The future of search is not just dictated by changes in search algorithms; it’s also shaped by how users behave. AI prioritizes content that is optimized for user conversations as opposed to Google’s traditional semantic search. The new frontier of search engine optimization (SEO) for brands is AI visibility.
AI visibility ensures your brand stays at the front of search pages whether they’re conducted on traditional search results pages like Google or on answer engines like ChatGPT. The more intertwined AI and traditional search become, the more crucial it will be to track technological changes and swiftly adapt your SEO strategy.
As AI reshapes how users find information, traditional SEO tactics alone won’t be enough. This doesn’t mean you need to abandon your current SEO strategy. There are many similarities between traditional and AI-informed search that can make it easier to understand and move forward with an AI-based strategy.
Similar to traditional SEO, becoming the top search result is essential for your brand to stand out against its competitors, especially with Google’s “winner takes all” attitude with AI overview. However, to ensure AI visibility, your content should be the most relevant answer to a user’s query. You should take a fresh approach, where improvisation and adaptability are essential. Marketers who embrace answer engine optimization (AEO) and AI visibility optimization will have improved relevance and greater influence.
So, if you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve and have an edge over your competition, it’s time to plan an AI visibility optimization strategy.
What is AI Visibility?
AI visibility ensures your brand is not only discoverable but also prominent across AI platforms. Whether it’s text, audio, or video, AI visibility drives your content to the top, engaging users across large language models (LLMs) and answer engines.
First, find out where your brand ranks and if it’s visible on an LLM by asking the LLM a simple question: “What is the top [insert your industry] company?”
At NoGood, we’ve worked to be visible on LLMs. On October 9th, 2024, NoGood was listed as the number one growth marketing company across Perplexity, Gemini, and ChatGPT. The screenshots below were taken on that day.
Now, this isn’t to say your rankings won’t change. This is why it’s essential to continually check where your company is ranking and if your company is showing up on each of the LLMs.
AI Visibility Across Modalities
AI visibility isn’t only about showing up as a result from an LLM; it’s also about being heard and understood.
Beyond text, audio and video content should be optimized to seamlessly transcribe, tag, and recommend your brand. The key is to ensure your content finds its way to the right audience. You don’t want just anyone accessing your site; you want the right users finding your brand.
Addressing AI visibility across modalities first requires an understanding of what the different modalities are: visual, textual, and audio.
Visual Modality
- Image Processing: the ability for AI to analyze static images and detect faces and objects as well as read text.
- Video Analysis: AI’s capability to process video streams, tracking motion, identifying activities, and understanding temporal visual information. Creating video content and using AI to process video information.
- Computer Vision: the ability for machines to gain a higher level of understanding from digital images or videos, with the aim of mimicking human capabilities. At the moment, computer vision isn’t a main modality since it’s mostly still in the development stages.
Textual Modality
- Natural Language Processing (NLP): This modality is one of the most discussed since it focuses on user intent and conversational abilities. SEO, AEO, and AI visibility optimization experts look to understand what NLP is and how it changes their strategies.
- Machine Translation: Automatic text translation between different languages.
- Text Generation: LLMs generate human-like text from prompts that can be used for a variety of purposes. For example it can be used for creative writing and technical documentation. This modality has been popularized by LLMs like ChatGPT with over 100 million weekly users.
Audio Modality
- Speech Recognition: AI-powered tools convert spoken language into text. This development goes beyond traditional dictation as it understands more of the context and intent of the words instead of writing verbatim what is spoken.
- Voice Synthesis: Human-like speech can be generated from text input. This voice synthesis is becoming more conversational.
- Audio Analysis: AI can listen to music, sounds, and other audio and describe and identify patterns.
Your brand must stay visible across the different modalities. Understanding these modalities and improving user experience will help your brand stand out.
Why AI Visibility Matters for Brands
Simple: it’s about staying ahead of the curve. Technology is evolving quickly. Search engines are transitioning into answer engines, giving users a direct response instead of blue links. We are in the Search 3.0 era. You want your brand to be the one giving answers to answer engines. You must be visible!
Consumers expect instant answers, so brands need to position themselves as the go-to resource. AI visibility makes that possible by aligning your brand’s content with AI search parameters. It’s like having a direct line to your audience, delivering exactly what they need, when they need it.
Evolution from Search Engines to Answer Engines
Before actually exploring how to optimize for AI visibility, let’s take a step back and explore the shift from search engines to answer engines. The evolution from search engines to answer engines can be compared to swapping a librarian for a personal assistant. An individual’s search habits are being predicted, and usable answers are provided.
Traditional search engines were more about indexing & retrieving data based on keywords. You’d type in a query, and a list of links would be tossed back. Now, AI-driven answer engines are upping the game. The focus is on delivering direct answers so the user doesn’t need to sift through that list of blue links.
