We just wrapped up our latest webinar, “Winning Strategies for SEO, GEO & AI Visibility,” hosted by Philip Weafer, Associate Vice President of SEO at Brafton, and Adam Barber, Chief Commercial Officer at Brafton.
It was a great session with more than 130 people attending — many with excellent questions for our hosts! In this blog post, we’ll address each question asked during the webinar.
To watch (or revisit) the full presentation, you can find it right here:
Oh, and here are the slides Phil and Adam flipped through.
Alright, without further ado, let’s get into the Q&A:
1. Will Graphic Design Go Extinct?
Our first question came from Juhi: Do you envision a future where humans won’t consume web content, and instead it’ll all be built for agents – which would mean graphic design would not be needed anymore?
What would a world without graphic designers look like? Probably pretty bland.
While it’s true that more agents are browsing the web on behalf of people, at the end of the day, a real person is the one making decisions — and that human needs to understand and connect with a brand or product before they convert.
Graphic design plays a role in that because people connect with visual language. While AI tools are becoming more adept at creating artwork, there are still very human nuances to what makes imagery compelling.
AI can help speed up the process of creating visual content, but human intervention will likely always be necessary for ensuring the visuals are communicating the right message.
2. What Percentage of AIOs are for Commercial Intent Queries vs. Informational Intent Queries?
Next, Jeff asks about AIOs, and how many of them are appearing for commercial vs informational intent queries.
One stat from the presentation was that 51.5% of all Google queries produce an AI Overview, which comes from a study conducted at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
But as Phil noted during the session itself, for many of us, we’re experiencing a much higher AIO rate. Nearly every Google search generates an AI Overview, regardless of search intent.
This Ahrefs study was doing the rounds internally at the end of last year, so it’s a bit old now but looked at a very big sample size. It found keywords that generate AIOs are overwhelmingly informational, but 5.5% of the sample were commercial and 1.2% were transactional.
3. How Do You Measure AI Search Success?
The most common topic asked about during the webinar was focused on measurement.
- From Hanna: How do you measure your presence in Google ai recommendations? Which instrument is better and more accurate from your point of view?
- From Judy: Do you recommend time on page/on site or bounce rate as examples of engagement metrics? What are the „quality engagement metrics“ Brafton recommends?
- From Tucker: How are people handling measurement and analytics? Reporting on AI visibility is difficult at the moment.
- From Michael: If AI is not listed under „Search Type“ in Search Console, does that mean we have zero results from LLMs? How can we begin to measure when AI is so unpredictable?
It’s no surprise to any of us that this is such a pressing concern right now. In marketing, the ability to prove the value of your efforts is so important; it’s often the main factor determining ongoing budgets, after all.
But here we are, in the midst of the biggest change to search since, well, search itself. It’s to be expected that tracking capabilities will lag (frustrating though it is). Of course, we’re not flying completely blind here. At Brafton, we take a few approaches to measuring success of our AI optimizations efforts, both in-house and for our clients.
Looking at Tracking Platforms
Tracking AI visibility, as Tucker noted, is difficult right now. But there are plenty of platforms that are doing their very best to try, and they’re becoming more reliable. Here are some of our favorites:
- Ahrefs has Brand Radar.
- Semrush has their AI Visibility Toolkit.
- Moz Pro has an AI Visibility Tool.
- Peec AI is a platform dedicated just to AI visibility tracking.
- Google Search Console is (slowly) rolling out Search Generative AI performance reports.
- Google Analytics 4 can identify AI traffic sources, and you can use Looker Studio to build reports based on that. We do this for our clients.
Best Metrics to Track
Tracking AI visibility is different from tracking SEO visibility because the metrics aren’t the same. They’re different because people engage with these two systems differently.
Some of the best metrics to track include:
- AI citations (track this in one of the tools listed above).
- Engaged traffic (track this in GA4).
- Conversions (your CRM should keep this info).
- Branded searches (find this in Google Search Console).
- AI Overview impressions (keep an eye on your GSC for when AI search reporting comes available).
- Revenue per page, which we wrote a whole blog post about here: What Is Revenue per Page and Why Does It Matter.
Metrics like bounce rate and time on page have their place in web analytics, but they’re not the most important ones to keep your eyes on.
Bounce rate was a commonly reported metric from Universal Analytics, but GA4’s reporting structure phased this out. Time on page can tell you a little bit about UX, but short or long times on page could be due to any number of factors, like search intent and the user’s stage in the buying journey.
On (Lagging) AI Search Reporting From Google Search Console
Google announced this new feature on June 3, noting that they’ll be making it available to a subset of websites to test out the functionality before making it widely available.
If you don’t yet see this option in your GSC, it’s just because you’re one of the unlucky many that aren’t included in the initial launch — don’t worry, it’s not an indication that you’re not getting any AI visibility at all.
4. How Do I Make My Website More Authoritative?
After measurement, E-E-A-T best practices were next up on people’s minds.
- From Emily: How do I build topical authority for my website?
- From Juhi: What is the „Experience“ criteria based on, specifically? What can be done to improve that one?
If you’re focused on making your website more authoritative, you’re on the right track. AI visibility absolutely hinges on your authority in your space. And your “authority” is only as good as the robots can tell; if all your expertise lives in the real world but none of it in the digital world, it’s no good to your visibility efforts.
So, how do you go about proving your authority and showcasing your experience?
