Website content used to have a relatively clear job when it came to online search: understand what people were typing into Google, answer their questions well and make the page easy for search engines to find and understand.

That job hasn’t disappeared, but people no longer reach websites through one predictable search journey.

Someone might still search Google and click a traditional organic result, but others might read an AI Overview, continue through Google’s AI features, ask ChatGPT a conversational question or move between several of these before reaching a website.

For marketing teams, this can make writing for search and AI sound like an entirely new discipline.

In practice, it shouldn’t be. Good writing for AI search is largely an extension of good SEO content writing: understand what your audience needs, answer it clearly, organise information logically, demonstrate genuine knowledge and make important information easy to find.

What does ‘writing for search and AI’ mean?

Writing for search and AI means creating website content that works for your target audience however they discover it, whether that’s through traditional search results, AI-generated search experiences or conversational AI tools.

It doesn’t mean producing one version for Google and another for AI tools.

The objective is to create useful content with a clear purpose, logical structure and enough original information for people and search systems to understand what it’s about.

For search, that also means understanding search intent, answering relevant questions, using descriptive headings and covering the subject naturally rather than repeatedly inserting a keyword.

Discover what Google’s new AI version of search means for your business’s visibility.

Why is search behaviour changing?

Traditional Google Search remains extremely important.

Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 research found that Google Search was used by 82% of UK adults and handled around three billion UK searches each month.

But the same research also illustrates how the search experience itself is changing.

Ofcom also reported that around 30% of searches were showing AI Overviews, and 53% of adults said they encountered these summaries often. ChatGPT had also received 1.8 billion UK visits during the first eight months of 2025, compared with 368 million during the equivalent period in 2024.

These figures don’t mean traditional search is being replaced. Instead, businesses increasingly need to think about conventional search results, AI-generated summaries and conversational discovery existing alongside one another.

Searches can become more specific and conversational

One practical consequence of AI-assisted search is that users can ask longer, more detailed questions and provide more context about what they need.

Conversational AI tools also make it easier to add detail to a question and ask follow-up questions as the search develops.

For marketing teams, this makes it more important to plan content around broader customer needs rather than trying to anticipate every possible wording of a query.

What has changed for search content?

A narrower SEO focus A broader search and AI approach
Build the page primarily around an identified search term Use search demand alongside customer questions, subject expertise and the wider decision journey
Use keyword research to shape the terminology on the page Use natural language while covering the related concepts people need to understand
Create separate pages where keyword demand suggests different opportunities Consider whether those needs genuinely require separate pages or belong within one stronger resource
Focus success measures mainly on organic search performance Consider visibility across traditional search and AI-assisted discovery
Use competitor content to understand what the market already covers Go beyond that baseline with first-hand expertise, evidence and information specific to your organisation

Practical steps for writing for search and AI

Start with audience need and search intent

Keyword research can help reveal search intent, but the keyword itself shouldn’t become the entire brief.

For example, imagine your primary keyword is outsourced HR services. A basic brief might identify that as the primary search term, include several related keywords and ask the writer to explain the service and how somebody can get started. That gives the writer useful direction, but it may still leave some of the customer’s most important questions unanswered.

A stronger brief would combine that search data with the questions a potential customer is likely to need answered, such as:

  • What can an outsourced HR provider actually handle?
  • What remains the employer’s responsibility?
  • How much does outsourced HR cost?
  • When does outsourcing make sense compared with hiring internally?

This approach works for traditional search because it addresses the reason behind relevant searches, but also gives AI search systems clearer, more substantive information to work with without the writer having to predict hundreds of individual prompts.

Google advises businesses to focus on content that leaves visitors feeling they have learned enough to achieve their goal. It also warns against creating large numbers of pages simply to capture search traffic or variations of how people might phrase a query.

Structure the page before writing

Once the intent is clear, plan the page.

A useful structure should answer the reader’s main question early and then present the supporting information in a logical order.

The order should reflect what the reader needs to understand and when. A highly considered B2B service, for example, may need to address commercial questions or suitability much earlier than a simpler service page.

If an important customer question is missing because it has low search volume, that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be excluded.

Search data can tell you what people look for. Your sales teams, customer service teams, product specialists and subject experts can often tell you what customers actually need to know.

The strongest content briefs combine search data with real customer insight.

Use clear headings and summaries

Once the information is in the right order, headings and summaries should make that structure easy to follow.

Google’s current AI search guidance specifically recommends organising content into paragraphs and sections with headings that give readers a clear structure. At the same time, Google says there is no requirement to break pages into artificially small ‘chunks’ for AI systems.

That distinction matters – clear structure is useful, but formatting every individual sentence as though it’s been written for a machine isn’t.

Make headings descriptive

Headings should give readers a useful indication of what the section contains, without forcing every heading into the same SEO or AI-friendly formula.

For example, ‘What to consider before outsourcing HR’ is perfectly reasonable, but ‘Cost, responsibilities and when outsourced HR makes sense’ gives the reader a more precise idea of what the section will cover.

Answer important questions early

Where a customer question has a conditional answer, give the useful answer early without removing the qualification that makes it accurate.

This is particularly important for questions that influence a commercial decision. Give the reader the useful answer first, then add the conditions, exceptions or context they need to understand it properly.

What this looks like in practice

Imagine you’re a company writing a page targeting commercial solar panel installation.

