AI search is no longer a future concern. ChatGPT (with Browse), Claude (with web search), Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews already drive measurable traffic to ecommerce and content sites. The pages that get cited follow a different playbook than classic SEO — one built on textual context, structured data, and specificity.

This guide ranks the signals that matter, gives you a 30-day implementation plan, and shows what to skip.

Key Takeaways

• AI search reads textual context, not pixels. Alt text, schema, and paragraph specificity dominate.
• Most signals overlap with classic SEO. Most of your existing investment translates.
• The biggest gap is specificity — generic content doesn't get cited.
• Authoritative authorship and named expertise matter more than they did pre-AI.
• FAQ and structured Q&A formats are disproportionately favored.

AI Search Signals, Ranked

1. Specific, descriptive page text. Generic "high-quality" / "innovative" copy doesn't get cited. Concrete attributes do.
2. Alt text on every image. AI assistants read it as primary image context.
3. Schema markup. Product, FAQPage, Article, HowTo. Each tells the AI what kind of content this is.
4. Author / authority signals. Named authors, credentials, "About" pages, links from authoritative sources.
5. FAQ blocks. Direct-answer-format content gets cited disproportionately.
6. Page freshness. Recent updates on evergreen content matter more for AI than classic SEO.
7. Internal linking. Topical clusters help AI map content relationships.
8. Open Graph imagery. Used for the preview thumbnail in AI responses.
9. Filename and URL specificity. Lower leverage but free.
10. EXIF / pixel-level data. Largely ignored by today's AI assistants.

30-Day Implementation Plan

Week 1: Audit

• Free accessibility crawl to count missing alt text.
• Run schema validator (https://validator.schema.org) on your top 10 pages.
• Manually query ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for the queries you want to rank for. Do they cite you? If not, who do they cite?

Week 2: Fill the alt text gap

• For sites with under 100 missing alts: write them by hand.
• For sites with hundreds or thousands: automate via AltText.ai or a similar tool.
• Multilingual sites: generate alt text in your top three languages.

Week 3: Schema upgrade

• Add Product schema to every product page (with image array, offers, aggregateRating if real).
• Add FAQPage schema to pages with question-answer structure.
• Add Article schema with named author on blog posts.
• Validate at https://search.google.com/test/rich-results.

Week 4: Specificity sweep

• Audit top 20 pages for vague claims ("high-quality", "innovative", "best-in-class") — replace with concrete attributes.
• Add author bylines and brief credentials where missing.
• Update "Last reviewed" dates on evergreen content.

What to Skip

• Stuffing keywords for AI. Same penalty as classic SEO. AI detects unnatural phrasing.
• Buying brand mentions on AI-listed sites. Sketchy and non-durable; AI assistants update their training and citation patterns.
• Building a "GEO-only" content strategy separate from SEO. 80% overlap. Don't fork.
• Optimizing EXIF data. Negligible leverage.
• "AI-generated" content for the sake of volume. AI assistants down-rank obvious AI content. Voice and originality matter.

How Each AI Platform Differs (Briefly)

• ChatGPT (Browse): reads HTML deeply, prefers structured data, cites specific URLs. Heavy on alt text. See Optimize Images for ChatGPT.
• Claude (web search): similar pattern; slightly more weight on freshness for time-sensitive queries.
• Perplexity: citation-first design, surfaces multiple sources per answer; rewards diverse, specific content.
• Google AI Overviews: derived from Google's regular index; classic SEO + structured data dominates.

Measuring AI Visibility

Three tactics:

1. Manual sampling. Run your top queries through each AI assistant monthly. Track citation appearance over time.
2. Referral logs. Watch for chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, claude.ai referrers in analytics.
3. Specialized tools. Profound and Otterly track brand mentions in AI assistants at scale.

Related

• Image SEO for AI Search (GEO)
• Optimize Images for ChatGPT
• LLM Image Descriptions Best Practices
• What Is Alt Text?