It’s hard to believe it’s only been 3 years since DBE was one of the first agencies to recognize the marketing opportunities inherent in Search AI Optimization (SAIO) and publish a framework for brands to leverage them.

There have been many changes since then in the form of new AI search engines, new AI search capabilities, new AI search tools, and (of course) new AI search acronyms (AIO, AEO, GEO).

What hasn’t changed, and what is now generally accepted within the search industry, are the 4 core strategic elements we introduced as a formula to gain AI search visibility and citations: Technical, On-Website Content, Off-Website Content, and Analytics.

And, while the strategic core remains, the tactics used to deliver AI success across these 4 pillars have evolved. So here is DBE’s 2026 Framework for AI Brand Visibility and Citations:

Recently, I’ve been questioning the role and capabilities of AI in various marketing- and content-related situations. So, I asked Perplexity those questions and am sharing the answers:

AI & Departmental Silo Mentality

In a post about the still ongoing issue of “silo mentality” betwixt and between company departments including sales, marketing, finance, etc., the question was “Will  AI technology help hasten organizational strategic alignment or create new kinds of tactical silos?” Here are highlights of Perplexity’s answer:

• “AI can do both—and which dominates depends almost entirely on how it’s introduced and governed.”

• “Evidence across research and practice converges on a conditional answer: AI accelerates whatever alignment (or misalignment) you already have.”

• Perplexity then noted one of the key determinants of AI success in terms of helping breakdown silos is a strategy-before-AI approach: “Strategy → AI, not AI → strategy”.
  

The bold emphases are Perplexity’s, but they are noteworthy — especially the realization that AI is a tactical tool that builds off the strategic inputs (and biases) of the users.

AI & Brand Differentiation

The ongoing need for marketers to create differentiation and relevance for their brand raised this question: “How would you respond to this statement regarding the differentiation dilemma marketers face: ‘the biggest issue with AI-generated content isn’t accuracy. It’s sameness.’” The Perplexity reply included these nuggets:

• “I’d respond by partly agreeing—but reframing it for marketers: Samenness [Perplexity’s misspelling] is the strategic issue with AI content, but it’s not the only one—and it’s not really a technology problem so much as a marketing one.”

• “You’re right that the deeper problem with AI in marketing isn’t ‘will it hallucinate?’—we can largely manage that. The real threat is that if we use it lazily, it drags our brand voice toward the industry average and makes us invisible. Our job isn’t to stop using AI; it’s to make sure the models are trained, prompted, and edited around our distinctive POV, data, and voice so we scale originality—not sameness.”
  

Perplexity agrees that sameness is a strategic issue with AI content, but it is putting the onus on marketers to provide it with the right prompts and training to avoid it. It’s odd hearing the GIGO (“garbage in, garbage out”) defense from AI. Oh, and the statement that “we can largely manage that” (i.e., hallucination”) is coming after the “samenness” typo?

AI & Creating Duplicative Content

On a lighter note, our post about the “Infinite Monkey Theorem” being updated to the “Infinite AI Theorum” asked: “Can AI bots be prompted in a way that will lead to an exact replication of a play like Shakespeare’s Hamlet?” Perplexity’s answer included:

• “No, not in any legitimate or allowed way—and in practice, not reliably even if you tried to ‘force it.’” 

• “In theory, if someone trained or fine‑tuned a private model directly on Hamlet with no safety filters and then prompted it cleverly, they might get very close to or even exactly reproduce the play.”

• “That’s less ‘prompt magic’ and more ‘I trained a model with the goal of memorizing Hamlet and allowed it to regurgitate it,’ which is exactly the type of misuse current providers try to prevent.”

It is good to know there are some AI guardrails, and it appears Shakespeare’s works are safe from both monkeys and AI bots — at least for now.

Nat: When AI citations and clicks are coveted and search engine rankings are constantly fluctuating, what do you need to know to keep your site optimized? From new acronyms to helpful tools to AI opt-out options, Marc Engelsman, our VP of SEO and SAIO at DBE, shared some major tips on LinkedIn, and we’re here to dive deeper to help you stay up to date. Hi Marc!

Marc: Hi Nat, what questions do you have for me?

Building Online Brand Authority

Nat: There was a post you did comparing “building a brand” to Build-a-Bear. Your website is the skin of your bear. You can dress it up however you want, but you need the proper optimization or “stuffing” inside it. Can you explain the elements to which you are referring and how people can start optimizing for them?