User intent is driving this shift. Users want solutions, not sources. Think of Google’s AI overview that anticipates what you’re asking, giving concise responses at the top of the search page. The format mimics a conversation. Search is becoming more of a human interaction than a cold search for links. To adapt to this change, brands need to rethink their strategies, focusing on providing the specific answers users seek.
AI technology is transforming how information is processed and presented. Answer engines understand context and nuance of human language better than ever, making them feel more intuitive.
The implications of this new search structure is huge. Sure, it doesn’t mean throwing away your old strategies, but it does mean thinking about adapting your strategies for answer engines. Brands need to be right there, front and center in AI-driven results. The emphasis should be two-fold. Getting to the top of the search results AND owning your brand narrative.
You want your brand to be the go-to company when users search in your category. So, as these technologies evolve, so must your strategies to ensure your brand remains a key player.
Understanding AI Visibility Optimization
AI visibility optimization (AIVO) is the process of crafting content and strategies that appeal directly to the AI algorithms powering modern search engines. Unlike traditional SEO, which revolves around following a set of rules, AIVO encourages marketers to embrace flexibility & improvisation.
Two key elements that AI-driven search engines prioritize is context and intent. Understanding these two qualities is essential for any optimization strategy. For text specifically, think beyond keywords – consider how AI interprets intent and context.
Intent
Intent is the purpose behind a user’s query. Mainly, what are they genuinely trying to achieve or understand? Crafting content that aligns with user intent means anticipating potential questions, providing direct and actionable answers, and integrating a seamless journey towards a user’s goal.
Context
There are surrounding factors influencing a user’s interpretation of content. For example, this may be driven by a user’s previous interaction, location, or query phrasing. Ensuring your content fits into a broader ecosystem of relevant and interconnected topics can help AI understand when and why your content is the right answer for a user.
When creating content, consider the broader picture and how your brand fits into your respective field. Use research on user personas to develop content that can provide the best answers to your intended user compared to your competitor. By focusing on context and intent, your content won’t just be seen, it’ll be understood. This is an essential game-changer for relevance and influence.
To be relevant, your brand must be an insightful and engaging option for a user. By optimizing for AI visibility, you can set your own rules and amplify your brand’s voice apart from the crowd. AIVO offers benefits that traditional SEO can’t match. So, if you’re looking to keep up with technology and follow trends, you must have an AIVO strategy!
Looking for guidance in navigating AI search?
Adapting to AI-Driven Search
Let’s face it – AI is everywhere and it’s only going to grow. It’s changing how we search online. Looking at the growth in the number of users on LLMs (like ChatGPT and Perplexity) and using AI voice assistants like Siri and Alexa is remarkable. With over 8.1B visitors over time, ChatGPT has led LLM growth metrics and has peaked user curiosity.
The research company Gartner predicted a 25% drop in traditional search volume by 2026, thanks to AI. So how do you adapt and stay relevant?
- Focus on maintaining high SERP rankings. This still matters in an AI world. Staying visible in AI overview and on other answer engines is still influenced by your brand’s position in SERPs.
- Hone in on long-tail keywords. This way, you can capture niche queries that users often go to LLMs to find answers for.
- Don’t throw out your old SEO playbook. You’re just supplementing it with an updated strategy targeted to LLMs. Traditional SEO practices still hold their own weight. The key is to blend them with your AI tweaks to cover all bases.
- Ensure optimization for human and AI audiences. Remember that AI is trained to understand human intent so optimizing for conversations and human interaction is likely to help your brand’s relevance.
Studies conducted by Authoritas show unique overlap between traditional and AI-driven rankings. Integrating both approaches can boost your visibility across the board. So, don’t shy away from using tried-and-true SEO tactics while exploring the AI realm. Do, however, let your SEO strategy adapt to changes, especially in the wake of algorithm changes with AI.
How to Measure AI Visibility
Today, measuring AI visibility is mostly conducted through labor intensive manual searches. AEO specialists have to conscientiously follow and record how their brand is performing across LLMs. Some analytics websites are starting to provide tools that measure visibility across individual platforms. For example, Ahrefs now tracks AI overview and provides insights based on your content’s visibility and whether it triggers AI overview or not.
At the moment, there are few systems that have comprehensive capabilities for tracking AI visibility, but this is changing quickly. Companies want to find a way to move from manually tracking their visibility to having a dashboard automatically updated with reports on their visibility. Innovative companies like Goodie are supporting brands in developing an AI brand narrative focusing on positioning brands on the new digital shelf of AI answer engines.
Staying Visible on AI
Organic search is shifting and those who adapt will thrive! Work on embracing AI search without losing sight of the fundamentals of SEO. This will keep your brand in the spotlight even as AI continues to evolve.
To truly stay ahead of your competitors, follow guides on how to optimize and rank on specific answer engines like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Remember to integrate tried-and-true practices with AI strategies to create a holistic approach. This ensures your brand shines no matter where your audience finds you. AI isn’t just a trend or buzz word; it’s the future. By leaning into AI visibility, you’re not just keeping up with the competition – you’re setting the pace.
