AI Search Optimisation
AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini are answering more questions before anyone clicks a link at all. Being the source they cite is a different battle to classic rankings, fought with different weapons — and most sites aren’t structured to win it yet.
We’ll check whether AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity currently cite you at all, then show you what’s stopping them.
A senior specialist will reply within one working day.
A growing share of searches now end inside an AI-generated answer. Ranking first in classic search results doesn’t guarantee the AI summarising those results chooses to quote you at all.
What AI search optimisation actually is
AI search optimisation, sometimes called answer engine optimisation or generative engine optimisation, is the practice of structuring and positioning content so AI-generated answers — Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and the rest — are more likely to cite your brand as a source, rather than simply ranking a page in a traditional results list.
It overlaps heavily with classic SEO, because a page an AI tool can’t crawl or render properly can’t be cited either, but it adds requirements classic SEO never had to worry about: clear entity identity, answer-first structuring, and content specific and original enough to be worth quoting directly rather than paraphrasing a dozen similar sources.
Nobody has this fully solved yet, including the platforms themselves, which are still actively changing how they select and display citations. We treat AI search optimisation as a genuinely new discipline worth real investment, built on the technical SEO fundamentals that still underpin it, rather than a repackaged sales pitch for the same work under a trendier name.
See it in the answer
The search box is disappearing — AI assistants are answering the question directly. This is what it looks like when they answer with you in it.
Illustrative AI-answer mockup in wtfont’s own design language — not a real AI assistant or client data.
Who it’s for
Plenty of brands with strong classic rankings have simply never tested whether ChatGPT, Perplexity or AI Overviews mention them at all. Often the answer is a surprise either way.
We analyse exactly what makes a competitor’s content more citable — structure, data, entity clarity — and apply those lessons to your own content.
Sites built mainly on informational search traffic are most exposed as AI answers increasingly satisfy that demand directly. Being the cited source becomes the whole game.
AI search behaviour is still evolving fast. Brands investing in the fundamentals now are building an advantage that will compound as AI search adoption keeps growing.
Our AI search optimisation services
AI tools tend to pull the clearest, most directly stated answer from a page, not the most eloquent one. We restructure key content so the direct answer appears early and clearly, with supporting detail and nuance following it, rather than making an AI tool work to extract the point from a long narrative build-up.
Content structured the way AI tools actually extract itAI systems work with entities, not just pages: who you are, what you offer, how you relate to other known entities in your industry. We strengthen that picture with Organization, Person and FAQPage schema, consistent naming and clear about and author information, so AI tools can place you correctly with confidence.
Being understood as a real entity, not just a webpageYou cannot improve what you cannot see. We run regular tracked queries against AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini to check whether, how and in what context your brand is actually being mentioned or cited, so progress is measured against real evidence, not assumption.
Knowing exactly where you stand across every major AI toolAI tools lean on sources that say something genuinely original: a specific statistic, a named expert, a first-hand result. We build content around real data and direct expertise rather than generic restatements of what every competitor already publishes, because that is what actually earns a citation over a dozen near-identical competitors.
Content worth quoting because it says something realAI crawlers like GPTBot and Google-Extended need to access and properly render your content just like a classic crawler does, and the same JavaScript rendering, robots.txt and crawl budget issues that hurt classic SEO can quietly keep you out of AI training and retrieval entirely. We audit and fix access for AI crawlers specifically.
Content Google and every AI tool can reliably crawl and parseAI tools that cite live web sources, rather than relying purely on training data, tend to favour content that is demonstrably current. We set up a genuine content refresh cadence for the pages most likely to be cited, with visible update dates and current data, rather than a one-off publish-and-forget approach.
Freshness signals that keep you in the rotation of sourcesOur process
Every stage is grounded in real tracked queries against actual AI tools, not theory about how they might work.
We run a set of real queries across AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini to see exactly where, if anywhere, you currently get cited or mentioned.
We check whether AI crawlers can access and parse your key pages, and whether your entity identity is clear enough for AI tools to place you correctly.
Priority content is rewritten answer-first, with structured data added, so the clearest, most citable version of the page is the one AI tools actually see.
New data, expert commentary and first-hand insight are developed specifically to give AI tools a reason to choose you over a dozen similar competitors.
Citation and brand mention tracking continues on an ongoing basis, because AI platforms change their selection behaviour often, sometimes month to month.
Why hire an AI search optimisation specialist
What you get
Here is exactly what lands in your inbox and your content plan, month by month.
And always: you keep full ownership of your content, structured data and tracking results throughout. No lock-in, ever.
Working together
We had no idea ChatGPT was never citing us until they showed us the gap.
They restructured our guides and Perplexity started quoting us directly.
Finally someone who could explain AI search without the hype.
Tools and tech
A mix of classic SEO tools and the newer platforms built specifically for tracking AI citations.
Beyond AI search optimisation
The crawl, rendering and indexation fundamentals that AI crawlers depend on just as much as classic search.
