What is Prompt-Based SEO?

Prompt-Based SEO is an approach to optimization that uses prompts as the unit of measurement and planning for visibility in AI-generated answers. Prompt-Based SEO maps prompts to intents and content so performance can be monitored and improved.

Quick definition

Prompt-Based SEO means optimizing and measuring SEO using real prompts people ask in AI systems.

How Prompt-Based SEO works

  • Prompt-Based SEO starts from a prompt set that represents target queries.
  • Prompt-Based SEO evaluates prompt visibility, citation presence, and answer ranking.
  • Prompt-Based SEO uses content updates to improve how a site is selected as a source.
  • Prompt-Based SEO can complement traditional SEO by aligning with conversational search behavior.

Why Prompt-Based SEO matters

Prompt-Based SEO matters because AI discovery is often driven by question-style prompts.

Prompt-Based SEO supports:

  • connecting content changes to measurable changes in LLM answers
  • prioritizing content that affects high-intent prompts
  • identifying gaps in topical authority and content clusters

Example use cases

  • Creating definition pages for prompts that begin with “what is.”
  • Updating a page to include a direct answer section for a monitored prompt.
  • Measuring whether citation in AI answers increases after improving structured data.

Related terms