Marc: First, let me be clear, when we talk about proper optimization stuffing, it’s very much not about keyword stuffing. It’s all about getting keyword alignment throughout your page from top down – the URL, the Page Title, the meta description, the H1 tag, the content, and the alt tags. If you get all these done “just right” (as Goldilocks would say), then you will have built a well-optimized bear of a website.

Benchmarking SEO Data

Nat: Speaking of bears, you talked about being smarter than the average bear (a Yogi Bear cartoon reference) through benchmarking your own SEO data instead of comparing solely to industry averages. When do you recommend benchmarking the data, and which metrics should you focus on?

Marc: First you need to do an audit of what metrics are already available. Are you currently using GA4 or some other platform that provides website traffic data by channel/source? Have you identified Key Events aligned with the customer journey through to acquisition? Do you have an average value for a new customer that can be used to determine Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS for Paid Search) or Return on Investment for other channels like SEO? Have you already been doing SEO or SAIO and, if so, can you share past keywords/ranking data? If you have all this, you already have a good benchmarked data set. If you don’t you need to quickly fill in the gaps so you have a basis for creating your new SEO/SAIO strategy and for benchmarking it.

AI Feature Opt-Out Debate

Nat: AI opt-out features are available to website publishers and users. Both have benefits and pitfalls, but if one does not subscribe to AI opt-in features, the connection between publisher and user may not be made. What considerations should publishers and users mull over when making the decision?

Marc: It’s pretty simple. If you are a publisher and you opt-out of having AI bots crawl your site due to copyright concerns, you sacrifice visibility and authority for your website. If you are a user who opts out of allowing AI bots to “personalize” results based on your previous history, you sacrifice getting better results to your queries. Even if only the publisher or only the user opts out, then both may suffer less-than-optimal AI visibility.

AI Optimization Acronyms

Nat: AIO, SAIO, GEO, AEO… Search AI Optimization has many names, but we’ve been pointing out in our newsletter, Perceptive Marketer, (subscribe below) that the tactics are mostly aligned between acronyms. When a company is hiring an agency with these service offerings, what questions should they be asking?

Marc: I’m going to give you three related questions for both the hiring company and the prospect agency.

• First question from the company: How do you approach optimizing for traditional search engines and for AI platforms?
• First question from the agency: Do you see SEO and the fill-in-the-blank-acronym you use for SAIO as an integrated strategy or do you want to optimize for each as a separate channel?
• Second question from the company: What makes your approach to SEO/SAIO different from what other agencies are doing?
• Second question from the agency: Has your organization done SEO and SAIO work before? If so or if not, what’s prompting you to talk with us now?
• Third question from the company: How do you price your services?
• Third question from the agency: Do you already have a budget for this work? If not, what is your process and timeline for getting budget approval?

Answers to these questions will help companies and agencies assess how best to move forward with each other.

New Google ROAS Tool

Nat: Google Ads rolled out a Return-On-Ad-Spend-based tool to let advertisers calculate conversion value for new customers. You mentioned a potential new setting that could be a helpful feature. Can you explain what it was and the meaning behind it?

Marc: LTV stands for Life-Time Value and I was suggesting that a conversion setting that includes LTV would provide an even better way to look at the payoff of a new customer acquisition. Granted, LTV is not always the easiest thing for companies to assess, but we always ask about it during our Discovery and Benchmarking phase of work; and will work with companies to come up with at least a conservative estimation for reporting purposes.

Organic SERP & AI Citation URL Overlap Rates

Nat: The SEO tool, Moz, compared the URLs that show for Google organic search (AKA SERPs), AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Research on 40,000 keyword searches/queries across these platforms shows AI Overviews citations have an 88% overlap with Top 10 SERPs. AI Mode citations only have a 12% overlap with Top 10 SERPs. Why is there such a disparity between AI Mode citations and the organic SERP URLs?

Marc: AI Mode isn’t just searching for the specified keyword query – it’s building off the keyword to conduct broader, more topical “fan-out queries” to formulate responses. So, it’s not apples to apples in terms of keyword comparisons… more like apples to MacIntosh apples and Granny apples and Gala apples, etc. or maybe even apples to pears.

Nat: With that in mind, what does that mean for optimizing your website? Should we be doing anything different for AI Mode optimization?

Marc: It appears we can teach the new AI Overviews dog with relatively old, but proven, SEO “tricks” like tags and content alignment around target keywords on individual pages. As for AI Mode, the question is how much effort should be made to gain more visibility in AI Mode (that has less user volume than the other two)? My thought, at least until we have more data that suggests otherwise, is don’t let the AI Mode long-tail wag your SEO/SAIO strategy dog.

