AI search optimization is changing how customers discover, compare, and evaluate businesses online. MAIN Director Dr. Kollin Napier recently joined The Focus Group and Intrinsic Media teams on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a practical working session on what that change means for digital marketing.
The discussion examined how traditional search engine optimization connects with answer engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), and the broader work of making a business understandable across AI-assisted search tools. The session focused on actions organizations can take now without chasing shortcuts or making promises that no platform can guarantee.
Pictured: members of the Intrinsic Media team with Dr. Kollin Napier following the AI search optimization session.
What is AI search optimization?
AI search optimization is the work of making online information clear, accessible, accurate, and useful when people search through traditional search engines or AI-assisted discovery tools. Customers may still enter a short keyword, but they can also ask a complete question in Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or another platform.
Those systems may retrieve several sources, compare information, synthesize an answer, and identify supporting pages. That changes the interface, but it does not eliminate the need for strong websites and reliable information.
SEO, AEO, and GEO work together
The terminology can sound more complicated than the work itself. During the session, Napier explained the roles of three closely related practices:
- SEO helps pages become crawlable, understandable, and eligible to appear in search results.
- AEO structures information so direct answers to real questions are easier to find and extract.
- GEO improves the clarity and usefulness of content that may be cited, summarized, or synthesized in generated responses.
These practices overlap. SEO remains the technical and content foundation. AEO and GEO place additional emphasis on direct answers, entity clarity, evidence, and information that machines can interpret without sacrificing usefulness for people.
Clarity beats tricks
The central message of the discussion was simple: clarity beats tricks. Businesses should make it easy for customers and search systems to determine:
- Who the business is
- What products or services it provides
- Who it serves
- Where it operates
- How customers can take the next step
- What evidence supports its claims
- Why the organization should be trusted
A vague service page, an incomplete business profile, conflicting contact information, or important details trapped inside an image can create uncertainty. Clear service descriptions, visible locations, useful FAQs, case examples, reviews, credentials, and consistent organization information reduce that uncertainty.
Can customers and AI systems understand the business?
One practical exercise asks a set of diagnostic questions about a company’s public information:
- Can the business be identified correctly?
- Are its services specific and understandable?
- Are its locations and service areas clear?
- Can a customer find credible proof?
- Can search crawlers reach and index the important content?
- Is the organization represented consistently across its website and external profiles?
- Is there something specific and useful enough to cite?
If the answers are incomplete, the problem is usually not a missing “AI trick.” It is a content, technical, or credibility gap that also affects human visitors.
Structured data helps, but it is not magic
Structured data gives search systems machine-readable information about an organization, article, service, event, person, or other entity. JSON-LD can help clarify relationships among those facts and support eligible search features.
However, structured data should describe information that is accurate and visible on the page. It cannot compensate for thin content, unclear services, unsupported claims, or inconsistent business information. Useful schema begins with truthful source material.
A practical 30-day approach
The session outlined a four-week process that marketing teams can adapt for a client or their own organization:
- Week 1: Audit visibility. Ask realistic customer questions across several search and AI platforms. Record how the business is described, which competitors appear, and which sources are cited.
- Week 2: Fix technical basics. Review crawlability, indexing, mobile usability, page performance, sitemaps, robots.txt rules, and structured data.
- Week 3: Improve priority content. Rewrite key service pages around real questions. Add direct answers, service areas, proof points, internal links, and accurate FAQs.
- Week 4: Strengthen authority. Correct major business profiles, add legitimate testimonials and case studies, earn relevant mentions, and repeat the visibility review.
The goal is not to guarantee placement in an AI-generated answer. The goal is to improve the information a customer or system can find, understand, verify, and use.
Building practical AI skills in Mississippi
The Focus Group and Intrinsic Media teams brought thoughtful questions about how agencies can help clients adapt responsibly. Several participants also expressed interest in continuing to build their AI skills through the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network’s courses.
MAIN provides free, self-paced AI courses covering foundational artificial intelligence, generative AI, applied ethics, and cybersecurity. Businesses, educators, public-sector teams, and individuals can use these courses to strengthen practical AI literacy and responsible adoption.
Learn more about MAIN’s work across the state on the About MAIN page.