AI SEO: using AI for SEO, and SEO for AI answers

Two meanings of AI SEO

When people say AI SEO, they usually mean one of two things. The first is using AI tools to handle SEO tasks: research, drafting, checking your site. The second is optimising your business so AI assistants mention it when someone asks a relevant question. These are different jobs, but they feed each other.

The first meaning is about speed. AI can help you find keywords, outline pages, draft copy and spot technical issues faster than doing it all by hand. You still make the decisions and check the facts.

The second meaning is about visibility in a new place. When a customer asks an AI assistant for a recommendation, the assistant answers with a few names and links. If your business is not among them, you are invisible in that conversation, even if you rank well on Google.

For example, a dentist in Leeds might rank on page one for "emergency dentist Leeds" but never appear when someone asks ChatGPT for a dentist open on Saturday. That gap is what the second meaning of AI SEO closes.

Using AI for SEO work

AI tools can take the repetitive parts of SEO off your plate. The trick is to treat them as a first pass, not a final answer. A person still checks facts, adds real experience and makes the call on what goes live.

Keyword research, briefs and first drafts are the easiest wins. You can ask an AI tool to group keywords by intent, suggest page titles or draft an FAQ section. Then you edit it so it sounds like your business and contains only claims you can stand behind.

Technical checks and structured data are the second area. AI can help you understand a crawl report, explain what a schema markup error means, or draft the JSON-LD for your business type. You or your developer still apply the fix and test it.

A simple workflow looks like this:

1. Pick one page or topic you want to improve.
2. Ask an AI tool for keyword ideas and a short outline.
3. Draft the page, then rewrite the opening in your own words.
4. Check every fact, name, number and claim against a real source.
5. Add structured data for your business type.
6. Publish, then track how it performs.

The review step is not optional. AI drafts can sound confident while being wrong about your services, your area or your opening hours. For example, a plumber in Manchester might get a draft that lists gas safety certification they do not hold. Publishing that unchecked creates a real problem.

Used this way, AI for SEO saves hours on the boring parts and leaves the judgement to you. That is the balance that works.

SEO for AI answers

Getting named by AI assistants is a different discipline from ranking on Google, though the basics overlap. Assistants pull from pages they can read and from sites they already trust. Your job is to be clear, consistent and present in the places they look.

Answer the question in the first sentences of a page. Assistants often lift a short, direct answer rather than a long build-up. If your page opens with three paragraphs of background before saying what you do and where, you give the assistant nothing easy to quote.

Be mentioned on the sites assistants cite. When you check what an assistant says about your industry, look at which websites it links to. Directories, local news, trade associations and review sites often appear. A listing or a mention on those sites can matter more than another blog post on your own domain.

Keep business facts consistent everywhere. Your name, address, phone number, opening hours and service list should match across your site, your Google Business Profile, social pages and directories. When facts conflict, assistants may skip you or describe you incorrectly.

A practical checklist for this side of AI SEO:

• Open each key page with a one or two sentence answer to the main question.
• Use plain headings that match how customers ask the question.
• Add a short FAQ section to your most important pages.
• Make sure your contact details and hours match everywhere online.
• Seek mentions on the directories and sites that assistants already cite in your field.
• Check what assistants currently say about you and correct the source pages they use.

For example, a wedding photographer in Dublin might find that assistants name two competitors and cite a national wedding directory. Getting listed accurately in that directory is a concrete next step, not a vague hope.

Measuring both

You cannot improve what you do not measure, and AI SEO needs two sets of numbers. One is your Google rankings for the searches that matter. The other is what AI assistants say when asked the questions your customers ask.

Google rankings are familiar. Pick a small set of searches, check them weekly, and watch whether your pages move. Tools can automate this, and a weekly rhythm is enough for most small businesses.

AI answers need a different method. You ask an assistant the question a customer would ask, then record whether your business is named, who is named instead, and which websites the answer cites. Do this on a schedule, because answers change as models update and as the web changes.

A simple tracking sheet can hold four columns: the question asked, the assistant used, whether you were named, and which sites were cited. Over a few weeks you will see patterns, such as one competitor appearing often or one directory being cited repeatedly.

For example, a bookkeeper in Singapore might ask three assistants "who is a good bookkeeper for small businesses in Singapore" every Monday. After a month, the pattern of who gets named and which sites are cited tells them where to focus.

If you want a starting point, the free AI check at /sign-in?scan=1 shows what ChatGPT says about your business. For a wider view, this guide on GEO versus SEO explains how the two overlap.

Tracking it with Vasukai

Vasukai is built for the second half of AI SEO: knowing whether assistants name you, and doing something about it. It asks AI assistants the questions your customers ask, on a schedule you pick, and shows you the full answer each time.

It checks 9 assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Sarvam. Questions can be asked in 24 languages from the customer's country, so a business serving customers in more than one language can see how it appears in each.

For each question, Vasukai shows where your business is named, who is named instead, and which websites the answers cite. That last part is often the most useful, because it points to the pages and directories worth getting mentioned on.

Vasukai also gives a ranked list of actions and a "Write it for me" button that drafts the text for each fix, such as page copy, FAQs or business descriptions. Every plan includes Google SEO tools too: keyword research with Keyword Planner bids, weekly rank tracking, website lookups, competitors' Google ads and a monthly technical site check.

You can start with the free AI check at /sign-in?scan=1, which needs no card and shows what ChatGPT says about your business.