AI has forever changed how buyers search, with users increasingly using AI-powered search and AI assistants like ChatGPT and Bing Copilot. For B2B marketers, this means the old SEO playbook no longer guarantees traffic. But it’s not all bad news. With the right strategy, your company can become the source of those AI answers and draw higher-quality traffic from multiple channels. As a B2B SEO agency with over 25 years of experience, Elevation Marketing has seen these shifts firsthand.
Here’s how B2B brands can thrive in the AI-driven search era.
Create Content AI Trusts and Cites
Google’s AI doesn’t just match keywords—it evaluates context, authority and trustworthiness. Content that’s thin or superficial won’t make the cut; content that answers questions thoroughly and accurately will.
What to do:
- Lead with the answer: Start each section with a clear 40–60 word summary of the key point. This helps AI models quickly grasp the main idea, and a well-structured summary increases the chances of being included in the AI’s final synthesized response.
- Cover topics in depth: Build detailed guides, Q&A pages and explainer articles that anticipate follow-up questions. Use clear H2s and H3s phrased as questions (“How does [solution] improve ROI?”).
- Demonstrate E-E-A-T: Highlight your subject matter experts with bylines and bios, cite reputable data and add original research. For example, a B2B SaaS company could publish benchmark studies that become go-to sources for AI summaries.
- Link related content: Interlink supporting pages to form a topic cluster. This signals to AI and human readers that your site is a hub of expertise on the subject.
Why it matters: Pages organized this way align with semantic SEO and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) principles—making them more likely to be surfaced and cited in AI results.
Answer the Questions Buyers Actually Ask
AI search expands what counts as a “keyword.” Prospects now type or speak long-tail, conversational queries. Capturing these requires a question-first approach.
What to do:
- Mine real questions: Use tools like Google’s People Also Ask, AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked and Semrush’s Question Hub to find the specific questions your buyers are asking.
- Build FAQ sections: Add an FAQ block to each major topic page, with each question heading a succinct 40–60 word answer. This helps your content appear in AI overviews and featured snippets.
- Implement FAQ schema: Mark up your Q&A with JSON-LD. This makes your answers machine-readable and eligible for enhanced display in search results.
- Use conversational headings: Replace “Features” with “How Our Software Solves [Problem]” or “Why This Matters for [Industry].”
Expert tip: Prioritize FAQs that address buying-stage questions (“How does [solution] integrate with [platform]?”) rather than generic definitions. AI search is highly attuned to user intent, which means it’s more likely to surface practical, detailed answers that map to a prospect’s decision-making process.
Make Your Site Fast, Structured and Machine-Friendly
Even the best content won’t appear in AI overviews if crawlers can’t access or render it quickly. Technical SEO is still the backbone of discoverability.
What to do:
- Optimize Core Web Vitals: Make sure your site loads fast, responds quickly, and stays visually stable. Aim for:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) under 2.5 seconds → Your main content should appear quickly, which is crucial for crawlers and users alike.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint) under 200 milliseconds → The site should respond almost instantly when someone clicks or taps.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) under 0.1 → The page shouldn’t “jump around” as it loads.
- Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Search Console to track these scores and spot what needs fixing.
- Ensure mobile-first readiness: Most voice and AI searches happen on mobile. Test your pages on multiple devices to ensure usability and load speed.
- Clean HTML and semantic structure: Use clear heading hierarchy, descriptive alt text for images and avoid hiding text behind scripts.
- Use structured data beyond FAQs: Add markup that defines your brand, products and authors, making it easier for AI to connect your expertise with your content. For example:
- Organization schema → defines your company name, logo and contact info.
- Product or SoftwareApplication schema → describes your product features, pricing and use cases.
- Author schema → shows who wrote the content and their credentials.
Expert tip: Audit your site quarterly for crawl errors, outdated redirects and broken internal links. A strong technical foundation is your ticket to even being considered for AI citations.
Prepare for Voice Search and Featured Snippets
Voice assistants often read aloud from structured, easy-to-read content, whether that’s a knowledge panel, text cited in an AI overview or the less predictable featured snippet. While Google’s AI Overviews may cite multiple sources, the traditional featured snippet, or “position zero,” still exists. Optimizing for clear, snippet-friendly answers increases your chances of appearing in both the traditional snippet and as a cited source within an AI Overview, which can lead to higher click-through rates.
What to do:
- Write for the ear: Use natural, conversational language. Short sentences and contractions feel more human when read aloud.
- Direct answer up front: Begin paragraphs with the key takeaway, then elaborate.
- Format steps as lists: For how-to content, use numbered lists or bullet points. This is voice-friendly, snippet-friendly and aligns well with AI overview formatting.
- Update your Google Business Profile: If local B2B queries are important, include your location and contact information. Voice search frequently surfaces local results.
Insight: B2B brands that add FAQ blocks and voice-optimized summaries to high-traffic pages have seen higher inclusion rates in AI overviews and an uptick in branded voice queries—showing that structuring for voice search can improve discoverability even without a single featured snippet.
Build Content Hubs AI Agents Can Crawl
As AI agents do more of the searching, your content should be organized like a library rather than scattered blog posts.
What to do:
- Create resource centers: Combine whitepapers, case studies, videos and tools into a single, well-structured hub page.
- Use schema on all asset types: Add structured data markup for every format you publish so AI knows how to handle it. For example:
- VideoObject markup signals video title, description and length, making them easier to add to AI overviews or Google video carousels.
- HowTo markup identifies step-by-step instructions, which AI and voice assistants can use to provide summarized answers.
- Article markup defines headline, author and publish date, improving credibility and eligibility for rich snippets.
- Refresh often: AI favors current data. Update high-performing posts with 2025 stats and examples to keep them eligible for citations.
- Offer unique assets: Proprietary calculators, surveys or benchmarking tools provide value that AI can’t fully replicate and drive click-throughs from “learn more” links.
Why this matters: This approach reflects Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): structuring your owned content so generative AI systems can find, understand and trust it.
Deliver the Human Touch
AI can summarize facts, but it can’t replicate your team’s unique experience or perspective. That’s why bringing authentic human voices into your content is one of the most effective ways to stand out in an AI-driven search landscape.
What to do:
- Feature thought leaders: Showcase subject matter experts in videos, webinars, podcasts or LinkedIn posts, then embed or link those assets on your site.
- Tell short stories: Share client success stories, before/after transformations or lessons learned from the field to illustrate your expertise.
- Write like you talk: Use a confident, clear, human tone—as if explaining to a smart colleague. Avoid jargon and condescension. For example:
Instead of: “Our SaaS solution leverages machine learning to optimize cross-channel campaign attribution.”
Try: “Our software uses AI to figure out which marketing channels are actually bringing in your best customers, so you know where to invest your budget.”
Expert Tip: Search engines and AI models weigh trust signals like author expertise, cited sources and brand mentions. Content that feels human and relatable encourages backlinks, shares and branded searches, all of which reinforce your authority and improve visibility in SERPs and AI-generated overviews.
Turn AI Search Disruption into a B2B SEO Advantage
AI-driven search is rapidly changing. Rather than chasing every algorithm tweak, focus on the fundamentals that matter more than ever: rich, intent-driven content, technical excellence and structured data. By adopting these strategies, you’ll improve your overall visibility across new search channels.
Elevation Marketing helps brands like yours navigate the new search landscape. We combine deep SEO expertise with over 25 years of B2B marketing experience to build content hubs, optimize for AI search and drive measurable pipeline impact.
Contact us to assess your SEO readiness, build AI-friendly content strategies and keep your brand visible and competitive.
