The Complete Guide to AI SEO: How to Rank in Google and AI Search
Table of Contents
Michele Biaso
Founder, Imagine Social
Published Feb. 14, 2026
Last year, we built a website for a brand new apartment building in downtown Oklahoma City. No existing digital footprint. No domain history. No backlink profile. Nothing.
Within days, that site was sitting in a top position on page one of Google and ranking in AI search conversations for its market.
That is not supposed to happen. Not in a competitive metro market where established brands have been investing in SEO for years. But it did. And it keeps happening across every industry we work in.
I get asked some version of the same question at least five times a week: how do I rank in AI and Google now? And my answer is always the same. Stop listening to the flood of advice on social media. Most of what you are seeing about AI SEO is wrong, and the people sharing it have never ranked anything.
This guide is everything I know about how search actually works right now. Not theory. Not what someone on LinkedIn told you. This is what we do every day to get real businesses ranked in Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, voice assistants, and every other place people look for answers.
How Search Engine Optimization Actually Works Now
For years, SEO was straightforward. Find a keyword. Write a page. Hope you show up. That approach is over.
AI runs the results now. Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, voice assistants. These systems are not counting how many times you used a keyword. They are evaluating whether your content is trustworthy, whether your brand has real authority on the subject, and whether your answers are structured clearly enough to be cited in a generated response.
If your content reads like it was written to game an algorithm, it will not get cited. It will not get surfaced. It will sit there and do nothing for you.
Understanding how these systems evaluate content is the foundation of everything else in this guide.
The Five SEO Factors That Determine Your Search Visibility
There are five factors that matter more than anything else in modern search.
1. Topical authority
One blog post on a subject does not make you an authority. A system of interconnected guides, pages, and FAQs that cover every angle of a subject does. That is what AI recognizes. That is what Google rewards. Search engines look at whether your entire site demonstrates depth on a topic, not whether a single page mentions the right phrase.
This is the concept behind a content engine. You build a hub page that covers the broad topic. You create supporting pages that go deep on specific subtopics. You connect them with internal links. Over time, that structure tells every search system that you own that subject.
2. Entity recognition
Search engines do not just read words on your page. They build a map of entities: people, brands, organizations, places, concepts, and the relationships between them. When your brand is consistently associated with a topic across your website, your social profiles, your Google Business Profile, and third-party mentions, search engines start to treat you as a known entity in that space.
This matters because AI search systems pull answers from sources they consider established authorities. If your brand is not recognized as an entity tied to your subject, you are invisible to those systems regardless of how good your content is.
Dive Deeper: Beyond SEO Backlinks: How AI Search Ranks Authority
3. Content structure and citability
AI platforms do not read your content the way a human does. They break it into chunks, evaluate whether each chunk answers a specific question, and decide whether that chunk is clear enough to cite in a generated response.
This means your content needs to be written so that individual paragraphs can stand on their own. Each section should answer a specific question. Each answer should be 40 to 60 words, which is the range that AI systems tend to extract and cite. If your content is one long wall of text with no clear structure, AI has nothing to grab.
4. Consistency across your digital footprint
Search engines and AI platforms do not just look at your website. They look at everything: your Google Business Profile, your social media accounts, your directory listings, review sites, and anywhere your brand name appears. If the information across those sources is inconsistent, outdated, or contradictory, it erodes trust.
A business that has one address on Google, a different phone number on Yelp, an outdated bio on LinkedIn, and a website that tells a different story than all of them is a business that search engines hesitate to recommend. Consistency is a trust signal. AI systems weigh it heavily.
5. Proof and credibility signals
Google calls this E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. AI search systems use similar evaluation criteria even if they do not use that exact label. They look for named authors with verifiable credentials. They look for real reviews with dates and attributable sources. They look for case studies with specific numbers. They look for awards, publications, and third-party mentions.
If your website does not have a real about page, real team bios, real reviews, and real proof that you have done the work, you are not meeting the credibility threshold that modern search requires.
Why Keywords Are Not a Strategy Anymore
Keywords still matter as signals. They tell search engines what general subject your content covers. But they are no longer what ranks you.
Think about it from the search engine's perspective. If someone asks ChatGPT for the best real estate agent in Raleigh, that system is not looking for the page that says "best real estate agent in Raleigh" the most times. It is looking for the source that has the most depth, the most credibility, and the clearest answers about real estate in that market.
