Search has changed in a big way. Instead of typing a couple of keywords into Google, people are now asking full questions across platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing AI.
These tools don’t just throw up a list of websites anymore – they pull together direct answers and highlight just a few trusted sources.
If your business isn’t ready for this shift, you risk being left out of the results your customers actually see.
The way we search is shifting – and you need to shift with it
For years, we’ve been used to the classic Google approach: open a search bar, type in a few words, refine if needed, and scan the results. Google got clever over time, often working out what we meant even if we didn’t type it perfectly.
But things are changing.
Younger generations increasingly turn to social media to ask questions and find recommendations. That habit of asking in natural language has carried over into how they use search – and AI platforms are built to respond to exactly that kind of input.
Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are designed to answer questions directly, pulling from human language patterns. And the results are good – so good that people are already changing habits that have been ingrained for 15+ years.
Each AI platform has its own quirks, but the foundations of good content are the same across them all. Get those right, and your business has a much better chance of showing up in answers wherever people are asking.
What this means for your website
If you want to appear in AI answers, your site needs to be easy for both people and AI to understand. That means:
Using clear headings that reflect natural questions.
- Adding FAQ sections targeting “how, what, when, can I” style queries.
- Writing short, scannable paragraphs (under 280 characters is ideal).
- Incorporating schema markup (FAQPage, HowTo, Article) so AI knows exactly what kind of content it is.
- Producing lists, steps, and checklists – the kind of formats AIs love to lift into direct answers.
Types of content that perform best in AI search
Here are the content formats we’ve seen work especially well:
- How-to guides: e.g. “How to fix peeling paint on walls”
- Step-by-step tutorials: e.g. “How to paint bathroom tiles in 5 steps”
- FAQ pages: answering things like “Can you paint over plaster?”
- Comparisons / Checklists: e.g. “Which paint finish should I use in a bathroom?”
- Local guides: e.g. “Best contact centre training providers in [city]”
The good news? Many businesses already have this knowledge in-house. And in fact, we’ve been advising our clients for years now that this is exactly the sort of content they need because it’s what users prefer – so those sites have got a natural head start.
But the challenge facing businesses is usually one of two things:
- The content exists somewhere but hasn’t been structured or published properly.
- The expertise is there, but the team doesn’t have the time or resource to turn it into usable content.
That’s exactly where we can help.
We work with businesses to plan, create, and optimise content so it’s ready for the world of AI-driven search.
If you’d like to chat about making your content AI-ready, drop us an email at nick.capehorn@themegroup.co.uk and let’s get started.
