Clicks are down, CTR is down, impressions are up… Sounds familiar?
After spending years mastering the SEO game, learning Google’s language, decoding algorithm updates and celebrating when we reached the top 3, Google was already planning to throw a spanner in the works, and companies we had never heard of are now dominating the conversations.
I’m talking about Google’s AIO, AI Mode, ChatGPT’s search features, Perplexity and Gemini, a whole new ecosystem in which AI doesn’t just help people find answers; it becomes the answer.
The new million-dollar question
“If AI is giving my customers the answer they need without them ever visiting my site, how do I stay relevant?”
It’s a fair question and honestly, it’s the right one to ask. Because this isn’t coming; it’s here. When someone asks their AI assistant about the best project management software or how to reduce customer churn, and your brand isn’t mentioned in that response, you’ve essentially become invisible to that customer.
The game has changed from “How do we rank?” to “How do we become the source AI trusts?”
Why we built our AI Search solution (and why traditional SEO isn’t enough anymore)
I’ll be honest. When we first started seeing these changes, our initial instinct was to adapt our existing SEO strategies. That didn’t work. Not because we weren’t trying hard enough, but because we were solving yesterday’s problem with yesterday’s tools.
AI search requires a fundamentally different approach. It’s not about gaming an algorithm anymore; it’s about becoming your space’s most credible, comprehensive source of information. That’s why we developed our AI Search Service Line, built on four pillars that actually move the needle in this new world.
1. AIO (AI Overview) Optimisation: Getting your brand into the answer
Someone searches for something in your industry and instead of seeing your carefully crafted meta description, they get an AI-generated overview that mentions your three biggest competitors but somehow misses you entirely.
The fact is that AI Overviews are the new front page of the SERPs. If you’re not being cited as a key source, you’re losing high-intent traffic to brands that might not even have better products than you; they just have better AI visibility. This will get worse when AI mode rolls out in the UK. My take is that AIO is just a passing feature to test Google’s new AI Mode.
Our AIO approach isn’t about tricking the system, but about analysing which sources AI engines already trust in your industry, identify where you’re missing from the conversation and build a strategy to establish your brand as the go-to authority for the questions your customers are actually asking.
2. Deep Research: Finally understanding how AI sees your brand
Let’s be honest, we’re all flying blind. We have no idea how ChatGPT, Claude, or Google’s AI actually perceives our brands compared to our competitors. Are we seen as innovative or outdated? Trustworthy or questionable? Industry leaders or followers?
This isn’t just curiosity, it’s strategic intelligence. Our proprietary technology does a deep dive analysis across multiple AI models, mapping out exactly where you stand. We’re talking about understanding citation patterns, authority signals, and competitive positioning in ways that traditional SEO tools simply can’t measure.
The insights are often quite surprising. I’ve seen brands that dominate traditional search rankings get completely overlooked by AI, while others with smaller traditional footprints become the AI’s preferred recommendation. The rules are different and we need different data.
3. LLM performance tracking: Measuring what actually matters
Traditional metrics are becoming less useful by the day. Keyword rankings mean nothing if people aren’t clicking through to your site. Click-through rates become irrelevant when AI answers the question directly. Having worked in SEO for over a decade, we can clearly see how ranking position is becoming almost irrelevant by the day.
So what do we measure instead? Share of voice in AI responses, how often you’re mentioned as a recommendation, your positioning when AI discusses your industry, and whether AI considers you a leader or a follower.
Unlike impressions, these are not vanity metrics. When we can show you that your share of AI mentions increased by 40% and correlate that with lead quality improvements, that’s ROI you can take to the board.
4. Entity Optimisation: Teaching AI who you really are
Here’s where I think this gets even more interesting. AI doesn’t just see keywords, it understands entities. It knows that “Apple” the company is different from “apple” the fruit. It understands relationships, context and authority in ways that search engines of the past never could.
The problem? Many brands have weak or confusing entity signals. AI might understand what you do, but not why you’re the best choice. Or worse, it might have conflicting information about your expertise, pricing, or positioning.
Entity Optimisation is about creating a coherent, authoritative digital identity that AI can easily understand and confidently recommend. It’s comprehensive work. Everything from your website structure to your social presence, industry citations, and Wikidata must tell the same story.
Want to see where your brand stands?
At Passion Digital, we’re not just watching this transformation; we’re helping shape it. Our AI Search Service Line isn’t about adapting old strategies for new platforms. It’s about building new strategies with new data sets.
If you’re wondering how your brand shows up in this shifting landscape, we’d love to chat. Let’s explore how we can position you as the go-to name when AI-driven platforms start making recommendations.
Because the future of search isn’t about being found, it’s about being chosen. And being recommended has always been the best kind of marketing!
Curious about how to take that next step? Read our companion piece, How to Get Your Brand Featured in Generative AI & AI Responses.