Prompted: Is Your Content Strategy Ready for the New World of AI Search?

Need to look something up on the internet? Just ChatGPT it. 

While “Google” made its first appearance in the dictionary in 2006, immortalizing the brand name as a household verb, a new contender for our digital vocabularies is emerging. We’ve been hearing ChatGPT sneak into everyday conversations, a sign that the internet’s favorite chatbot is making its mark on the search landscape. 

With the rise of ChatGPT and AI search, brands are facing an entirely new world of content optimization and SEO tactics. Is your content strategy ready for search’s new era?

Warning: You’re Going to Lose Traffic

AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI overviews are designed to give answers immediately, without searchers having to click through to another website or resource. (Though given generative AI’s propensity for hallucinations, we still advocate for checking its sources thoroughly!) Already, zero-click is gaining ground for Google — in 2024, more than 50% of all searches ended without a click. Not surprisingly, Gartner predicts a 50% loss in organic search traffic for brands over the next three years, but some companies are already feeling the effects of the reduction in traffic to their individual websites.

So, what should brands do? It’s time for a content strategy update: one that balances  AI search optimization with traditional SEO best practices while also diversifying traffic sources through owned channels like social and email.

Diversify Your Content and Channels

Digital marketers have long relied on search as a top driver of audience acquisition. But with its future uncertain, now’s the time to rethink your content channels and create multiple touchpoints to meet your audience where they are. 

Your updated content strategy should include these critical components:

• Focus on your social strategy: More now than ever, social media is the most important channel to reach customers, for B2C and B2B brands alike. Regularly share relevant content on social and analyze engagement to understand what resonates best with your audiences.
• Get your executives involved: People want to follow people, not brands. Encourage your company’s leaders to tout their expertise on social media by sharing industry insights, thought leadership content, and behind-the-scenes perspectives. This humanizes your brand, increases credibility, and fosters stronger connections with your audience. 
• Expand your customer acquisition methods: Leverage partnerships, paid social ads, referral programs, and AI and social search to reach new audiences. Experiment with emerging platforms and optimize campaigns based on data insights to refine your strategy continuously.
• Direct contact is best: Don’t forget email as an essential channel to keep your audience engaged and informed. By delivering relevant, content-driven campaigns, you position yourself as a valuable resource while ensuring your brand stays top of mind.
• Create content that resonates: Prioritize content topics and formats your audience actually wants to read (or watch). Whether that’s informative blog content, engaging short-form videos, or creative influencer collaborations, get to know your audience's preferences and tailor your approach accordingly. And don’t just create content for content’s sake — whatever the format, your content should include a clear point of view, provide expert advice, and feature helpful, actionable takeaways or solutions that solve problems.

How to Rank in AI Search

Though brands will inevitably experience a decline in traditional search traffic, AI-driven search could also introduce new visitors to your organization by featuring your content in LLM-generated snippets and citing it as a resource. Some brands are seeing an influx of traffic from AI search engines. For example, period care brand Viv claims its monthly traffic spiked 400% due to AI search recommendations for non-toxic period products. 

To appear in AI search, the classic SEO tactics of keyword optimization and gaining backlinks won’t be as effective. Generative engine optimization is still an evolving field, but these proven tricks can boost your visibility in AI answers:

• Create detail-rich, easy-to-digest content: AI loves quick insights it can pull into its summarized answers. Short paragraphs, bullet points, tables, and lists help break down your content into bite-size pieces for AI to process, while adding expert quotes and relevant data gives it something to feed off of.
• Keep your content up to date: Generative AI tools are constantly scanning the internet for new insights for their databases. Make a point to refresh your content regularly (including the publish date to signal an update) to give AI something new to learn.
• Prioritize technical scanability: Remember, AI is a piece of technology — while it might seem like it understands your English prompts, it’s really speaking a totally different language. In order for AI to interface with your content, it needs the proper signals. Technical SEO elements like properly tagged H1s and H2s and structured metadata help AI scanners understand what your content is about. 

Want more tips on how to optimize your content for AI search? Learn more about generative engine optimization. 

Just Keep Swimming

The only way to keep up with the shifting search world is to adapt. A drop in traffic isn’t a dead end — it’s a chance to reassess, experiment, and improve. The brands that come out on top will be the ones who stay flexible and learn how to embrace the new search landscape. 

If crafting content that resonates with your audience and aligns with evolving search trends seems overwhelming, the Tier One Content Studio can help.