Keywords are the door. Your content is the house. Without the house, the door does not lead anywhere.
What works now is building content around topics, not single phrases. That means writing the way your audience actually asks questions, not the way a keyword tool tells you to write. It means creating depth that covers a subject from multiple angles so search systems recognize you as the source worth citing.
The businesses still chasing individual keywords are the ones wondering why they are invisible. The businesses building interconnected content systems are the ones showing up everywhere.
Dive Deeper: The End of SEO Keywords as We Know Them
The Role of Backlinks in AI Search
Backlinks used to be the single most important ranking factor. If a high-authority site linked to you, Google boosted your rankings. Agencies built entire businesses around acquiring links. Some still do.
Backlinks still carry weight. They are still a signal of authority. But in AI search, they are only one piece of a much larger picture.
AI systems also evaluate brand mentions that do not include a hyperlink. If your brand gets referenced by name in credible sources, that builds entity authority even without a clickable link. They evaluate whether your content is structured well enough that an answer engine can pull from it and cite it in a summary. They evaluate whether your information appears consistently in the places AI checks for context.
The biggest shift is this: AI search rewards brands that are talked about across the web, not just brands that have links pointing to them. Mentions, citations, reviews, social signals, and consistent presence all feed into the authority equation.
This does not mean you should ignore link building. It means you should stop treating it as your entire strategy and start building the broader authority signals that AI search actually weights.
Dive Deeper: Beyond SEO Backlinks: How AI Search Ranks Authority
Voice Search and AI Search: The Same Optimization
Think about how you search now compared to five years ago. Most people are no longer typing broken keyword phrases into Google. They are speaking full questions to Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. They are typing full sentences into ChatGPT and Perplexity.
"Where is a good dentist near me that takes Delta Dental and has Saturday hours?"
That is a real search query. And the content that gets surfaced as the answer has to be written the way real people talk, cover the question with enough depth to be useful, and be structured clearly enough that a machine can extract the answer.
This is where voice search and AI search collide. Voice search uses natural, spoken language. AI search delivers conversational answers. Both depend on the same content qualities: clear question-and-answer structure, conversational phrasing, and enough specificity to match what someone actually asked.
When you optimize your content for one, you are optimizing for both. That is not a coincidence. That is how you build a system that compounds visibility across every platform.
Dive Deeper: How Voice Search and AI Search Collide in Modern SEO
Structured Data and Schema Markup: The Technical Layer
Schema markup is code that tells search engines what your content actually is. Without it, a search engine sees text on a page. With it, that text is identified as a review, a FAQ, an author bio, or a business listing.
It matters for AI search because structured data makes your content easier for AI platforms to parse and cite. But this is not a case where more is better. Google penalizes sites that overuse schema, apply it where it does not belong, or mark up content that does not match what is actually on the page. Used correctly, it helps. Used carelessly, it hurts.
The right approach is applying schema accurately to the content that genuinely exists on each page, not forcing it onto every page hoping for a boost. The technical details of which types to use and where belong with your developer or SEO team.
The Outdated SEO Tactics That Will Actively Hurt You
I could write an entire book on what people are still doing that does not work. Here is the short version based on what we see every time a new client comes to us from another agency.
Keyword stuffing. Still happening. Still getting penalized. Buying backlinks from link farms. Still getting sites flagged. Relying on exact match domains instead of building a real brand. Publishing AI-generated content with no human review, no voice training, and no quality control. Cloaking. Duplicate content across multiple pages hoping one will stick.
Guest blogging purely for links with no actual value in the content. Ignoring mobile usability. Ignoring local SEO. And the single most common one: publishing disconnected blog posts with no topical structure connecting them to anything.
Every one of these tactics is still being sold by agencies and people calling themselves experts. That is why I say we need to normalize asking for a resume before trusting someone with your brand. These tactics can damage your deliverability, your search visibility, your algorithm standing, and your reputation. I see it constantly.
Dive Deeper: SEO Tips: The Outdated Tactics You Should Abandon Today
Why Your Website Is Not Showing Up in AI Search
This is the second most common question I get, right after how to rank. And the answer is almost always the same: your website was built for how search used to work, not how it works now.
