Key takeaways
- People increasingly read answers written by AI, in Google’s AI Overviews, in ChatGPT and in other assistants, instead of a list of links.
- A site is ready for that when it describes the business and its pages in structured data, answers questions clearly, and does not block search engines or AI assistants from reading it.
- Most popular themes were designed before AI search existed, and WordPress.org rules keep much of what is needed out of free themes. That is why my themes come with plugins.
The third rule is the newest, and in some ways the most urgent. For most of the history of the web, being found meant appearing in a list of links. That is changing. Google started showing AI-written answers above its results in the United States in May 2024, and OpenAI added search to ChatGPT at the end of October that year. A growing share of people now read an answer assembled from several sites, and never see the list at all.
For a website, that raises a new question. Not only “do we rank?”, but “can a machine read us well enough to use us in an answer, and to say where the answer came from?” Working on that question is what I, like many others, call AEO, answer engine optimisation.
What ready for AI search means
I keep the test practical. A site is ready when:
- It describes itself in structured data. The business, its pages, its articles, its authors and its products are described in a standard format that machines read directly. Google defines structured data as “a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content.”
- Its content answers questions clearly. Pages state what they are about, answer the obvious questions in plain words, and are organised under clear headings.
- Nothing stops machines from reading it. Search engines and AI assistants are not blocked by accident, and the owner decides deliberately which AI crawlers may use the content.
The articles in this section
Most Popular WordPress Themes Were Designed Before AI Search Existed looks at when the most widely used themes were created, and what that means for how they treat structured data and content.
Why WordPress Won’t Let a Free Theme Do SEO, So I Split Mine in Two explains the WordPress.org rules that keep functionality out of free themes, and why each of my themes works with a plugin.
What a Free AEO Plugin Does for WordPress, and What It Can’t Promise describes, in plain terms, what TWA AEO does for a site without costing anything.