This content outlines a comprehensive strategy for optimizing websites to rank in AI-generated search results, such as Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT, demonstrating a significant increase in AI traffic for a client.
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I spent the last six months trying to
figure out how to get websites featured
in Google's AI overviews, ChatGpt, and
every other AI search results. And I'm
afraid to say Iinging cracked it. One
client's AI traffic shot up over 2,000%
and they now appear in over 90 AI
overviews compared to zero before.
In this video, I'm going to show you how
to identify all the AI opportunities in
your niche, how to optimize your site to
show up in them, and how to track your
AI traffic so you're drowning in
dopamine every time you open analytics.
My name is Matt Diggity. I'm the
director of the Search Initiative, a
worldrenowned SEO agency managing some
of the biggest brands on the internet.
And today, I'm going to show you how
we're now doing SEO in the age of AI.
Let me first give you a quick background
on what this client was dealing with.
Imagine you run a website for a quality
brand. You're like the BMW of your
industry, but you don't show up in any
AI search results. Not Google, not Chad
GBT, nothing. Meanwhile, your
competitors with 1997 whatever mobile
websites are teaagging you and
dominating all these AI searches. Our
customer was frustrated. It would be
like your grandma knowing how to out SEO
you. With all due respect for grandma,
we couldn't let that happen. Now, before
I get started, quick heads up. My
agency, The Search Initiative, is now
taking on a handful of new clients. If
you want results like this, we're
offering $1,000 off month one in
exchange for a testimonial down the
road. Just head on over to the
searchinitiative.com, put your deets
into the form, and we'll hit you up. All
right, let's get cooking. So, why would
you want to optimize your website for AI
anyways? Because not too long ago, when
fine cultured people would search for
something like premium Japanese whisies,
they'd get served a set of websites from
Google. And if you were the number one
mofos like uisuki.com here, then you
were like, I'm rich. But now the search
result looks like this where AI
overviews are summarizing the answer.
There's links over on the right but no
link to our tomodachi that means friend
in Japanese. Usuki AI SEO is not only
about getting your brand featured in the
link section of the AI overviews. You
also want to show up in chat GBT. Usuki
is number one on freaking Google for its
coveted keyword but not even listed here
for online whiskey retailers in chat
GBT. So how do you get into the AI
answers? Think of it like this. If the
AI uses you to come up with its answer,
then it's likely to link to you. So, the
name of the game is to do all the things
that make the AI want to use your
content. But where do we begin? First,
you need to figure out all the AI
opportunities in your niche so you can
target them and optimize for them. HRS
recently launched a new tool called
Brand Radar. It lets you find out what
AI is saying about your brand. Enter
your brand name, product, or service and
hit enter. I like to add my brand plus
some competitors to see how I'm doing
against them and what AI answers I need
to steal. Once you hit explore, you can
see the number of mentions of your brand
versus your competition. Scrolling down
further, here's where you'll find which
AI keywords mention you or your
competitors. If you want to see which
keywords your competitors have and you
don't, then set up a filter like you see
here. And then voila, here we go. Now
for the meat and potatoes. For the last
6 months, I've tested countless AI SEO
theories. Here are the 12 most impactful
tactics that you can use to make sure
your website is featured in AI. Let's
start with how to relearn your content
strategy. The first tactic is to make
sure your content is direct and concise
and not fart around the answer with
fluff. Here's the AI overview for do
heat pumps work in water. The top Google
results are actually from the sites
Heatable and the Guardian, but they're
not mentioned in the AI overview. in the
Heatable article. Yes, it's very cute
that they use language like when the
Earth goes cold, we're likely to start
seeing pigs fly, but AI don't play that
game. Instead, let's look at Ira's
article, who actually did get the AI
overview link. Language like works
exactly the same way in Winter is more
confident and direct and immediately
answers the question. Next, be
conversational in the tone of your
content. AI powered search isn't based
on keywords like the old days of Google.
It relies on how people actually speak.
If you search for a keyword like
15minute home workout, surprise, no AI
overview. But if you search, what's a
quick 15-minute workout I can do at home
without equipment? Sure enough, AI
overview. So, to get picked up for these
AI queries, you need to write
conversationally and not robotically.
