From Search to Strategy: How to Show Up in AI Answers

Online search behavior is undergoing a massive shift. According to Adobe, 77% of people in the US have used ChatGPT as a search engine. How and where we prefer to gather information requires a new strategy to capture audiences who increasingly prefer AI-generated answers to exploring a website. It’s no longer just about ranking in search results. It’s about showing up in the answer itself.  The campaigns and programs that will remain competitive are the ones optimizing their content for search, AI and the end user. This requires a dual pathway for search visibility that optimizes your content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and AI search using Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).  

A Dual Pathway to Search Visibility 

Search visibility today requires a dual-path strategy: 

1. SEO: Optimize for traditional web search (fast-loading, mobile-friendly pages, keyword strategy, backlinks, etc.). SEO is not dead! It just plays a different supportive role.  
2. GEO: Structure your content for large language models and AI crawlers, with clear hierarchy, intent-matching language, bullets, and citations from credible sources. AI prioritizes content it trusts as credible, relevant and human.

Why AI Search Visibility Matters 

Traditional SEO isn’t going anywhere. It will continue to play a critical role in helping your programs rank in a list of blue links. This is ideal for someone who is earlier in the research phase. GEO helps your programs show up in the AI-generated answer itself.  And that answer (short, instant, scannable), increasingly, is what people see, trust, and act on.  If your program’s information isn’t in the places AI pulls from, it risks being invisible to the people who need it most. This is what’s called a citation-gap and can look like a myriad of things ranging from your program being named but not linked in AI search, competitors appearing in an article for a topic/space you “own” but you don’t, or can even be your program being mentioned in AI search but with inaccurate data. 

Three Steps to Make It Work 

Here’s how to start aligning your content with how people actually search and how AI tools surface answers: 

1. Think like your audience

Use search analysis to understand search behavior (looking at search behavior, keywords and trends) to guide strategy. What are people asking? What’s their search intent? What pain points are driving those queries? Build content around those real questions and needs. 

2. Structure for AI discovery

Assume your reader might never visit your site and that AI will be their first touchpoint. Make your content easy to scan, summarize, and quote. Use clear headlines, list formats, and credible external links. Hint: A FAQ sheet is a good place to start, but you’ll want to optimize all of the important pages on your website, social and so on. Why? AI parses this data and pulls into AI-generated answers.  

3. Publish with purpose

Treat every post, landing page, or toolkit like a digital anchor. Write for the end user who prefers to use AI which prefers certain kinds of content. Use consistent naming, alt text, and citations. Tip: Think of your site as a source that AI might quote and make it quotable.  Is your content optimized for search? Now is the time to analyze your program and optimize to stay competitive.   Download your free Search Informed Content Framework and Checklist and reach out to learn more about search analysis and using it to optimize your programs for search visibility. I’m excited to speak about this topic at next week’s BECC conference – headed to Sacramento? Reach out!