Your buyers are no longer discovering your company through organic search results or clicking through to explore your capabilities. Instead, they’re getting comprehensive vendor evaluations directly from AI tools, completing their due diligence without ever visiting your site.
This represents a complete breakdown of traditional b2b inbound marketing. Where you once captured prospects through search visibility and nurtured them through educational content, buyers now arrive at your first conversation already informed about your capabilities, competitive positioning and technical specifications. And all this is happening in nuanced systems invisible to tracking.
The content you produce may be more influential than ever, but your website analytics aren’t revealing the full story. That doesn’t mean you’re lost in the wilderness – but while you’re figuring this out, your competitors may already be benefiting from the AI advantage.
It’s clear that success in this environment means boosting the visibility of your brand in the eyes of AI models. While so much is unknown about the rules of the AI playing field, there are a few strategic moves to help you compete.
So, let’s dive into what it takes to nail AI brand visibility.
When traffic doesn’t tell the (full) story
Your buyers may not be clicking through to your website the same way they used to, but that doesn’t mean your brand isn’t in their line of sight.
Without ever leaving their search interface, your buyers can get their queries answered by Google’s AI overviews, ask ChatGPT for detailed product comparisons, and prompt Perplexity to provide comprehensive research summaries. You may have already noticed an increase in referral traffic from these platforms, but most companies aren’t measuring what matters, missing critical opportunities to capitalise on the shift!
This is what SEO experts call ‘The Great Decoupling’ – the separation of brand influence from website traffic. Your technical expertise may be driving more purchasing decisions than ever, while your marketing dashboard shows month-on-month declines in organic traffic. Traditional SEO metrics are measuring the wrong success indicators for these new buyer journeys.
Prospects are no longer flowing from the top of your sales funnel and allowing themselves to be nurtured through to the bottom of your funnel. Instead, they may be entering through the middle or even at the bottom of your funnel, pre-qualified by AI brand encounters that happen entirely off your owned channels.
They’re still taking notice of you, but you’re not able to track their interactions. So, if your website traffic is scanty, it may not be as large of a concern as long as you’re…
Building brand authority that AI systems recognise
Your brand authority is only as strong as AI perceives it to be. That means SEO best practices alone don’t cut it anymore. Your whitepapers, case studies and thought leadership must be structured for AI comprehension while maintaining technical accuracy and regulatory compliance.
What all AI platforms have in common is a predilection for high-quality content from brands that have done the legwork to establish themselves as an authority in the market. This means leveraging your decades of industry experience, certifications and successful projects as proof points that AI systems can reference.
Create a dedicated "About [Company Name]" section that reads like an encyclopedia entry. Include founding date, key milestones, leadership team backgrounds, and notable achievements in a structured format. AI systems often pull from these authoritative company descriptions.
Build topic clusters around your core areas of expertise. Create pillar pages for major service areas, then support them with detailed sub-pages that answer specific questions. Use breadcrumb navigation to show the relationship between topics.
However, no two AI tools are built alike. Each AI model processes content differently, and current research offers specific strategies:
- ChatGPT favours legacy companies, so don't be afraid to show your experience. Highlight your company's founding date, previous partnerships and long-term client relationships. Testimonials are also key, and carry significant weight in generated responses.
- Perplexity likes when you leverage your niche b2b knowledge and values citations over backlinks. Consider how you can publish your research and insights in industry publications and get cited as a source by others in your space!
- Claude rewards clear, structured technical content. As much as you can, use consistent formatting, clear headings and precise language that AI can easily parse and reference.
- Gemini is tied to Google SEO best practices, so it sticks to what it knows best.
Optimising content structure for AI comprehension
AI allows your prospects to be more human when they search, which means ranking for that golden keyword doesn’t necessarily mean more clicks for your website. Your prospects are being more blunt with their queries; they trust more and more that AI systems will deliver the information they need.
Start with content structure that AI systems can easily parse and reference. Use clear, declarative sentences instead of complex paragraphs. Structure your content with consistent H2/H3 headers that answer specific questions: "How does [your solution] reduce operational costs?" rather than vague titles like "Our Approach." Create FAQ sections that mirror the natural language queries your prospects use.
Implement entity markup and structured data across your site. Use JSON-LD schema for company facts, leadership bios, and service descriptions. This provides AI systems with the structured information they need to accurately reference your company. Include consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data and mark up key business entities like certifications, awards, and founder information.
Develop a comprehensive "Resources" or "Knowledge Base" section with consistent formatting. Use the same header structure, bullet point style, and data presentation across all content. This helps AI systems consistently understand and reference your expertise.
Save nuanced content that handles complexities for proprietary content that lives on your website. Housing valuable information that's worth your prospects' clicks will do more to support your website traffic numbers.
Leverage earned media for AI visibility
Recent reports reveal that your website can’t carry the weight of brand visibility on its shoulders – 62% of AI brand visibility comes from earned media rather than owned content.
Building a network of mentions that push your b2b brand’s authority through industry publications, speaking opportunities, and industry-leading sources improves your chances of success. Citations, interviews, and reviews are just as valuable as your backlinks for AI models that use third-party validation as a badge of authority.
Focus on creating citation-worthy content. Publish original research with quotable statistics that journalists and analysts can reference. Develop proprietary frameworks or methodologies you can trademark. Use platforms like Qwoted to connect with journalists seeking expert sources in your industry.
Partner strategically with industry analysts and research firms. Co-create content with complementary companies in your space. Guest-write for trade publications, ensuring your company is cited as the source for any proprietary data or insights you share.
Anything you add to your digital presence adds to the pool of information these platforms reference when your prospect says the word. So, make your stance clear with straightforward, to-the-point insights and value propositions.
Measuring success in an AI-first world
Traditional SEO metrics are measuring the wrong success indicators for these new buyer journeys. Here's what to track instead:
- Monitor brand mentions across the web using tools like Brand24 - while you can't track what AI says directly, you can monitor the source content that AI systems likely reference when discussing your brand.
- Track "zero-click" brand searches in Google Search Console – these indicate prospects are researching your company directly after AI encounters.
- Monitor referral traffic from AI platforms in Google Analytics (when it does occur), but focus more on patterns: sudden spikes in direct traffic, increases in branded search volume, and changes in lead quality rather than traditional attribution models.
- Track conversation quality metrics: Are prospects coming to sales calls more informed? Are they asking more sophisticated questions? Are deal cycles shortening because they're pre-qualified by AI research?
You can’t fake AI chemistry
Given the speed with which AI is changing the game, there’s no singular path to success. But if there’s one thing we know as marketers, it’s how to improvise, adapt, and overcome.
Optimising for the new doesn’t mean abandoning your strategy framework.
Remember:
- Restructure existing content for AI comprehension - Use clear headings, structured data and definitive statements that work better than nuanced discussions.
- Technical authority drives AI visibility - The deep expertise that establishes thought leadership now determines AI citation frequency.
- Earned media amplifies owned content - Your industry partnerships and collaborative research multiply your AI presence beyond what any single company can achieve alone.
If you’re frustrated by slow progress and overwhelmed by how much is unknown about the brave new world of AI, we’re here for you. Let’s redefine your success in the land of AI discovery together – book a strategy call today.
Brand chemistry is a b2b content marketing agency that turns your brand’s narrative into an irresistible lead magnet. Our strategic alchemy transforms content into a powerful growth engine.