Optimize for AI Search: Other Ways to Show Up on AI
You’ve optimized your website structure and clarified your messaging, but that’s only part of showing up in AI search. In this episode, I’m going to explain why blogging, authority signals, and backlink strategy are just as important as technical SEO when it comes to AI visibility. She walks through how to write blog posts that actually attract qualified local clients (not generic traffic), why Google Reviews and directories matter more than ever, and how backlinks strengthen your authority across platforms. I’m also breaking down exactly how to track AI traffic inside Google Analytics, what percentage of traffic is actually normal from AI, and why conversion rate matters more than volume. This episode brings the entire AI series together with practical next steps depending on whether you’re showing up yet and what to do if you’re not.
Key Takeaways
Blogging is no longer just about Google rankings. It feeds AI summaries, voice search, and question-based searches.
Specific, location-based blog topics attract more qualified clients than broad industry explanations.
Google Business Profiles, reviews, and accurate directory listings act as authority signals that strengthen AI trust.
Backlinks from reputable websites increase your credibility with both search engines and AI platforms.
Tracking AI traffic in Google Analytics helps you measure growth, but volume matters less than conversion rate.
Normal AI traffic is typically 0–5% of website visits — you don’t need 50% to be successful.
Clear messaging, consistent information, and strong website performance ultimately matter more than chasing AI trends.
Resources
Transcript
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: I am Samantha Mabe, website designer and founder of Lemon and the Sea, and this is Elevate your practice. If you're a holistic health practitioner ready to grow your practice without wasting time on things that don't work, you're in the right place. Each week I share a website, SEO, and marketing advice along with guest experts so you can bring in the right clients and feel confident about how you are showing up and serving the people that you help. Let's get started.
Why SEO Foundations Aren’t Enough for AI Visibility
[00:00:38] We've spent the last three weeks talking about how to make sure your SEO Foundation and your design are set up so that you can start showing up in AI searches for your industry, but having your website set up for success isn't the entire picture. We want to make sure that you are seen as an authority in your field just as much as we want it to be clear who you work with and where you're located. Today I'm gonna be talking about the importance of blogging, other outside authority signals, and giving you some tips on how to see whether or not you're getting traffic from AI searches.
Why Blogging Still Matters for Google and AI Search
[00:01:25] First is everybody's favorite blogging. And yes, you still need to be blogging if you want to show up in searches of any kind. Blogging isn't just for ranking on Google or becoming a thought leader in your industry. It's now feeding into AI summaries, voice searches, and question-based searches as well, which means that it's become more important to have a blog and post consistently.
Stop Writing Generic Blog Posts (Get Specific Instead)
[00:01:58] A couple of tips when it comes to blogging. First, we don't want to focus on surface level questions and answers. You don't need to write a post about what is naturopathic medicine. AI already knows that, and Google can find a million different articles to answer that question for somebody. Instead, you wanna get specific, so things like why isn't naturopathic medicine covered by insurance in my state? Or how many acupuncture sessions will I need to help with my anxiety? Or does occupational therapy help with picky eating? We want to get specific, be location based when it makes sense, and also speak to the conditions, the symptoms, and the populations that we want to work with.
[00:02:55] This is really important because just writing more generic posts may start to help you rank higher for a general industry wide search term, but it's not gonna get you in front of people who are actually ready to hire you and want to work with you because of the specific specialties that you have. Instead, we want our blog to really help us communicate the things that we are great at, that we have authority in, and bring in clients and patients that we want to work with.
A Simple Blog Post Structure That Helps AI Understand Your Content
[00:03:32] When you think about blogging, you can keep it really practical by following this outline. First, start blogging about questions that you get regularly in your practice or things that come up that are timely in the seasons, in what's going on in the world, in an uptick of things you're seeing in patients.
[00:03:57] Then when you write your post, you want to make sure that your headline is about six to eight words long and clearly talks about what it is you are answering in the post. Then you're gonna write a one to two paragraph summary of that post where you are highlighting what it is you are covering, who it's for, and the big picture. This is different, and an addition for most people, because these summaries help AI to know what a post is about and present it to the right people.
[00:04:36] As you are then writing the rest of your content, you want to think about using either sentence or question-based heading twos as you divide up sections. Make sure that you are linking to other related posts on your own blog, and then you can end with a short FAQ section: three to five questions that either summarize something from that post or could be additional questions someone might have after reading.
[00:05:06] You are not trying to out-write everything on the internet. You're trying to answer your patients' real questions from your perspective so that they understand why you do what you do and why you are uniquely qualified to help them.
