AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's SGE pull answers from content they can parse and attribute confidently. Your FAQ needs to be extraction-friendly, not just keyword-optimized. Start every answer with a direct response in the opening sentence—this is what gets quoted. If someone asks "How long does SEO take?", open with "SEO typically takes 4–6 months to show meaningful organic traffic gains for most businesses" rather than building up to it. Use natural question phrasing in your H2 or H3 tags that mirrors actual search queries. "What is X?" and "How do I do Y?" perform better than creative headings. Keep individual answers between 50–150 words unless complexity demands more—AI models favour concise, complete responses over sprawling explanations. Structure longer answers with short paragraphs or a single bulleted list to improve parseability. Include enough context in each answer so it makes sense when extracted alone. AI search often pulls a single FAQ answer without surrounding content, so avoid references like "as mentioned above" or relying on page-level context. If you mention a metric or recommendation, briefly state why—LLMs reward answers that show reasoning. For Ottawa SEO's portfolio sites, we structure FAQ blocks in clean HTML with proper schema markup (FAQPage), though schema's impact on AI extraction is still unclear. What definitely works: keeping the question-answer pairs semantically tight and ensuring answers actually resolve the query in plain language. Avoid fluff introductions, marketing speak, or burying the answer three paragraphs deep. AI models score directness and factual density higher than traditional SEO signals like keyword frequency. Test your FAQs by asking them verbatim to ChatGPT or Perplexed—if the model struggles to extract a clean answer, rewrite for clarity. The same principles that help LLMs will eventually help Google's AI features surface your content in zero-click results.