your content. This should result in your content appearing more often in search results and being used as a source for AI-generated answers.

The basics still matter, even if the tools have changed. “Create content that builds trust and makes connections.” Ross Simmonds

SEO today means connecting the dots: Google, Bing & co., and the many AI search bots. (AI. That is still somewhat new and of growing importance).

AI can assist with content generation but should complement your creativity rather than replace it.

AI is reshaping SEO by shifting the focus toward user experience and accessibility. I advocate for optimizing content for people, social media algorithms, traditional search engines, and AI-driven search engines.

AI can aid in keyword research and topic ideation, making content more relevant and discoverable, but you are responsible for the content and the conversation.

Ultimately, a balanced approach is the best. Leverage AI for efficiency while maintaining the human touch that makes your content engaging and valuable.

What are LLMs? What Do They Have to Do with SEO?

Large Language Models (LLMs) are AI systems trained on vast amounts of text to understand and generate human language. They work by predicting what words should come next in a sequence.

AI Chat LLMs (like Claude, perplexity, etc.) can:

• Answer questions
• Generate text
• Summarize documents
• Translate languages
• Write creative content
• Help with coding

Think of LLMs as advanced autocomplete systems that have learned patterns from billions of examples of human writing, allowing them to produce helpful responses.

LLMs and SEO connect in several ways:

1. Content creation – LLMs help generate SEO-friendly articles and website content
2. Search engines now use LLM technology to produce semantic results
3. LLMs can help optimize existing content for better search performance
4. They assist with analyzing keywords and understanding search intent

The rise of LLMs is pushing SEO toward more natural content rather than keyword-focused content.

An SEO’s guide to understanding large language models (LLMs) https://searchengineland.com/seo-guide-large-language-models-413227

AI and SEO: How You Can Put Them Together

Here are the core concepts behind AI and SEO and how you can apply them:

1. From Keywords to Semantics and Entities

• This really isn’t your parent’s SEO anymore:
  • Old SEO: All about placing the right keywords to match search queries.
  • Modern SEO: It’s now about understanding meaning by recognizing entities and how they relate to each other. Both search engines and LLMs are moving beyond just matching keywords.

2. Defining Your Business Domain

• Identify your client’s business (e.g., Adult Education).
• Define related entities:
  • Industries served (healthcare, technology, hospitality …).
  • Courses required, interested target groups

3. Using Google and Bing for Query Discovery

• Leverage Google and Bing as research tools to find queries related to your entities.
• Gather data from:
  • Topic filters
  • People Also Ask
  • People Also Search For
  • Image Search tags
  • Google Search Console
  • Bing Webmaster Tools

4. Structuring Content for Entity Recognition

• Structured Data (Schema Markup): Use schema to define entities and relationships for search engines and LLMs clearly. For example, use the LocalBusiness schema for a school offering adult training courses. (Schema Markup is included free in both the Yoast and RankMath SEO plugins. RankMath offers more in the free version than does Yoast.)
• Topical Authority: Cover related topics to establish your site as an authority on a given entity. If your topic is “WordPress Development,” write about coding, online shops, websites, etc.
• Internal Linking: Link-related pages to strengthen the connections between entities. A page about WordPress theme development should link to a review of top WordPress themes. (Internal links are backlinks – did you ever think of that? SEO gold.)
• Entity-Rich Language: Use natural language that incorporates relevant entities. Instead of writing “WordPress is popular,” write “WordPress is Open Source, and is known for its ease of use. 50% of the websites currently using a CMS depend on WordPress.”
• Optimize for Featured Snippets, AI Search Engines, and Direct Answers:
  • Use Q&A format.
  • Use lists and bullet points.
  • Provide clear, direct explanations.
  • Chunk your content. Why Content Chunking For Ranking AI Overviews Makes Sense

“Optimize for AI and voice search: With the rise of AI-powered search engines, it’s crucial to structure (chunk) content in a way that’s easily digestible for both humans and machines.” Warren Laine-Naida

5. Understanding Embeddings

• What are Embeddings? They’re mathematical representations of words, phrases, and entities that capture their meaning and relationships. Similar meanings are grouped in a multi-dimensional space.
  • Understanding Word Embeddings in SEO: A Complete Guide https://jbh.co.uk/blog/seo/understanding-word-embeddings-in-seo/
• Why Embeddings Matter: LLMs use embeddings to understand context and meaning, handle ambiguity, and build a “memory” of conversations.
• Embedding Optimization:
  • Use entity-rich language.
  • Build semantic relationships through internal and external linking.
  • Optimize for entity-based structured data.
  • Focus on semantic search, not just keywords.

