The Ultimate SEO Tutorial for Search and AI Visibility (2026)

6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

This is a SUPER detailed SEO tutorial for 2026.
Follow it, and you’ll learn how to get found everywhere your audience searches.

This means ranking in Google and getting cited in AI answers from tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode.

Because SEO and AI visibility go hand in hand.

This tutorial will walk you step-by-step through how to:

Let’s dive right in.

1. Find Keywords That People Search For

Before you create content, you need to know what people want.
The best place to start? The questions they actually ask.

Start With Your Customers

If you already have customers, take note of the questions they’re asking.
They’re the same ones your prospects are asking in Google and AI tools.

No customers yet?
Reddit, Quora, and niche forums are full of real questions.
Scan the threads in your space for questions that come up again and again.

Borrow Keywords from Competitors

Your competitors have already found high-value keywords.
Borrow their strategy.
Drop a competitor’s domain into a competitor analysis tool like Semrush’s Top Pages.

It lists their pages in order of traffic, so the ones at the top are their most valuable.

Spot Untapped Topics That Are Trending Up

New topics (or ones that have suddenly become popular) aren’t likely to be super competitive yet.
So they can be an easy win for both AI visibility and SEO rankings.
Start with Google Trends.

Expand Your List of Keywords

Now make that list bigger.
Take one of your keyword ideas and drop it into Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool.
Enter it as a seed, and you’ll get hundreds of related keywords, each with its search volume, difficulty, and intent.

Prioritize Your Keyword List

By now your keyword list is long.
Most of it won’t be worth chasing.
So next, you narrow it down.
I’ll be using Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool for this, but you can use any keyword research tool that provides keyword metrics.

Sort by Difficulty

Every keyword tool has a keyword difficulty score. It’s an estimate of how hard it’ll be to rank on page one for that term.

Check CPC

When I started out, I ignored cost per click. Instead, I chased keywords that got tons of searches.
Big mistake.

Check Search Volume

Volume is the average number of monthly searches for a term.
You want keywords that get a decent number — enough that ranking is worth the effort.

2. Find AI Prompts Worth Targeting

To find prompts worth targeting, use a tool like Semrush’s Prompt Research.
Enter a topic. You’ll get the real prompts people ask AI, grouped into topics.

Look for Keyword and Prompt Overlap in Your Lists

Often, your best keyword and your best prompt point to the same topic.
When that happens, you’ve found the topics worth prioritizing.

3. Publish Content That Searchers Want

You’ve got your topic and your keywords. Now you write the content.
But not just any content. Content built to get found.

Look at What’s Ranking for That Term in Google

Search your keyword in Google and study page one, especially the top few results.

Check the Formats

Are the winners guides, listicles, tool pages, or videos?

Consider Depth

Are the top results short, get-in-get-out answers, or long deep dives?

Look at the SERP features

A featured snippet means Google wants a direct answer it can lift.

Make Your Content Better Than What’s Out There

The goal here is giving readers something they can’t get from the pages already ranking.

Proprietary Data

Run your own survey, analysis, or test and report numbers no one else has.

Firsthand Testing

Actually do the thing and report what happened.

Custom Visuals and Tools

A diagram or a small interactive calculator gives readers something they can’t get from a wall of text.

Expert Input

Quote people who actually do this for a living.

4. Make Your Content Easy to Read (By People and LLMs)

Great content still fails if people can’t skim it.

Front-Load Your Most Important Content

It’s super important to hook people the SECOND that they land on your website from Google.

Format Your Content for Better AI Visibility

Avoid giant walls of text.
Instead, break up your content into sections.

5. Implement On-Page SEO Best Practices

Your content’s written. Now you fine-tune it.
These are the on-page details that tell Google and AI exactly what your page is about.

Weave in Your Keywords Naturally

Pick the strongest keyword from your list.
Then add in your secondary keywords.

Write a Title Tag and Meta Description That Stands Out

Your title tag is the headline searchers see in the results.

Use Your URL as a Signal

Your URL helps tell readers and AI what your content is about.

Use Internal and External Links

Links help readers and search engines move through your content.

6. Promote Your Content (And Build Mentions)

Hitting publish is the start, not the finish.
Good content doesn’t spread on its own.
You have to put it in front of people — and AI tools.

Show Up Where Your Audience and AI Systems Look

Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, niche forums…these are where people actually go to ask questions, compare options, and figure out what to buy.

7. Build Backlinks and Brand Mentions

A backlink is a vote Google can follow. But AI tools notice when your brand gets talked about, even without a link attached.

Find the Right Sites to Pitch

Not every site is worth your time. Aim for ones that are both authoritative and genuinely about your topic.

8. Get the Technical Foundation Right

You’ve done the hard part. Great content, optimized, promoted, earning links.

Make Sure Your Pages Can Be Found and Read

Before a page can show up anywhere, a bot has to visit it, read it, and file it away.

Run a Full Site Audit

Some issues are too small to spot by hand, but they add up across a whole site.