Generative AI SEO Strategy: How to Rank in Google AI Overviews & ChatGPT

The game has changed. For 20 years, SEO was about ranking 10 blue links. In 2025, the search result is a single, AI-generated answer. Whether it’s Google AI Overviews (SGE), ChatGPT Search, or Perplexity, the user behavior is shifting from “Searching” to “Asking.”

To survive, you must pivot from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization). The goal is no longer just a click; it is a citation. You want the AI to read your content, trust it, and use it to construct its answer.

This guide reveals the technical and content strategies required to become a “Source of Truth” for the AI models, ensuring your brand remains visible in the Zero-Click era.

The Shift: From “Keywords” to “Information Gain”

AI models are trained on the internet. They have already read the generic “Beginner’s Guide to X” 10,000 times. They don’t cite generic content. They cite Information Gain.

  • Definition: New, unique information that does not exist elsewhere in the model’s training data.
  • The Strategy: Stop writing “What is X?” posts. Start writing “My experiment with X yielded Y results” posts.
  • Action: Every article must have:
    1. Original Data: A survey, a test, or internal metrics.
    2. Contrarian Opinion: “Why everyone is wrong about X.”
    3. Personal Experience: “How we failed at X.”

Optimizing for Google AI Overviews (SGE)

Google’s AI Snapshot appears at the top. It pushes organic results down. How do you get inside the snapshot?

1. The “Answer Engine” Formatting

AI bots are lazy readers. They prefer structured data.

  • The Tactic: Use the “Inverted Pyramid” style.
    • Top of Post: Direct Answer (2-3 sentences). “The best time to post on LinkedIn is Tuesday at 9 AM because…”
    • Middle: Nuance and Data.
    • Bottom: Examples.
  • The Tech: Use clear H2s that sound like questions. Use Bullet Points for lists. AI loves extracting lists.

2. Entity Authority (Become an Entity)

Google’s Knowledge Graph needs to know who you are.

  • The Tactic: Strengthen your “About” page. Link to your LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and guest posts.
  • Schema Markup: Use “Organization” and “Person” schema. Tell Google: “Kamal is an Expert in AI.” If Google trusts the entity, it trusts the content.

Optimizing for “Chat Search” (ChatGPT / Perplexity)

Users are asking ChatGPT: “Who is the best AI agency in Morocco?” You want it to say You.

1. Digital PR & Brand Mentions

LLMs learn from “Co-occurrence.” If your brand name appears frequently alongside words like “Best AI Agency” on other authoritative sites (Forbes, TechCrunch, Niche Blogs), the model associates them.

  • Action: Get interviewed on podcasts. Write guest posts. The more the web talks about you, the more the AI knows you.

2. The “Citation” Loop

Perplexity cites sources. It prefers sources that are:

  • Recent: (Update your content date).
  • Fast: (Site speed matters).
  • Cited by others: (Backlinks still matter).

Measuring Success: “Share of Model”

You can’t track “Rankings” in ChatGPT easily. You track “Share of Model.”

  • The Metric: How often does the AI mention your brand when asked about your category?
  • The Test: Prompt different models weekly: “What are the top tools for X?” Record if you are listed.
  • The Goal: Increase your frequency of mention through high-quality, widely distributed content.

Content Refresh Workflows: Keeping the AI Updated

AI models have a “Knowledge Cutoff,” but Search-connected AIs (like Copilot and Gemini) read the live web. They prioritize freshness.

The “Decay” Protocol

  • The Problem: An article written in 2023 about “Best AI Tools” is useless in 2025. AI will ignore it.
  • The Workflow: Set up a 90-day review cycle for your core “Money Pages.”
  • The Action:
    1. Update the “Last Updated” date.
    2. Add a “2025 Update” section at the top.
    3. Remove dead tools/links.
    4. Add recent statistics (AI loves citing numbers from the current year).

Google SGE and multimodal models are increasingly showing video snippets as answers.

YouTube as an SEO Engine

  • The Shift: AI reads video transcripts.
  • The Tactic: Create a YouTube video for every major blog post. Embed it at the top.
  • Why:
    1. It increases “Dwell Time” (a signal of quality).
    2. It gives the AI a second format to digest.
    3. Google SGE often features a “Videos” carousel. If you have the video, you take up double the screen real estate (Text + Video).

Technical SEO for AI Bots

If the bot can’t crawl you, it can’t cite you.

1. Blocking vs. Allowing AI Scrapers

  • The Dilemma: Should you block GPTBot (OpenAI’s scraper) via robots.txt?
  • The Answer: No. If you block them, they can’t train on your content. If they can’t train on you, they won’t know you exist. You want to be in the brain of the AI. Allow the bots.

2. Schema Markup (The Language of AI)

  • Action: Use JSON-LD Schema for everything.
    • Article
    • FAQPage
    • HowTo
    • Product
  • Why: Schema feeds the AI structured facts. It removes ambiguity. “This is a price.” “This is a rating.”

The “Zero-Click” Mindset

Accept that traffic might go down, but quality will go up.

  • The Reality: Users will get the answer from the AI and leave.
  • The Pivot: Optimize for the users who do click. They are looking for deep dives, templates, or consulting.
  • Conversion: Move your Call-to-Action (CTA) up. Don’t bury your lead magnet at the bottom. Put it in the first 20%.

FAQ: AI SEO Strategy

Q: Will SEO die in 2025?
A: No. It will evolve. People still search. But “low-effort” SEO (spammy affiliate sites) will die. “High-Expertise” SEO will thrive because AI needs sources.

Q: How do I get into Google’s AI Overview?
A: There is no “Submit” button. You get in by ranking in the top 5 organic results and having a clean, structured “Answer” format (Direct answer + list) that the AI can easily scrape.

Q: Does bounce rate matter to AI?
A: Indirectly. If users click your link from the AI answer and immediately leave, Google learns your source wasn’t helpful and might remove you from the snapshot.

Q: Should I use AI to write my SEO content?
A: Yes, but use the human-in-the-loop workflow. Pure AI content rarely offers the “Information Gain” needed to rank in SGE. Use AI for structure, human for insight.