Any content you create should be about persuading, informing and building trust with people, and that will never change. But what has changed is how your content is read for search, especially for LLMs and AI overviews.
Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity aren’t about presenting links for people to find answers on web pages. They’re about finding and presenting information directly to users.
And AI overviews in SERPs are now delivering answers to informational searches directly in the results, meaning users don’t need to click to your site to get the answer they want.
But you still want to be used as a source of this information to remain visible in a broader range of searches.
This means that while you’re always writing for people first, you also need to understand how to structure content to make it easier for LLMs and AI to read and present your content in AI summaries.
This blog will show you how to adapt your content structure to meet the needs of LLMs and AI, without sacrificing the human element that will convert readers into customers.
Table of Contents
What are LLMs and how do they process content?
LLMs are AI systems that are trained on massive amounts of text (Wikipedia is one of the biggest contributors).
Rather than interpret a search query and present a list of websites with relevant content, they scrape content from relevant pages and provide a summary answer in response.
AI overviews do the same job.
Instead of presenting a list of links for a user to click on, they take content directly from websites and present it as answers:
How do LLMs and AI ‘read’ content?
The key thing to understand about LLMs and AI from a content perspective is they don’t read whole documents at once. Instead, they break text into chunks of about 150-300 words (according to OpenAI documentation).
Each chunk is then analysed on its own (and is usually tied to a heading).
So, writing for AI and LLMs means that how you structure your content matters. Poor structure can mean ideas are missed if they’re buried in walls of text or jumbled together.
Instead, writing content with clear headings and short, precise sections raises the chance of content being used, and also makes it easier for people to read.
LLMs look for:
- Headings that match questions or search intent
- Direct answers in the first sentence
- Facts and examples, not filler
- Lists, bullets, and tables that are easy to understand and take information from
Your content must remain useful for people (they’re the ones who’ll ultimately buy from you), but how you structure it may need to change so LLMs can read it and deliver it to users.
Why writing for LLMs and AI is becoming more important
Although “traditional” organic search far outperforms that of LLMs and “AI search” today, a study by SEMrush predicts AI results will outperform traditional search by 2028.
So, while most people still use Google for online searches (whether looking for information, services or products), more are using ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
Even if the search numbers are lower in LLMs, you’re still missing out on potential customers if you ignore them. And this means your content needs to work in a couple of ways.
First, it has to persuade people who visit your website to take an action (this will always be job one).
But it should be structured in a way that makes it easier for LLMs to reuse as answers to prompts.
Vague answers buried in walls of text won’t be used in AI answers and overviews. Instead, you need to create well-structured, concise, factual content (which, really, is what you should create anyway, because this also works for people).
Structuring your content this way:
- Increases visibility in AI summaries and overviews
- Extends reach beyond traditional search results
- Keeps your content relevant as browsing becomes AI-first
Even Google has stated that clarity, facts and structured content are important factors in how it presents content for AI overviews.
Best practices for writing for LLMs
When writing for people, clarity beats clever every time. And the same goes for writing for LLMs.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and LLMs, along with AI overviews, factor in clarity when deciding whether to present your information to users. These are the main LLM SEO best practices:
How to structure your content for LLMs
- Use an H2 every 200-300 words → LLMs split text into chunks this size
- Keep one idea per section → this makes it easier to match answers to queries
- Add H3s for detail or examples → supports layered queries without clutter
As you may have noticed, this is essentially how a good piece of content should be structured anyway because it breaks you content into more digestible chunks, which are also easier for people to read.
How to format your content
- Short paragraphs, 2-4 lines max → avoids walls of text that machines cut off
- Bullets or numbered lists → easier for AI to extract
- Highlight key terms → signals importance
- Tables or summaries → machines handle structured data well
- Each content section should make sense on its own (one idea per section) while fitting in with the whole content piece
Again, formatting your content this way works better for people, as well as robots.
Examples of writing for LLMs: Bad vs Good
Bad
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Why it fails
- No heading to signal what the section is about
- Fluffy intro with no facts
- Wall of text, no bullets
- Benefits implied, not stated
- Doesn’t answer a query
Good
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What we do
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Why choose us
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Why it works
- Clear headings for structure
- Facts and numbers, not claims
- Bullets make scanning easy
- Direct benefits stated
- Matches search intent
Quick comparison
| Bad example | Good example |
| No headings | Clear headings |
| Fluffy intro | Facts and numbers |
| Long block of text | Short bullets |
| Implied benefits | Direct benefits |
| No query match | Matches search intent |
LLM content checklist
Structuring your content for LLMs
- Use H2s every 200–300 words
- Keep one idea per section
- Add H3s for detail
Formatting your content for LLMs
- Short paragraphs (2-4 lines)
- Bullets and numbered lists
- Highlight key terms
- Use tables or summaries where helpful
Best style and tone for LLMs
- Plain English, no jargon
- Active voice
- Concise: cut filler
- Put the key point in the first sentence
Improve your visibility in AI with better writing for LLMs
Writing for LLMs isn’t about replacing writing for people. It’s just about changing how you structure your content to make it easier for AI search to read and present your content.
By creating a clear structure and using clear, plain facts, AI and LLMs will be more likely to use your content in results (and it’ll also be easier for people to read it).
The best SEO copywriting is simple, direct and easy to read and reuse, meaning you get more visibility in AI summaries and search results.
If you want to know more about how to become more visible in AI SEO, get in touch.
