The Microsoft Advertising blog posted about how to optimize for AI Search Answers. I thought it was weird to see this on the Microsoft Advertising blog and not on the Bing Search blog, because (a) it is an ad blog and (b) it was written by Krishna Madhavan, who is part of the Bing team, not ad team.
The blog post is named Optimizing Your Content for Inclusion in AI Search Answers and it discusses how to structure your content, schema, common mistakes, how to write and more.
The blog posts explain that the core difference between traditional search and AI search is how the content is displayed in the results. "In traditional search, visibility meant appearing in a ranked list of links. In AI search, ranking still happens, but it’s less about ordering entire pages and more about which pieces of content earn a place in the final answer," he wrote.
He adds, "AI assistants don’t read a page top to bottom like a person would. They break content into smaller, usable pieces — a process called parsing."
He summed up at the end saying:
- Traditional SEO is still essential: Ensure crawlability, metadata, and internal linking remain the baseline.
- Structure your content: Use schema, clear headings, and modular layouts.
- Write with clarity: Be precise in language, context, and punctuation.
- Make answers snippable: Use concise, self-contained phrasing in lists, Q&As, and tables.
Again, the weird thing to me is that this put on the ad blog.
Forum discussion at X.