The Future of SEO Strategy in 2026

Nat: Keep appraised of new musings from Marc through DBE’s LinkedIn and our Perceptive Marketer newsletter. Is there anything you want to leave us with, Marc?

Marc: Stay tuned as all things SEO and SAIO are moving faster and faster. Are there any tips you would give, Nat?

Nat: I would say to use AI as a member of your content creation team. It shouldn’t be a one-bot show. Yes, it can help in aspects of the process like brainstorming or outlining, but people yearn for authenticity, originality, and connection. So, keeping humans as an integral part of the content creation process (like editing and writing) is crucial for developing higher performing content. Just be sure you keep SEO and SAIO best practices in mind as you craft it! Happy optimizing!

Marc: Happy optimizing indeed!

“TikTok made me buy it.”

“I found it on Reels.”

When you ask your buddy where they got that portable blender, you might expect one of the replies above. Whether found in their feed or through a quick search, your friend was connected with products/brands that resonated with them. As a brand, cracking this code of algorithmic visibility is dependent on two things:

1. People genuinely enjoying your content (watching, sharing, engaging, etc.)
2. Algorithms understanding what your post is about (AKA social SEO)

Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X have also morphed into search engines with billions of their own daily searches. Ignoring SEO for your social media means losing visibility, authority building opportunities, and audience reach.

We’ll cover the whys and the hows of social media SEO, so you can stay at the top of the feed and social search results. Skip to a section if that suits your fancy:

Why Does Social SEO Matter in 2026?

We’ve known for years that search engines use social signals (mentions, engagement, cross-platform presence) as authority indicators, boosting discoverability. Now, we’re finding AI models are leveraging social signals for their citations.

Optimized social profiles with consistent branding, keywords, and strategic links also generate referral traffic and trust signals.

There is also urgency. As in content creator educator Modern Mille’s 2026 social media trends video, she predicted the rise of algorithm resets based on the Instagram recommendations reset and TikTok For You feed reset features. An algorithm reset means your posts will have to work harder to be recommended in feeds and search results. Whether or not more social platforms offer resets, you still need your posts and account to act like a labeled folder on your laptop or a filing cabinet (whichever metaphor you prefer). Social SEO gives your post/account a clear label so the algorithm can show your content to interested users.

How Do You Implement Social SEO?

Believe it or not, implementing social SEO can be simple ((with the right know-how and tools)). When a concept for a post is conceived, relevant keywords should also be taken into account. Free tools like Google Keyword Planner and Microsoft Keyword Planner can help you gauge popularity via average search volume. AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity can help you brainstorm keyword variations. Also, be sure to do a quick search of that keyword in the respective social platforms to see what comes up. You want to make sure that keywords are being used with the right connotation/context.

Now that you have targeted your one or two very closely related keywords (i.e., tips for singers, singing tips), you want to include them in the following parts of your post. Make sure the keyword mentions are natural and not forced. (Keyword stuffing will not fool anyone.):

• Profile Bio/About: Make sure your profile includes the top keywords that describe the content and account overall. These 1-2 keywords will most likely be broader than the keywords on your posts as it needs to cover your overall content. It needs to be mentioned naturally without seeming forced.

• Caption: Mention your keyword 1-2 times in your post caption with the first mention in the beginning. Again, you want to keep your caption natural, so include the keyword where it is relevant. No one wants to read a caption like (*clears throat*) “My grey hiking beanie is my favorite part of my closet. I love to wear my grey hiking beanie when I hike because my grey hiking beanie is fun.” The rules of good content creation always apply. Social SEO is an added sprinkle on top.

• Hashtags: Hashtags were once used to categorize content, but algorithms are much smarter now, categorizing content on their own. Whether you still believe in them, they are still being used in some cases (discover those hashtag use cases here). If you do use hashtags, keep it minimal for all platforms and include the target keywords in the list!

• Alt Text: Not only an accessibility standard, alt text can also be used for social media SEO. Some social scheduling platforms (like Sprout Social and Hootsuite) allow you to do this in the scheduling process. If you don’t use those, you can find the alt text setting in the actual social platforms, as well. Be cautious of staying relevant though. You should describe what is in the image in or under the platform character limit.

• Title: Some platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn allow you to title videos (YouTube & LinkedIn) and carousel documents (LinkedIn only). Include your top keyword here as well!

• Links: If you are including a link, make sure the webpage is also optimized for the keyword in your post, this will further cement your brand’s authority across the web.

• Want more on YouTube SEO? We have a whole section on that!

