AI Visibility: The Future of Search Optimization

In this episode Wendy Covey and Jason Koo, founder and CEO of  SEO agency Zupo, discuss the evolving landscape of SEO in the age of AI especially as more searchers turn to AI platforms for their answers, how can marketers ensure their brands appear across AI Overviews, ChatGPT results, Perplexity results, and beyond?

Wendy and Jason emphasize that the fundamentals of PR and traditional SEO remain the foundation for success in AI visibility. Getting featured in trusted publications and earning backlinks from those sources continue to be essential strategies.

They also discuss users and their changing search behaviors. Are more users going straight to ChatGPT for their searches? Are they starting with Perplexity and then completing a secondary search on Google? As these habits evolve, marketing attribution becomes more complex. How do these changes affect referral, organic, and direct traffic attribution?

Currently, there’s no perfect way to measure AI-driven traffic and visibility. Jason shared that his team uses PEECAI to track AI visibility, while platforms like HubSpot are developing their own AI measurement tools. Even without a universal metric, understanding how your content performs in AI results is becoming a crucial part of marketing analytics.

But one of the most important questions on marketers' minds is how to rank on AI. Jason walked us through his top three strategies:

1. Appear on the first page of Google's Search Engine Results Page
   Research shows a strong correlation between ranking on Google’s first page and appearing in AI-generated answers. Jason cited several studies, including a ChatOptic report that found a 67% overlap between top-ranking pages and AI answers. A Seer Interactive study found that Google organic keywords were the top correlating factor for appearing in AI answers. In other words, if you rank well for specific keywords, you have a better chance of appearing in AI answers for those topics.
2. Appear in listicles
   Jason also highlighted that brands featured in listicles like “Top 10” articles on review or ranking sites are more likely to appear in AI results. However, he cautioned that only high-quality listicles (those ranking on the first page of Google) are effective. Creating your own “Top 10” list and ranking yourself at the top can appear disingenuous, so aim to earn placement organically.
3. Answer topics from AI's "Query Fan Out"
   Jason explains that when LLMs try to answer questions, they will often seek answers to related questions simultaneously in order to be able to serve a more in depth answer. If your brand has the best answers for the primary question of an AI user AND the answers to the related questions, you're more likely to appear in the AI answer.  How do you know this list of questions in an AI's "query fan out"? Most AI tools will not tell you even if you ask, but Perplexity does! Run through some questions with Perplexity and ask it what it's related questions are - now you have a roadmap to all the related topics that align with AI’s logic. The "Query Fan Out" strategy is likely to evolve over time but this is great tactic to know.     

So, where should you begin? The first step is to measure. Get familiar with how AI traffic is being tracked in your analytics tools, whether that’s Google Analytics, HubSpot, or another platform. From there, examine how much traffic is coming from AI-driven sources. Next, track how often your brand appears in AI results across different platforms. While there’s no perfect measurement tool yet, gaining visibility into your current standing is a solid first step toward optimizing for AI visibility.

Takeaways

• "AI visibility" encompasses the evolving SEO landscape.

• Behavioral shifts show that users are increasingly using AI alongside traditional search engines.

• Best practices for improving AI visibility include ranking on the first page of Google.

• Listicles are a common tactic used by AI to generate content.

• Creating pages for query fan out is essential for SEO success.

• Tracking AI visibility is crucial to succeed in this new landscape.

• Educating oneself about AI visibility is the first step for marketers.