Ian Ferguson

Ecommerce SEO Consultant

What AI Means for Your Website, Your Content & Your Customers

by | Nov 12, 2025 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging trend — it’s fundamentally reshaping how people search, consume content and choose where to spend their money. At the North East Expo, I shared what this shift means for your website, content strategy, and digital visibility going into 2026.

The good news? If you already care about SEO and user experience, you’re in a strong position. The goal now is to adapt your content for both search engines and AI agents, while also ensuring it remains useful for real humans.

You can view the full slides from the session below 👇

Key Themes from the Talk

AI Is Mainstream, and So Is AI Search

In 2025, 78% of businesses are using AI, with tools like ChatGPT seeing over 500 million weekly users. Google, Perplexity, and others are integrating AI into browsers and assistants. This means more people are getting answers without clicking through — and AI is deciding whose content gets quoted.

SEO Isn’t Dead, It’s Evolving

While AI is changing how people search, traditional SEO still drives the vast majority of traffic. In fact, AI answers currently account for under 1% of visits for most sites. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore it. The smartest approach? Combine SEO for visibility with GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) to ensure your content gets cited in AI-generated answers too.

Structure Matters: How to Write for AI & UX

Want AI to pick up and quote your content? Use formats it understands:

  • FAQs that match real user questions (especially from “People Also Ask”)
  • Comparison tables and pros/cons lists
  • Key takeaways or TL;DR summaries
  • Clear headings and lists to help both people and machines skim

This isn’t just good for AI, it makes your content easier for everyone to digest.

Where AI Gets Its Information

It’s not just pulling from your homepage. AI answers increasingly cite Reddit threads, YouTube captions, product reviews, and structured data (like schema markup). That’s why Search Everywhere Optimisation (SEvO) matters: be present wherever your customers are asking questions, not just on Google.

Reputation Is No Longer Buried

The old rule of “hide bad press on page 3 of Google” no longer applies. AI will surface old reviews, outdated content, and even one-off complaints in its answers. You need to actively manage what AI sees; refresh legacy pages, monitor how your brand is presented in tools like Waikay, and make sure your best content isn’t hiding in the shadows.

What You Can Do This Week

  • Set up AI traffic tracking in GA4 (custom channel group for AI tools)
  • Audit your site for technical and content issues; broken links, poor rendering, missing schema
  • Search your brand in ChatGPT or Bing; see what comes up and what AI “thinks” about you

Want a Technical & AI SEO Audit?

If you’re not sure what AI and search engines are seeing (or missing) on your site, I’m offering a focused audit for attendees.

We’ll cover:

  • Technical SEO issues (404s, redirect loops, JS rendering, schema)
  • AI-specific content gaps and low-E-E-A-T risks
  • Quick wins to boost your visibility in both search and AI answers
Book an Audit Discovery Call

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