People are using AI tools to find answers to everyday questions. If you’ve ever looked up restaurants on vacation or searched for an out-of-the-way adventure, AI might have helped bring that business or experience to your attention. But now you’re realizing that you need AI to find your business.
AI is the new search bar
People are using tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude to find answers to super specific questions. These days you no longer have to search Google for “the best running shoes.” You can search for “the best supportive running shoes for women over age 40 with flat feet”, and actually get a result customized to your question. But how do you get your business mentioned in those detailed searches when AI can’t even read your site?
AI does NOT search the same way as your old search engine
Good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has always been about clear, helpful, well-organized content. Fortunately, AI search still rewards that. But it has a more sophisticated understanding of what the searcher actually wants. What has changed is that AI search can better understand the intent of the person looking for the answer. Your website, with its legacy structure, is nearly invisible to today’s new AI search tools. Let’s talk about what needs to happen to make your business AI-friendly in 2026.
It Comes Back to Good Old-Fashioned SEO
Who is doing SEO well? Turns out, not many of us. Most websites developed in drag-and-drop builders are missing the basic building blocks of good SEO. Think of SEO as the road signs for the highway that is AI search. These directional markers are not visible to us humans, but they are visible to the AI. And just like cars traveling on a freeway will miss a restaurant without a billboard, your website’s content is not being seen by AI search.
Let’s talk jargon for a moment
There are some new words you need to learn. To make your site visible to AI search you need to know about:
Schema – Tags added to your website’s HTML to help search engines quickly understand various sections of your website.
H1, H2, and H3 tags – The H stands for “Headline”. Your H1 is the main topic of the page. Your H2s are the big supporting sections. Your H3s break those down further.
Slug – This is the last part of a web address such as mysite.com/this-is-the-slug
What’s broken on your site right now
The schema problem
Schema are tags added to your website’s HTML that help Google and AI search quickly understand what each section of your website is about. This is standardized across all search engines. Let’s go back to our highway analogy – if your FAQ section isn’t labeled with the right schema, AI search doesn’t even realize it’s an FAQ. Remember those cars are racing down the freeway and they don’t have time to check out your FAQ diner without a billboard telling them it is there. That is why you might have a fantastic answer to a problem that your customers really want to know about, but it isn’t getting picked up by AI search.
The heading tag problem
H1, H2, and H3 tags provide context to the hierarchy of content for both humans AND search engines. When those tags are missing, out of order, or misused, it’s like handing someone a book with no chapter titles, no paragraphs, and no table of contents. Good luck finding anything.
The H1 and slug problem
Your H1 tag is the main headline of a page. Your slug is the last part of your web address. For AI search to work, those two things HAVE TO match. If your page headline says “Case Studies” but your web address reads mywebsite.com/examples, that mismatch confuses both Google and AI search. Seeing two different things, AI search doesn’t know which one to believe. This quietly tanks your rankings for both topics. To be correct, a website named “Case Studies” on the webpage should read as mywebsite.com/case-studies in the URL.
What should I be doing to fix my website?
There’s good news! You don’t have to be a developer to start getting this right. Many of the common problems are fixable without rebuilding your whole site. Small structural changes like we discussed above can make a real difference in whether AI finds you or dismisses you.
Want to know what’s broken on your site?
You can use an AI tool such as Claude to crawl your site for you, or run a rich results test in Google. Or if you would like a set of human eyes on it, get in touch with us and we’ll send you a report for your website to let you know what is broken and needs to be fixed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is website structure?
Website structure is the invisible underpinning of your site that helps search engines and AI find your content. Just like a book is broken into chapters with headings and paragraphs, your website structure tells AI search what it’s looking at and where to find it.
What is AEO and how is it different from SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of making your site easy for Google to find and rank. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) takes that a step even further. It’s about making your content easy for AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to pull from when someone asks a specific question. But as we mentioned earlier in this article, good basic SEO is going to help your AEO. You could even make the argument that these AI search tools make basic SEO even more important now.
How do H1, H2, and H3 tags work — and why should I care?
These tags create a content hierarchy that both humans and search engines use to understand your page. H1 is your main topic. H2s are your big sections. H3s break those down further. When they’re set up correctly, AI search can quickly understand what your page is about and match it to the right questions.
What is a slug?
Your slug is the tail end of your web address. For example, in mywebsite.com/about-us, the slug is /about-us. It should clearly describe what’s on that page and it should be topically consistent with your H1 tag (usually the header content at the top of the page). When they are completely different, search engines get confused.
What is schema?
Schema is a type of code added to various sections of your website that labels what each section is about. For example, if your About Us page has general information about the business, team bios, and an FAQ section about the company, the schema markup would include the following:
- Local Business Schema. It tells search engines your location, hours, service area, and business type.
- Person Schema. This is what lives behind your team bios. It labels each team member by name, job title, and role within the organization.
- FAQ Schema. This labels your FAQ section so AI knows it’s a list of questions and answers and not just a block of text. Without this tag, AI may completely skip over your FAQ even if the answers are exactly what someone is searching for.
Schema is invisible to your visitors but very visible to AI and search engines. Without it, search engines may completely miss key sections of your site such as your FAQ, your services, or your contact information.
How do I know if my website has schema markup?
You can use a free tool like validator.schema.org to check. Or just reach out to us! We will send you a free website audit that will tell you exactly what’s there and what’s missing.
Does my small business website need to be optimized for AI search?
Yes! And sooner is better than later. AI search is only growing. The businesses that show up in AI results are the ones with clear, well-structured content. The good news is that most of the fixes aren’t as complicated as they sound.