A quiet revolution is happening in how people find information online — and most websites aren’t ready for it.

Today, more and more users are skipping traditional search engines and asking AI assistants instead. Tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Claude and Perplexity are now answering questions with real-time information pulled from the web. But instead of just listing links, they’re summarising, citing and paraphrasing — often without ever sending a user to your site.

If your content doesn’t show up in their answers, you may never be seen.

This shift demands a new layer of SEO. One that goes beyond ranking well, and focuses on being understood and quoted by machines.

How AI assistants find their answers

Most AI-powered tools don’t browse the web directly. They issue live search queries using APIs and read the top-ranking pages. For example, ChatGPT’s “Browse with Bing” feature sends a Bing search query, reads the results, and pulls out relevant text to include in its response. Claude uses Brave Search the same way. Bard, meanwhile, has native access to Google's index.

These LLMs don’t rewrite your content from scratch. They extract — carefully. They quote paragraphs, borrow phrasing, and use citations to show their sources. But they’ll only do that if your page is easy for them to parse and useful for the user’s query.

That means the old rules of SEO — get indexed, rank highly, target the right keywords — still apply. But now there’s a new goal: make it easy for a machine to extract what matters.

What makes your content quotable

To understand what LLMs look for, it helps to remember how they behave. They don’t “read” in the traditional sense. They scan, extract, and summarise. And they prefer text that’s:

Structured with clear headings and a logical flow. A heading like “How to create an XML sitemap” helps the model instantly identify what’s being explained below.

Written in plain, factual language. A sentence like “The most effective time to post on LinkedIn is 9 am–11 am on weekdays” is highly quotable — no hedging, no fluff.

Machine-readable. If your key content is loaded via JavaScript, trapped in a dynamic widget, or buried behind pop-ups, it may not be seen. Clean HTML is still essential.

It also helps to use schema markup. Adding structured data (like FAQPage or HowTo) improves your chances of being featured in AI responses, particularly for tools like Bard and ChatGPT, which actively prioritise schema-enriched content. As Yoast notes, schema helps make your answers stand out and easier to extract.

Differences between AI platforms (and why they matter)

Each AI system uses a different search backend, which affects where your content needs to rank, and how it needs to perform.

ChatGPT uses Bing’s API. Research has shown that 87% of ChatGPT Search citations come from Bing’s first page. If your content isn’t there, it won’t be seen. Optimising for Bing means focusing on keyword relevance, page load speed, backlinks, and keeping your content highly scannable.

Bard is powered by Google Search. Its AI output draws heavily on schema, page structure, and credibility signals like E-E-A-T. If you’re already winning featured snippets or rich results, you’re in a strong position — but only if your content is up to date and easily digestible.

Claude depends on Brave Search, which has a smaller index and a more independent crawling model. That means your site needs to be visible to BraveBot. Claude tends to favour well-structured, standalone statements — content that clearly answers a question without needing extra context.

Perplexity uses a mix of its own search index and APIs like Bing. Its goal is fast, reliable answers — so it tends to surface content that’s straightforward, not overly promotional, and ready to quote as-is.

Why you might be ranking — but not getting quoted

If you’re on page one but still not showing up in AI answers, chances are your content isn’t extractable.

That could mean your best material is buried halfway down the page. Or that your introduction meanders before getting to the point. Or that your HTML makes it difficult for bots to interpret your structure.

Sometimes, the issue is even simpler: your robots.txt file might be blocking bots like GPTBot or Claude-User. If they’re excluded, you won’t be considered for inclusion — even if your content is a perfect match.

The future of search is answers — and you need to be part of them

We’re not saying SEO is dead. In fact, it’s more important than ever, because the pipelines that feed these AI models are still the search engines we know. But the way people consume that information is changing fast.

Now, instead of seeing a list of links, users are getting an AI-written summary. And whether your brand appears in that summary depends on how well your content speaks to both humans and machines.

The rules are evolving. But the mission is the same: help people find the answers they’re looking for.

Make your content clear, useful, and machine-friendly — and the AI will take it from there.

Want to see how AI interprets your site?

Join the Glafos beta and get a personalised AI-readability audit. We’ll show you exactly how your content appears to ChatGPT, Claude and Bard — and what to fix to get cited more often.

Frequently asked questions

How do AI assistants like ChatGPT and Bard choose what to quote? They rely on search engine indexes, like Bing for ChatGPT or Google for Bard, to find pages that match a user’s query. Then they extract text that clearly and directly answers the question. Content needs to be well-structured, machine-readable, and easy to summarise.

Is traditional SEO still important for AI search? Yes. Ranking well in Bing, Google or Brave is the first step. AI systems typically pull answers from the top 10 results, so if you’re not ranking, your content won’t be seen, no matter how good it is.

What makes content quotable by AI? Pages that offer direct, concise answers in plain language. Use clear headings, include schema markup (like FAQPage or HowTo), and ensure your content loads in HTML without requiring JavaScript.

Can I see which AI tools are referencing my content? Some AI referrals are beginning to appear in analytics (e.g. chat.openai.com, bard.google.com). It’s still early, but monitoring these can help you track where your content is being surfaced, and how to optimise further.