Understanding Modern SEO
The search landscape has changed. Here's what every business owner needs to understand.
What Is AI SEO? AI SEO is the practice of optimising your website and content so that AI systems, including Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini, cite your brand as an authoritative source when users ask questions in your niche. The same work is also sold as GEO (generative engine optimisation) or AEO (answer engine optimisation). For a full breakdown, read our deep-dive guide on what AI SEO is and how it works.
What Is LLM SEO? LLM SEO (Large Language Model SEO) is the process of structuring your content, brand mentions, and online presence so that large language models trained on web data recognise and recommend your business when generating answers about your industry or service category.
What Is Traditional SEO? Traditional SEO is the practice of optimising your website through technical improvements, keyword targeting, and link building to rank higher in Google's standard organic search results. It remains the foundation of any digital marketing strategy.
Traditional SEO vs AI SEO vs LLM SEO
Understanding the differences helps you invest in the right strategy for where your customers are searching.
| Feature | Traditional SEO | AI SEO | LLM SEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank on Google page 1 | Get cited in AI Overviews | Appear in LLM-generated answers |
| How it works | Keywords, backlinks, technical | Content structure, E-E-A-T | Brand mentions, entity authority |
| Key platform | Google Search | Google, Perplexity, ChatGPT | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot |
| Timeline | No date can be promised | No date or citation can be promised | Ongoing |
| Measurement | Rankings, organic traffic | AI citation rate | Brand mention rate in AI answers |
Everything Covered
All of it points at one result: more enquiries from your website. If the site itself is the weak point, we fix that first through web development.
Technical SEO
Site speed optimisation, Core Web Vitals, crawlability, indexation, structured data implementation, and mobile-first compliance.
On-Page SEO
Keyword research, content optimisation, meta tags, internal linking architecture, and semantic content strategy.
Link Building
Authoritative backlink acquisition through outreach, digital PR, and content partnerships that build lasting domain authority.
AI Search Optimisation
E-E-A-T content signals and FAQ optimisation for Google AI Overviews and Perplexity. Google says its AI features need no special schema.
LLM Brand Optimisation
Entity building, brand mention campaigns, and structured content that trains AI models to recommend your business.
Local SEO
Google Business Profile optimisation, local citations, and geo-targeted content that dominates your local market. See our guide to local SEO for service businesses.
How to Optimise
for AI SEO in 5 Steps
This is the exact framework we use to get service businesses ranked and appearing in Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT answers.
Build E-E-A-T Signals
Add author bios, credentials, and real-world evidence of expertise. AI systems favour content from demonstrably authoritative sources.
Implement Schema Markup
Add Organization and Service schema to your key pages, and make sure it matches the visible text. Google asks for that match and says its AI features need no special schema.
Write Direct-Answer Content
Every question should be answered directly in 40-60 word paragraphs. AI systems extract and cite concise, factual responses.
Build Brand Entity Authority
Get your brand consistently mentioned across authoritative external websites, industry directories, and relevant publications.
Optimise for Snippet Extraction
Format lists, tables, and definitions in clean HTML that's easily parsed and reproduced by AI systems generating answers.
Want Us to Do This For You?
We implement all five steps on every engagement. Book a free audit to see where you currently stand.
Book Free SEO Audit →Common SEO Questions
Traditional SEO optimises your website to rank on Google's standard search results pages through keywords, backlinks, and technical improvements. AI SEO optimises your content so that AI-powered search systems, including Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, cite your brand as an authoritative source when generating answers.
To get cited by ChatGPT and other large language models, build strong entity authority through consistent brand mentions on authoritative websites, structured content with clear definitions, and FAQ-format pages that answer questions directly. This is the core of LLM SEO, a service Position Xero specialises in for service businesses worldwide.
LLM SEO is the process of optimising your brand to be recommended by AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. It matters because AI assistants now field a large share of the questions people used to type into Google, and many buyers ask them for product and service recommendations directly. If you're not optimised for AI, you're invisible to a growing share of your market.
No one can promise you a date. Google's SEO starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others can take several months, and Google warns against anyone who claims to guarantee rankings. For AI Overviews, Google says even a page that meets every requirement is not guaranteed to be shown. Our guides to how long SEO takes and ranking in Google AI Overviews explain what decides the pace.
A good local SEO strategy includes: optimising your Google Business Profile, building local citations across directories, targeting location-specific keywords, earning customer reviews, and creating locally relevant content. In 2026, this should also include AI SEO to appear in Google AI Overviews for local search queries. For more answers, visit our marketing FAQ.
Google AI Overview is an AI-generated summary that appears at the top of Google results for certain queries. It synthesises answers from multiple web sources using large language models. Google says any page that is indexed and can be shown in Search with a snippet is eligible, and that no special schema is needed. Any structured data should match the visible text, as our guide to ranking in Google AI Overviews explains.
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, Google's framework for evaluating content quality. High E-E-A-T signals (author credentials, factual accuracy, external citations, brand authority) are critical for ranking in traditional search and being cited in AI-generated answers.
SEO by Market
We work with businesses across the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa, and we run the whole thing from South Africa. Search behaviour, competition and pricing differ enough between markets that South Africa gets a page of its own.
SEO in South Africa
Real ZAR retainer ranges, local SEO for South African service businesses, POPIA-safe lead capture, and the AI-search gap almost nobody local is covering yet.
Local SEO for Service Businesses
The five pillars of ranking in your city: Google Business Profile, reviews, citations, location pages and AI search.
What Is AI SEO?
How to get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and why it's a different job from ranking on Google.