The digital landscape is ever evolving and AI means the way we’re searching is totally different to how we searched a year ago, even only six months ago. With AI constantly developing, how is it affecting your brand’s searchability?
The most common way to search for answers quickly was to use search engines such as Google. Traditional SEO and digital PR was all about keywords and backlinks to show up in these results. Now people are turning to AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini that answer queries directly without any clicks. This change in how people search means your brand visibility hinges on how often and where your brand is mentioned across the web. If your brand is absent from the narrative, you become invisible.
For example, if you ask ChatGPT to recommend a marketing agency in Huddersfield, it’s going to bring up articles and sites where marketing agencies and Huddersfield are mentioned. This is where digital PR comes in.
If you want to show up in AI results, you need consistent, high-quality coverage on relevant sites. When someone prompts AI with a topic associated with your brand, you want to show up; not just because you’ve got a good SEO strategy but because you’ve earned your place in the conversation.
This isn’t to say that traditional SEO has been replaced, it’s about needing to adapt. As a brand, you’re not just creating content for machines to search, you’re also communicating to people. Traditional and AI SEO serve different systems so it’s important your content can be found across all interfaces. Successful brands will build on the key foundations of SEO to create structured, relevant and original content that is optimised for humans and the tools they use.
Digital PR is about positioning your brand as a reputable source. Who is talking about you, where, and in what context? To achieve this, you need to appear alongside relevant topics in reliable sources such as media outlets, blogs, and expert-authored articles. For instance, if you’re a small construction company, it’s not necessarily about getting featured in a national newspaper, but building up presence in construction titles to put you in front of relevant audiences who are more likely to engage.
Investing in your digital PR will put you at the forefront of conversations in your industry. Showing up in the right places will build your brand’s digital presence and in turn your credibility. If you show up consistently, then AI will take it from there.