Here’s an example of competent marketing copy that still leaves some important customer questions unanswered:

Commercial solar panel installation can help businesses reduce energy costs and work towards sustainability goals. Our experienced team designs and installs commercial solar systems for organisations across the UK, providing a complete service from initial consultation through to installation.

Compare it to this version:

Commercial solar panels can help businesses generate more of their own electricity and reduce their reliance on power bought from the grid. Whether they make commercial sense depends on factors including your available roof or ground space, electricity use, installation costs and how long you expect to occupy the property.

We design and install commercial solar systems for businesses, helping you assess those factors before recommending a suitable system. This guide explains how commercial solar installations work, what they can cost and what to consider before deciding whether to invest.

The second version is more useful because it begins addressing the questions behind the search: whether the investment makes sense, which factors affect that decision and what the reader needs to understand next.

Read our SEO copywriting checklist for editors.

Write naturally

Writing for AI search doesn’t require a new robotic style that’s best understood by algorithms.

Google says its systems can understand synonyms and the general meaning behind searches, so businesses don’t need to include every long-tail keyword or rewrite pages to cover every possible query variation.

In practice, that means you shouldn’t rewrite otherwise clear content simply to accommodate every closely related search term. Cover the subject well and use the language your audience would naturally expect.

Show expertise, evidence and trust

As more businesses can produce competent summaries of common topics quickly by using generative AI, generic information is becoming easier to replicate.

Content becomes more valuable when it includes knowledge that genuinely comes from the organisation producing it.

Google’s people-first content guidance also emphasises original information and analysis, first-hand expertise and content that adds value beyond simply reproducing what already exists.

This could include:

  • Original data from your business
  • Results from real projects
  • First-hand observations
  • Explanations of how your processes actually work
  • Customer questions your team regularly encounters
  • Relevant independent research

This doesn’t mean every page needs a proprietary research study. Often, the most useful expertise is already sitting inside your business.

One of the simplest ways to uncover that expertise is to ask your subject experts better questions. Instead of asking someone to ‘send some information about the service’, ask what customers regularly misunderstand, which questions come up before a sale, what exceptions the team sees in practice and what people should know before they get in touch.

Support factual claims

Evidence also matters when making claims in marketing copy. If you quote research or data, link to the original source so readers can check the evidence and understand its context. If you make a performance claim, explain the basis for it.

Clear sourcing and information demonstrate why the content and its author can be trusted, so make important claims credible and easy to verify.

Read our top tips for optimising your content for AI search.

Avoiding common SEO and AI-writing mistakes

The growth of AI search has brought plenty of new terminology, tools and recommendations. Some of them are useful, while others can encourage marketing teams to overcomplicate a topic that should remain relatively straightforward.

Here are a few mistakes worth avoiding:

  • Creating separate pages for every possible AI prompt – Conversational search can generate countless variations around the same subject, but that doesn’t mean each one needs its own page. Decide which questions represent a genuinely different need and which are better answered within a stronger central resource.
  • Turning every paragraph into an ‘AI answer’ – Short summaries, bullet points and direct answers can make content easier to understand, but not every page needs to become a collection of disconnected responses.
  • Using AI to produce generic content at scale – AI tools can help with research, structure and editing, but publishing large volumes of broadly similar content gives readers little reason to choose your website over another.
  • Letting a target word count dictate the finished page – Competitor analysis or content tools may suggest that pages covering a subject tend to fall within a particular length range, which can be useful for scoping. But the finished page should still be long enough to properly address the reader’s needs.

A practical checklist before publishing a search and AI-ready page

Once the page is drafted, use this shorter checklist as a final sense-check before publishing.

Audience and intent

  • Is the intended reader clear?
  • Do we know what they are trying to understand, compare or do?
  • Does the page have one clear primary purpose?
  • Have we considered real customer questions as well as keyword data?

Structure

  • Are the most important questions answered in a logical order?
  • Do headings clearly describe the sections beneath them?
  • Can someone scan the page and easily find important information?

Writing

  • Is the language clear and natural?
  • Is the primary keyword used where it makes sense?
  • Are direct questions answered without unnecessary introductions?
  • Have we used bullets, tables or summaries where they genuinely make information easier to understand?

Expertise and evidence

  • Does the page include information that reflects genuine knowledge or experience?
  • Are factual claims accurate?
  • Are important external statistics properly sourced?
  • Have we explained any relevant limitations or qualifications?
  • Is it clear who the business is and why its information should be trusted?

Final quality check

  • Does the page properly satisfy the search intent?
  • Would we be comfortable sending this page directly to a potential customer?
  • Does it add something useful rather than simply summarising competitors?
  • Are there relevant internal links to supporting pages?
  • Is there a clear next step for somebody who wants more information?
  • Has a human with relevant knowledge reviewed the final version?

If several of those questions are difficult to answer, the problem may lie with the content process rather than the writer.

Building a consistent approach across your team

Writing for search and AI works best when SEO specialists, writers and subject-matter experts work from the same framework. Problems arise when teams prioritise different things – from exact keywords and AI-friendly formatting to subject expertise added too late in the process.

A shared approach helps everyone align around audience need, search intent, page structure, expertise and review.

If your team needs help applying these principles across real pages, Submerge offers practical writing for search and AI training around your website, content priorities and editorial challenges. We can help you build a repeatable process for researching, briefing, writing and reviewing content for both traditional and AI-assisted search.

Contact our team to find out how we can help.