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Ranking on page one doesn’t cut it anymore. AI platforms and LLMs are taking over the spotlight—pushing traditional organic search results further down the page. If you want your brand to still be seen and trusted online, then your content must be structured in a way that both people and LLMs understand.
But unlike traditional search engine crawlers that depend on markup, metadata, and link structures, LLMs understand content in a completely different way. In SEO, we often focus on structured data (like Schema markups) to help search engines read our pages. While that layer of markup is still useful, structuring content for AI extraction (and AEO in general) goes far beyond adding tags.
The good news? This is something you can control. Understanding how LLMs see and digest content is key to increasing your chances of appearing in AI Overviews, Perplexity summaries, or ChatGPT citations. This guide will show you how to do just that.
Author’s Note:
This article is the fifth entry in my ongoing AI + SEO (AEO) series. If you want the full picture of how search is evolving, I recommend starting with the earlier parts—they lay the groundwork for understanding how AI is reshaping content and visibility.
Catch up on the series:
Read the series in order to understand what’s changing, and how to create content that wins in both human and AI search.
Let’s face it, most users don’t click through as much anymore. They read summaries from Google or AI chatbots, then move on. That means if your content isn’t the one being quoted, you’re invisible.
Here’s why structuring your content for AI matters:
Think about it. Two businesses write about the same topic. One writes in big paragraphs without structure. The other uses clear answers, lists, and tables. Which one do you think the AI will choose?
Large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 and Gemini process content very differently from traditional search crawlers. Instead of scanning markup, metadata, and links, they ingest the text, break it into tokens, and analyze the relationships between words, sentences, and ideas using advanced attention mechanisms.
When evaluating content, LLMs consider factors such as:
By understanding how LLMs process and prioritize information, you can format your content in ways that make it more discoverable, quotable, and AI-friendly.
When a language model builds a response, it doesn’t pull a full page. It pieces together sentences and sections it understands best. To be part of that mix, your content must be easy for AI to read and interpret.
That means writing content that is:
In short, AI rewards clarity, structure, and intent. The better your content communicates ideas at a glance, the more likely it is to be quoted, shared, and remembered.
If you want to get serious about structuring content for AI, then you need to stop thinking like in terms of traditional SEO, and start thinking like a content engineer. This is where AEO, also known as GEO, comes in.
Here are the key principles:
This isn’t about gaming the system. Structing content for AI extraction is about clarity, precision, and creating content that works for both people and machines.
Headings are not just for design. They signal to both readers and AI what the section is about.
What to do:
Example:
When AI scans your content, it uses your headers as landmarks. Don’t make them vague. Make them count.
Here’s how I structured this article with H2s and H3s:
Bullets make information scannable. They also make it easier for AI to extract key points.
What to do:
Example:
If you want your content to be quoted by AI systems, lists are one of your best tools. Just remember—bullet points only work when readers and search engines understand them. Always include a short introduction that explains what the list is about and why it matters.
Tables are gold for AI extraction because they show relationships clearly.
What to do:
Example:
Format | AI-Unfriendly | AI-Optimized |
Paragraph | Long and mixed ideas | One idea per chunk |
Header | Generic, ex: “Features” | Entity-rich, ex: “Best HRIS Features” |
List | Dense text | Concise and skimmable |
The simpler your table, the more likely AI will pick it up.
Here’s an example of one I made in a previous article:
Headings don’t just help section content, they act like anchors that help LLMs understand how topics relate to one another. I recommend using question-style phrasing for your H2s and H3s for this reason.
When you write H2 and H3 headings in the form of search queries, you’re doing two things at once:
Good headings mirror the exact phrases your audience types into search engines. For example:
Avoid vague headers like “Smarter HR Tools” or “Why It Matters.” They don’t communicate a clear question or intent, which makes it harder for both humans and AI to understand the relevance of your content.
Never bury the lead. AI is looking for direct answers.
Formula:
Answer first → Explanation → Example
Example:
When you start with the answer, you’re not only helping AI. You’re helping readers too.
Before (Unstructured):
“Semantic chunking is important in AI SEO. It involves splitting ideas into parts, but some writers don’t use it. This can confuse retrieval systems, and your content may not show up in results.”
After (Optimized):
What Is Semantic Chunking?
Semantic chunking is the practice of breaking content into focused sections so AI can retrieve them more accurately.
The second version wins because it’s clear, concise, and structured.
Once you master the basics, take it to the next level:
These are the strategies that separate generic content from AI-optimized content. If you want to appear in AI-generated summaries, then you need to format your content as something worth quoting. Answer questions directly, keep your layout clean, and make sure every section delivers standalone value.
AI is reshaping search. If you want to get quoted in AI Overviews or chat engines, you need to make you’re structuring content for AI extraction. That means clear headings, answer-first intros, bullet lists, and tables. It also means breaking down your content into chunks, adding unique insights, and thinking like a content engineer.
Remember this, you’re not just writing for people anymore. You’re writing for people and for AI. The businesses that adapt to this will dominate the future of AEO and SEO.
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