It starts with being crawlable and indexed at all.
An AI search feature can't cite what it can't read. Basic technical health, no crawl blocks on important pages, working links, real text content, is the precondition for everything else.
Clarity and specificity beat marketing language.
Systems built to extract direct answers tend to favour content that states plainly what something is, who it's for, and what it costs or involves, over vaguer claims about being innovative or industry-leading with nothing underneath them.
Consistency across the web reinforces trust signals.
When your business name, services, and details match across your website, directories, and social profiles, it's easier for a system to confirm who you actually are, rather than encountering conflicting information and hedging or omitting you.
Fresh, specific, well-sourced content tends to perform better.
Content that cites real figures, dates, and named examples, rather than generic statements, gives retrieval systems more concrete material to work with, which is one reason a real case study tends to outperform a generic services page.
Bring your workflow, your constraints, and the outcome you want to achieve.