Your Customers Aren't Just Googling Anymore

Five years ago, if someone wanted a marketing agency in Hamilton, they'd type "marketing agency hamilton" into Google. They'd see ten blue links. They'd click two or three. They'd compare. They'd choose.

That's still happening. But it's changing fast.

Today, that same person is just as likely to type into ChatGPT: "Recommend a good marketing agency in Hamilton, NZ that works with small businesses." Or ask Perplexity: "What's the best marketing agency for trades businesses in the Waikato?" Or get the answer from Google's AI Overview without ever clicking a website.

This is AI SEO — and if your business isn't optimised for it, you're invisible to a fast-growing slice of the market.

This guide explains what AI SEO actually is, how it differs from traditional SEO, and exactly what to do about it. With real examples throughout.

What Is AI SEO?

AI SEO (sometimes called GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation, or AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation) is the practice of optimising your business and your content so AI systems recommend you.

The "AI systems" we're talking about include:

ChatGPT — over 800 million weekly users globally
Claude — Anthropic's AI, used by businesses and individuals
Perplexity — an AI-first search engine
Google AI Overviews — the AI-generated summaries at the top of Google search results
Bing Copilot — Microsoft's AI search built into Bing and Edge
Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek — and the next ten that will exist by 2027

When someone asks any of these tools a question, the AI generates an answer. That answer often recommends specific businesses, products, services, or content. You want to be the business it recommends.

That's AI SEO.

How AI SEO Is Different From Traditional SEO

Traditional SEO is about ranking for keywords. AI SEO is about being recommended in answers. The mechanics are very different.

1. Queries Are Longer and More Conversational

Traditional Google query:

marketing agency hamilton

Same intent, AI query:

Can you recommend a marketing agency in Hamilton, New Zealand that specialises in working with small businesses, and that's not going to charge me $20,000 for a website?

People talk to AI like they talk to a friend. Queries are 5-10x longer. They include context, constraints, and emotional cues. Optimising for these requires a completely different content approach.

2. There's One Answer, Not Ten Links

Google gives you ten blue links. You can be #4 and still get clicks.

ChatGPT gives you one answer. Sometimes it lists 2-3 options. If you're not in that answer, you don't exist for that query.

The good news: you don't need to be #1 on Google to be the answer in ChatGPT. You need different signals — and most NZ businesses aren't sending them yet.

3. AI Pulls From a Wider Range of Sources

Traditional SEO is mostly about your website. AI SEO pulls from:

Your website (yes)
Third-party reviews (Google, industry directories, Trustpilot)
News mentions and press
Social media
Reddit and forum discussions
YouTube transcripts
Podcast transcripts
Industry reports and research
The AI's training data (which includes a lot of the above as of its cutoff date)

Being mentioned in trusted third-party sources matters more for AI SEO than for traditional SEO.

4. Brand Authority Beats Keyword Density

Traditional SEO rewarded specific keyword usage. AI SEO rewards being the brand the AI thinks of when answering a category of question. That's built through:

Frequent mentions across the web
Consistent positioning everywhere your brand appears
Authoritative content published over time
Clear, structured information about who you are and what you do

In short, AI SEO is closer to traditional brand-building than to traditional SEO. The agencies that grew up on backlink schemes are going to struggle with this.

5. Schema and Structured Data Matter More

AI systems love structured data because it's clean, parseable signal. Schema.org markup, FAQ schema, LocalBusiness schema, Article schema — all of these help AI systems understand your content quickly.

If you don't have structured data, you're making the AI work harder, and it's more likely to recommend a competitor that's done the work.

Real Examples: How Search Phrases Are Changing

Let's look at how the same business intent gets expressed differently in traditional Google vs AI search.

