The arrival of conversational AI search engines like Perplexity AI is prompting a lot of questions from Australian SMEs – particularly around search engine optimisation. Do you need a completely new strategy, or can your existing SEO efforts continue to deliver results? The short answer is: a degree of adaptation is essential, but don’t abandon your current SEO work.

Perplexity AI doesn’t ‘crawl’ the web in the same way Google does. It synthesises information from various sources to directly answer a user’s query. This fundamentally changes how people interact with search. Traditional SEO focuses on ranking for keywords; Perplexity prioritises providing comprehensive, accurate answers. This means we need to shift our focus from simply appearing in search results to becoming a *source* for those results.

Here’s what we need to consider:

• Content Depth & Authority: Perplexity favours content that demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness – often referred to as E-A-T. We need to ensure our content isn’t just keyword-rich, but genuinely valuable and insightful. Think comprehensive guides, original research, and detailed explanations.
• Structured Data is More Important: Schema markup helps search engines understand the context of your content. With Perplexity, this is even more crucial. Properly structured data makes it easier for the AI to extract information and cite your website as a source.
• Focus on Answering Questions: Instead of targeting broad keywords, we should identify the specific questions our target audience is asking. Then, create content that directly and thoroughly answers those questions. Think ‘how to’ guides, FAQs, and problem/solution articles.
• Citation Opportunities: Perplexity explicitly cites its sources. Ensure your content is easily citable – clear authorship, dates, and supporting evidence are vital. Promote shareable snippets and data points.

Your existing SEO work isn’t wasted. A strong foundation of keyword research, technical SEO, and link building still matters. However, we need to augment it with a content strategy designed for the age of AI-powered answers. Ignoring Perplexity now could mean losing visibility as it gains traction.

Next step: Conduct a content audit to identify opportunities to deepen existing content and create new pieces specifically designed to answer key customer questions. Prioritise implementing schema markup across your website.