AI搜尋在看什麼?舊式 SEO 的差別? AI 視角文章架構解析

Using “How much does it cost to keep a cat per month?” as an example to write content that humans and AI understand

Search today is no longer just “ten blue links” on Google.
More and more users directly ask things like:

• “How much does it cost to keep a cat per month in Taiwan? Help me estimate.”

• “Can a student afford to keep a cat? Is it too expensive?”

And instead of a list of websites, they get an answer generated by AI.

So as a content creator, the mindset should shift from:

“How do I stuff keywords so Google ranks me higher?”

to:

“How do I write so that AI search can immediately understand and comfortably quote me as a source?”

This article will use a concrete topic:

“How much does it cost to keep a cat per month?”

to show you how to design your article structure backwards
from user search behavior + AI reading logic.

1. What does AI search actually look at? How is it different from old-school SEO?

Traditional SEO was more like:

• User types “cat keeping cost”

• Google matches keywords + link authority, shows 10 results

• User clicks into a few pages and figures it out

But modern AI search / AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, etc.) behave more like this:

1. Understand what task you’re asking about

   • You’re asking about “monthly cost”, not general “cat care tips”

   • You mention “Taiwan”, so it should use Taiwan pricing

2. Search the web for a batch of seemingly reliable content

   • With concrete numbers, breakdowns, and context

   • Clearly stating region and assumptions (single cat? multi-cat? indoor?)

3. Reassemble that into a direct answer for you

   • It won’t paste your article verbatim, but will summarize + rephrase it

   • When choosing sources, it prefers content that’s clear, structured, and explicit about assumptions

So for content creators, the focus becomes:

• Keywords still matter, but you no longer need to worship exact matches

• AI uses semantic understanding, and asks:

  • Is this page really about “monthly cat keeping cost”?

  • Does it clearly say “Taiwan”?

  • Does it nicely organize “food, litter, medical” into a structure?

Key idea:

If you write an article that’s “easy for AI to quote”,
it’s almost guaranteed to be “easy for humans to understand” as well.

2. Start from the user: three search stages = three main sections of your article

Whether a user is using Google directly or asking an AI assistant,
their information needs usually go through three layers:

Stage 1: The big question — “Just give me a rough idea”

Queries tend to look like:

• “cat monthly cost”

• “how much to keep a cat”

• “cat expense high or not”

Here, they just want to know:

“Can I afford this at all?”

They don’t need detailed breakdowns yet — just a ballpark number.

Stage 2: “Where does the money go?” — they want breakdowns

Once they seriously consider getting a cat, the searches get more detailed:

• “cat monthly cost food litter”

• “cat keeping cost breakdown”

• “cat medical cost”

• “cat litter cost per month”

Their inner question becomes:

“Okay, but what exactly is expensive? Food? litter? vet?
What can be saved and what can’t?”

Stage 3: Real-life scenarios & long-tail questions

Then they start asking situation-based questions, like:

• “student keep cat monthly cost”

• “average cat cost in Taiwan”

• “two cats cost double?”

• “Taipei renting + keeping a cat what to注意”

These are exactly the kind of natural language questions
people are increasingly throwing straight at AI.

And AI will then look for:
Which article has clear answers for these scenarios?

3. Turn those three stages into an AI-friendly article structure

Here’s a structure you can reuse across your site.

1) H1 + intro: solve the “big question” first

Write the H1 for humans, not for stuffing region keywords:

How Much Does It Cost to Keep a Cat per Month?
A Practical Cost Breakdown and Budget Guide for Beginners

This already contains:

• “keep a cat”

• “per month”

• “cost”

• “breakdown” and “budget guide” (tells AI: this is a cost-calculation article)

Intro paragraph: give the answer immediately + explain the context

In Taiwan, if you keep one indoor adult cat and you’re not going overboard with luxury but also not extreme penny-pinching, you can expect to spend around NT$2,000–4,000 per month.
In this article, we’ll use current prices in Taiwan for cat food, litter, vet care and supplies as the baseline, break down each cost item, and give you three sample budgets: a “student budget version”, a “standard office worker version”, and a “multi-cat household version”.

This short intro is doing three jobs at once:

• Directly answers “how much per month?” → perfect for AI’s preference: conclusion first

• States the region: Taiwan → AI can tag this as “Taiwan context”

• Defines assumptions: indoor, adult cat, one cat → reduces risk of AI over-generalizing

2) H2/H3 + a table: serve the “I want details” stage

AI loves clearly structured content, especially heading hierarchy + tables.
You can design something like this:

How Do You Calculate the Monthly Cost of Keeping a Cat?

The Four Main Expense Categories at a Glance

1. Food: Monthly Budget for Dry Food and Wet Food

2. Litter and Cleaning: Litter & Odor Control Products

3. Medical & Preventive Care: Vaccines, Deworming, Check-ups

4. Supplies & Toys: Scratchers, Toys, and Other Consumables

Followed by a table — extremely friendly to both AI and humans:

For AI, this has several advantages:

• The heading explicitly tells it: “this section is about cost breakdown”

• The table keeps numbers, units, and explanations tightly coupled, so it’s hard to misinterpret

• Even if AI only quotes one or two rows, the content is still meaningful

3) Assumption / scope section: tell AI where this content applies (very important)

AI is terrified of “using the wrong assumptions”, like:

You wrote about Taiwan, but it treats it as US prices.

