Credit: Ethan Sykes via Unsplash
The real problem with the rise of AI search is that the advertising and media industry has trained clients and CMOs over more than two decades to worship at the feet of clicks.
That was the big selling point of digital advertising; it’s intimately measurable. We know immediately whether or not we’re reaching an audience. No need for circulation figures or estimates of viewers.
The SEO apocalypse, where links and keywords are not surfacing in search because the AI produces a summary for the searcher, has changed all that.
“We have boards and C suites that are used to clicks as being the core metric,” said Shayna Burns, SEO principal at consultancy Luminary.
“If they're not coming on board and looking at alternative metrics, then it means the metrics that we're building our strategies around are going to set us up for failure. We're never going to meet the targets. They're only going to continue to decrease.
“We need to kind of take a step back and go: How do we measure success in this world? What does success look like? and what role do we want to play?
“I've had conversations with some organisations that throw up their hands and they say, ‘Do we even want our IP, a hard working content that we're producing to be showing up in AI search? If we're not going to get the benefit of the click and the ability to convert them into a lead or a sale, maybe we just have a closed door system. We focus on brand marketing and that's all it is’.”
Some are trying to block AI search from crawling their sites, others are trying to optimise, to try to make themselves look attractive and therefore be cited.
Scott Purcell, co-founder of Australian men's lifestyle publication Man of Many, cautions against slamming the door shut.
“Search is morphing into answers, not clicks. Zero-click results and AI overviews are already siphoning traffic,” said Purcell.
“Locking the door via robots.txt removes your masthead from the very place audiences now start their journeys.
“When a crawler hits a bot-enabled paywall, the bot almost certainly moves on rather than whipping out its AI corporate credit card to pay the publisher.
“We've decided to bank on brand building and attribution for now, and revenue later.”
Man of Many has partnered with AI analytics company TollBit to monitor and potentially build leverage to later monetise how artificial intelligence bots scrape its content.
AIs, or large language models (LLM), behave differently to how traditional search engines structure data.
Jonathan Henshaw, head of product & innovation, at Ryvalmedia, said this means strategising beyond the keywords you want to rank for and shifting to an E-E-A-T framework (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) on topics you want the brand to be known for.
“With traffic from search now decreasing as a result of zero-click search (consumers finding information without the need to visit your website), it is important that brands shift thinking away from quantity of traffic and start thinking about the quality of traffic with a keen eye on increases in engagement and conversion rates from search,” he said.
“Additionally, one emerging metric is ‘Share of Model’ which looks to measure the probability of a LLM recommending your brand on an unaided basis. There is some really interesting tech starting to come out in this space for brands to measure their performance versus competitors on LLM’s which early adopters will be able to leverage for long term benefits.”
The good news is that, many believe, that quality continues to win.
“It’s an old saying that is quickly becoming more important - quality data in = quality data out,” said Henshaw.
“When optimising content for AI search, it’s key to follow traditional SEO best practice guidelines. Natural language rather than keyword stuffing, clearly structured content including schema markups and clear headings as well as strong technical foundations for crawlability and indexability are all key to optimise your content for AI Search.
“With Cloudfare now blocking AI crawlers by default, it’s also key for brands to ensure that their sites remain accessible by AI platforms for information.”
Brands should start thinking about their own GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) or AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) strategy to help them rank in AI Search.
“Content audits are probably the best place to start with a re-think of how you position your content with the goal of moving away from keyword strategies and a shift towards trying to be an authoritative voice on key topics relating to your business,” said Henshaw.
Shai Luft, co-founder and COO at Bench Media, sees marketing flipped on its head.
“AI models flatten the consumer journey,” he said.
“Product comparisons, reviews, and brand recommendations all show up in a single AI response. That means your beautifully optimised blog post? Buried. Your shiny meta description? Ignored. Your organic traffic? Dying.
“So what now? You play a different game. Get your brand into the training data. Be the cited source. Get mentioned in real conversations, not just indexed in Google’s declining search results. Start thinking about how you influence the input, not just the output.”