Embeddings and SEO Simplified

Embeddings are how modern search engines understand meaning, not just keywords. Embeddings are like digital maps that help computers understand how words and ideas relate to each other.

Think of it as giving each word coordinates on a map where similar concepts sit close together (like “coffee” near “latte”) and different concepts sit far apart (like “dog” and “car”).

Search engines use embeddings to understand meaning rather than just matching exact keywords, which is why searching for “caffeinated beverages” can return results about “coffee shops” even when those exact words aren’t used.

Old SEO: Repeat exact keywords like “best coffee shops in Seattle” multiple times.

New SEO: Write naturally about the Seattle coffee scene, quality, atmosphere, etc. Search engines now understand that content about “outstanding cafes in the Emerald City” relates to the same topic.

This matters because:

1. You can write for humans, not algorithms
2. Content depth beats keyword repetition
3. Related topics and natural language work better than forced keywords

Bottom line: Search engines now map related concepts together in a “meaning space,” allowing them to understand what users want even when the exact words don’t match.

6. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

What is RAG? https://cloud.google.com/use-cases/retrieval-augmented-generation?hl=en

• Understand how LLMs use RAG:
  • Receive a query.
  • Search a database of embeddings for relevant information.
  • Pull the most relevant pieces and generate an answer.
• If your content is well-structured and entity-rich, it’s more likely to be retrieved and used in AI-generated answers.

Google researchers refine RAG by introducing a sufficient context signal to improve response accuracy: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-researchers-improve-rag-with-sufficient-context-signal/542320

7. Content Formats

You probably don’t need to hear, yet again, how important content is to your SEO. What is new is how you format your content for AI citations.

Content chunking is a technique used to break down large amounts of information into smaller, digestible pieces (or “chunks”) to improve readability, comprehension, and user engagement.

You already write for human readers, and for Google’s Featured Snippets – you should write for AI citations too.

Read more here about Why Content Chunking For Ranking AI Overviews Makes Sense.

The Best SEO is Great Content! If your website is already SEO-friendly, and you have the technical stuff taken care of, you should be seeing results. If you’re wondering why you aren’t getting the traffic you had hoped for, perhaps you’re missing the right content.

• Analyze SERP patterns to identify preferred content formats.
• Enrich content with images, videos, and specific text formatting.
• Consider whether a visual format might be more relevant than text.
• Don’T forget to chunk

8. Measuring Success

Measure your success with organic traffic, rankings, engagement, backlinks, and conversions. For AI-driven search, track mentions in AI responses, AI-driven traffic, structured data, user intent, and brand visibility.

• Focus on visibility for relevant query sets, not just keyword rankings.
• Track visibility in:
  • Classic search results
  • Featured snippets
  • People Also Ask
  • Things to Know
  • Image Search box
  • Videos
  • Branded People Also Search For
  • LLM responses (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overview)

Wrapping Up

SEO today means shifting from being keyword-centric to a more holistic approach. Instead of researching keywords, focus on understanding and catering to the interests and needs of your target audience.

By focusing on semantics, entities, and relationships, (and by embracing AI tools) you can (even better) optimize your content to shine in both traditional search and the evolving landscape of LLM-powered search and content generation.

Read More:

• https://autonomoustech.ca/blog/beyond-keywords-llms-changing-seo
• https://www.lumar.io/blog/industry-news/ai-search-seo-for-llms-ai-overviews/

Article image thanks to Freepik: https://www.freepik.com/pikaso/ai-image-generator 21.03.2025.10:34