AI search is transforming how brands get discovered—and if you’re not optimizing for it, you’re already falling behind.
The wrong content formats, poor site structure, and lack of AI-friendly optimization mean missed opportunities, lost visibility, and ultimately, lost customers.
But here’s the good news: You CAN control how AI search engines see your brand.
Join seoClarity and RankBee in this on-demand webinar where we break down:
This isn’t just theory. We’re sharing real-world case studies of brands that are already winning in AI search—so you can, too.
Don’t let your brand disappear. Take action to ensure your site is seen, understood, and prioritized in AI search!
Table of Contents:
AI search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others are rapidly gaining traction. While they may not yet rival Google organic search in traffic volume, their impact is growing fast.
At seoClarity, our client data confirms this shift: referral traffic from AI search engines has been steadily increasing, with a sharper rise in recent months. More users are relying on these platforms for answers, and—crucially—they’re clicking on citations.
What does this mean for brands? If your content isn’t optimized for AI search, you’re missing out on a valuable (and growing) source of traffic. Now is the time to ensure your brand is visible, recognized, and cited in AI-generated results.
First, let’s review how this all works; how does your brand even begin to show up in an AI search result?
AI search engines pull brand mentions from two main sources:
Each AI search engine blends these sources differently, and while we don’t know the exact mix, one thing is clear:
The broader and deeper your topical coverage, the more likely AI is to recognize and surface your brand in search results.
We need to recognize how different AI search engines are from traditional search.
For example, here’s a Google result for “Things to do in Chicago.”
Left: a Google result for "Things to do in Chicago." Right: two ChatGPT results for the same query 10 minutes apart.
In traditional search, results remain relatively consistent from day to day. That’s because Google evaluates keywords using the same ranking and authority factors for each query. Unless there’s a major algorithm update, the results don’t change much.
Not so with AI search engines like ChatGPT. There’s no fixed ranking—just gathered and summarized information from multiple sources.
A notable difference? Your brand can appear multiple times. Unlike Google, which limits how often a domain appears in search results, AI search can cite the same source multiple times. In the example above, U.S. News appeared in four out of six cited sources.
But here’s the key takeaway: I ran the same search in ChatGPT just 10 minutes later and got a completely different result—different text, sources, organization, and even images.
The point? We need to think differently. We’re no longer just ranking for keywords; instead, we must focus on topic-based visibility—ensuring our brand is consistently mentioned and referenced across AI-generated results.
AI search is more volatile than traditional search. Since results are generated in real-time, they can change from moment to moment.
However, here’s the good news:
That’s why an AI-first content strategy is essential—one that increases opportunities for your brand to be surfaced in AI search engines.
Next, let’s dive into exactly how to optimize your content to take control of your AI search visibility.
We’re focusing specifically on content strategy—what it takes to create content that not only ranks in AI search but also gets featured in AI Overviews.
If you missed our last webinar, ‘AI Search Decoded’, we covered the full strategy for AI visibility. Today, we’re diving deep into the content side of that strategy—how to create topically rich content that earns AI citations.
There are four key components to an AI search-focused content strategy. These aren’t just best practices—they’re must-haves for maintaining your presence in AI Overviews and AI-driven search results:
Let’s break down each of these, starting with creating high-quality content.
Creating high-quality content isn’t just about writing more—it’s about identifying what’s missing and strategically filling those gaps so AI search engines recognize your authority.
If your content doesn’t answer all aspects of a topic, AI will look elsewhere. Ensuring complete, authoritative coverage increases your likelihood of appearing in AI-generated responses.
Let’s look at a real-world case study where content gaps caused AI to misinterpret a brand’s offerings.
RankBee recently worked with a major travel booking company facing a significant issue with ChatGPT: the AI was convinced they didn’t offer cruise bookings—when in reality, it was a major service line. Their homepage even featured cruises, and they had over 22,000 pages covering different cruise options.
So, what went wrong?
For years, their cruise services were only available in certain markets, and in late 2023, they expanded globally. However, ChatGPT’s data cutoff meant it was unaware of this change. More importantly, their site’s content wasn’t explicit enough about the expanded offering—leaving both consumers and AI confused.
The solution? They needed to reinforce their messaging by adding clear, structured information throughout their internal and external content. More supporting material would ensure LLMs could fully grasp the service expansion, correcting the AI’s outdated assumptions and improving user experience.
Topic Explorer in seoClarity analyzes the entire topic landscape, helping you proactively address blind spots and optimize for what users are really searching for.
For example, if you enter "Things to do in Chicago," Topic Explorer provides:
The more comprehensive and relevant your content, the greater your chances of appearing in AI search. By leveraging Topic Explorer, you can align your strategy with real user behavior—ensuring your brand surfaces in AI-driven answers.
