Being No. 1 on Google May No Longer Be Enough - A Preview

A preview of an article we wrote for The Strategic Partners' newsletter

Every so often, a piece of writing turns out to be too important to keep in just one place. That's what happened to this one. We originally wrote this article for The Strategic Partners, for their newsletter, and it tackles a question a lot of business owners are quietly asking themselves right now.

If AI tools are answering customer questions before anyone even reaches a website, does ranking #1 on Google still matter?

We think the topic is worth sharing with our own readers too, so here's a preview of the piece. Read the first two sections below, then head over to The Strategic Partners' blog for the rest.

Excerpted with permission from The Strategic Partners' article, originally published on The Strategic Partners' blog.

The Way Customers Search Is Changing

Right now, out there on the Internet, someone is thinking about your product or service and wanting to learn more about your company. The crazy part is that they aren’t going to your website. Instead, potential customers are doing their research and having sales conversations with the help of an Ai tool.

Not that long ago, prospects followed a familiar path. They would go to a search engine, most likely Google, and do a search. They would read the links presented, review the results, and then visit one or several related websites. Once they had a shortlist, they would research and compare the companies. That information enabled them to make a choice, and they would reach out to contact the company or make the purchase on their website.

Not anymore. Now more and more prospects are going to an LLM Ai-Assisted Search. They might use Google’s Ai Overview or type their question directly into an Ai Chat (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, etc.).

The questions customers are asking are more detailed than traditional search queries, and the answers they get back are substantially more specific to their needs. They may ask a few follow-up questions, ask about the companies, compare product features, etc., all without ever visiting a single website.

In the end, by the time they reach your website, customers are already informed and most likely ready to make a purchase. Do you trust what Ai is saying about your company, products, or services? Are you even showing up alongside your competitors?

SEO Is Not Dead

You’re smart. You already knew this was happening. You’ve been sitting there wondering why you’re bothering to spend time and money on SEO when it feels like fewer people are using traditional search engines.

Ai does not make SEO irrelevant. AEO (AiO, GEO, AiSEO, etc.) is not replacing SEO. Any agency telling you that is just trying to use fear (especially FOMO) to get you to spend money with them.

In reality, modern SEO fundamentals and best practices are needed even more. A business that appears strong in traditional search also appears strong to Ai bots. Having a well-structured website, clear service pages, useful expert content, and local relevance are all just as important to AEO as they are to SEO, if not more so.

Ai uses various criteria to assess your website’s credibility, engagement potential and value to potential customers. Hundreds of these brand signals, like reviews, semantic relevancy and engagement metrics, all roll up together to paint a picture of the value of your brand. Because of that, good marketing agencies are making a shift. And good clients are listening; we’re no longer just focused on “what keywords do we rank for”. Instead, we’re moving to asking, “how well does the Internet understand our business?”  What do your brand signals say to AI about your business?

Want the Rest of the Story?

This is where it gets really interesting. The full article goes on to unpack exactly what "brand signals" are, what AI is actually trying to figure out about your business before it recommends you (or doesn't), and five practical things you can do this month to make sure you're part of the conversation instead of invisible in it.

Read the Full Article on The Strategic Partners' Blog → Being No. 1 on Google May No Longer Be Enough - The Strategic Partners