Next, headings. You know, H1's, H2s, and
so forth play a ridiculously important
role in how AI systems understand your
content. Here's how to think about them.
H1, use a single H1 for the main title
of your page. H2. Use H2 tags for major
sections or questions. H3. Use H3s for
sub points or nested ideas within an H2
section. For example, here's a heading
structure for an article on cloud
hosting. Mailchimp has an article about
when to post on Instagram with a
designated H2 for posting on Sundays.
Sure enough, it was picked up in the AI
overview for should I post on Instagram
on Sundays. After that, and this one is
super easy, add a TLDDR summary at the
beginning of your article. Providing a
brief TLDDR, too long, didn't read,
helps readers and AI quickly grasp the
key points on your page. Alternatively,
you can include a key takeaway section,
which AI also really likes to site. Now,
before I go on, here's one thing that
you really need to know. All the AI bots
need to trust you, your brand, your
company, your reputation, if they're
going to site you. So, let's get into
some AI SEO tactics around brand and
reputation. Start to regularly check AI
platforms for what it knows and thinks
about your brand. Some prompts you can
use are, "What can you tell me about my
brand?" and "What does my brand do?"
Here's an example of what would come up
in chat GBT. If you see anything that's
wrong or inaccurate here, you need to
take action in this next step. Take
control of your brand narrative. LLMs
learn about your business and its
reputation from the following places:
Google Business Profile, Yelp, LinkedIn,
Trust Pilot, and so forth. Make sure
you've claimed these listings and their
information matches your website's about
and FAQ pages and the reviews. Bro, do
everything you can to maintain a high
star rating. The number of reviews and
average rating has a stupid amount of
control over your AI SEO rankings. And
don't just collect reviews on these
profiles. Highlight them visibly on your
website. Next is an industry secret that
every OG SEO knows. If you want to
improve your website's trust and
reputation in Google's eyes, get
high-quality links from relative
domains. The oldest story in SEO.
Backlinks from reputable sites act as
trust signals for both users and AI
systems. Now, this isn't a paid promo.
In fact, they don't know I'm dropping
this at all, but these days, I've been
getting high authority links from simply
media.digital. The quality for price is
just way too good. Now that you've
convinced Google to trust your brand, we
still need to make sure that they trust
your content, the stuff you write. If
you think about how AI systems work,
they dump out a bunch of information and
they site the content they use so you
can trust it. You need to do the same
thing. Use credible sources and provide
links to them. You also want to publish
expert-driven content. Use quotes from
experts to salt bay a dusting of trust
to your content and include author bios
with credentials on each of your
articles. Speaking of credentials, if
your business has any industry
certifications or awards, list them on
your site. If you're a Michelin star
restaurant, you'd have to be smoking
crack not to display it. Next, it's not
just enough to say that you're an
expert. You have to actually show it. Do
that with case studies, real world
examples, client success stories, and
original research. This not only adds
credibility, but signals to AI systems
and Google that your content
demonstrates firstirhand experience and
proven results. That's exactly the kind
of content that AIdriven systems are
designed to highlight. Now, for the most
important step of all, I'll quote the
business legend Peter Ducker, "If you
can't measure it, you can't improve it."
You must track your AI traffic in Google
Analytics 4. Navigate to reports,
acquisition, traffic acquisition. This
is where you'll find your general
traffic stats. Then click add comparison
at the top. Add a filter for only
referral traffic. Then under dimension,
search for session source/medium.
Yes, I know analytics has the user
experience of a medieval torture
chamber, but we're almost done. Under
match type, select matches reax and then
paste this big ass regular expression,
which is also in the description. With
any luck, you'll have some AI traffic.
You can see what platforms it came from
and what pages on your site it's going
to. So, what was the result of all this
effort? 2,300% increase in AI referral
traffic. The client site is appearing
for 90 keywords and AI overviews
compared to zero before the campaign.
And yes, their typical Google SEO
traffic took off, too. If you'd like us
to take a look at your SEO, head on over
to the searchinitiative.com and use the
form at the bottom to reach out. That's
it. We'd be happy to take a look at your
site. Let you know what we can do for
you. $1,000 off your first month until
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