So add a small “scope and assumptions” section:

Assumptions and Scope of This Cost Estimate

To make the budget closer to real-world conditions, the numbers in this article are based on the following assumptions:

• Region: Taiwan, using prices from common e-commerce sites and offline pet stores

• Cat profile: One indoor adult cat, already neutered/spayed

• Feeding style: Mainly dry food, with a small amount of wet food or treats

• Price range: From “lowest reasonable” to “mid-range”; luxury options are excluded

This works like a tiny “instruction manual for AI”:

• Readers know exactly what context this article applies to

• AI also understands: not kittens, not multiple cats, not US/UK prices

4) Case studies + FAQ: capturing long-tail queries & scenario searches

When people use AI search, they often ask:

• “On average, how much does it cost per month to keep a cat in Taiwan?”

• “Is it too expensive for a student to keep a cat?”

• “Will keeping two cats double the cost?”

If you write these answers ahead of time, AI is much more likely to grab your content.

You can structure it like this:

Sample Cat-Keeping Budgets for Different Types of Owners

Student Budget Version: Is NT$1,500–2,000 per Month Realistic?

• Choose a cost-effective but nutritionally balanced dry food

• Use wet food as an occasional treat rather than a staple

• Use clay litter or affordable tofu litter

• Prepare an emergency vet fund of around NT$5,000–10,000 in advance

Standard Office Worker Version: A Comfortable Cat Life on NT$2,500–3,500 per Month

• Mid-range dry food plus regular wet food

• Low-dust, easy-to-clean tofu litter

• Include annual check-ups and vaccinations in your monthly average

Multi-Cat Household: Does the Cost for Two Cats Simply Double?

• Food and litter are about 1.5–1.7x, not a full 2x

• Medical risk doubles, so your emergency fund should be higher

• Many toys and scratchers can be shared, so you don’t need to double everything

Then add an FAQ section:

FAQ: How Much Do You Really Need to Budget to Keep a Cat in Taiwan?

Q1: On average, how much does it cost per month to keep a cat in Taiwan?
A: For one indoor adult cat, most owners spend around NT$2,000–4,000 per month. The main differences come from the brand of food, how much wet food you feed, and how you handle medical and insurance costs.

Q2: Is there a big cost difference between keeping a cat in Taipei versus central/southern Taiwan?
Q3: Is it realistic for students or fresh graduates to keep a cat?
Q4: Is pet insurance for cats necessary? Roughly how much per year?

These questions themselves are long-tail queries for AI search.
When AI looks for “who answered this exact question?”,
it will easily detect this section.

4. What semantic search means for your keyword strategy

Old-school SEO cared a lot about exact keywords like:

“How much does it cost to keep a cat per month”

If you wrote:

“How financially scary is it to keep a cat every month?”

you might have worried that it doesn’t “contain the exact keyword”.

But AI search is driven by semantic embeddings — it reads the meaning, not just the characters.
In practice, you can:

1. Still keep one clear, explicit “main keyword sentence”

   • For example in H1 or the first paragraph:
     “How much does it cost to keep a cat per month?”

2. Use natural variations elsewhere

   • “monthly expenses”, “how much you spend per month”, “average monthly cost”, “pet budget”
     All of these will be interpreted as the same intent by AI.

3. Be very explicit about region, audience, and scenario

   • Region: Taiwan / Taipei

   • Audience: students / office workers / multi-cat households

   • Scenario: renters / living with parents / small studio apartment

When AI crafts an answer, it loves adding qualifiers like:

• “In Taiwan…”

• “If you’re a student…”

• “If you’re keeping two cats…”

As long as your article clearly spells these out,
AI is more willing to quote you instead of guessing.

5. Technical layer: helping AI & search engines “lock onto you” more easily

A few practical tips:

1. Let your meta title be slightly more “AI-friendly” than your H1

   • H1 on page:

     How Much Does It Cost to Keep a Cat per Month? A Practical Cost Breakdown and Budget Guide for Beginners

   • Meta title (for SERPs / previews):

     How Much Does It Cost to Keep a Cat per Month? A Taiwan-Based Cat-Keeping Cost Breakdown and Beginner Budget Guide

2. Write your meta description as if you’re describing the “task” you solve

   How much does it cost per month to keep a cat in Taiwan? This article uses real-world Taiwan prices to break down the costs of food, litter, medical care and supplies, and offers sample budgets for students, budget-conscious owners and multi-cat households to help you evaluate whether you can afford to keep a cat.

3. Write image alt / captions as descriptions, not keyword dumps

   • Alt example:

     Monthly cost breakdown for keeping one cat in Taiwan, including food, litter, medical care and supplies

4. Use semantically clear H2/H3, not only “clickbait” copy

   • Avoid headings like “The One Thing Cat Owners Always Ignore!”

   • Prefer headings like “How Much Should You Budget for Vet Bills When Keeping a Cat?” — AI understands this instantly

Summary: Core mindset for content in the age of AI search

We can boil this article down to three key points:

1. Don’t just write for keywords; write to fully answer a specific user task.

   • Example task: help the user understand monthly cat-keeping costs and build a budget.

2. Present your answer in a highly structured way so AI can easily cut, quote, and reuse it.

   • Conclusion up front, H2/H3 for breakdowns, tables for numbers, FAQ for question-style queries.

3. Spell out critical conditions: region, audience, and assumptions.

   • “In Taiwan”, indoor adult cat, one cat vs multiple, students vs office workers, Taipei renters, etc.

Once you get used to thinking:

“I’m helping an AI assistant deliver a good answer.”

your content will naturally become:

• easier for users to read

• friendlier to traditional search engines

• and a high-quality source for AI search to pull from