“What good is having a website if no one can find it?” I’ve asked this question of clients more times than I can count over the years. It’s been my opening line every time someone has asked me about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and why they need it.
If you’re not in the technical weeds, it’s difficult to get your arms wrapped around the importance of SEO, its value to your brand, and its impact on your bottom line. Being able to draw a straight line from search result, to click, to purchase has been the biggest eye opener for most clients trying to learn exactly what search optimization means.
The really fun part is trying to explain how search relevance is a constantly moving target, and requires ongoing commitment and effort to be successful. Search algorithms change, user behavior shifts, and market trends dictate how and when customers engage with a brand online.
There have been many milestones that have significantly changed how users shop online. Smartphones brought about the need for responsive design and mobile screen optimization. Social media provided another avenue of opportunity for people to discuss and find your brand. And now we’re on the cusp of yet another change in the landscape: artificial intelligence (AI).
The new question coming from clients is “what do we do about AI?”
The answer, as with my other examples, is leverage it or get left behind.
How Is AI Changing Search Behavior?
Search is changing yet again, as lists of links are being deprioritized for direct answers to user questions in the form of AI overviews. These are concise summaries at the top of search results taking over screen real estate and encouraging users to to ask follow-up questions and stay on the search page.
Although there are many tools to choose from, they all generate the same problem for site owners: users no longer need to come to your site to find information they need.
Customers searching for “best engagement ring styles in 2026” are now served answers directly in their search window. The research behavior is still there, but users are increasingly less likely to do it on your website.
This has been slowly driving down click traffic as more users adopt the new normal. The end result is less traffic to your site, less opportunity to be the expert, and less product sales as you no longer become the name they remember that helped them with their questions.
So where does this leave your brand?
The good news is that the technical foundation of a healthy website still matters. AI is pulling from a lot of the same signals that search engines always have. Being a credible, trusted source of information is a key indicator for AI to cite your brand. Press coverage, mentions, review signals all play a crucial role just as they have for traditional search.
The game hasn’t changed, but the rules and focal points have shifted towards credibility and expertise more so than page rank. For those that have already invested in SEO and established their brand as a leader in the space, you’re already ahead of the curve and in a good position to expand upon what you’ve already built. If you haven’t spent the time and effort to establish a search presence, it’s not too late, but you better get cracking!
The new discipline emerging called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) focuses less on keyword rank and more on answering specific questions asked.
Traditional search forced users to deviate from how they normally asked questions as a human. Think of the many times you were looking something up online and revised the two or three words you were searching to refine the results. That’s not how we actually engage with each other in person. We ask a question, follow-up with additional questions, provide additional context, etc.
This is what GEO and AI summaries are built around. The days of stumbling to find the perfect combination of words to find an answer are over. Now, you get to have a conversation to find what you’re looking for, and you don’t even have to be great at spelling and grammar. These new tools understand the human language, the nuance, and the dialect. And if they don’t, they’ll just ask you to clarify what you mean. Users can then take what they've learned and perform a specific search to find their exact desired results.
So, What Do We Do About AI?
This new tech has changed the way we think about content strategy at Loudr. It’s now more important than ever to understand how people think and the questions they normally ask. Honing in on the conversational side of search allows us to plan and strategize website content to meet users where they are. For example, although keyword rank and research is still an important indicator of user behavior, it’s more important to answer questions around those keywords than to stuff them into headings and copy in an article.
Outside of the website itself, it’s important for your brand to manage your reputation online. Reputation management and customer service are #1 again (although it probably never went away for those that care about their business). The more positive the sentiment, the more likely you are to be cited as the “trusted source” for AI responses. Coasting on your past reputation is not an option. You have to continue to build upon it and establish yourself as the best in the game.
What Does Success Look Like?
You may be asking yourself, “how do I know if AI is helping or hurting my business?”
There are a few metrics we’re looking at to help paint the picture. The “old metrics” of rank, organic traffic, and keyword position still matter, just not to the degree they once did. The “new metrics” are:
- AI visibility: how often you are being mentioned compared to competitors.
- AI mentions: total number of mentions.
- AI citations: the number of website pages cited in responses.
These tend to help us better understand your presence and authority in generated responses.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: we’re all still learning! Anyone that says they have AI figured out isn’t being honest with clients or themselves. New AI functionality is being released weekly, if not daily at times, and there are only a handful of reliable tools available that focus on the new metrics. And because things are moving so fast, the tracking tools that are doing a good job are struggling to keep up with the changes.
The good news is, we are committed to following along with all these changes so you don’t have to. We’re reading, and building, and testing all things AI so that we can stay ahead of the curve.
Ready to See Where You Stand?
If you're not sure how your brand is showing up, or whether it's showing up at all, let's talk. Schedule a strategy call and we'll walk you through what we're seeing, what it means for your brand, and what to do next.
