How does AI Search differ from traditional search engines like Google?
- Steph Duthie @ Purple Pepper Creative
- Jul 31
- 5 min read
And (most importantly) do I need a whole new content strategy just to be found through AI tools?
By Steph Duthie, Copywriter and content coach
SEO used to be all the rage and one of the only ways to be found organically online. And if you weren’t doing it, you were dead to the millions of searchers online every day.
Now, I’m hearing one statement more and more from clients: My new customers said they found me through AI search!
Not only are 13.6 million Aussies using Chat, Claude, Gemini or another AI tool daily — 60% of Gen Z and millennials are also using these tools instead of traditional search. As more people and businesses are integrating these tools into their daily work, this is no surprise.
But, as businesses, how do we make sure our website is being listed and recommended by AI search tools? And does this mean traditional SEO is dead?
Let’s dive into the world of content for AI search and what you need to do to make sure your website isn’t invisible.
Traditional search vs AI search: What’s the difference?
While there are many similarities between AI and traditional search – and all AI search piggy-backs off Google’s indexing-based system – they are different.
Simply put: Traditional helps (searching and displaying relevant content to help users). AI search answers (searching and summarising content for users).
This distinction is very important when it comes to your content.
Where traditional search crawls, indexes and ranks your website and digital content, AI search pools content from multiple sources to provide more in-depth answers. This is why the content and also how you present information is key.
In the past investing heavily into an SEO strategy increased your page or website ranking, in turn helping you get on page one and found easier. Now, you can be cited and linked to in an AI Search answer without these super high rankings.
Key differences between Traditional Search and AI Search
Here’s a simple side-by-side comparison for all of us aren’t SEO or digital experts.
Traditional Search | AI Search |
Helps you find answers, linking to sources. | Gives you answers, referring to sources. |
Handles simple, keyword-based queries. | Can interpret complex questions and queries. |
Crawls, indexes and ranks websites, displaying sites that best fit the query. | Merges multiple sources into one answer, suggesting a follow-up prompt or next step. |
Builds brand visibility, traffic and awareness by making sure you’re ranked higher than competitors. | Positions you and your brand as an expert on key topics, industries, products and services. |
Is traditional SEO now dead?
As copywriters, we get asked this all the time.
No, SEO is not dead and it's still relevant for your website.
After all, a large chunk of users still use traditional search. And remember how I mentioned AI search uses Google’s indexing earlier? This means that SEO tactics still work when it comes to content.
Keywords
Keywords still matter to help index information faster. But now it’s no longer about keyword stuffing (an industry SEO term which was all about how many times you could stuff a keyword into a heading or content). Now, it’s about conversational long-tail phrasing
Headings and page structure
Yep, this still matters too. All this helps these tools scan more quickly. But it’s no longer just about what headings you have; it’s about your sentence structure and how ‘scannable’ your content is.
Links and backlinking
Links and backlinking is all about authority building. The more people link to your website or page, the more trustworthy these tools see it. AI Search is trained to look for trustworthy sites and put them forward first. All those links mean people trust your content enough to refer back to it.
FAQs
Just like traditional search, AI Search still eats up FAQs and loves them. Why? It likes answer-first style content, and those FAQs are simple questions and answer content they can grab and serve up.
Regular content updates
The fresher the content, the more likely you are to be used as a reference for AI Search. These tools love recent, up-to-date data and use the latest information to answer search queries.
And these are just the content SEO tactics that work! The technical practices, such as using robots.text or schema markup, still help. But I’ll leave this side of our SEO partners to explain! (after all, that’s their jam)
Is AI search engine optimisation (SEO) a thing?
If you’ve found this article, you have most likely heard about GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) or AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). While yes, these versions of SEO can support AI Search visibility, let’s be honest:
Marketers … we LOVE coming up with new terms to explain things. So, naturally, we are going to find a ‘new SEO’ term to introduce.
The fact is, both GEO and AEO are variations of SEO, but specific to AI Search.
Both use SEO tactics and practices. Meaning, if you have good SEO practices in place, this will naturally increase AI Search visibility.
Does this mean that as a small or medium business owner or marketer, you need to start investing more in this space? No. The truth is, people are still using traditional search engines. Now, it’s just about making sure your content can be found by both traditional and AI search tools.
Do I need a separate AI search content strategy?
No, you don’t need a separate AI Search Optimisation (GEO or AEO) content strategy. If you already have a strong SEO strategy in place, you are already ahead of the pack.
Now, it’s just about adapting it to incorporate more AI Search-specific techniques and boosting it.
More and more GEO and AEO experts are popping up every day. All promise one thing: to be found first through AI Search. But this is a kind reminder to SMB owners, leaders or marketers reading this: don’t just jump to the latest shiny thing just because you’re told to.
Before you go investing in a zillion different AI Search, GEO or AEO ‘expert tools’, I recommend you chat to your SEO team first. Our SEO partners are already incorporating AI search best practices into their SEO strategies.
If you’re a big corporate, ecommerce or global brand, you might need to lean in more to GEO and AEO techniques. But for SMBs, focus on enhancing your current SEO strategy rather than ditching it for a new AI search-specific strategy.
Want your website to be more visible to AI Search?
We recommend starting with a website content audit. This will highlight content gaps, page and content structure improvements, and SEO practices to implement.
Need help with this? Book a call to get started. Working with our SEO and website partners, we can give you a full report and roadmap forward to improve your AI Search visibility.
