Beginner Guide: Cross-Training Teams on SEO & AI Search

If you feel lost about “AI search,” you’re not alone. Search is shifting from ten blue links to AI-generated answers that quote and summarize sources. That means your team now has two goals: still win rankings and clicks (classic SEO), and also be the source that AI answer engines cite.

According to Google’s May 2025 guidance on AI-powered Search, clear, helpful content and solid technical hygiene remain the path to visibility, even as AI Overviews summarize answers at the top of results for some queries (see Google’s own overview in “Succeeding in AI‑powered search”). You can read the official recommendations in the concise post, which emphasizes fundamentals like expertise, freshness, and structured clarity: Google — Succeeding in AI‑powered search (2025).

Why this matters now: more people are using AI chatbots for search-like tasks. Directionally, industry trackers show rapid adoption of chat interfaces. For context, see the plain-language roundup in Exploding Topics — ChatGPT users (2025 update) and market share snapshots like First Page Sage — top generative AI chatbots (2025). Meanwhile, independent explainers such as Botify’s guide to Google AI Overviews and the practical Backlinko overview of AI Overviews describe how these summaries can displace some traditional clicks.

Don’t worry—you don’t need to be a technical SEO to get started. This beginner guide will walk you through what’s changing, who does what on your team, and a simple 90‑day training plan you can put in motion this quarter.

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SEO vs. AI answer engines: plain‑English differences

Let’s quickly separate two ideas:

• Traditional SEO: optimize to rank web pages and earn clicks.
• AI answer optimization (often called AEO): structure and support content so AI systems (e.g., Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT with browsing, Perplexity, Copilot/Gemini) confidently cite your page in their synthesized answer.

Here’s a simple comparison you can share with your team:

Google notes you don’t need special markup for AI Overviews eligibility—focus on helpful, reliable content and good technical practices. See the official pages: Google — AI features in Search (docs) and Google — Search Essentials.

Pro tip: You’ll write for both. Think “page that ranks and also contains a short, quotable answer.”

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Role-by-role quick wins you can ship this week

Beginners often ask, “What should I do, in my role, right now?” Use these first steps to build momentum.

• Content & Editorial

  • Add a 2–3 sentence “answer box” at the top of your top 10 pages. Keep it factual, specific, and in plain English. This aligns with Google’s emphasis on helpfulness in the AI-powered Search guidance (2025).
  • Include 3–5 bullet points or a small comparison table and a short FAQ section. Even if rich results are limited, FAQs make extraction easier.
  • Add an author bio and “last updated” date for E‑E‑A‑T reinforcement; see this primer: Search Engine Land — E‑E‑A‑T guide.

• Product Marketing (PMM)

  • Create a simple product vs. competitor table with columns for “best for,” “key features,” and “trade‑offs.” Clear, structured comparisons are easy for AI answers to cite.
  • Draft 5–10 buyer FAQs and place them on relevant pages.

• Web/Dev & Design

  • Validate structured data (Article, Organization; Product if relevant) with Google’s tools. Start at: Google — Intro to structured data.
  • Improve page speed and fix mobile issues—Core Web Vitals help both users and search visibility.

• PR/Comms & Brand

  • Maintain a press page with quotes, bios, and links to credible coverage; structured data for Organization helps clarify entity details.
  • Pitch expert commentary to respected publications to build authority and trustworthy citations.

• Support/Success

  • Turn top customer questions into public help docs with step‑by‑step instructions. These are perfect for extractable answers.

• SEO/Analytics

  • Build a basic dashboard that tracks rankings, clicks, and a manual log of AI citations/mentions for 20 priority queries.
  • Prioritize content refreshes where you see near-miss opportunities.

• Leadership/Ops

  • Charter a cross‑functional working group with a monthly 45‑minute review. This aligns to best practices in cross-team execution noted by Harvard Business Review — Why cross‑functional collaboration stalls (2024).

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Technical essentials (without the jargon)

You don’t have to be a developer to check these. Share the list with your web team.

