Google and other search engines are already experimenting with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to provide results. It won’t be long before we see this in everyday use.

For small practices, this could mean losing visibility among potential clients as they use search engine GenAI tools to answer their queries. This also goes for individuals too. If you aren’t presenting yourself in the right way, these tools may miss you completely, or misinterpret the information you’re putting across.

In this short guide, we explore best practice for optimising your online content for GenAI tools and how you can make sure that your information is digested accurately, ready for them to reuse in their answers.

1. Structure your content well

Clearly written and well-structured content will work as well for GenAI as it did for search engines.

Using headings, subheadings and bullet points to break down your information makes it easier for GenAI tools to understand and retrieve specific points.

2. Use plain English

It is important to phrase content in a way that can be easily understood, focusing on clear and connected answers that an AI tool can interpret easily. Here are our tips:

• Don’t present information in isolated blocks – GenAI tools struggle to connect that text with the content around it.
• Use more plain English to help GenAI see the connections.
• Use more conversational English to help GenAI match the way that users frame questions with your content.
• Avoid ambiguity and ensure that sayings and phrases are used consistently.

3. Label content carefully

Labels for content, or the sections they sit in, need to work well beyond the immediate publication date.

For example, if an article is titled ‘Latest developments in farming’, that won’t be accurate within a few weeks. AI tools may take your label literally when asked for the latest developments, even if there is more up-to-date content in this area on your website. 

Balance creativity with clarity. Clever or punning titles might look great in a print publication but if they are too obscure or disconnected from the content, the AI tool might struggle to discern the intended meaning. 

While an AI tool may still index your content correctly using the contextual clues and structure, it is better not to put barriers in its path.

4. Use keywords and metadata well

Your content should flow naturally and include relevant keywords, to help GenAI tools identify the themes and topics, while avoiding the ‘keyword stuffing’ that search engines penalise.

Meta descriptions and alt text for images that you add for search engine optimisation (SEO) are just as important for GenAI tools, which may use SEO signals to help determine content relevance and quality when picking sources to assemble answers.

5. Format tables correctly

While GenAI tools cope well with free text, tables can present trickier ground. Poorly formatted tables (for example those with no headers or missing titles) can leave AI tools unable to interpret the tables correctly, even if the text around the table would make that perfectly clear to a human.

Blank cells in tables can also confuse. Use a placeholder (such as ‘N/A’ or ‘0’) to indicate that the data is intentionally missing or not applicable. This helps GenAI to recognise that the cell isn’t simply an error or oversight.

Use consistent formatting for data within the table. For instance, if you are presenting dates, choose a single date format (eg YYYY-MM-DD) and use it throughout. Consistency helps GenAI tools recognise and interpret patterns in the data.

6. Help AI make connections

GenAI tools can also struggle with the interchangeability of phrases like ‘national minimum wage’ and ‘UK minimum wage’, leading them to deliver an incorrect answer. How you describe things in text can help AI make the right connections. For example, phrasing this term as ‘UK national minimum wage’.

7. Avoid duplication

GenAI tools do not cope well if a website has multiple places with information on the same topic. The AI tool may have to pick one when it is assembling an answer, and it may not be the content you want it to focus on.

When writing content for your practice, you need to do everything you can to help smooth the path for GenAI tools towards the best content on your website. It is better to give these tools one place to look, rather than risk them running out of processing capacity to assemble an answer from multiple areas on the same topic.

8. Identify your sources

Search engines and GenAI share an appreciation for links to source content, which adds credibility to your content and could allow tools to trace your original source for verification. This could make the difference in AI tools picking your content over unverifiable content.

This will become more important as new verification functionality gets added to GenAI tools, where GenAI tools compare the accuracy of their output with other material on the internet.

9. Remove old content 

AI tools can pick up on older versions of content and use these in their answers, which means it’s important to delete old content rather than leaving it on the live website.