Authority Signals That Help You Show Up in AI Searches
[00:05:22] Outside of blogging, AI also pays attention to other authority signals. This is a industry jargon term that we use to say things other than your website that AI and Google and everyone else has learned to trust. It is going to be cross-referencing your information that you have shared on your website with what it's finding in other places.
Optimize Your Google Business Profile for Local Search
The most important of those places for local businesses are going to be a Google Business Profile where you have updated services, a correct name, address, and phone number, regular updates about what you're doing, and then accurate categories, service descriptions, all of the pieces that go into that. It should reflect what is on your website, and it should be up to date with what you're offering right now.
Why Google Reviews Improve AI and Local Search Visibility
[00:06:18] The second thing you want to focus on is getting reviews, Google Reviews specifically. The more reviews that you have shows that you have a stronger authority, and it is going to help you show up not only in AI searches, but also Google searches as somebody who is searching locally for your type of practice. The best way to do this is to ask consistently for Google reviews. I have seen people put it up at their front desk when people check out, send it out in emails when they follow up with patients. There are lots of ways to do this, but getting reviews consistently is going to help you to grow and be seen as an authority, both to search engines and to the people who are coming to take a look at your business.
[00:07:12] A bonus tip here is that almost every website platform allows you to embed Google reviews directly onto your website, sometimes through an outside plugin, sometimes through something that is built in, and that can actually be more impactful than typing out those reviews directly into your site. If somebody can see it came from Google, then they know it is verified and real as opposed to something that you maybe wrote or edited to sound the way that you wanted it to.
Directories and Listings That Strengthen Your Online Authority
[00:07:45] Another authority signal for AI and Google is directories. You do not need to be in every directory for your industry, but if there are local directories that get a lot of traffic or some of the big directories like Psychology Today, you do want to make sure you're listed. You may not get a lot of patients and clients directly from those places, but having a profile there that is up to date with everything else that people are finding on the internet is going to build trust. Even if somebody never clicks on your Psychology Today profile, they will at least see that you are listed there and that means that they are going to see you as more of an authority and trust that you are certified to do what you say that you do.
What Are Backlinks and Why Do They Matter for SEO?
[00:08:40] We also want to consider backlinks. So we have internal links on our website that link from one page to another, and then we have backlinks, which are external links, other websites that are linking to our site. Search engines of any kind, trust websites that other websites reference, especially when those other websites are trustworthy. One way to do this is with those directories and link to your website. But you can also build backlinks through writing guest blog posts, being a guest on interviews, doing local collaborations or interviews and being involved in your community. Anytime somebody can mention you and your practice and then link to your website, you are getting a backlink and if those places are trustworthy, it is going to tell Google, Tell ChatGPT, tell Claude that. Yes, in fact, this is somebody that you want to recommend.
Why Mobile Website Design Impacts Search Visibility
[00:09:42] And finally, you want to make sure that your mobile design is working. 60 plus percent of your traffic could be coming from a mobile device, especially if you are a local business, and we want to make sure that it is loading quickly and that it's easy to navigate. If your mobile design isn't working well, it's going to hurt both your search visibility and your user experience, which means ultimately you are not going to book those clients and patients. So take a quick scroll through your website on your phone to make sure that nothing needs to be updated.
How to Track AI Traffic for Your Website
[00:10:22] So you've done all this work and made updates to your site. How do you actually know if any of this is working and if you're getting traffic from AI? This is a question that that I get when I talk about this because. It doesn't seem as intuitive as, did I get something from Instagram or Google? It's not necessarily an analytics that's going to show up when you do a quick overview of your site, but you can find this out in a couple of places.
How to See AI Traffic in Google Analytics
[00:10:57] The first place, if you have Google Analytics set up, is that you can go to reports acquisition and traffic acquisition, and then look at the Source/Medium Report, and it is going to either tell you directly that it came from AI or you can look for AI search engines like OpenAI, ChatGPT Perplexity, Claude, and know that those are AI platforms, bringing your website traffic. I like to keep a spreadsheet where I track how what percentage of my traffic each month comes from different places like organic search, social, AI and I can see then how many people are finding me through AI searches and clicking over to my website.
[00:11:43] Another thing you can do is look at platform specific analytics. So if you have analytics set up in Squi, in Wix or Squarespace, sometimes they will also tell you if some of those traffic sources are AI based.