Our AI search visibility reports help brands identify topical gaps that impact their visibility in AI search.
Let’s look at a quick case study featuring CeraVe, a popular skincare brand.
AI Search Visibility Report in seoClarity.
When analyzing skincare-related topics, CeraVe had strong overall visibility—ranking #2 across hundreds of key queries around the topic of skincare products. However, a deeper dive into the report revealed a gap:
Question: “What skincare products are safe to use during pregnancy?”
CeraVe’s Visibility: Appeared in only one out of three AI search engines.
So, what’s behind this gap? Running the same query in ChatGPT showed that three out of four sources cited were third-party sites like Vogue, Healthline, and What to Expect—not skincare brands. However, one small skincare brand, La Roche-Posay, did appear.
Why? Unlike CeraVe and Neutrogena, La Roche-Posay had dedicated, high-quality content answering that exact question.
Key Takeaway: By analyzing AI reports, brands can uncover critical content gaps and create targeted pages to improve AI search visibility. If your competitors aren’t addressing key questions, it’s an opportunity for your brand to dominate that space.
AI search engines prioritize content that is structured and easy to process.
Ultimately, if your content isn’t structured well, AI won’t interpret it correctly
When RankBee explored IT services across global regions, they studied the page types that AI search engines referenced when generating answers. The findings were clear: list articles and well-written service pages were the most frequently cited.
These formats naturally provide context and a structured hierarchy, making it easier for LLMs to interpret the content accurately.
This highlights an important takeaway—content structure matters. Pages that clearly define services, benefits, and key details in an organized and scannable way are far more likely to be used in AI-generated responses…and this leads us to our third strategy, which is to optimize and refresh content.
AI Overviews prioritize long-tail, step-by-step queries, meaning your content should be detailed, structured, and consistently updated to stay relevant.
Key Takeaway: AI search is dynamic—your content should be, too. Keeping pages fresh, detailed, and aligned with evolving search intent ensures long-term visibility in AI-driven search results.
Recommended Reading: How to Rank in AI Overviews
The three key questions every brand should ask right now when analyzing AI search visibility:
A major financial services company discovered that ChatGPT was inaccurately labeling them as weaker than competitors because it claimed they had fewer fee-free ATMs.
The Problem:
The Fix:
Copywriting for AI ultimately comes down to how well you contextualize your products and services. Attributes like benefits, end user, specific qualities will help both LLMs and end users better understand your product.
Examples:
Key Takeaway: If your most important selling points aren’t clear and accessible, AI may misinterpret your brand. The solution? Intentional content optimization.
seoClarity’s Content Fusion enables you to write authoritative content, fast with all the advantages of AI and none of its drawbacks.
Unlike ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, Content Fusion knows what it takes to rank with our ocean of research grid data, awareness of your competitive search situation, and the ability to automatically align with your brand voice, tone, and structure, enabling your writers to produce rankable content five times faster.
AI search doesn’t just pull from your website—it looks across the web to determine which brands have authority and credibility.
Key Takeaway: To win in AI search with your content strategy, brands need to expand their digital footprint—visibility isn’t just about your site, but where your brand is mentioned across the web.
So how do you actively build this external influence? Let’s talk about leveraging multi-channel user-generated content (UGC) and affiliate partnerships.
The reality is that AI search engines don’t just look at individual brand sites—they weigh overall search presence, user behavior, and external signals.
Key Takeaway: Expanding a brand’s footprint beyond its own website is critical. AI search is shaped by who has the most digital influence.
Here’s a real-world example from RankBee’s reports showing how AI search creates opportunities for smaller and mid-sized brands.
From a coverage perspective, this is where tactical decision-making makes a real impact.
Brands that prioritized high-quality, contextualized content—such as listicles, service pages, and conversational content—outperformed much larger competitors. Instead of relying on domain rank, these brands focused on building a strong content ecosystem, something even major enterprises struggle to do effectively.
Take Fire Art Studio vs. Accenture as an example:
Yet, Fire Art Studio achieved significantly higher visibility in AI search. Why? Their content was better structured, more informative, and directly addressed user queries.
Key Takeaway: AI search is still a greenfield opportunity where content—not brand size—determines visibility. If you can align your content, messaging, and third-party ecosystem, you can outrank competitors far bigger than you ever imagined.
RankBee is a London based AI search optimisation company and their flagship artificial intelligence optimisation (AIO) tool is designed to help businesses establish their online presence amidst the rise of AI search engines like Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude.
RankBee integrates AI-driven prompt research, competitive analysis, granular coverage data, and citation mapping to give SEO, marketing, and brand teams a strategic path to optimising their brand while gaining critical insights into how AI perceives their brand and competitive landscape.