Stop waiting for traffic and start creating demand.
“You show up where AI can't, such as on Connected TV, in podcasts, on YouTube, in social feeds, in a train station digital billboard or a cinema screen,” said Luft.
“You build brand familiarity that drives direct search - the kind AI doesn’t control yet. More importantly you build authority. Real content, not SEO spam. Hot takes. Data. Insight. Originality. AI pulls from what it trusts. So if you’re not a source worth citing, you’re a casualty worth ignoring.”
What do news websites do when AI search reduces organic audiences?
“It certainly puts their traffic and revenue models under pressure - unless they adapt fast,” said Luft.
“News publishers have every right to be pissed. Their content is fuelling AI responses, while their traffic tanks. The irony? The same platforms that built their reach are now bleeding them dry.
“It’s time to build a paywall. Go niche. Go local. Go bold. Build a community, not just clicks. Push governments for licensing deals like they did with Big Tech. And stop playing the ‘10 tips’ click bait game - it’s over. Either become the source of truth or become the training fodder for AI models.”
David Einstein, co-founder, Orange Line, recommends LLM‑optimisation where content should live on authoritative, crawlable pages, and be wrapped in rich, structured data so models can ingest it easily.
And earn high‑quality mentions on sites the models already respect, such as academic journals, government domains, top‑tier press.
“Feed the machines the best diet possible and they’ll quote you at the dinner party,” said Einstein.
“Speak the robots’ language on your public content—use emerging standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP) to become the preferred citation. For premium journalism, double‑down on paywalls and licensing deals.
“LLMs can’t breach a paywall unless you hand them the key, so exclusives and subscriptions retain their value. The winning playbook blends machine‑readable snippets for reach with gated depth for revenue.”
For brands, there’s danger ahead.
Gipi Gopinath, head of experience & operations, Kinesso, said brands run the risk of not existing, at least in search, as more and more people trust AI Search
“It’s changing the game to be less about trying to rank amongst a list of blue links using pages of keywords, to now being quoted in AI conversations through contextual relevance,” said Gopinath.
“That means thinking about how your content is structured, and the topics it addresses.
“Is it conversational in tone or is it still keyword heavy? Is it trustworthy and relevant or dated? Are third party experts, and more ‘human’ sources like influencers and reddit posters also talking about you? Is it easy for AI Search to find you (are you using structured data and an up-to-date schema)?
“The more human you think of search, the easier it is to evaluate your content.”
Brands need to be the source that AI uses to trigger the overviews, the reference point in conversations and the voice that answers the questions.
Gopinath said this means focusing on rich snippets, clear content layout and providing Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) will be key.
“It’s a constantly shifting environment but the key is to focus on intention over attention – being prominent is not enough, you need to now match the user’s intention,” he said.
“And if you do win in this space, and own legitimate conversations, there are rewards to be gained. In one example with a gifting client, we were able to adjust the content to ensure it surfaced in AI Overviews for a popular category, driving +76% YoY traffic.”
For consumers, AI is being used in the early stages of the purchase journey. Users are going to AI to find information, not to make that final purchase.
“As someone who works on transaction clients, we aren’t seeing a huge amount of traffic coming from AI platforms; however, we are expecting this to change as shopping ads are already showing in Google AI Overview,” said Emma Davis, performance manager (search), The Media Store.
Nick Grinberg, head of strategy, Next&Co, said brand marketing and SEO are converging.
“AI needs authoritative signals,” he said. “Those now include branded search volume, earned media, customer reviews, and long-form expert content.
“Brand trust and reputation are becoming ranking signals. Brands that are cited, mentioned, and linked consistently will start surfacing more in AI searches.
“Also, the ‘cost of being unclickable’ is rising. Zero click search results demand a revision of brands’ content strategy.”
Brands need to quantify their search category impact.
“Is it generic informational queries being cannibalised by AI answers, or is there erosion in high-intent product searches too?” Grinberg said.