1. Make sure search engines can find and understand your pages

• Crawl & index basics: Avoid accidental “noindex” or robots.txt blocks on important pages; submit a clean sitemap; ensure meaningful internal links. Start with Google — Search Essentials.
• Structured data (JSON‑LD): Use Article/Organization; Product on product pages. FAQ and HowTo markup can still help machines parse content, but note Google’s display limits described in Google’s 2023 FAQ/HowTo changes.

2. Performance and UX

• Improve Core Web Vitals and mobile usability. Faster pages are easier to crawl and better for users.

3. Decide your AI crawler policy (robots.txt)

• You can allow or block specific AI crawlers. Here are illustrative snippets—adapt to your policy:

# Allow key AI and search crawlers
    User-agent: GPTBot
    Allow: /
    
    User-agent: PerplexityBot
    Allow: /
    
    User-agent: Google-Extended
    Allow: /
    
    User-agent: bingbot
    Allow: /
    

# Block training-focused bots but allow search crawling
    User-agent: GPTBot
    Disallow: /
    
    User-agent: Google-Extended
    Disallow: /
    
    User-agent: bingbot
    Allow: /
    

• Learn more from the official pages: OpenAI — GPTBot, Perplexity — PerplexityBot docs, and Microsoft — bingbot robots.txt guidance. For Google’s AI features, see the official AI features doc.

4. Keep content clean and credible

• Add clear authorship, cite authoritative sources, and keep pages updated. These practices align with Google’s quality guidance and E‑E‑A‑T framing; see Google — Search Essentials and the accessible SEL — E‑E‑A‑T guide.

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How to measure success (SEO + AI visibility)

Think of measurement in three buckets:

• Traditional SEO

  • Rankings, impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions.

• AI search visibility

  • Presence in Google AI Overviews for your priority queries.
  • Citations/mentions in AI answer engines (ChatGPT with browsing, Perplexity, Copilot/Gemini).
  • Share of voice across those AI answers by topic cluster.
  • Sentiment of how your brand is described.

• Enablement and operations

  • Training completion rate by team/role, number of pages with answer boxes/FAQ sections, number of structured‑data implementations, and content refresh velocity.

Why this split? Multiple industry analyses in 2024–2025 indicate AI Overviews can reduce clicks for some queries, so you need to track both rankings and “presence in answers.” For a balanced view of impacts and limitations, see summaries like Search Engine Land — AI Overviews hurt CTR (2025 analysis) and methodology-focused pieces such as Ahrefs — AI Overviews reduce clicks (2025). Google’s guidance still centers on helpful content and reliable sourcing, which is why clarity and structure pay off: Google — Succeeding in AI‑powered search (2025).

Also useful: early research exploring how citations relate to rankings and trust signals—for example, the 2024 analysis in Originality.ai — study on AI citations and rankings. Treat any single study cautiously; use trends over time to guide decisions.

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A simple content pattern that works for both SEO and AI answers

Use this repeatable block on informational pages and product pages:

• 2–3 sentence summary that directly answers the core question.
• 3–5 bullets with key points, steps, pros/cons, or requirements.
• A small comparison table or numbered steps when relevant.
• A short FAQ with 2–4 common questions.
• Clear author bio, date, and 1–3 credible source links to help machines and readers.

This mirrors principles described in the official docs: keep content helpful, accurate, and easy to parse. See Google — AI features in Search and the broader Search Essentials.

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Your 90‑day cross‑training plan (week-by-week milestones)

This plan assumes you’re starting from zero. Adjust the pace based on your team’s size.

• Weeks 1–2: Foundations

  • Kickoff: Define goals, roles, and KPIs (rankings, conversions, AI citations share, sentiment trend). Share a one‑pager of definitions (SEO, AI Overview, AEO, structured data, E‑E‑A‑T).
  • Workshops: SEO basics; “what is an AI Overview; how AI answer engines work;” and robots.txt policy discussion.
  • Deliverables: Priority query list (20–50 terms), backlog of 10 pages to refresh.
  • References to use in sessions: Google — Succeeding in AI‑powered search (2025), Google — AI features in Search.

