How to Optimize Your Website for AI Agents: The Next Level in SEO
AI Agents, Your Website, and SEO: Tie Them Together
As the landscape of the great World Wide Web continues to expand and change, so do we and our practices. Whether it’s keywords, learning metadata, emphasizing user experience, or more, we have ebbed and flowed right along with the path the internet is taking. And now, it is time to ebb and flow yet again with all the changes AI is bringing around. There are so many ways that AI has changed the internet landscape. Whether it is generating actual images or using it as a customer service tool, there are countless ways to incorporate AI into your website. Now, AI is doing the searching for us. Are websites becoming obsolete, or is there a way to work with this change? Keep reading to learn more about AI agents and your website and how to tie them all together with optimization.
Using AI Effectively For Your Website
AI has completely revolutionized how we access information on the internet. If you haven’t Googled anything lately, try it out. You will see at the top there is an AI-generated overview, giving you all the information you need without even needing to click on a website. Of course, it sources itself with links, but who is really clicking on those, anyway?
You may be wondering if worrying about your SEO and prioritizing your website is even worth it anymore. Luckily, we are here to tell you that there are many ways you can work with AI agents effectively to ensure your SEO is still great and that your website is still getting clicks.
Wait, What’s an AI Agent?
There are so many countless ways to use AI. An AI Agent is unique to the internet and websites.
An artificial intelligence (AI) agent is a software program that can interact with its environment, collect data, and use the data to perform self-determined tasks to meet predetermined goals, according to Amazon. Humans set goals, but an AI agent independently chooses the best actions it needs to perform to achieve those goals. For example, consider a contact center AI agent that wants to resolve customer queries. The agent will automatically ask the customer different questions, look up information in internal documents, and respond with a solution. Based on the customer responses, it determines if it can resolve the query itself or pass it on to a human.
AI agents are rational agents. They make rational decisions based on their perceptions and data to produce optimal performance and results. An AI agent senses its environment with physical or software interfaces.
Ways Your Website Might Already Be Using AI
AI agents have actually been around for a long time helping us with different things around the web. Their fast growth and capabilities have made everyone’s heads spin, but there are many ways you are likely already using and taking advantage of AI Agents. They include:
- Customer support. A very popular way that AI is used is by AI-driven customer support chats. Whether it is a chatbot on your website or auto-generated emails, AI has played a large helping hand in making customer support easy, accessible, and money-saving.
- FAQ chatbot. Similar to customer support bots, AI has been very helpful in answering customer FAQs. Choosing pre-determined questions and receiving a pre-determined answer have cut down significantly on human workloads, catering only to inquiries that are most important and unique that require a human.
- Malware scanner. If you have a malware scanner built into your computer or as a plugin for your website, you are using AI. The hallmark trait of AI is the ability to do a ton of things very quickly, including scanning a ton of data. One of many examples of this usage is through malware scanners.
- Text and image generators. One of the newer applications of AI for websites that have grown in popularity is text and image generators. Need product descriptions, social media posts, or a specific photo in a short amount of time? AI to the rescue. While there are still a ton of pitfalls with this (we wrote an entire blog about it here), it can still be a helpful tool for small business owners and beginners.
- Forms. If you have forms on your website, you are using AI Agents. Accepting information from a form and moving it along the pipeline—whether that is to send an automatic email, add them to a mailing list, or notify you that it is in your inbox—is all performed by AI Agents.
- SEO optimizer. If you have a website, chances are you have an SEO optimizer tool. If not, it would be in your best interest to install one. These tools will give very helpful suggestions by essentially grading your SEO optimization and offering suggestions on how to improve it.
- Spam protection. If you have an active blog section on your website or lots of forms, chances are you are used to your fair share of spam. Whether they are spam comments or spam inquiries on your forms, AI-driven spam protection can help cut most, if not all, of that out before it lands in your inbox.
Are Websites Becoming Obsolete?
Now that AI agents are scanning the internet and searching for you, what is the point of having a website and maintaining it anymore? This is a popular thought and question, and there are a few reasons for it.
- Websites aren’t user-friendly. When was the last time you Googled something and clicked through a website to find the answer? Even before AI agents provided us with an AI overview, Google has always worked hard to pull information from the internet to present on the search page.
- Website design is less important. There was once a time when website design was extremely important. Having not only a functional website but also an eye-catching and beautiful one was of great importance. Now, building a great-looking website is easy. The importance lies within the content of the website, and design has fallen down the list.
