I’ve audited over 100 websites for AI search content structure. Here are four focus areas to help make your content easier for AI search engines to understand, retrieve and cite.
There’s more to Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) than adding keywords to your website. Content needs to be accessible, clearly structured and easy to understand for both AI search engines and human readers.
I’ve been a partner of OtterlyAI for two years, and its audit tools are useful for identifying opportunities to improve AI search visibility. Check out the GEO Audit tool.
Many of the recommendations below help AI systems interpret your content, while also improving readability for your human audience.
1. Content Type: Static vs Dynamic Content
Static content is generally easier for AI crawlers to retrieve consistently than content that relies on dynamic rendering.
Static content remains the same for every visitor. Dynamic content, on the other hand, changes based on factors such as user behaviour, location or live data.
For example, a service page explaining what your business does is likely to contain static content, whereas a product recommendation widget may display different results for each visitor.
Static content can be easier for LLM (large language model) crawlers to access and understand. However, dynamic content isn't inherently bad for AI search. The important thing is to ensure that essential information remains accessible.
What to check:
- Can crawlers access the main content on your page?
- Does important information rely on JavaScript or user interactions to appear?
- Are key product details, service descriptions and answers available in the rendered page?
Keep essential information accessible without sacrificing useful functionality or the user experience.
2. Content Readiness: Structure Content for AI Retrieval
Your content needs to be easy to understand, navigate and extract into relevant answers. I assess content readiness across eight areas suggested in the Otterly AI GEO audit.
| Audit area | What to look for and how to improve it |
|---|---|
| Readability and chunking | Break content into clear sections using descriptive headings, short paragraphs, bullet points and numbered steps. Q&A-style content can provide concise answers to common questions. |
| Modular content | Arrange content into reusable blocks, such as services, projects, benefits and FAQs. Consistent modules can be reused across landing pages and updated independently. |
| Illustrative examples | Use comparison tables, flow charts, diagrams, annotated images and screenshots to make information easier to understand. For product pages, highlight FAQs, imagery and unique selling points (USPs). As mentioned above, this not only makes content easy to read for LLM crawlers, but also makes it more digestible for your human audiences. |
| Specificity and evidence | Replace vague claims with specific examples, measurable results and verified statistics. Support claims with credible sources and references. |
| Section integrity | Ensure each section has a clear purpose, with content that matches its heading. Avoid overlapping sections or repeating the same information unnecessarily. |
| Terminology and acronyms | Explain industry jargon and acronyms where they appear. Don't rely on a glossary or FAQ at the bottom of the page to explain terms used throughout the content. |
| BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) | Start with a concise summary or three key takeaways. Give readers the main answer upfront before expanding on the detail. |
| External linking | Link to credible sources, particularly when referencing statistics, technical terminology or factual claims. This helps readers verify the information. |
Why does chunking matter?
Chunking means breaking content into smaller, logically organised sections, each focused on a specific topic or question.
LLMs can retrieve relevant sections of a webpage to help formulate answers. Clear headings and focused content make it easier to understand what each section covers and how it relates to a search query.
For example, a product page could separate product benefits, ingredients, usage instructions and delivery information into distinct sections. This improves readability for humans and makes the information easier to identify and reuse.
3. Structured Data: Make Your Content Clear
Content structure isn't just about the words on the page. The underlying HTML, metadata and structured data also help search engines interpret your content.
| Audit area | What to check |
|---|---|
| Headings | Use one clear H1 to describe the main page topic, H2s for main sections and H3s for subsections. |
| Semantic HTML | Check for appropriate use of elements such as <main>, <article>, <section>, <header>, <footer>, <nav> and <aside>. |
| Lists and structured content | Use bullet lists, numbered steps, tables and blockquotes where they make information easier to understand. |
| Paragraph structure | Keep paragraphs focused and concise. Break up long blocks of text to improve readability and scanning. |
| Navigation structure | Ensure pages are easy to navigate, with relevant internal links and anchor links where useful. |
| Rich content elements | Use relevant images, links, emphasis, video, audio and code examples where they add value. Provide meaningful image alt text where appropriate. |
| Metadata | Ensure each page has a relevant title tag and meta description. |
| Structured data | Implement relevant Schema.org markup, such as Product, Article or Organization, where appropriate. Validate the markup and ensure it reflects the visible page content. |
Structured data can help search engines interpret information about your business, products and content. However, adding schema markup doesn't guarantee that an AI engine will cite your website.
Focus on making the page's purpose, hierarchy and key information clear, both in the visible content and its underlying structure.
4. Crawler Access: Check Technical Readiness
Even well-structured content won't help if the relevant crawlers can't access it.
During an AI search audit, I check:
- Crawler access: Can relevant AI crawlers reach the page, or are they blocked by robots.txt or server rules?
- HTTP status codes: Are important pages returning the expected responses, without unintended errors or redirect chains?
- Rendered content: Is the main content accessible, or does it rely on interactions or scripts that some crawlers may not execute?
- Canonical URLs: Are canonical tags pointing to the intended versions of pages?
- Internal links and sitemaps: Can crawlers discover important pages through internal links and accurate XML sitemaps?
Different AI platforms use different crawlers for different purposes. Review the relevant documentation before changing access rules, as blocking a crawler may affect how your content is discovered or used.
Prioritise your most commercially important pages, such as service pages, product listings and buying guides.
How to Audit Your Content for AI Search
Start with a small group of priority pages rather than trying to overhaul your entire website.
- Select priority pages linked to your commercial goals.
- Check technical access to ensure crawlers can retrieve the main content.
- Review content readiness for clear headings, concise answers, specific claims and logical sections.
- Check structured data including HTML, metadata, internal links and relevant schema markup.
- Prioritise improvements based on their potential impact.
- Monitor performance across relevant AI platforms, tracking brand mentions and citations over time.
I use OtterlyAI's GEO Audit tool to help identify content structure, readiness and technical opportunities. Treat audit scores as a starting point, not a guarantee of AI visibility.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is BLUF?
BLUF stands for Bottom Line Up Front. It means putting the main answer, conclusion or key takeaways at the beginning of your content, helping readers understand its purpose quickly.
What does chunking mean?
Chunking means breaking content into smaller, clearly defined sections, each focused on a particular topic. Descriptive headings and concise paragraphs make information easier to scan and help AI systems identify relevant passages.
What is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It involves improving the likelihood that your content is discovered, referenced or cited in AI-generated answers.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. Technical SEO, accessible content, useful information and a clear site structure remain important. GEO builds on these foundations while considering how people discover information through AI-powered search.
Final Thoughts
GEO isn't about writing for robots instead of people. It's about making your expertise easier to discover, understand and reference. As shown above, improving clarity and understanding of your content has dual purpose of increase LLM readability whilst also making content clearer for your human audience.
Start with accessible content, clear sections, specific claims, logical structure and relevant technical signals. Then monitor how your brand appears across the AI search platforms your audience uses.
Want to understand how ready your website is for AI search? Explore mff marketing and use OtterlyAI's GEO Audit to identify opportunities for improvement.