Long-form, original content built with the data and expertise that gives AI tools a genuine reason to cite you.
Earned coverage and brand mentions that increasingly feed directly into how AI tools judge brand credibility.
Product and category structured data that helps AI shopping assistants understand and surface a catalogue correctly.
Entity clarity and citation consistency that help AI tools correctly place a business within local search contexts.
Dashboards tying AI citation tracking to referral and brand search activity, not just classic organic traffic.
The bigger picture
The share of searches that end inside an AI-generated answer, rather than a traditional click to a website, has kept growing as AI Overviews expand and standalone AI assistants become a genuine first stop for research. A brand absent from those answers is becoming invisible for exactly the queries where buying decisions and brand perception are often formed.
AI platforms are still actively iterating on how they select citations, which outlets they trust more, and how heavily they weight freshness versus authority. That instability is a real opportunity: brands that build strong fundamentals now, rather than waiting for the rules to fully settle, tend to be better positioned whichever direction the specifics move next.
Entity-based understanding, where a search or AI system reasons about who and what you are rather than just which keywords a page contains, keeps becoming more central to how both classic and AI-powered search work. Clear, consistent entity signals are quietly becoming as important as traditional keyword relevance, if not more so.
None of this replaces classic SEO. It sits on top of it, which is exactly why a site with weak technical foundations should fix those first before investing heavily in AI-specific tactics. Get the fundamentals right, then build the content and structure that gives AI tools a genuine reason to choose you as the source worth quoting.
Who you’re working with
Every AI search optimisation account at wtfont. has one named lead who actively tracks and tests how AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini actually behave, not someone reciting secondhand theory from a conference talk. They own your citation tracking and content restructuring end to end.
Swap this block for the real person: their name, photo, hands-on AI search testing experience and a citation result they are proud of. In a field this new, showing genuine first-hand testing matters more than almost any credential.
AI search guide
Straight answers to the questions every buyer asks before investing in this still-new discipline.
No, though it depends heavily on SEO fundamentals. It adds specific requirements classic SEO never needed, like answer-first structuring and clear entity identity, that are about being chosen as a citation rather than ranking a result.
No one honestly can, because citation selection is controlled entirely by platforms that are still actively changing how it works. We can meaningfully improve your odds and track real progress against tracked baseline queries.
Not necessarily. We usually start by restructuring a focused set of high-opportunity pages rather than rewriting an entire site at once, then expand based on what the citation tracking data actually shows is working.
Through a consistent set of tracked real queries run against AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini each month, checking for citations, brand mentions and the context they appear in, not a proxy metric or vague confidence score.
FAQ
Answer-first content restructuring, entity clarity and structured data, technical readiness for AI crawlers, original data and expert content development, and ongoing citation and brand mention tracking across major AI tools.
Most engagements start with a baseline AI visibility audit, followed by an ongoing monthly retainer covering content restructuring and citation tracking. Pricing is scoped to the number of priority pages and the scale of tracking required.
Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini as standard, since those currently cover the large majority of AI search usage. We can add others on request as the landscape develops.
No, done properly it shouldn't. Most AI search optimisation work, like answer-first structuring and entity clarity, tends to help classic SEO as well, since both ultimately reward clear, well-structured, genuinely useful content.
Google's AI Overviews can reflect content changes within weeks, since they draw heavily on the live web. Standalone AI assistants trained periodically on broader web data can take longer to reflect changes, sometimes months, depending on the platform.
Yes. In some ways a smaller, well-structured content set focused on genuinely original insight can outperform a larger site of generic, repetitive pages when it comes to earning AI citations.
Very much so. B2B buyers increasingly research using AI tools before ever speaking to a salesperson, which makes being the cited source for category and comparison questions a real competitive advantage.
No. AI search optimisation work is monthly with no lock-in, because this is a fast-moving field and we would rather keep proving results every month than rely on a long contract.
This page covers AI-specific citation and entity work. Our full SEO service adds technical SEO, content and digital PR for a complete organic strategy that AI search optimisation builds directly on top of.
From the blog
Guides and playbooks from the team. Placeholder titles, link them to your posts.
The structural and content patterns we’ve seen show up repeatedly.
Why being a clearly defined entity matters as much as keywords now.
A practical before-and-after approach to answer-first writing.
What each AI crawler accesses, and how to check if yours is blocked.
Let’s talk
30 minutes with a senior AI search specialist. No pitch deck, no obligation. Hang up anytime.
A senior strategist will reply within one working day.
Trusted with what comes next
Brands getting ahead
of the AI search shift
From SaaS companies checking if ChatGPT even knows they exist to finance brands restructured for Perplexity citations, we help businesses stay visible as more search moves inside AI-generated answers.
- Senior specialists tracking real AI tool behaviour
- Technical SEO foundations, not shortcuts
- Honest reporting on what’s proven versus emerging
Talk to our AI search teamSome of the brands we grow
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