Beyond Keywords: 5 Surprising SEO Factors for the AI Era

The world of SEO is changing faster than a pigeon nicking a chip in Trafalgar Square. With AI search and those AI Overviews everywhere, it’s easy to get mugged off—thinking you’ve clocked it, when you haven’t. Loads of business owners and marketers are baffled about what actually moves the needle now, not only on Google, but across newer AI surfaces.

This article cuts through the noise. Drawing on industry practice and insights popularised by Nathan Gotch, we unpack five powerful—often surprising—factors that matter in the AI era. Forget shallow hacks; these are durable principles with clear, actionable steps you can implement today.

1) If AI Can’t Read Your Site, You Don’t Exist

The most basic rule of SEO still stands: if a page can’t be crawled and indexed, it can’t rank. What’s changed is who needs to read you. Traditional search engines are one audience; AI systems (and retrieval-augmented experiences) are another. Many AI crawlers and model ingestion pipelines don’t reliably execute client-side JavaScript, so JS-heavy sites can become partially invisible.

Make your site legible by default:

• HTML-first rendering: Prefer server-side rendering (SSR), static generation, or hybrid rendering so core content ships in the initial HTML.
• Robots hygiene: Keep robots.txt permissive for legitimate crawlers; don’t “noindex” pages you want discovered. Maintain a fresh XML sitemap.
• Shallow architecture: Aim for three clicks or fewer from the homepage to any key page, with descriptive internal links.
• Fast loads: Sub-3s LCP on real devices. Compress images, lazy-load below the fold, preconnect critical origins, and trim third-party bloat.
• Crawl checks: Run Screaming Frog or Sitebulb and review crawl depth, inlinks, canonicals, status codes, and any JS-blocked content.

2) The Best Backlinks Now Feed the Models

Quality still beats quantity. One strong link trumps a hundred throwaways. But quality now includes a crucial dimension: does the linking site feed AI answers? Sites frequently cited in AI Overviews, Perplexity source panels, news knowledge boxes, or academic/government datasets punch above their weight.

How to spot an “LLM Feeder”:

• The domain is referenced or quoted in AI answer panels.
• It’s a credible reference-style source (gov, edu, standards bodies, major news, high-signal niche publishers).
• It uses clean structure (clear headlines, bylines, dates, schema) that’s easy to extract.

How to earn feeder-grade links without spam:

• Original data & benchmarks: Publish studies, pricing analyses, failure rates, uptime reports—anything quantifiable and citable.
• Expert explainers & glossaries: Define terms precisely and include examples, diagrams, and references.
• Digital PR with receipts: Pitch journalists with datasets, not just opinions.
• Citable tools: Free calculators, checkers, or templates that attract links and citations in AI answers.

Rule of thumb: If a human researcher would bookmark it, an AI system is more likely to ingest or cite it.

3) Your Google Reviews Won’t Carry You in AI (On Their Own)

Local rankings on Google? Google Business Profile (GBP) still dominates. But AI assistants often pull brand sentiment from multiple directories, not just Google. If you only nurture GBP, you may look under-reviewed to AI systems.

Diversify your review footprint:

• Broad: Yelp, Trustpilot, Facebook, Which? (UK), BBB (US), and even relevant Reddit threads.
• Local trades/services: Checkatrade, Rated People, Houzz, Angie/Thumbtack.
• SaaS/B2B: G2, Capterra, Gartner Peer Insights.
• Travel/Leisure: TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Booking, Airbnb (Hosts).

Do the basics flawlessly: NAP (number, adress and phone number) consistency, correct categories, fresh photos and review responses. Ask 20% of happy customers to leave a second review on the most AI-visible directory in your niche.

4) Be Comprehensive Before You’re Original

“Write unique content” is decent advice—but being unique too early can harm relevance. AI and search engines expect certain core subtopics to be covered for each query. Skip those and you’ll struggle, no matter how original you are.

The two-step content method:

1. Relevance baseline: Analyse top results to list the non-negotiable subtopics, entities, FAQs, metrics, and definitions. Cover them clearly.
2. Information gain: Add what others don’t—first-party data, case studies, methodology, failure modes, cost breakdowns, and checklists.

Checklist for a publish-ready article:

• Answers the primary intent in the first 150–200 words.
• Covers expected subtopics with scannable H2/H3s.
• Includes evidence (data, quotes, screenshots, diagrams).
• Ends with a decision aid: table, calculator, or “what to do next.”

5) Stop Random Acts of SEO—Build Topic Clusters

One-off posts on disconnected topics won’t build authority. Topical authority comes from clusters: a pillar page plus tightly related supporting pages that interlink and ladder up to a clear theme.

Example cluster (for an “AI SEO” service):

• Pillar: AI SEO: The Complete Guide (2025 Edition)
• Supporters:
  • AI Overviews: How They Work & How to Win
  • LLM-Friendly Technical SEO Checklist
  • AI-Feeder Backlinks: PR Playbook with Templates
  • Topic Clusters vs. Keyword Buckets: A Practical Workflow
  • Case Study: +84% Non-Brand Clicks from AI-Ready Content
• Internal linking: Every support links to the pillar and to 1–2 siblings where context fits. Avoid cannibalisation with distinct intents.

Pro tip: Treat each cluster like a product—roadmap it, resource it, measure it, and update it.

• Render for machines: HTML-first, fast, shallow architecture, clean crawl paths.
• Earn citable links: Prioritise sources AI answers actually quote.
• Broaden reviews: GBP for Google; diversify for AI retrieval.
• Cover expectations first: Then add unique data for information gain.
• Think in clusters: Pillar + supporting assets + smart internal links.

Quick Action Plan

1. View-source your top revenue page—confirm core content is in the HTML.
2. List five AI-visible directories in your niche; start a review push on one today.
3. Identify three feeder domains you can pitch with a mini dataset or tool.
4. Outline a pillar plus four supporters for one topic; add to your sprint board.
5. Add Article and FAQPage schema to your top two posts.

FAQs

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