“This will allow a brand to define which keyword themes are still coming from traditional search and which are coming from LLMs and then pivot your strategy accordingly.
“Create an AI search strategy - dubbed ‘generative engine optimisation’. There is significant cross-over between the fundamentals of SEO/GEO but there is need to pivot existing SEO strategies to ensure they cater to the way LLMs answer questions.
Grinberg believes the fundamentals of tracking success still apply.
“Brands need to connect AI visibility with real outcomes, such as awareness, traffic, conversions etc.” he said. “Measuring AI share of voice – that is, how often your brand is cited or referenced in AI-generated answers and featured snippets - should sit alongside your mission-critical digital KPIs.”
Hannah Mannion, SEO & website director, Yango, said an omnichannel approach is key, what is called “blended media” at Yango.
“This includes optimising for social channels as these are also being used as search engines,” she said.
“Marketers must diversify SEO strategies to include optimising for rich snippets, AI platforms, social media platforms, and generally building brand awareness using traditional? media. “Analyse where your brand’s target audiences are spending their time, and make sure you are optimising your content for those channels too, such as TikTok.
“News websites are starting to build direct connections with their audiences by focusing on their owned channels and investing in new formats, such as engaging apps, social media, and podcasts.”
For the first time more Australians are now getting their news via social media than traditional sources, according to the 2025 Digital News Report by tThe University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre.
“So this will be a huge focus going forward,” said Mannion. “They are also investing in immersive, niche content that AI can’t easily replicate, such as case studies and proprietary data.”
Tudor Stefanescu, head of owned shannels, The Pistol, said net traffic is down, putting pressure on digital marketers to deliver better results.
“One consequence is that SEO budgets are threatened, and a new approach to organic search is required,” said Stefanescu.
“Brands need to leverage topical authority to earn AI search mentions, leading to a contraction of desirable SEO outcomes—quality primes over quantity.
“Being cited by reputable sources is better than having a lot of noise from micropublishers. It’s an imperceptible shift where SEO strategy needs to veer off towards digital PR and smart content placements, to control the narrative on your website and via reputable LLM-preferred sources.
“Large publishers need to discuss direct licensing models in an attempt at new monetisation models.
“Paywalls mitigate the negative impact, as users and LLMs see a few paragraphs from the page content to prevent full-text scraping.
“The publishers' role is to leverage authority and trust over short-lived clicks, moving towards higher-value conversions, which should stabilise revenue despite the loss in visibility. The alternative is to embrace LLM ranking opportunities and optimise for AI agents, but this requires digital transformation, something most businesses may not be willing to do.
Tommy Glover, head of SEO, Magic, said brands can stay visible by optimising their content for both traditional search and AI-driven results.
“This means focusing on clear, authoritative, and well-structured content that both humans and AI can easily understand. Diversifying into other platforms like YouTube, social media, and forums also helps brands reach users beyond just Google search,” said Glover.
“News sites should focus on producing original, high-quality journalism that AI will want to cite in its answers. Building direct relationships with readers through newsletters, subscriptions, and community engagement is also key.
“While some organic traffic may decline, strong content and audience loyalty can help offset these changes.”
Dave Mooney, BCM’s head of planning/strategy, said people turn to search, whether AI driven or not, to answer their questions.
“Behind every question is intent,” he said. “The fundamentals of search success have always been finding relevance and matching intent.
“If brands can offer content or information that is relevant to the user’s question and match their level of intent, then they’ll have a pretty good chance of being surfaced.
“It comes down to delivering information and answers that offer value at every stage of the consumer journey. That is, developing content that answers questions surrounding intent, consideration and action.
“This has never changed, in the current context it means brands will need to deliver more of this kind of content at scale. With search engines and AI alike drawing from a multitude of sources, gone are the days of posting a blog, loading it with keywords and meta-data and crossing your fingers.
“Now brands need to create a network of interconnected content that enables users to find information in the channels that suit them best (TikTok, AI, Google, Instagram, YouTube etc.), which gives the algorithms a better chance of picking something up in a way that it can surface for the relevant query.”
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