Getting found in AI search: what actually works

Many of my clients have asked the same question this year: 'Do we need to do something for AI?' They've seen Google answer questions at the top of the page, and they've heard of agencies selling 'GEO' packages. The honest answer is shorter and cheaper than most of those packages suggest.

What AI summaries do to clicks

The best independent data comes from Pew Research. In a study published in July 2025, they tracked the real browsing of 900 US adults during March 2025. 58% saw at least one Google search with an AI summary.

• When an AI summary appeared, users clicked a regular result on 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there was none.
• Only 1% of visits to pages with an AI summary led to a click on a source cited inside it.
• Users ended their browsing session after 26% of pages with an AI summary, against 16% without one.

So people click less. But the clicks that do happen increasingly go to sources the AI trusted enough to rely on. The goal has shifted from ranking for a keyword to being the page the answer is built from.

What Google actually says

Google's guidance for site owners is direct: 'There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.' The same fundamentals apply. The page has to be crawlable, indexable and eligible for a snippet, and it has to be helpful, reliable content written for people.

That rules out a lot of what is being sold. For Google, you don't need a special AI file, special markup or content written for machines. Google also notes that meeting every requirement doesn't guarantee inclusion.

The controls you do have

• noindex removes a page from Search entirely, including AI features.
• nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet limit how much of a page Google can show, and that applies to AI features too.
• Google-Extended controls whether your content is used for Google's other AI systems, such as training Gemini. It doesn't affect whether you appear in Search.

Other AI search tools use their own crawlers. OpenAI, for example, separates the crawler for ChatGPT search results (OAI-SearchBot) from the one used for training (GPTBot). You can allow one and block the other.

One thing to check: some CDNs and security tools now block AI crawlers by default. Cloudflare switched to blocking them by default for new domains in July 2025. If you want to appear in AI answers, look at what your robots.txt and firewall actually allow. Businesses sometimes block the traffic they are trying to win without knowing it.

What I change on client sites

None of this is new, but AI search rewards it more than classic search did.

1. 1Answer the question early. If a page is about how long a courier bag order takes to deliver, the first paragraph should say how long. AI systems pull short passages, and a page that buries the answer under an introduction is harder to use.
2. 2Use clear headings that match real questions. A heading like 'How much does a website cost in India?' followed by a direct answer beats a clever heading that says nothing.
3. 3Publish things only you can say. Your prices, your process, your data and your photos. AI can summarise generic advice from anywhere, but it has to cite you for facts that only exist on your site.
4. 4Make the business unambiguous. The same name, address and contact details everywhere, an About page with real people, and structured data that describes the organisation. This helps any system, human or machine, trust that you are who you say you are.
5. 5Keep the site fast and the HTML meaningful. Content that only appears after heavy JavaScript runs, or pages that take seconds to load, are harder for any crawler to use.
6. 6Get mentioned elsewhere. Reviews, directory listings, local press and partner sites all help. AI answers draw on more than your own site, and independent mentions are part of what makes you look like a safe source.

How to measure it

Traffic from Google's AI features is included in the Performance report in Search Console, under the Web search type. It isn't reported separately, so watch trends. For example, impressions may rise while clicks stay flat, and question-style queries may start to appear. Also look for referral traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and similar domains in your analytics. It's usually small, but it tends to convert well, because the visitor arrives already knowing what you offer.

The short version

There is no separate AI search strategy for most businesses. There is good SEO, done properly: clear answers, original information, a fast and crawlable site, and a trustworthy presence around the web. If someone sells you a special trick, ask them to show you where Google or OpenAI recommend it.