Don't Panic About AI Search, It's Good for SEO (& Great for PR)

Search is in a crazy place right now. Clicks and traffic are through the floor. Tried and tested SEO and digital PR strategies are out the window. AI has changed everything, and the industry is in full-on panic mode.

But honestly, I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone’s making out. If anything it’s pretty exciting. Especially for those of us working in PR. Here’s why.

• Search is changing. AI is (and to an extent already has) transformed how people look for information. So our industry needs to adapt. Fast.
• For publishers, it’s bad news. People can now read their content without visiting their website. So they’re having to shift to other channels away from search. Although new innovations (like ProRata) could offer a way forward.
• And it’s also bad news if you’re a dodgy SEO. Are you selling AI-generated content and poor-quality links? If so, it’s time to make a change. Any self-respecting business shouldn’t have been using your services in the first place, but now there’s absolutely no justification for doing so. Clicks and traffic are dying, so your business model will only become less and less effective. Which is actually really positive for everyone else.
• But if you’re a search marketer, it’s not bad at all. I’d actually say it’s quite exciting. It’s an opportunity to learn, innovate and be genuinely creative again.
• And if you’re a PR, it’s even better. AI search relies on trusted, relevant sources that have a strong, authoritative reputation. Meaning? They rely on exactly what PR delivers. It’s (finally) time for the PR industry to take centre stage.

I’ll keep this brief, as you’ve probably heard it a thousand times. AI has transformed search in a HUGE way. Probably the biggest shift since Google launched. It’s changed how people look for information, how people look for products. Even how people think. So understandably, the SEO industry is panicking.

New platforms, new algorithms, new demands. Clicks and traffic are dying – with visibility and awareness taking their place. Publishers are being decimated (which is an equally important topic that we’ll explore in a future piece). And there’s less of a focus on being visible on Google, more of a focus on being visible everywhere.

In short, the status quo in search has been shattered.

Not well. It feels like my LinkedIn feed is a never-ending stream of new acronyms (shock), sweeping statements and unnecessary arguments. Is still SEO? Or is it GEO? Or AIO, or even AEO? The chatter never ends. AndI’m a bit bored of it all.

Does it really matter what we call it? Do we really need to argue about it? It feels like some of the search community spend more time discussing ‘what SEO is’ than they spend actually doing it.

Yes, we need to adapt. Yes, our whole approach to search needs to change. But at the end of the day, the end goal is exactly the same: we need to ensure our brands are visible wherever our audiences are searching. So rather than argue about it, let’s get excited. It’s an opportunity to innovate, an opportunity to think like marketers again. And it’s an opportunity for PR to take more of the limelight.

It means SEOs need to adapt. Because the tactics that have worked for years are going out the window. And honestly, I think that’s a really good thing.

While there are some incredible people working in SEO, there are plenty of not-so-great people too. These are the people who give SEO a bad name. They use dodgy black-hat techniques, buy dodgy links, write dodgy AI-generated content. Basically, they’re just dodgy.

And while this enormous shift in search is impacting everyone, it’s impacting these guys the most. Their questionable tactics simply won’t work anymore. No more awful AI-generated blogs. No more poor-quality, paid link building. No more pointless reporting focused purely on vanity metrics.

Yes, I’m sure they’ll find new ways of cheating the system. But *hopefully* it won’t be anything like the scale of dodginess we’ve seen over the past few years. And *hopefully* that will improve the quality of the wider web.

What about the good SEOs? They’ll be impacted in a big way too. But they are innovators. They are problem solvers. They are marketers. So they’ll adapt to the new status quo. And they’ll ultimately thrive in it.

It’s a massive opportunity for PR.

Where Google was originally built on links, AI search is built on language. Large language models, vector embeddings, semantic similarity… AI works by analysing relevant language cited in reputable sources. And funnily enough, this is exactly what PR (/digital PR) can deliver.

Imagine you work for a pub in Cheltenham. You want to rank for AI prompts like “what are the best pubs in Cheltenham”. If you’re the only person saying your pub is great, you probably won’t get recommended. Which makes perfect sense. Because how can it trust that you really are the best?  You’re hardly impartial.

But what if lots of well-respected publishers, influencers and reviewers say you’re the best pub in Cheltenham? Then there’s a very good chance that AI search will recommend you too. Which also makes perfect sense, because there’s plenty of evidence to back it up.

I think the LinkedIn post below from Ryan Jones sums it up perfectly.

So all in all, this is an incredibly exciting time for the PR and digital PR industry and for those who use it. Reputation and relevance are our bread and butter. They’re what we do. We control how brands are perceived, the language that’s used to describe them. We engage audiences, influence sentiment and build brands in the places that matter.

For some, PR has historically been (wrongly) seen as a ‘nice-to-have’. The impacts of our work are sometimes harder to measure than other channels, so some people just didn’t bother. But this shift in search changes all of that. PR is now being recognised widely for what it’s always been: an essential tool in every marketer’s toolkit.

Is brand visibility in Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews crucial for reaching your audience? You need PR.

Is being featured in podcasts crucial for reaching your audience? You need PR.

Is being recommended by industry influencers crucial for reaching your audience? You need PR.

Wherever your brand needs to be visible, there’s a good chance that PR could get you there.

Do you need to improve your brand’s visibility in this new era of search? We can help. Get in touch with susannah@energypr.co.uk to find out how.