We’re over halfway through 2026 and the way your customers are searching online for the information they need is changing. Why should you care? Because the rise of AI search tools like ChatGPT and Gemini can mean customers are bypassing your website altogether. Here’s a short, sweet, and hyper-seasonal tale to illustrate my point – why it matters, and what you can do to keep up with the changes.
Online search is changing
The Cherry Orchard at the Alnwick Garden in Northumberland has the largest collection of ‘Taihaku’ cherry blossom in the world. This April, it was all systems go as the orchard’s 329 trees burst into bloom a week earlier than usual. BBC news reported, “The Alnwick Garden’s short cherry blossom season is under way, despite a “touch and go” moment when Storm Dave threatened to sweep away the budding flowers.”
The blossom season only ever lasts for two-to-three weeks, so to make sure I caught the trees in all their glory before another pesky storm or heavy rainfall wiped out the show for another year, I needed to get a move on and get up to Alnwick.
My sister in Lancashire had had the same idea, so we made a plan to meet at the gardens in time for lunch. There was just one snag. No car. To get to Alnwick, a good hour and a half away from home, I needed to work out my options.
A new way to search
After grappling with various timetables for the trains and the buses and the Newcastle Metro, I asked Google Gemini.
Boom. One page, multiple choices, multiple routes, and it even suggested a follow up: “If you’re planning a full day out, would you like to know the best spots for a quick bite near the Garden before you head back?”
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so seen.
But, I digress.
Here’s why this tale of trains, the Newcastle Metro, and two bus operators matters:
- I found the exact information, and more, I needed in seconds.
- I bypassed four well-established travel websites and two travel apps in the process.
In fact, Gemini had ignored every site and app I’d usually visit to plan a trip.
it was as if they didn’t even exist.
Your customer’s behaviour is changing
This shift to users asking AI for answers rather than Google is significant. It demonstrates that it’s not just people like little old me who are getting on board with AI. Your customers are turning to it too. It’s a behaviour change that’s impacting businesses great and small.
In fact, BBC News published this article as I was drafting my notes for this blog: Businesses scramble to get noticed by AI search.
It’s a fascinating read that shows the scale of the impact caused by the changes taking place. And the knock-on effect on people whose businesses rely on a web presence for their sales and marketing. Because if people like me, and therefore like your customers, are bypassing Google search altogether and going straight to an AI search engine like Google Gemini for their answers, who – if anyone – is visiting your website? And if no one’s visiting, how will we get found in search results?
“Users are increasingly switching from search engines to AI tools. Meanwhile, search engines themselves are including AI overviews at the top of their results and that often means that users are getting their questions answered, without having to click on to another website.”
Sean McManus, BBC News
AI search is here
It’s a situation that presents both a challenge. And a huge opportunity.
In short, traditional search engines like Google are now competing with LLMs like Gemini and ChatGPT.
For an AI search engine to cite your brand when it’s gathering information to present users with the answers to their questions, it needs to see you as a trusted source of information.
“Before you can get to a human, you have to be chosen by the machine or large language model. To be chosen, your brand therefore needs to be present in the sources that the large language models get their data from.”
Chosen by AI, The new rules for winning search, Kantar
That’s not all.
“LLMs don’t care if you’re famous, they care that you are being talked about, delivering exceptional experiences, and fulfilling a specific need.”
Chosen by AI, The new rules for winning search, Kantar
The rules of the game are changing. And fast.
Welcome to the brave new world of Answer Engine Optimisation
Thankfully, Answer Engine Optimisation is not as scary as it sounds, mainly because it builds on the precepts of good Search Engine Optimisation. But if you’re revamping your existing website—or starting from scratch—now’s probably a really good time to check out what’s changing and how to make sure you’re keeping up with those changes.
Here’s the gist of what I’ve learnt so far:
How to make your brand visible in the age of AI search
- Be yourself – find your voice. That means defining your distinct brand tone of voice, refining your key messages for clarity, and leaning into what makes you different from the competition. It’s an invitation to share the thoughts, ideas, opinions, and stories that could only come from you and your brand.
- Be useful – answer your customers’ questions, be they about how you work, what sets you apart, how much your products or services cost, what your existing customers say about working with you, or what it’s like to be one of your employees.
- Be clear – we’re all busy. Make sure your writing’s clear and your meaning’s easy to understand, especially when you’re explaining who you are and what you do. For tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to find you, they need to see citations which link your name to your business and what you do.
- Be logical – follow the hierarchy of the classic web page by using your H1, H2, H3 title tags to make sure your site is easy to scan.
- Be fascinating – aim to be the talk of the town for all the right reasons. And show your face where it matters, be that on podcasts, in the news, at events, or on other people’s websites. Now, more than ever, you want to be *the* name on people’s lips when they’re looking for the products or services you provide.
- Be on trend – This isn’t about adding a pair of barrel-legged pants to your wardrobe (I’m working with the Fashion Communication team at Northumbria University and I can tell you that these pants are *all* the rage). It’s about making sure you’re relevant and updating the stats/quotes/research on your website so that ChatGPT thinks you’re worth a look and presents you in its search findings. Check anything that you posted 10+ months ago and update it ASAP.
- Be easy to digest – in my copywriting workshops I often talk about presenting people with succinct, bite-sized ‘chicken nuggets’ of information, instead of ‘over-facing them with a full roast dinner.’ This rings especially true now as LLMs process content in small sections and it’s recommended that your main pages have clear FAQ sections.
- Be visible – build your authority by adding author biographies, packed with credentials, to any key pages.
- Be confident – share testimonials and case studies from existing customers to showcase your skills and the trust that people place in you.
- Be the authority – Publish cornerstone content only you could write and keep it fresh. Craft engaging long-form, well-researched, and detailed content around the key questions your customers ask. Be clear, be confident, and be helpful.
- Be super nice to your web developer – finally, just as in the days of traditional SEO, your website needs to be fast. And it needs to be easy to crawl. Oh, and you also need to be au fait with schema, which is where it gets technical. “Schema markup, also known as structured data, is the language search engines use to read and understand the content on your pages… Although search engines are very powerful tools using advanced algorithms, they still need help to read, identify, and categorize the content.” Umbraco. Don’t worry, your web developer will be all over this.
The foundations endure
AI is changing how users search online. What isn’t changing are the foundations of great copywriting. Write to your reader’s wants and needs. Explain how you can solve their problems. Do it in a way that stands out from the competition. And repeat.
Want to know more?
Book a spot on Kate Toon’s AI SEO: A BEGINNERS WORKSHOP hosted by Kate and WordPress whizz Tony Cosentino. Practical, down to earth, and fun. Kate makes everything feel doable, no matter how much or little you know.
Want to stay visible in ChatGPT?
Ben and Nathan at Digital Pathfinders know their stuff. Their training session on “Is Your Organisation Appearing in ChatGPT?’ is super helpful.
Oh, and when I was researching my route to the cherry blossoms, Gemini said, “If you decide you’d rather have a lie-in and don’t mind missing the coastal views, the X15 express is significantly faster.”
A bit like AI search engines then.
