AI SEO, AEO, and LLM SEO: How Freelance Writers Can Get Content Discovered by Tools Like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude

Publication Date

June 17, 2025

Summary

A practical guide to getting your content ranked, referenced, and cited by AI-powered tools and traditional search engines.

What’s the difference between AEO, GEO, and LLM SEO?

Optimizing for these tools is sometimes also called:

AEO (answer engine optimization)
GEO (generative engine optimization)
AI SEO (artificial intelligence search engine optimization)
LLM SEO (large language model search engine optimization)

Honestly, the acronyms are confusion and no one has agreed on what we’re calling this new, niche type of SEO. Even Rand Fishkin, Cofounder of SparkToro doesn’t think we need a new acronym:

"Nobody said I do RFO — Reddit Findability Optimization. They say, I do SEO for Reddit. If you do SEO for YouTube, you don’t say YouTube Discoverability Optimization. That’s weird. This thing doesn’t need a new acronym." He told the Siege Media Team in this podcast →

What AEO Prioritizes (vs. Traditional SEO)

SEO Focus	AEO Focus
Ranking SERPs	Being cited or used by AI tools
Keywords, Backlinks, Domain Rank	Structured, factual, high-quality content
Optimizing for click-through	Optimizing for direct answers
Chasing trends	Building evergreen topical authority

Are there tools like Keysearch, Ahrefs, Clearscope, etc. for Al SEO?

There are emerging tools specifically designed to track and analyze your AI SEO. Here are the top 5 AI SEO tools of 2025:

Profound — Best for AEO visibility, citation tracking, and monitoring AI-generated SERPs like ChatGPT and Perplexity
Bluefish — Technical SEO tracking with AI-prioritized issue lists for schema, crawl health, and more
Goodie — Lets you preview and improve how your content appears in rich snippets and AI answers
Gumshoe — Tracks evolving search intent trends and long-tail query behavior
Peec — Lightweight AI SEO auditing for quick on-page improvements

⚡️ To be clear: unless you're doing strategy you don't need to have these tools for yourself as a freelancer. But if you're offering strategy or explicitly trying to get tangible results - not just generally optimize - then you may want to invest in a tool or try one out to see how they work.

Can I offer this as a service, add-on, or a part of content writing just like I do with SEO?

As a freelancer, you can totally offer AEO/GEO/AI SEO optimization - if you're making a sales page on your website for that service, use all the forms of those keywords!

You might want to offer AEO/GEO/AI SEO as:

an add-on to existing SEO strategy offers
an integral part of your usual content writing (just like you do with SEO, you just write to the principles you know work for SEO & AEO - guide to AEO below - not necessarily running it through a special tool)

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How to offer SEO Content Writing as a service →

a standalone service that includes strategy, writing, & blog management (like Polly Clover does with her SEO packages!)

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Need a template and copy prompts for your website?

I’ve got a course coming out about how to build your own website on Notion + Super complete with templates and copy prompts! Get on the waitlist →

OR let me build your site for you! Learn more about DFY websites →

How do I optimize my content writing for AEO/AI SEO/GEO?

GenAl tools prioritize clarity, authority, and usefulness - and they often simplify traditional SEO tricks. When you're aiming to show up in Al search results, you need to write content that's so clear, helpful, and trustworthy that Al wants to reference it.

1. Answer Specific, Clear Questions

Include headings in the form of questions (like an FAQ).
You might have already started doing this by adding 3-5 FAQs at the end of your articles to play to Google's "snippets" feature. This is still a useful habit to get into but now you might put it at the top of the post!
Answer those questions clearly within 2-3 sentences.
Use "people also ask" queries or tools like AlsoAsked and Answer the Public to find common phrasing.

You've probably already been doing this for your SEO blogging so keep doing what you're doing here but make it even clearer and more concise before going into detail.

Example: What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)? AEO is the process of optimizing content to be used as answers by Al-powered tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity. It focuses on clear, factual, well-structured content over traditional SEO tactics.

2. Use Structured Formatting

Use short paragraphs, bullet points, numbered lists, and H2/H3 subheads.
Break up long posts into sections with clear labels.
Include a TL;DR or summary at the top if the topic is dense.

Again you've likely already been doing most of this to play to traditional SEO but now making things more concise and easier to navigate is even more important. Al tools favor structured, scannable content they can extract directly.

3. Stick to Facts & Expertise

Al is more likely to pull accurate, non-opinionated info.
Cite stats and sources when relevant.
If using your own experience, phrase it as "based on our work with [X clients]" or "in our agency's experience.."
If you've interviewed a subject matter expert (SME) or are quoting content from an expert (like a yotuube video, podcast, interview, etc.) - explicitly clarify who said it, why they're an authority, and where you found that info.

4. Build Topical Authority (this is mostly for strategists - not writers)

Cover multiple angles of a niche or question, not just one-off posts. Most SEO strategists already do this with SEO by working "keyword clusters" into their content strategy.

Internal linking matters: connect related blog posts and resources.
Consistent publishing around a theme builds trust in your site.

⚡️ Pro Tip: You can save yourself time by using the "hub and spoke" method: one in-depth guide supported by smaller sub-topic posts.

Write one massive guide (maybe a 3k word e-book that's also published as a blog post)
Break it down and reword it into smaller 800-1k word blog posts with more expert info, easier to skim structure, and targeted FAQs

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Learn more about this in Polly Clover’s SEO Blogging Course →

5. Get Referenced Elsewhere (again, mostly for strategists/editors)

Publish guest posts on other blogs, appear on podcasts, or get backlinks from trusted sites. Al tools are more likely to include info from content that's been shared, linked, or cited.

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Here are 6 creative ways you can improve your SEO without weekly blogging →

⚡️ Pro tip: try submitting to Perplexity Pages, which are designed for Al discovery.

FAQs about Al SEO:

Where Does This Content Show Up?

Answer Engine-optimized content may be:

Cited as a source in Perplexity or Bing Chat results
Paraphrased or quoted in ChatGPT (browsing models) or Claude
Displayed in snippets pulled from live or cached web results
Used as training data (for older content) if publicly available

How to Check If You're Showing Up

Try out Profound or Goodie to see where you (or your client) show up in AI searches
Run your content through Perplexity.ai and search the question.
Try ChatGPT (with browsing) or Bing Copilot to see what sources are used.

How can I quickly and easily optimize for AI SEO?

Include a section called "In short," "TL;DR," "FAQs," or "Quick Answer" near the top of posts.

Pssstttt! There are multiple lessons on this topic inside the FRL:

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The Freelance Resource Library

You’ll get access to every resource I’ve ever created including:

Templates & Tutorials
Systems for running your biz & getting clients
How-tos & comparison guides

→ There’s a lesson for everything

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