As always, the answer is content; but you need the right content for the job. Here are a few ideas that we recommend to our clients on a regular basis:
Keep Blogging
Most content marketers already have a business blog, but is it kept up to date? Is it responding to industry changes? Does it address the most common questions prospects ask before converting?
Make sure it does. Your audience is already asking AI tools questions that your brand can answer, but a generative engine can’t cite you if you don’t address those pressing questions.
Make More Case Studies
People trust people more than brands, and AI search wants to deliver those solid trust factors in their answers. Case studies, testimonials and success stories from your real customers can go a long way in proving your experience and giving AI the content it needs to recommend your brand.
Conduct Original Research
We used to recommend original research projects because journalists like to cite unique statistics in their articles, which builds backlinks. That’s still true, but more often we’re highlighting the fact that AI search engines also love to cite unique statistics in their answers.
Conducting original research ensures that you have a unique point that no one else in your industry can make. You’re the authority on your own original research, and authority is what you’re striving for.
Original research doesn’t have to be a major lift, either. Actually, we wrote all about practical ways to approach original research in this white paper:
Post Thought Leadership on LinkedIn
As Phil pointed out during the webinar, LinkedIn is the second-most common cited source in AI answers. So, are you putting your voice out there?
Starting a LinkedIn posting strategy can be challenging and a little bit scary. But with the right strategy (and sometimes the right team, too), it’s entirely possible. This is something we’ve written about on the Brafton blog, but it’s also something we’ve helped clients with. Here are a few resources:
- Blog post: The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Optimization for Executives
- Blog post: What Is LinkedIn Optimization?
- Case study: Soaring Engagement for PMC Legal’s LinkedIn
5. Should We Use Online Directories to Enhance Credibility?
Maisie posed a smart question: Would using reputable online directories to enhance the credibility and visibility of our financial advice firm and its advisers be a good example of applying this within our industry?
You’re onto something good, Maisie! Yes, online directory management can be a huge help to your AI visibility efforts.
After all, AI search engines search the whole world wide web to find information to cite. They’re more likely to present information about your brand from off-site resources like directories, review sites, or social media like Reddit or Quora, than they are to quote your website directly.
Sites like G2, Clutch and Capterra are great places to start. Setting up your Google Business Profile and making sure it’s as complete as possible also helps, especially as it pertains to Google AI Overviews and Gemini.
6. How Do I Present GEO as an Opportunity, Not a Chore?
Amy, a senior tech writer at a PR agency, asked us a question that hit close to home: I find all of this exciting but my subjective theory is that some clients are „exhausted“ by AI hype/change etc. Any thoughts on how to approach clients with GEO as an opportunity, not another „burden“ or „chore“?
Amy, this is a great question.
If a client is sick of SEO, it’s usually because they feel like they’re having to do things they don’t want to do just to keep an algorithm happy. Like chasing keywords just for the search volume.
But those days are over. Brands should be focusing on topics that closely align with their core competencies — what are they best at and what can they prove they’re best at?
That should make content creation feel more authentic and satisfying. Because real world success stories and demonstrable expertise are what get traction in this expanded search landscape. Who doesn’t want to talk about that?
And this is good news for you, of course. PR is having a come back 😉
7. Can I Talk About Global Events in My Hyper-Local SEO Strategy?
It sounds like Macy might be tuned into the ongoing international tournament, because she asked us: You mentioned not going too off topic (World Cup), but isn’t that helpful when building hyper-local SEO? For example, if FIFA is in my city, isn’t there a benefit to addressing that in a way that relates back to my business?
It can be really tempting to jump in on the action when there are major cultural events happening, but whether it makes sense for your brand depends on a number of factors.
First and foremost, it’s worth noting that some major organizations, like FIFA, have strict rules about how brands use their name, logo, events and other information in marketing content. So, before you start blogging about your favorite teams, do your homework.
Let’s say you want to blog or comment on an international event and you find that you have total freedom to do so without fear of legal repercussions. Does it even make sense to do this if you’re only a small organization or don’t have anything to do with the event?
Now, that depends on your goals. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll rank organically on a high-volume, high-difficulty term that is completely separate from your topical authority. But if the goal is direct audience engagement rather than organic ranking or traffic, why not? Blog away, and share it on social media and in email.
8. If I’m Using Vimeo, Should I Start Using YouTube, Too?
Vince the avid Vimeo user wondered whether cross-publishing video content would be worthwhile: Is it safe to assume that if we’re using Vimeo to manage video content for our website that posting that content on YouTube would be worth the effort?
The short answer is yes, it would be worthwhile. Vimeo is a great video host with professional-grade features, but it doesn’t have the relationship with AI surfaces that YouTube does.
At Brafton, we actually use both Vimeo and YouTube, and we dive into the differences between these two platforms in this blog post: Vimeo vs. YouTube: Which Is Better for Modern Brands?
It comes down to one question: Do you want the content of this video to be cited in AI answers? If the answer is yes, publish on YouTube. If the answer is no, then Vimeo is fine. And remember: You can always publish the same video on both platforms to get the best of both worlds.
AI Visibility Doesn’t Have to be a Mystery
AI visibility and generative engine optimization are still fairly new to the marketing industry’s toolkit. But these areas are evolving quickly, and smart marketers are striving to keep up with the wave of change.
Our webinar just scratched the surface of everything there is to know about the relationship between SEO, GEO and AI visibility. At Brafton, we’re committed to being a leader in this space so we can support our clients to the best of our ability. If you want to explore what a partnership with Brafton looks like, just reach out.
