A lot of nonprofits I talk to are understandably overwhelmed when asked about AI SEO.
There are new acronyms every week and a lot of people are trying to sell “the next thing.” My perspective is a bit more grounded: AI search is changing how results are generated, but the underlying signals still look a lot like traditional SEO.
A lot of nonprofits lag behind the market standard—not because they don’t care but because there’s only so much capacity to chase every shift. The risk now is that best practices are still emerging, and this is one of those moments where getting in early matters.
The earlier you stake your place in these indexes and build trust signals, the better positioned you will be when everything settles into a new standard, especially for mission-critical searches like local food support, medical research or cause credibility.
What is AI SEO marketing?
AI SEO marketing is essentially a hyper-personalized evolution of traditional SEO—one that shifts discovery away from those 10 blue links on the search results page and toward summarized answers that can include citations, links and other elements.
Traditional SEO is foundational here. I think of SEO as the front door of a potential user experience. When someone wants information—anything from, “Where do I donate?” to, “Is this organization legit?”—they open a browser and go straight to a search bar. SEO is how you show up at that first step.
AI SEO marketing differs from traditional SEO in a few key ways:
- Results are generated as answers, not just rankings. Users increasingly see summaries first, with links and citations baked in.
- Queries are longer and more nuanced. People ask complex questions and the system tries to anticipate what they mean.
- The content that performs best is “quotable.” Smaller snippet-ready explanations—FAQs, step-by-step answers and comparison pages—are easier for answer engines to pull from.
- Trust signals matter more, especially for topics connected to health, finance and public impact. Clear credibility markers, like authorship, leadership and proof, play a bigger role.
- A lot is still unsettled. You’ll hear terms like GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO (answer engine optimization). The reality is there’s not a stable set of definitions across the industry yet, and some bad-faith actors are repackaging old ideas as something new.
How AI search engines are changing search behavior
AI search engines are shifting discovery away from the traditional results page and toward a layer that filters and summarizes information before someone clicks.
For every AI overview search, Google does a “query fan-out.” In plain terms it means the system is trying to interpret a long complex question by branching into related sub-questions—almost like running a set of decision trees—based on what it assumes the user is trying to accomplish.
The biggest behavior change I’m seeing is that people are asking longer questions. The questions are more specific and more nuanced. And the AI layer is increasingly answering those questions directly, ahead of the traditional search results.
From a nonprofit perspective, this matters because donor discovery often involves deeper evaluation. Donors are trying to understand credibility and impact beyond just looking for a nonprofit homepage. You’ll see donors ask questions like:
- “What’s the best charity for XYZ?”
- “Is this nonprofit legit?”
- “How effective is this program?”
- “Where does money to this organization go?”
So the shift isn’t only about just “being found”: it’s about whether your organization answers those more in-depth questions.
Does SEO still matter in AI search?
Yes. It’s just changing how we measure success and how we structure content.
On one hand, everything feels like it’s changing because the interface is changing. On the other hand, a lot of the same signals are still being used. These answer engines rely on crawlers and indexes, and those crawlers are still looking for many of the foundational SEO signals.
The bigger shift is that clicks are dropping, in many cases because people are getting answers directly in the answer engine. Historically, we looked at organic traffic and clicks as the gold standard. That’s getting harder as more of the journey happens without a click.
So, what do you do? You focus on making sure your content can be sourced and served and you track signals like impressions, which tell you how often your content is being shown and used by these systems.
The best strategies to appear in AI search results
Things are still early, but that doesn’t mean you do nothing. If anything, it means you double down on what is consistently true: Make your site easy to crawl, easy to understand and easy to cite.
Here are the strategies I’m recommending to nonprofits right now:
- Make sure key pages are indexed. If your most important pages aren’t in the index they can’t be served—whether that’s in traditional search or AI search.
- Strengthen internal linking. Crawlers follow links to gain context. When pages connect logically, you help the engine understand your content and your authority.
- Prioritize mobile performance. Google’s focus is mobile-first. If your mobile experience is weak, you’re undermining a major set of signals.
- Fix crawlability issues early. These crawlers are building their indexes now. I think there may be a point later where crawling gets pulled back due to privacy pressures, so getting cleanly crawled now is a smart move.
- Create “quotable” content. Step-by-step explainers, FAQs and comparison-style pages are easier for answer engines to extract. Keep answers tight and direct.
- Lead with proof and original content. If you have unique data, region-specific insights or original research, put it front and center—those are the pieces an engine can cite with confidence.
- Build trust signals across the site. About pages, leadership pages, financial impact and clear authorship matter.
How to get cited in AI search overview
If you want to get cited in AI search overview, the goal is to make your content easy for an answer engine to trust and extract. That comes down to structure and credibility.
A few practical ways to do that:
- Use clear definitions. If a page answers, “What is X?” say it plainly in the first sentence.
- Use structured headings. Make it obvious what each section answers.
- Make credibility visible. If content is tied to research or financial guidance, show who created it and why they’re qualified.
- Put proof on the page. Impact statements, outcomes and transparent explanations of where money goes help answer the donor questions people are increasingly asking.
This is where a lot of nonprofits can win. Donors want meaning, and they want verification. If your site can provide that in a structured way, you’re giving answer engines something solid to cite.
Prepare for AI search but don’t chase every trend
My closing advice here is going to be boring, but it’s true: Don’t jump on too many trends too quickly.
There are misnomers, “silver bullets” and even people flat-out making things up. When AI mode first launched, there was noise about things like an “AI.txt” file or "llms.txt" file, similar to robots.txt. That kind of junk distracts teams from what actually moves the needle.
Instead, focus on practical things, like:
- A tight set of pillar or answer pages that align with your mission
- Authority building through citations and mentions from reputable websites pointing back to those pages
- Fundamentals like indexing, internal linking, page experience and clean content architecture
- Monitoring and iteration—watch what’s changing and adjust without being reactive
AI SEO marketing FAQs
What is AI SEO marketing?
AI SEO marketing is the practice of structuring your website and content so AI search engines can discover it, understand it and cite it in generated answers.
How do AI search engines work?
AI search engines often generate a summarized answer first by interpreting complex queries, pulling from indexed sources and citing content they can extract and trust.
Does SEO still matter in AI search?
Yes, but clicks may drop as answers happen inside the engine, so organizations need to focus on crawlability, indexability and being cited. Another reason traditional SEO still matters is “voice” search, which triggers from traditional keywords and phrases. And with Apple and Google partnering, searching via Siri will make “voice” search even easier.
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