AI search platforms pull answers from content that is clear, structured, and authoritative. If your website is a static brochure with a homepage, an about page, and a contact form, there is nothing for AI to cite. If your blog is a collection of random posts with no topical structure, AI does not recognize you as an authority on anything. If your content does not have FAQ sections, schema markup, and clear question-and-answer formatting, voice assistants cannot find you.
The fix is not a tweak. It is a structural change in how your content is organized, connected, and presented. That is exactly what a content engine does. It takes your website from a static brochure that nobody finds into a resource that gets cited, linked, and recommended by the platforms your buyers are using.
The Receipts
I do not ask anyone to trust me without proof. Here is what our system produces for real clients.
New apartment building, Oklahoma City
Brand new site with no existing digital footprint. We built a Content Engine website and aligned every search and local signal. The property ranked in a top position on page one of Google within days. AI search visibility went from zero to number one in the Oklahoma City market. 29 leases signed in January, which was the property's best month ever during the industry's slowest leasing period. 3,365 organic clicks in the first few months, equivalent to over $6,200 in paid search value and compounding monthly.
Realtor in a saturated market
Solo realtor competing against national brands with massive budgets. We built a Content Engine website with hyper-local content mapped to real buyer and seller questions. Within weeks, this agent ranked number one in AI answers for first-time home buyer queries in his market. Top AI placement for "how to choose a real estate agent." Page one Google visibility for valuation and move-related searches. Over 1,090 AI user queries tracked in 30 days, outranking national brokerages.
SEO Tips you need to do right now
If you have read this far, you already know your current approach to search is not built for where things are going. Here is what I would do if I were starting from scratch today.
Audit your content
Look at everything you have published. Is it connected? Does it build authority around a specific topic? Or is it a random collection of pages and posts with no structure tying them together? If it is the second one, that is your problem.
Figure out what your audience is actually searching for
Not keywords. Questions. What are they typing into Google? What are they asking ChatGPT? What are they saying to Siri? Those questions should be the foundation of every piece of content you create.
Look at your website structure
Do you have FAQ sections on your pages? Is your content organized into topic clusters? Are your guides linking to supporting posts and vice versa? Is there schema markup on your key pages? If not, search engines and AI platforms have no reason to recognize you as an authority.
Check your entire digital footprint
Is your information consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, social media, directories, and review sites? If someone Googles your brand name, does every result tell the same story? Inconsistency erodes trust with every search platform.
Decide whether to build it yourself or hire someone who has done it
You can learn these principles, and we teach them. But building a full content engine requires deep audience research, topical mapping, voice training, schema implementation, and ongoing optimization. Most businesses do not have the time or the specialized expertise to do it all in house. That is why agencies like ours exist.
If you want us to build the system for you, that is what we do. We map the conversations, train AI on your voice, build the topical architecture, optimize for every form of search, and amplify across every platform.
Start with a free strategy call or get a free SEO audit.
FAQ: AI SEO and Modern Search
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO is the practice of optimizing your content to rank in AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and voice assistants in addition to traditional Google results. It requires topical authority, structured content, schema markup, and content systems instead of one-off blog posts.
Is traditional SEO dead?
No. Google is not going anywhere. But traditional SEO alone is not enough. The businesses winning search right now combine traditional fundamentals with AI search optimization, voice search formatting, and content systems that build authority over time. You need both.
What is generative engine optimization?
Generative engine optimization is the practice of structuring your content so AI systems can understand it, trust it, and cite it when generating answers to user questions. It goes beyond traditional SEO by focusing on citability, content structure, and authority signals that AI platforms evaluate when choosing sources.
About the Author
Michele Biaso is President and CEO of Imagine Social AI and founder of Girl's Guide to AI. She has over 25 years of experience in digital marketing, AI strategy, and journalism. She has built strategies for professional athletes, national brands, and local businesses. Her AI education content has generated more than 13 million views across platforms.
Case study: Ranking a client at the top of Google & AI search
This client launched with real demand, but almost no digital visibility. Prospects were searching non-branded terms in Google, AI tools, and map apps, and the property wasn’t showing up where decisions were being made.
We rebuilt the foundation around a Content Engine website and aligned search and local signals so verified information showed up consistently across the places people actually look.
Results included:
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Page one rankings within days of launch
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Position 1 for non-branded renter searches
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Website sessions up 83% and Google Business calls up 157% in the target area
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