- Website content and structure are king. Since people aren’t going on your website as much anymore and you’ve seen a dip in traffic, it is extremely important to ensure that the information that AI Agents pull is YOURS. That makes content and structure the most important things to focus your efforts on.
- Website visitors are AI, not humans. Even though website traffic is changing from humans to AI, that doesn’t mean that your website has become obsolete. In fact, it has become more important than ever to ensure that the information being put out on the internet is yours, correct, and relevant.
Issues AI Agents Encounter
As with any new technology, especially AI-related, there are going to be bumps in the road. As of right now, there are several issues that AI agents encounter that are important to keep in mind when optimizing your website. You want to make sure that you are able to work with these pitfalls to ensure that the AI Agents do not run into any issues with your website, and are able to pull the best, relevant information to link back to you with.
- Filling out forms. If your website has lots of forms at every twist and turn, AI will have some issues navigating your site.
- Confusion with poor structure. Making sure your website is user-friendly for AI is extremely important. Following the same guidelines for ADA compliance and voice search is a great way to learn how to help this technology get the information that it needs.
- Slow websites. Everyone hates slow page load speeds, but nobody hates it more than AI agents. AI loves to work fast and get information quickly, so when a website is taking forever to load, it may ditch you for a faster competitor.
- Too much design. If your website is overly designed with too much Javascript, text designed onto images rather than overlayed, and has too much code that is slowing down your website, AI agents will have some issues.
- Lack of schema and data. Offering rich schema and optimized data for AI agents is essentially giving them everything they need on a silver platter. If you do not have any of this, it will take AI agents longer to scan your site and may ditch you for a competitor who already has it laid out for them.
- Fun, sarcasm, jokes, and quirkiness. Many businesses have a voice that is fun, silly, and clever. This can be difficult for AI to understand, so make sure you are working with a professional copywriter with SEO and AI experience to help find the balance between your brand’s unique voice and catering to AI agents without sucking the life out of your website’s copy.
How to Leverage AI Agents for Your Success
There are many ways you can leverage AI agents to achieve success rather than looking at them as something you simply need to work with. Some ways you can leverage AI agents are through:
- Personalization. Humans love a personalized experience. Taking advantage of the capabilities of AI to allow you to give visitors and customers this experience is a great use of AI agents.
- Accessibility. One of the most important things you can do for your website is make it accessible. This isn’t just regarding ADA compliance (which is extremely important) but also allowing your brand to be “available” 24/7 through chatbots, forms, and other interactive features.
- Scalability. AI loves to work hard. Scanning a ton of information quickly, analyzing data, and much more can help you scale your business without humans having to do much extra work.
Data Structuring
Bottom line: When it comes to working with AI Agents for your website, data structure will be your main focus. Schema and metadata are extremely important—as mentioned, when these are done successfully, you are handing AI Agents everything they need on a silver platter. This is what is going to make AI Agents choose you over your competitors, skyrocketing your SEO,
Embrace and Cater to the Change
Don’t worry: Your website is not obsolete. Rather, the goals surrounding your website are simply changing. This has happened many times throughout history and will continue to happen as new technologies emerge. Let’s embrace the changes and cater to what is needed to boost your SEO!
Get Your AI On With Navazon Digital
Ready to shine up the silver platter you’re serving to AI Agents? We are experts in that.
We are content creators who listen to our clients so that we can formulate ideas and strategies based on your unique goals and philosophies. Thinking through those goals with our analytics-based approach, we study not only your tendencies but those of your competition and the market as a whole.
Navazon helps businesses increase profits through data-driven marketing that expands opportunities and reduces risk. As marketers and entrepreneurs, we understand the value of developing a memorable brand through creativity and consistency.
We accomplish our success through targeted graphics, videos, and websites that reflect our proven, time-tested methodologies and detailed analytics. It is an approach that’s proven effective for companies of all sizes, from start-ups and medium-sized businesses to large firms with an international presence.
With each and every client, we develop a powerful plan, test it and then roll it out on a modest scale. Once we arrive at the winning formula, we can scale up rapidly to meet even the most optimistic growth projections.
At Navazon, we do not believe in “one size fits all.” Every part of the marketing plan is customized to address your unique niche and positioning strategy. It’s how we excel. It’s why we succeed.
Schedule a free consultation with us now! Visit us at navazondigital.com for more information.
