How to Structure Your Website for AI-Powered Discoverability

Why your site needs to be built for something bigger than Google

Search isn’t what it used to be. In 2025, people aren’t just relying on Google the way they used to. They’re also asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI assistants for answers. These tools go a step deeper than listing results. They summarize. They cite. They make recommendations. (Sorry, Google, but they kind of do it all).

If your website isn’t structured to be understood by AI, you risk disappearing from this discovery path entirely.

We have good news: With the right site structure, you can keep your brand visible and make it easy for AI to find, interpret, and cite your content. Let’s talk about it:

Why traditional site structures fall short

Marketers have long optimized for SEO, but AI-powered discovery brings new challenges:

Flat or confusing navigation: AI struggles to parse sites without clear hierarchies.
Walls of text: Without headings, bullets, or summaries, AI can’t extract clean answers.
Missing schema or metadata: If you don’t label your content, AI won’t know how to categorize it.
Keyword stuffing: Over-optimized content can read poorly and reduce credibility.

The takeaway: Old-school SEO tricks won’t guarantee visibility in AI-driven search. Instead, structure and clarity matter more than ever.

How to make your website AI-search optimization

1. Build a clean, logical site hierarchy

Organize content into clear categories and subcategories. AI tools – just like people – need an easy-to-follow map of your site.

2. Use structured data and schema markup

Schema helps AI understand what’s on your page. Mark up FAQs, products, reviews, and articles so answer engines know how to use them.

3. Write for answers, not just rankings

Each page should contain short, direct definitions alongside in-depth explanations. This way, AI can cite the “snippet” while humans get the full story.

4. Keep formatting scannable

Use H2s, bullets, numbered lists, and tables. Scannability helps both readers and AI extract key takeaways quickly.

5. Strengthen authority signals

Cite credible sources, highlight expert authors, and showcase data. AI tools are more likely to cite trustworthy, well-sourced content.

What the data tells us

65% of marketers plan to adapt SEO strategies for AI-driven search by 2026 (HubSpot).
Perplexity AI recorded a 192% increase in website traffic from March to May 2024, showing how quickly AI-powered search tools are gaining traction.
By May 2025, Perplexity had reached 153 million monthly visits, proving that consumers are increasingly turning to AI assistants for answers.
Content that earns rich results through structured data is consistently favored and clicked more often, according to Schema App research.

The message is clear: AI discovery platforms are growing fast, and structured content with schema gives your brand a measurable advantage.

A SaaS Company’s Pivot

Let’s use this as an example: A mid-sized SaaS company noticed its organic search traffic plateauing. By restructuring their site – adding FAQ pages with schema, simplifying navigation, and rewriting product pages to include short answer blocks – they could see:

A significant increase in citations from AI-driven platforms like Perplexity
Faster indexing of new content in Google’s AI Overviews
Higher user engagement, as visitors found clear answers quickly

In other words, AI-search optimization helps bots and improves the experience for people, too.

When to rethink your site structure

It’s time to evaluate your website if:

You haven’t updated your site map or navigation in years.
Your content relies on long, unstructured text blocks.
You lack schema markup or don’t know if you’re using it.
You’re not tracking visibility in AI-powered tools like ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews.

If any of these ring true, your site could be invisible to the next generation of search.

The Liger Advantage

At Liger, we help brands “Find Their Roar” by future-proofing websites for both humans and AI. Our team knows how to:

Redesign site hierarchies for clarity and crawlability.
Implement schema and structured data that boost discoverability.
Create content that answers questions directly while showcasing expertise.

We optimize for the way people discover information now and where they’ll be searching next. Just look at this blog!

FAQs: Structuring Websites for AI

What is AI-powered discoverability?
It’s the practice of structuring and optimizing your website so AI assistants can easily find, interpret, and cite your content.

Is SEO still relevant in the age of AI?
Yes, but it’s evolving. Traditional SEO tactics (like site speed, backlinks, and quality content) still matter, but they now need to be paired with AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).

How does schema help with AI search?
Schema markup labels your content – like FAQs, reviews, or product details – so AI can interpret and surface it in answers more accurately.

Do I need to rebuild my entire website?
Not necessarily. Many improvements, like adding schema or restructuring key pages, can be made without a complete redesign.

AI is Reshaping Search

And discoverability. The brands that thrive will be the ones that make their websites easy for AI to understand, cite, and recommend.

Ready to make your site AI-friendly? Partner with Liger to develop the website structure for AI that your brand needs to be discoverable in 2025 and beyond.