TL;DR
- AI SEO is the work of getting your brand cited and recommended by AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews.
- It overlaps with traditional SEO, but ranking alone does not guarantee a mention, because AI tools weigh what other sites say about you.
- ChatGPT drives about 76% of AI chatbot referrals to Irish websites, so start there and with Google AI Overviews.
- The work splits into four parts: GEO, AEO, entity and technical SEO, and citation gap analysis.
- Start with a baseline of 20 to 30 Irish buyer questions, then fix core pages, close citation gaps, align brand facts, and track weekly.
AI SEO is the work of getting your brand cited and recommended by AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews. For a SaaS company, it means shaping your website and your presence on other sites so that when a buyer asks an AI tool for software, your product appears in the answer.
Irish buyers now ask ChatGPT for payroll software and CRM shortlists before they visit a single vendor site. The practice also goes by LLM SEO or AI search optimisation. This guide covers what changes for SaaS teams selling in Ireland and where to start.
Table of contents
- How is AI SEO different from traditional SEO?
- Which AI tools do Irish software buyers use?
- How do AI tools decide which software to recommend?
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
- Entity and Technical SEO
- Citation Gap Analysis
- How do you measure AI SEO?
- What should a SaaS team do first?
- Is AI SEO worth it for your SaaS company?
How is AI SEO different from traditional SEO?
Traditional SEO aims to rank a page in Google’s results so a buyer clicks through to your site. AI SEO aims to get your brand named inside the answer an AI tool writes, where the buyer may never click at all. Success depends on whether the tool mentions you and describes your product accurately.
The two overlap more than most people expect. Google AI Overviews and Gemini draw on Google’s index, Copilot draws on Bing, and ChatGPT runs its own web searches for many questions. A page that ranks well has a better chance of being read by the model.
Ranking alone does not guarantee a mention, though. An AI answer blends several sources at once and gives weight to what other sites say about you. A SaaS product with a strong blog and no presence on review sites or Irish software directories can rank on page one and still go unmentioned.
| Traditional SEO | AI SEO | |
| Goal | Rank a page in Google results | Get your brand named in AI answers |
| What gets measured | Rankings and organic sessions | Brand mentions and citations in AI answers |
| What gets you picked | Relevant pages and backlinks | Consistent facts about your brand across sources AI tools trust |
Which AI tools do Irish software buyers use?
ChatGPT is by far the main AI tool in Ireland. StatCounter’s August 2026 data puts ChatGPT at about 76% of AI chatbot referrals to Irish websites, with Google Gemini at about 12%. Claude, Copilot and Perplexity sit at around 4% each. Google AI Overviews also appear in everyday Irish search results.
These figures count referrals, meaning clicks from a chatbot through to a website. They undercount tools where people read the answer and stop there. Gemini has grown fastest: StatCounter’s June 2025 figure for Gemini in Ireland was 2.31%.
Copilot deserves attention in B2B because it sits inside Microsoft 365. IoD Ireland’s Q1 2026 poll of 378 directors and senior leaders found 85% describe themselves as beginner or intermediate users of tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. For most SaaS teams, the sensible order is ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews first, then Gemini and Copilot.
How do AI tools decide which software to recommend?
AI tools recommend software they can find repeated, consistent evidence for. When a buyer asks for the best payroll software in Ireland, the tool searches the web, reads a handful of sources and builds a shortlist from the products those sources agree on. Brands that appear on several of those sources get named.
In our August 2026 research, answers to Irish software questions leaned on a small group of Irish sources. Directories such as vendors.ie and builtindublin.ie came up again and again. That makes the list of places to work on short.
Your own site matters as well. A pricing page in euro and plain answers to the questions Irish buyers ask give the tool something accurate to quote. Details like VAT treatment and where your data is hosted help an AI tool match you to Irish queries.
Google’s AI Overview for “ai seo” splits the work into four parts. Each gets its own section below.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
Generative engine optimisation is the work of making your brand show up in answers from generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. It focuses on the sources those tools read, including third-party listings and reviews, so the facts about your product stay consistent wherever a model looks.
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
Answer engine optimisation shapes your pages so a search engine or AI tool can lift a direct answer from them. In practice, that means question-led headings with a short, quotable answer at the top of each section, written for the questions buyers ask before they book a demo.
Entity and Technical SEO
Entity SEO makes sure AI tools understand what your product does and who it serves. Technical SEO makes sure they can reach and read your pages in the first place. Together they stop an AI tool from confusing you with a similarly named company or describing a product you retired two years ago.
Start with consistency. Your company name and product description should match across your site, LinkedIn, review platforms and Irish directories. Add Organization and SoftwareApplication schema to your key pages.
Then check access. Make sure robots.txt is not blocking crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, which ChatGPT uses for search, or Bingbot, which feeds Copilot. Key content should load without heavy JavaScript so crawlers can read it.
Citation Gap Analysis
Citation gap analysis finds the sources AI tools cite for your category where your brand is missing. You run the buyer questions that matter, record which sites each tool cites, then compare that list against where you are listed or reviewed. Each gap becomes a task, such as a listing to claim or a review to request.
For an Irish SaaS company, this is usually where the quickest wins sit. The pool of Irish sources is small, so closing four or five gaps can change what ChatGPT says about your category within a few months.
How do you measure AI SEO?
You measure AI SEO by tracking how often AI tools mention your brand for the questions your buyers ask. Pick a fixed set of prompts, run them weekly across ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews, and record whether you appear and which sources get cited alongside you.
Useful measures include:
- Mention rate: the share of your tracked prompts where your brand appears.
- Share of voice: how often you appear compared with the competitors named in the same answers.
- Citations: how often an AI tool links to your own domain as a source.
- AI referral traffic and enquiries: sessions from chatgpt.com and similar domains in GA4, plus demo requests where the buyer says they found you through an AI tool.
Search volumes for SaaS terms in Ireland are small, so judge progress on enquiries and citations more than sessions.
What should a SaaS team do first?
Start by finding out where you stand. Write 20 to 30 questions an Irish buyer would ask about your category, run them through ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, and note which brands and sources appear. That baseline shows whether the gap sits on your own site or on the sites AI tools trust.
From there, work through four steps:
- Fix your core pages. Make sure your pricing, product and integration pages state the facts plainly, with euro pricing and Irish details such as VAT and GDPR or DPC notes where relevant.
- Close the citation gaps. Get listed and reviewed on the Irish directories and roundups that AI tools cite for your category.
- Make your brand facts consistent. Align your company description and pricing model across every profile you control.
- Track weekly. Rerun the same prompts and watch your mention rate move before you judge the traffic.
Is AI SEO worth it for your SaaS company?
For most SaaS companies selling in Ireland, yes. Irish buyers already use AI tools to build software shortlists, and the sources those tools rely on are few enough that focused work can change what the answers say. The companies that start now have fewer competitors to push past later.
It is also cheaper than it looks next to paid search. In Ireland, top-of-page bids for “ai seo” alone run from €6.00 to €28.58 a click. A mention in a ChatGPT answer costs nothing per click once you have earned it.