Here are a few more hot tips for you:

• TikTok can parse on-screen text, audio, and spoken words, so be sure to integrate your keyword in your video scripts.
• X hates excessive hashtag usage. Just don’t do it.
• Stay consistent with messaging across platforms to reinforce your brand authority.
• When repurposing content for multiple social platforms, you may need to slightly vary your optimization strategy based on the available areas to optimize. I.e., on LinkedIn, you can add a title to your carousel document, but Instagram does not allow that (as of now).

How Do You Implement YouTube SEO Optimization?

Ah, welcome to our YouTube SEO section. You see YouTube videos embedded into Google search results and used in citations on AI platforms, so it’s a great place to build visibility. The TubeBuddy Chrome extension is a great place to do competitive YouTube keyword research.

Like all social platforms, your content quality matters, but social SEO helps people find good content. YouTube’s structure for videos provides more opportunities for keyword optimization beyond the bio and hashtags components mentioned above. Here are the optimizable elements to provide consistent alignment for your target keyword(s):

• YouTube Title: Diving further into this, yes, you should include your keyword in the title as naturally as possible, BUT the title still needs to be catchy. (Watch this awesome video on creating better YouTube Titles to learn more.)

• Description: Write the target keyword into the description ~1-2 times, with the first mention at the beginning (again, be natural). Include the URL to the keyword-optimized page, as well. We recommend adding subscription information in the description of each video. If it makes sense, include timestamps/video chapters on important parts of the video. You need at least 3 timestamps for them to work in the description.

• Keyword Tags: We recommend ~5-8 keyword tags per video.

• Video File Name: THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE YOUTUBE TITLE. Users do not see the file name, but algorithms do and it can only be changed when uploading a new video to YouTube. DON’T remove previous videos, simply just be conscious of naming new video files with your target keyword.

• Relevant Categories: If not done already, make sure your account is in relevant Categories. Easy instructions are in this YouTube Short.

• Video Transcript: Most platforms will autogenerate these for you. Be sure your keyword is mentioned multiple times in your script. The option to upload your own transcript is available for brands that are not trusting of the auto-generated transcripts.

How Do You Measure Social SEO Impact?

Track the performance of your new SEO-optimized posts through your normal social KPIs and measure visibility (impressions/reach) over time. Then, every 3-6 months, perform a social SEO audit to ensure links, profiles, and metadata are aligned with brand goals.

Remember that social SEO helps with post/profile findability, but great content makes people stay. Explore the ways to give your audience value, entertain them, or both!

Happy optimizing!

How’s this for a click-bait headline? “Google Analytics is lying about your organic traffic and it’s been doing it for ages.” We bit and clicked as, after all, it is germane to our core business. 

The reported lie is that your Organic Search traffic is under-reported in Google Analytics due to attribution issues that result in Organic traffic being miscategorized as Direct traffic. 

Duh! 

We’ve always noted the likelihood of SEO analytics and traffic being under-reported. Not just due to the Direct traffic issue mentioned above. It also happens when Organic traffic becomes Unassigned traffic when the visitor ignores or does not agree to your website’s consent requests.

So, yes, Google Analytics is hiding some of the extra website traffic driven by your SEO efforts.

On the plus side, Google Analytics can also reveal the extra value of Organic Search traffic; the value of the quality of Organic Search traffic that extends beyond the quantity.

One example of the added value of Organic Search traffic is the “pre-qualified” nature of those visits. The journey started with someone posing a query expressing the information they were seeking. Then, they selected your website from the many options delivered on the Search Engine Results Page as the one providing the likely answer. 

This pre-qualification increases the likelihood of conversion. You can see this value by comparing the engagement and conversion rates of Organic Search traffic with other channels driving traffic to your website as reported via Google Analytics. You can also drill down to the Conversion Attribution Paths Report in GA4 to see how many touches Organic Search had along the visitors’ paths to conversion.

Go ahead and look for the hidden value SEO brings to your website in terms of traffic quantity and quality. We think you’ll be surprised to see how much more your SEO strategy is worth. 

When we launched our AI optimization strategy over 2½ years ago, the search engine industry was struggling with what to call this newfangled thing. It didn’t help that the new AI platforms kept changing how they referred to themselves.

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) led some to talk about Generative Experience Optimization (GEO) which also led to GEO gaining traction for Generative Engine Optimization. But then, after over a year of being in testing mode, Google launched SGE with a new name – AI Overviews – and the AIO acronym for AI Optimization gained some traction. 

Then there was some push back on using AIO as a generic acronym that was tied to Google. Answer Engine Optimization – or AEO – got some favor as it expanded beyond the Google connection.