Example 1: Hiring a Marketing Agency

| Google Search | AI Search | |---|---| | marketing agency waikato | "I'm a small business owner in the Waikato. I've worked with two marketing agencies before and both wasted my money. What should I look for in an agency that actually delivers results?" | | digital marketing nz | "Compare King Tide Marketing with other Waikato-based marketing agencies — what makes them different?" | | seo services hamilton | "My website doesn't show up on Google when people search for plumbers in Hamilton. What can I do about it without spending thousands?" |

Example 2: Researching AI Tools

| Google Search | AI Search | |---|---| | best ai tools for business 2026 | "I run a 12-person construction company in Cambridge. What AI tools should I actually be using? Don't recommend ChatGPT — I'm asking what specific tools and how to use them." | | chatgpt vs claude | "I'm trying to decide between ChatGPT and Claude for my marketing team. We mostly write blog content, social posts, and client emails. Which one's better and why?" | | ai for small business | "What are 3 specific AI workflows I could set up this week to save time in my consultancy business?" |

Example 3: Finding a Service

| Google Search | AI Search | |---|---| | website design waikato | "I need a new website for my plumbing business. I'm in Te Awamutu. What should it cost and what do I actually need to include?" | | marketing coach nz | "Is it worth hiring a marketing coach if my business is doing $1.5M revenue? Or should I just hire someone in-house?" | | accountant for tradies hamilton | "Recommend an accountant in Hamilton that specialises in trades businesses. Bonus points if they understand subcontractor tax stuff." |

Notice the pattern: AI queries are specific, contextual, and outcome-focused. They include the searcher's situation, their constraints, and what they're trying to achieve.

This means your content needs to match that specificity. Generic "We do marketing for Hamilton businesses" pages don't trigger AI recommendations. Specific, situation-based content does.

How to Actually Do AI SEO — A Practical Playbook

Here's the practical work. Not theory. Stuff you can do this week.

1. Add an llms.txt File to Your Website

This is a markdown file at the root of your site (/llms.txt) that tells AI crawlers what your business does. Think of it as a structured cheat sheet for AI systems.

Ours is at kingtide.nz/llms.txt and a more detailed version at kingtide.nz/llms-full.txt.

It's a new standard from llmstxt.org and adoption is still low — which means early movers benefit massively.

What to include:

A clear, factual summary of your business in 1-2 sentences
Links to your most important pages
Your services with one-line descriptions
Locations you serve
Key blog posts
Contact info

2. Write Comprehensive, Structured Content

AI systems prefer content that:

Answers specific questions thoroughly
Uses clear headings (H2, H3) so they can extract sections
Includes lists, tables, and structured data
Has a clear summary at the start (TL;DR style)
Goes deep — 1,500+ words for important topics

Short, fluffy 300-word blog posts don't get cited by AI. Long, comprehensive guides do.

3. Add Schema Markup

Schema is structured data that helps AI (and Google) understand your content. The big ones for most businesses:

LocalBusiness schema — for location pages and your homepage
FAQPage schema — for any FAQ section
Article schema — for blog posts
Product schema — for products or services
Review schema — for testimonials and reviews

If your site is on WordPress, plugins like Yoast or Rank Math handle this. If you're on a custom build (like the AI-built site we made for King Tide), you add it directly to the code.

4. Build FAQ-Style Content Throughout Your Site

AI loves FAQs because they map directly to user questions. For every important page, add an FAQ section with 5-10 questions and clear, complete answers.

Use the actual questions your customers ask. Not "What services do you offer?" but "How much does a website cost for a small business in Hamilton?"

5. Get Mentioned in Trusted Third-Party Sources

This is where AI SEO overlaps with PR and brand-building. Get your business mentioned in:

Industry publications and blogs
Local news (Stuff, NZ Herald, regional papers)
Podcasts (as a guest)
Reddit discussions (genuinely helpful, not spammy)
Industry directories
LinkedIn articles by your team

The more your brand appears in trusted contexts, the more AI systems associate you with your category.

6. Optimise Your Google Business Profile

For local businesses, your Google Business Profile is one of the strongest AI SEO signals. Make sure it has:

Complete, accurate business info
Lots of recent reviews (actively ask for them)
Photos updated regularly
Posts published consistently
Q&A section with answered questions

Google's AI Overviews pull heavily from Business Profiles for local queries. Bing and ChatGPT use similar signals via Bing Places.

7. Write Content That Answers the Long, Conversational Queries

Remember those AI search examples earlier? Write content that directly answers those questions.

Instead of "Marketing Services Hamilton," write a blog post titled "I'm a Small Business Owner in Hamilton — How Do I Choose the Right Marketing Agency?"

The AI is more likely to surface content that mirrors the conversational structure of the query.

8. Use Clear, Direct Language

AI systems prefer plain English over marketing jargon. Compare:

Bad (jargon-heavy):

Our synergistic, omnichannel marketing solutions empower forward-thinking SMEs to actualise their growth potential through cutting-edge AI-driven optimisation.

