AI is everywhere. And its explosion onto the scene is leaving everyone, but especially business owners and marketers, with a lot of questions—and some concerns.
While AI can be a helpful addition to any marketing strategy, it’s also impacting search marketing as we know it. So we’ve outlined the top questions people have around AI and search with answers and insights to help you navigate all the changes, updates, and confusion.
Contents
- Is AI search replacing search engines?
- How is AI impacting organic search?
- How can you influence AI search results?
- How is AI impacting paid search?
- How can you prepare for ads in AI search?
5 frequently asked questions about AI and search
Let’s dive into the top questions around AI and search.
1. Is AI search replacing search engines?
With all the buzz around AI platforms growing in popularity, this is a very common question (and concern). But the reality is that search engines still reign supreme. In fact, Google has over 300x the number of users as ChatGPT, and the amount of searches on Google grew from 2023 to 2024, despite AI platforms gaining users.
The bottom line is that search engines aren’t going anywhere. But it is time to either prepare for AI search or start optimizing your strategy for it.
👀 Need help showing up on Google? Free guide >> 20 Ways to Make Your Website More Visible on Google
2. How is AI impacting organic search?
While search engines are still the number one way people are searching for information, it doesn’t mean they haven’t been impacted by AI platforms, especially when it comes to organic search.
AI is making it harder to drive organic traffic, especially for informational queries. Previously, people would need to click off Google to a site to get their question answered. Featured snippets could provide some information and context, but it was fairly limited. Now, with AI Overviews, users are getting their answers directly from the search results page, meaning they don’t have to click away from Google to find what they need (known as zero-click searches). One study estimates 75% of Google queries result in no clicks!
This search for “is it easy to change a tire” has an extremely long AI Overviews result, pushing the first organic result way down the page.
The good news here is that local SEO hasn’t been as heavily impacted by AI. Searches with local or transactional intent aren’t seeing many AI Overviews results (yet), so this presents a good opportunity for businesses to continue getting found for relevant queries.
3. How can you influence AI search results?
There are a couple of different ways you can think about getting found in AI search results. One is trying to get seen in AI features on search engines, like AI Overviews. The other is trying to get referral traffic from AI platforms like ChatGPT.
Both of these options can help you increase visibility and continue driving traffic to your website.
To optimize for AI Overviews and other AI search features, here are some tips:
- Follow basic SEO best practices. The tried-and-true SEO best practices are still your best bet to show up in AI search features.
- Create question-based content. This type of content is usually answered by AI in search engines, so by creating content answering “what,” “how,” and “why” questions related to your business, you can increase your chances of being a source for these results.
- Build links to your site. This can increase visibility and credibility for your website, which can, in turn, increase your chances of appearing in AI Overviews.
A few places you can have links displayed in AI Overviews.
To try to drive AI referral traffic, here are some tips:
- Make it easy for AI crawlers to find your content. This includes prioritizing page speed and mobile friendliness on your website and using internal links for increased discoverability.
- Target conversational searches. AI searches are often conversational and long-tailed. So, target these searches with your content. You might even ask an AI tool for some ideas to help you get started (ex: what questions do people have about a lawn care business?).
- Improve your EEAT signals. This stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. By building up these signals, you’re telling AI platforms that your content is credible and authoritative. Find out how to increase EEAT for your business here.
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4. How is AI impacting paid search?
We’ve covered the organic search side, but what about how AI is impacting paid search?
The primary impact we’re seeing on search engine results is on SEO—again, since transactional queries and searches with local intent haven’t been heavily impacted by AI, PPC ads are still working to drive clicks and conversions.
A search for “lawn care dallas” still shows ads at the top of the page rather than AI Overviews.
We’re also seeing that AI platforms like ChatGPT are starting to test ads, so that provides a new opportunity to reach consumers.
Search ads are still really effective at driving clicks and leads for your business. You may need to audit your account to make sure you’re focusing your bids on transactional and local queries rather than informational ones, as these are more impacted by AI search results.
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5. How can you prepare for ads in AI search?
As more AI platforms roll out ads, it’s important to prepare your strategy so you can take advantage of this new ad channel.
This Reddit user got a ChatGPT result with ads from a recent query.
The first step here is to familiarize yourself with the most popular AI platforms. Figure out how they work, how people might be searching on them, and how your business can fit in.
The second step is finding a partner that can help you get set up here if and when you do decide to run ads on this channel. Online advertising, in general, can be difficult, and advertising on an emerging channel can be even more so. Working with a partner to run your ads can simplify this process and allow you to reach customers right on AI platforms.
Stay ahead of the AI search trends
AI is impacting almost every facet of modern life, and search is no exception. But by having the right strategy in place, staying on top of the latest updates, and finding a partner that can help you adapt your plan as needed, you can continue seeing great results from search marketing. Reach out for a demo to see how we can help.