Add AI to Your Intake Forms to Track Conversions
[00:11:59] One of the best ways to do this, because it tells you two pieces of information, is actually to add AI as an option to your intake forms. So if you have a question like, how did you find us? You should make sure to include ChatGPT/AI on the options there, just like you would Google, Instagram, referral. This is going to help because people tell you directly where they found you, and you know that those people are interested in working with you.
[00:12:31] If you have a lot of people tell you they found you through AI and then actually fill out a form and then you can and then you can track whether or not they converted into a client, that's really helpful information for you to have. It's not always a hundred percent accurate though, because sometimes people will tell you the latest place that they visited you or the place you showed up most frequently and not the first place they discovered you.
Conversion Rates Matter More Than AI Traffic Volume
[00:13:00] While all of this is helpful when you look at it as an overall picture, drilling down into nitty gritty details on it is not going to be a place where you need to be spending your time. What you really wanna be looking at overall is are you getting any traffic from AI searches? Is that traffic growing? And then if possible, are the people finding you that way actually converting into clients and patients.
[00:13:28] But once you're in there, how do you know what's a normal amount of traffic to be coming from AI? I think this is going to surprise you because it's actually less than you might expect. I just ran my report for February traffic, and not even 1% of my website visitors came from AI. I am still showing up there and I have gotten clients from there, but the way that the online gurus make it sound is that you need to be doing AI or you are going to stop getting people to find you and that's just not true.
How much Ai traffic should your website get?
[00:14:11] Normally traffic from AI is gonna make up zero to 5% of your website visits. We want it to be greater than 0% because that tells us that you are showing up and you're starting to get in front of the right people, but you don't need to expect that it's going to be 50% of the people visiting your website. If you work with younger generations of people or people who are particularly tech savvy, that is going to be higher, five to 15% because they're early adopters of this technology, and they're relying on it more for search.
[00:14:47] But conversion rates matter more than volume. If AI traffic is small, but it's converting really well, that's a powerful thing to know. If you get a lot of traffic from ai, but it's not converting into clients and patients, then that can tell you information as well.
[00:15:05] What you want to be doing is gathering data over time and then taking a look at the big picture to see is it growing? What can I do to help? And then experiment with ways that you can potentially increase how many searches you get from AI and how many conversions you get from those searches.
[00:15:27] If you don't see any visits from AI, that's okay. It is still growing. What you wanna do is go back to your messaging and back to these past couple of episodes to make sure that you have content that is very clear on what you do and who you work with, and where you are located. That's where your focus should be, not about increasing those numbers right away.
What to Do Next Based on Your AI Visibility
[00:15:52] Now that we've gone over all of this information, this is where you get to decide what to do next. If you are showing up on AI searches, your information is accurate, you're seeing traffic from it, your next step is going to be to start tracking how much traffic you're getting, and then refining your messaging to make it really clear.
[00:16:16] If you're showing up but the information is inaccurate or out of date, you want to make sure that you're cleaning everything up, that it's consistent across platforms, and that you're very clear on who you work with in everything that you con control.
[00:16:32] If you don't show up at all on AI yet, it's time to focus on being clear in your copy and your messaging and making sure that you have a website that is set up to bring in visitors through SEO.
[00:16:47] And finally, if you're showing up and you're getting traffic, but that traffic isn't actually paying off into clients and patients, then you may need to think about how your website is performing and if you need to make some design updates to make it really clear who you work with, and then give them easy next steps to take to become a patient or client.
[00:17:10] If you want to focus specifically on AI and SEO, that's what my 90 minute refresh session is perfect for. I will help you find keywords, make sure all your SEO fields are up to date, and that there is nothing blocking AI from finding you. If you also need structural or design updates, a refresh day lets us overhaul the layout and the content in one focused session so that at the end of the day, your website is ready to go in front of the people that you want to be working with.
[00:17:43] As we wrap up this month together, I want you to remember that AI visibility isn't about chasing trends and thinking that SEO is dead. It's about being clear, having a structure that's easy to follow, and becoming an authority in your field.
[00:18:02] Your website should be working as hard as you do, whether somebody finds you on Google, gets a referral, or ask Chat GPT at 12:00 AM when they are just trying to find answers. The whole goal is to clearly share what you do, who you work with, and how you can help them, so that when those people find you, you are able to bring them in as patients and get them the help and support that they need.
[00:18:33] Thanks for listening to Elevate your Practice. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow the show and leave a review. It helps more practitioners find these tips and start growing their practices with confidence. And don't forget to check out the show notes for links and resources from today's episodes. I'll be back next week with more strategies to help you build a thriving practice.
