The nature of how people find brands, compare products and services and make purchasing decisions online is being altered by the use of AI search. Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and AI Mode are no longer simply experimental features. They are becoming a normal part of the typical search journey.
For marketers and SEO professionals, this raises an essential question:
How can you improve your chances of being cited in AI-generated answers?
A recent Semrush study analyzed 5 million URLs cited by ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode to understand which technical SEO factors correlate with AI visibility. The study provides one definitive insight: technical SEO still plays a role, however, not always directly as a ranking variable. Rather than having a solid technical background, strong technical foundations enable AI systems to access, understand, and trust your content.
In this blog, we will examine the results from this study and translate them into a checklist for you to utilize in optimizing your website for AI-Related Overviews and Search Visibility.
AI visibility refers to how often your brand, website, or content appears in AI-generated responses.
This can include:
Unlike traditional SEO, where the goal is to rank in blue links, AI visibility is about becoming a trusted source that AI systems can cite.
If you are still new to this concept, you can also read our guide on what AEO is to understand how Answer Engine Optimization connects with modern SEO.
According to the Semrush study on technical SEO factors and AI search visibility, pages cited by AI platforms often share strong technical foundations.
The study does not claim these are direct ranking factors. Instead, it shows that these elements are commonly found on pages that AI systems cite.
That means technical SEO should be treated as the foundation for AI visibility. Without it, even great content may be harder for AI systems to access, understand, or trust.
Below is a practical checklist you can use to improve your chances of ranking in Google AI Overviews and other AI-powered search results.
AI systems cannot cite content they cannot access.
Your priority should be making sure important pages are crawlable by search engines and AI crawlers.
Checklist:
For AI search, crawlability is not just a technical SEO best practice. It is a visibility requirement.
If your content is difficult to crawl, AI systems may skip it in favor of clearer, easier-to-parse pages.
JavaScript-heavy websites can create issues for AI crawlers.
While Google can render JavaScript better than many systems, not every AI crawler processes JavaScript in the same way. If your main content only appears after client-side rendering, some AI systems may struggle to access it properly.
Checklist:
This is especially important for SaaS websites, product pages, blogs, pricing pages, and comparison pages.
AI systems prefer content that is easy to retrieve, parse, and summarize.
Structured data helps search engines and AI systems understand entities, relationships, authorship, and page context.
The Semrush study found that AI-cited pages often used schema markup, especially:
Google AI Mode cited pages with even higher structured data implementation rates compared to ChatGPT Search.
Checklist:
Recommended schema types for AI Overview optimization:
Structured data will not guarantee AI Overview rankings, but it can help AI systems better understand your content and brand entities.
The Semrush study found that URLs with moderate slug lengths performed better among AI-cited pages.
The strongest pattern appeared around 17–40 characters, with 21–25 character slugs receiving the highest number of citations.
This does not mean every URL must follow an exact character count. But it does suggest that clear, descriptive, and concise URLs are easier for systems to interpret.
Good examples:
Poor examples:
Checklist:
A clean URL gives both users and AI systems a quick understanding of what the page is about.
AI Overviews are designed to answer user questions quickly. So your content should make answers easy to extract.
Instead of writing long introductions before reaching the main point, provide a clear answer early on.
Checklist:
Example:
Instead of:
“AI Overviews have become a major part of modern search behavior, and businesses are now trying to understand how they work…”
Use:
“AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear in Google Search to answer a user’s query using information from multiple sources.”
This makes your content easier for AI systems to quote, summarize, and cite.
For a deeper breakdown, read our guide on how to rank on Google’s AI Overviews.
The Semrush study also highlights the importance of conversational formatting.
AI systems often surface content that is organized in a way that mirrors natural user questions.
Checklist:
For example:
Technical SEO for AI Overviews is the process of making your website easier for AI systems to crawl, understand, and cite. It includes crawlability, structured data, page speed, clean URLs, mobile experience, and clear content hierarchy.
This type of format works well because it aligns with how users ask questions in AI search tools.
The Semrush study found that AI-cited URLs often had stronger user engagement metrics, including:
However, engagement happens after the click, while AI citation happens before the click. So engagement is likely not a direct AI ranking factor.
Instead, strong engagement may reflect underlying quality signals such as better content, clearer UX, faster pages, and stronger trust.
Checklist:
When users engage better with your pages, it usually means your content is clearer, more useful, and more trustworthy.
Those same qualities can make your page more suitable for AI citations.
AI systems need to understand who created the content, who owns the website, and why the source should be trusted.
Entity optimization helps AI connect your brand, authors, services, and topics.
Checklist:
For example, if your website publishes SEO content, AI systems should be able to clearly understand:
Clear entity signals can help improve topical trust.
Internal links help search engines and AI systems understand relationships between your pages.
They also guide users to related content, improving engagement and topical depth.
Checklist:
For example, a blog about AI Overview optimization should naturally link to related resources like:
This helps both users and AI systems understand the broader context of your content.
Metadata gives platforms additional information about your page.
The Semrush study found that Open Graph, Twitter Cards, and schema.org JSON-LD appeared frequently on AI-cited pages.
Checklist:
Open Graph and Twitter Cards are not traditional ranking factors, but they help define the page’s identity across platforms.
For AI systems, this can add another layer of context.
As AI search grows, more websites are seeing activity from AI crawlers.
Monitoring logs can show which AI crawlers visit your site and which pages they access.
Checklist:
This can help you understand what content AI systems are accessing and whether technical barriers are limiting visibility.
AI Overviews often cite pages that clearly answer a question or explain a concept.
To improve your chances, create pages that include citation-friendly elements.
Checklist:
Example sections that work well for AI search:
These sections make it easier for AI systems to extract useful information from your page.
Here is a quick checklist you can use for every important page:
While optimizing for AI Overviews, avoid these mistakes:
AI search optimization is not about tricking AI systems. It is about making your content easier to access, understand, verify, and cite.
The Semrush study shows that pages cited by AI platforms often have strong technical SEO foundations. Structured data, clean URLs, crawlability, page experience, and content clarity all appear to create favorable conditions for AI visibility.
But these elements should not be treated as isolated ranking hacks.
To improve your chances of appearing in AI Overviews, focus on building pages that are:
As AI search continues to evolve, brands that combine traditional SEO with Answer Engine Optimization will have a stronger chance of staying visible across both Google and AI-powered discovery platforms.
Want to improve your visibility in AI Overviews? Connect with webdew and start optimizing your website for AI-powered search.