Good (plain English):

We help small NZ businesses use marketing to grow. We focus on the 5-10 things that actually move the needle, not the 1,000 things you could do.

The second version is easier for both humans and AI systems to understand and quote.

9. Build Topic Clusters, Not Just Standalone Pages

A topic cluster is one main "pillar" page covering a topic broadly, with multiple supporting pages going deep on subtopics — all linked together.

For example, our pillar on AI integration is at /ai-marketing-integration. Supporting content includes /ai-consultant-waikato, /ai-consultant-nz, our blog post on AI marketing for Waikato businesses, and this article you're reading now.

This signals topic authority to both Google and AI systems.

10. Track Brand Mentions in AI Tools

Test it yourself. Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity questions like:

"Recommend a [your category] in [your location]"
"What's the best [your service] for [your customer type]?"
"Compare [your business] with [your competitors]"

If you're not getting mentioned, you have work to do. If you are, see what context you're being mentioned in and lean into that.

There are also paid tools (Otterly, Profound, AthenaHQ) that track AI mentions automatically — but the manual test costs nothing and gives you direct insight.

What's Different About Each AI Platform

Quick rundown of how each major AI search platform works and what to optimise for.

ChatGPT

800M+ weekly users
Pulls from training data (cutoff varies) plus live web search
Strong on conversational queries
Optimise: Brand mentions across the web, comprehensive content, llms.txt

Claude

Used heavily by professionals and businesses
Excellent at long-form analysis and research
Web search integrated for current queries
Optimise: In-depth content, clear reasoning, structured information

Perplexity

Built around real-time web search with AI synthesis
Heavy on citations — clicks through to sources
Great for research-heavy queries
Optimise: Authoritative content, clear sourcing, recency signals

Google AI Overviews

Appears at the top of Google search results
Pulls from indexed pages, Google Business Profile, schema data
Massive volume — every Google searcher sees these
Optimise: Traditional SEO basics, schema markup, Business Profile, FAQ-style content

Bing Copilot

Powers Microsoft Edge and Windows
Strong B2B usage
Pulls from Bing index plus AI synthesis
Optimise: Bing Webmaster Tools setup, Bing Places listing, comprehensive content

The good news: optimising for one helps you with the others. The fundamentals overlap heavily.

What Doesn't Work Anymore

A few traditional SEO tactics that AI search has either devalued or made worse:

Keyword stuffing — AI doesn't care about exact keyword density
Thin, repetitive content — AI surfaces depth, not volume
Spammy backlinks — these hurt your brand authority signal
Hidden text or cloaking — AI is much better at detecting manipulation
Generic, templated location pages — AI prefers genuinely unique content

If your SEO strategy was built on these, it's time to evolve.

What to Do This Week

If you want to start moving on AI SEO immediately:

Today: Test your business in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Note where you do and don't appear.
Today: Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools if you haven't.
This week: Add an llms.txt file to your site. Use ours as a template.
This week: Audit your top 10 pages for FAQ content. Add 5-10 Q&As to each.
This week: Optimise your Google Business Profile — photos, posts, reviews, Q&A.
This month: Write one comprehensive guide on a key topic (1,500+ words, structured properly).
This month: Add schema markup to your homepage, location pages, and blog posts.
Ongoing: Build genuine third-party brand mentions through PR, podcasts, and industry content.

The Bigger Picture

AI search isn't replacing Google — it's adding to it. People still Google. They also ask ChatGPT. They also use Perplexity. They also see AI Overviews.

The businesses that win in this environment are the ones that optimise for all of it — traditional SEO, AI SEO, brand visibility everywhere their customers might look.

The businesses that get left behind are the ones doing nothing except hoping their old SEO strategy still works.

If you want help thinking through AI SEO for your business — or actually implementing it — that's exactly what we do at King Tide. Our AI Marketing Integration service starts with a $1,500 audit that maps where AI fits across your business, including your search and content strategy.

Or if you want to keep going on the AI rabbit hole, read how we built this entire website using AI, how Waikato businesses are using AI in marketing, or learn about our AI consulting in the Waikato and across NZ.

The shift is happening. Best to be the business AI recommends.

Want help making your business AI-search ready? Book a call and we'll talk through where you sit today and what would have the biggest impact.

AI SEO: What It Is and How to Actually Do It