In the hustle to build credibility and visibility, growth-stage startups face a new digital reality: Generative AI is reshaping how people discover, evaluate, and trust brands. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, along with Google’s AI Overviews, are now influencing buying decisions long before a prospect even visits your website.
For startups looking to attract investors, customers, or talent, optimizing your website content for these AI systems isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s essential for staying visible and authoritative in the modern digital landscape.
What Are AI Overviews and LLMs (and Why Should Startups Care)?
AI Overviews: Your Brand’s First Impression, Powered by AI
Google’s AI Overviews deliver AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. These quick, synthesized answers pull from authoritative web content to give users an immediate snapshot before they click any links.
Test this out by going into Google and typing in any search, especially something 4 words or longer. That section at the top with a summary pertaining to your search is AI Overview.
If your website provides clear, structured, high-quality information, it can influence or even be featured in these AI Overviews. If not? You risk being invisible to your audience at a critical trust-building and decision-making moment.
Large Language Models (LLMs): The New Gatekeepers of Information
LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini ingest vast amounts of web content to answer user questions conversationally. When your ideal customer asks an AI assistant for “the best ESG software for mid-market energy companies,” the AI pulls from online sources to form its response.
If your website isn’t optimized for LLM visibility, you won’t be part of that conversation—literally.
How Optimizing for AI Benefits Growth-Stage Startups
When you create content that’s genuinely valuable for your audience and optimized for the AI search tools they use, you can often see a significantly higher return on your time investment — with little to no extra effort beyond your usual content strategy. Some of the top benefits of creating content with AI in mind include:
- Increased Visibility in AI-Generated Content: Well-structured, authoritative website content increases the likelihood your brand is referenced in AI Overviews and LLM responses, putting your name and logo in front of information-seeking eyes.
- Faster Credibility Building: LLMs favor clear, reliable information from trusted sources. Optimizing your content helps position your startup as credible, even to users who never click your site.
- Shortened Sales Cycles: When AI-generated answers mention your solution, prospects arrive pre-educated and more confident, which accelerates trust and reduces friction.
- Investor and Talent Attraction: A credible, AI-friendly digital presence signals professionalism and authority, which investors and top candidates actively seek. The visibility metrics that can be tracked can also support investment and talent conversations.
Practical Steps to Optimize Your Website for AI and LLMs
1. Create Clear, Structured Content
AI systems prefer easily digestible, well-organized information. In this regard, traditional SEO best practices can still pay huge dividends for your website. Your website should:
- Use clear headings (H1, H2, H3) with relevant keywords.
- Include concise, authoritative answers to common questions.
- Provide structured data markup where possible (e.g., FAQ schema).
- Write in plain, accessible language—avoid jargon overload.
Example: An AgTech startup optimizing their “How It Works” page with clear subheadings like “How Our AI-Powered Crop Analytics Improve Yields” helps both humans and AI quickly understand and reference their value proposition.
2. Prioritize Topical Authority and E-E-A-T Principles
Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines emphasize Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). LLMs mirror this preference.
Boost your authority by:
- Publishing in-depth, original content on topics your target audience cares about. High-quality, helpful information signals both credibility and usefulness to AI search tools.
- Showcasing your team’s expertise. Include founder and team bios, share interviews, and highlight any media coverage to demonstrate that real, knowledgeable people are behind your business.
- Earning backlinks from reputable sources. When trusted websites in your industry link to yours, it boosts your perceived authority — both in the eyes of users and AI algorithms.
- Keeping your content accurate and up to date. AI search tools prioritize fresh, reliable information, so regular updates help ensure your content stays relevant.
Real-World Example: Psyche Digital client King Energy boosted visibility by publishing introductory information about commercial solar cleaning challenges and technology, and backing that up with an in-depth long-form blog article about the same topic. This original, knowledge-rich content enabled them to earn the top spot for “commercial solar panel cleaning” in Google’s AI Overview, a topic important to their target audience.
