AI search optimization
Getting cited inside the answer
A growing share of searches now end with an answer rather than a list of links. Being the source that answer quotes is a different discipline from ranking, and most agencies have not started on it.
When somebody asks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity or Copilot for a recommendation, the model assembles an answer from sources it retrieved. If your business is not in that retrieval, you are not in the consideration set at all. There is no second page to be on.
The signals that get a page retrieved and cited overlap with classic SEO, but they are not identical. Models favor content that answers a question cleanly in its own words, that is structured unambiguously, that comes from an entity they can resolve confidently, and that is available as plain server rendered HTML.
That last one quietly disqualifies a lot of modern sites. Most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript. If your content only appears after a script executes, it does not exist to them.
What is included
The actual scope of work
Baseline visibility testing
What the major assistants currently say when asked about your category in your market, and who they cite instead of you.
Answer shaped content
Pages that state the answer directly and early, in language a model can lift cleanly, before going into the depth a human reader wants.
Entity clarity
A connected schema graph and consistent naming across the web so a model can resolve who you are without guessing.
Crawlability for AI agents
Server rendered HTML, sane robots directives, and an llms.txt that describes the site in plain language.
Citation worthy material
Original data, specific numbers and firsthand experience. Models cite sources that say something the other twenty results did not.
Ongoing measurement
Re-testing the same prompts over time, because this moves faster than anything else in search right now.
Worth knowing
Why this site is built the way it is
Every page here is server rendered plain HTML. There is no JavaScript framework between a crawler and the content. The schema is a connected graph rather than disconnected snippets. There is an llms.txt at the root.
That is not a coincidence. It is the same work I would do on your site, done on mine first, and it is checkable.
Questions
Asked often enough
Is this just SEO with a new name?
It shares roots but the outputs differ. A page can rank fourth and never be cited, or be cited constantly while ranking eighth. They are measured separately because they behave separately.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend me?
No, and nobody can. What can be done is making your business the most retrievable, best structured, most clearly attributed option in your category, then measuring whether citations increase.
Is it worth doing yet?
For most South Florida small businesses the honest answer is that it is worth doing because it is cheap to do alongside normal SEO, and because nobody local is doing it yet.
Related
Usually run alongside this
Technical SEO
Crawlability, indexation, page speed, schema and site architecture. The unglamorous back end work that decides whether any of your other marketing spend can actually pay off.
Link building
Earned links and digital PR for South Florida businesses. No private blog networks, no bulk directory submissions, nothing that gets your domain filtered out eighteen months from now.
Web design and development
Custom WordPress themes written from nothing, for small businesses across South Florida who are tired of a site that loads slowly and cannot be changed without breaking something.
Further reading
Written on this specifically
Start here
Tell me what you are trying to fix
Send over the site you have now, or the one you wish you had. I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.
info@palmprojects.com