• Weeks 3–6: Build and ship

  • Content: Add answer boxes, comparison blocks, and 2–4 FAQs to 10–20 pages.
  • Technical: Implement/validate Article, Organization, and Product schema; fix obvious Core Web Vitals issues.
  • Policy: Finalize AI crawler settings in robots.txt with your legal/compliance team; see OpenAI — GPTBot and Perplexity — PerplexityBot docs.
  • Measurement: Stand up dashboards and begin manual tracking of AI citations for the priority query set.

• Weeks 7–10: Expand and measure

  • Publish 5–10 new help/comparison pages based on FAQs and gaps.
  • Outreach: Secure 3–5 expert quotes or reputable mentions; update author bios.
  • Review: Midpoint checkpoint—are rankings, impressions, and AI citations moving in the right direction? Adjust content priorities.
  • For change‑management hygiene, borrow practices from cross‑functional playbooks such as HBR — collaboration pitfalls and fixes (2024).

• Weeks 11–13: Institutionalize

  • Governance: Document playbooks (what a page needs to include; schema checklist; review/approval flow). Establish a monthly working group and quarterly retro.
  • Training: Ensure every role has a 1‑page checklist and a 30‑minute refresher.
  • Reporting: Share trends and next‑quarter goals with leadership, including both SEO and AI visibility metrics.

Common pitfalls to avoid:

• Over‑optimizing for one platform’s quirks—stick to universal principles: clear answers, structure, credible sources, freshness.
• Expecting FAQ/HowTo rich results to appear broadly—Google’s display is limited; use these primarily to help understanding and extraction.
• Treating AI visibility as “unmeasurable”—track presence and sentiment over time; your trendline is the insight.

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Toolbox: measure and coordinate your new workflow

Disclosure: Geneo is our product.

• Geneo — Tracks cross‑AI answer engine visibility (e.g., Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity), with sentiment and historical query trails to help brand and SEO teams coordinate. Neutral fit when you want combined AI visibility and brand‑mention context across engines.
• seoClarity — Enterprise‑grade SERP and AI Overview monitoring; choose if you need deep integration with large‑site SEO workflows and AIO tracking inside a mature platform. See the vendor’s feature discussion in seoClarity on AI Overviews impact.
• Conductor — If your org already runs content ops on Conductor, its AI visibility features can centralize monitoring alongside planning. For an overview, see this write‑up: Conductor’s AI search performance coverage.
• SISTRIX — Competitive visibility tracking with AI/AIO features and lightweight chatbot analysis; a practical pick for market comparisons. Their updates page provides details: SISTRIX — AI features and AIO tracking.

Tooling is optional. Start with your workflow and KPIs; add tools to scale and standardize reporting.

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Quick glossary (save and share with your team)

• AI Overview (AIO): Google’s AI‑generated summary box shown for some queries that synthesizes answers from multiple sources. See Botify — what are Google AI Overviews and Google — AI features doc.
• Answer engine: An AI system that generates a written answer using multiple sources (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot/Gemini).
• AEO: Answer Engine Optimization—making your content easy to cite in AI answers. For background, see CXL — AEO guide (2025).
• Structured data: Machine‑readable markup (usually JSON‑LD) that helps search engines understand a page’s entities and relationships. Start with Google — Intro to structured data.
• E‑E‑A‑T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust—quality signals discussed in Google’s Search Essentials and summarized by Search Engine Land — E‑E‑A‑T guide.

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What to do next

• Pick 20 priority queries and add answer boxes and FAQs to the 10 pages most likely to serve them.
• Confirm your robots.txt policy for GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google‑Extended, and bingbot.
• Stand up a weekly 30‑minute cross‑team huddle and a simple dashboard for rankings, AI citations/mentions, and sentiment trend.

If you want a single place to monitor your brand’s presence in AI answers alongside sentiment and history, you can explore Geneo as part of your stack.