3. Address Common AI Queries Proactively
Anticipate what your ideal customers might ask AI tools and create content that answers those questions clearly. An important consideration is that AI search is usually activated by 4-word or longer string questions, so understanding how a topic may be typed into the tool can help you make better copywriting decisions.
- Use tools like Google Search Console, SEO analytics tools (like SEMrush or Ahrefs), or ChatGPT itself to discover common queries.
- Develop blog posts, information-rich FAQs, and landing pages targeting these queries.
- Focus on buyer-stage questions (“How does ESG software reduce risk?”) and industry-specific concerns.
Pro Tip: Test prompting ChatGPT with your ideal customer’s questions. If your brand isn’t mentioned—or your competitors are—you have a content gap.
4. Leverage SEO Fundamentals (They Still Matter)
While AI is evolving search, SEO basics remain critical:
- Target relevant, specific keywords, and feed these keywords throughout your website and content strategically.
- Optimize meta titles and descriptions to follow formatting best practices (see the “Structured Content” section above)
- Ensure fast, mobile-friendly, accessible site performance (you can check your own site’s performance at for free at PageSpeed Insights)
- Build high-quality backlinks with industry partners, respected industry publications, in the press, and wherever an authentic mention of your brand adds value and context to your story.
This strengthens your authority with both traditional search engines and AI systems.
5. Create AI-Understandable Visual Content
AI models increasingly “see” visual elements, which creates opportunities for your images, graphics, and videos to do some of the authority work for you. Support LLM comprehension with:
- Descriptive alt text on images (bonus: this also supports website accessibility!).
- Clear diagrams or product visuals with explanatory captions.
- Structured content summaries accompanying infographics.
Example: A B2B SaaS startup including an infographic titled “5 Steps to Streamline Supply Chain Compliance” makes their expertise AI-accessible.
Avoid Common Pitfalls: What Not to Do
It’s understandable to see a shift in technology and think you need to throw everything you have at it to succeed. Putting effort toward AI search optimization is extremely valuable, but there are some traps to avoid as you move forward with your strategy.
- Overloading with Jargon: Complex, fluffy language confuses both AI and human readers, creating barriers to success both with algorithms and your sales.
- Neglecting Content Freshness: Outdated information hurts authority and visibility, and enables competitor content to edge ahead of yours.
- Keyword Stuffing: AI recognizes unnatural keyword overuse, so it is important to focus on clarity and value, not repeating your target keywords incessantly.
- Overlooking Credibility Signals: Missing author bios, reviews, or social proof weakens trust. Credibility signals support AI search tools in building context and assessing authority, and does the same for humans.
- And the most essential pitfall to avoid, Writing ONLY for SEO: If you are not considering your audience, your content will not perform in search in the long run. If you are writing for your audience and meeting their needs with your content, you are far more likely to see traction in search as well as gains in your credibility and authority with humans.
The Competitive Advantage for Early Adopters
In a landscape where buyer journeys increasingly start (and sometimes end) with AI-generated answers, invisibility is not an option. Startups optimizing for AI discovery now gain a key advantage:
- You’ll appear in AI Overviews and LLM responses while competitors scramble to catch up.
- You control the narrative about your solution in AI-driven conversations.
- You signal to investors and partners that your brand is future-ready.
Final Thoughts: Don’t Let AI Leave Your Startup Behind
Generative AI isn’t just disrupting how people search; it’s reshaping how they form opinions, build trust, and make decisions.
For growth-stage startups, optimizing your website content for AI Overviews and LLMs is no longer optional. It’s a strategic investment in visibility, credibility, and long-term growth into industry leadership.
Need expert help making your digital presence AI-optimized and investor-ready? Book a free Ignite Call with Psyche Digital today. Let’s make your brand impossible for AI—and your ideal customers—to overlook.
Explore more insights on building visibility, credibility, and authority in our Expert Articles.