Two and a half years and we still don’t have industry consensus on what to call optimizing for AI engine citations. Neither GEO, AEO, AIO, nor DBE’s original coinage, SAIO.

We went with SAIO – Search AI Optimization – from the start for a couple reasons. 

1. We foresaw the impact these AI models would have on traditional search behavior. 
2. We developed our AI search optimization best practices as an extension of our SEO services. We preferred to keep the “S is for Search” value first.

Regardless of the name kerfuffle, the search community is increasingly aligning on one thing we’ve said from the beginning and have proven over time: AI optimization best practices are interconnected with SEO best practices.

Perhaps Rand Fishkin was right when he said maybe the collective industry “we” shouldn’t worry about what acronym we use for AI optimization and simply say we do SEO for AI. The idea being optimizing for AI is a subset of SEO which is a subset of digital inbound marketing. 

We at DBE are okay with that. We’re okay if you or company prefers AEO, AIO, GEO, SAIO, or something else. 

After all, it’s not the name that drives the success. 

Two questions on digital marketers’ minds these days are:

• “What is the impact of AI platforms on my organic search and paid search success metrics?”
• “What metrics should I be focused on to show digital marketing success moving forward?”

Let’s break it down and offer some answers.

What were the core SEO and Paid Search metrics before the AI era?

Historically, SEO success was tracked using keyword rankings, organic traffic, click-through rates (CTR), bounce rates, conversions (as possible), backlinks, and indexed pages.

Paid Search focused on impressions, CTR, cost-per-click (CPC), conversions, quality score, and impression share.

These metrics were rooted in how and where pages/ads appeared in traditional search engine results pages (SERPs), and how often these impressions were clicked relative to their exposure. ​

Why are these metrics less relevant in today’s AI-inclusive landscape?

• From an SEO perspective, the traditional SERP layout has changed. Google long ago shifted priority to the appearance of paid ads and other search features to the top of the page, pushing the natural search results down (and often below the fold on a mobile phone). Not only does the inclusion of Google AI Overviews content further this downward push of natural positions, its direct, conservational answers have reduced or zero-ed out organic and paid search clicks and CTR. ​
• Another issue facing Paid Search is Google’s double-serving policy shift earlier this year. This means an advertiser’s ad may appear in multiple positions in the same auction. The result is increased impression counts without driving a comparable rise in clicks. The impact of declining CTRs and diluted impression share are making these old benchmarks unreliable.

How else are AI chatbots and generative search agents (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, etc.) changing search performance measurement?

• AI search and chatbots tend to “summarize” their answers from a variety of sources that often do not include direct brand citations with links. In some cases, brands are actually competing for visibility with their product distributors or being cited with competitors based on competitive reviews on publisher websites.

• The traditional digital customer journey has been upended as AI-focused search results and AI chatbots are gaining traction as key steps in the brand discovery and research phases. While there is growing evidence that people are not leveraging AI platforms as their only search vehicle, we now have a chicken/egg attribution challenge as to where, when, or even, if a click or conversion was impacted.

What are the important metrics for search marketers moving forward?

• Conversions and Conversion Value: We’re still going to track traditional metrics like clicks, CTR, etc. as they are good signals of optimization gains and opportunities for improvement. However, the most important success metrics in this AI era should be overall Conversions and Conversion Value that can be used to determine ROI. This is why Conversion Goal Setting is a critical part of our client onboarding Discovery Phase.

• Brand Authority and Visibility: Authoritativeness is one of Google’s E-E-A-T core ranking/relevancy guidelines. Authority is also widely viewed as a significant factor behind brand citations/links. We track Moz Authority scores to demonstrate improvement over time. We also track Target Keyword Visibility through Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) over time as indication of optimization success. Impressions can also be used as an indicator here.

• Competitive Presence and Advantage: One of the great things about digital marketing is you can track and compare competitive authority and visibility to demonstrate success. Even paid search offers Auction Insights to show your share of voice vs. competitors.​

Final Thoughts

In today’s digital landscape, the most valuable question on search metrics is no longer “How many clicks or impressions did I get?” Instead, marketers must now focus on “How visible and trusted is my brand before a click ever happens?” To thrive, embrace search measurement frameworks that prioritize conversions, brand perception, and competitive positioning that are consistent with search and consumer journeys as they evolve in the AI era.

Can you believe we’ve reached the end of the 3rd Quarter 2025? January seems both long ago and yesterday at the same time, especially in the ever-changing world of SEO/SAIO.

Here’s a month-by-month recap of some of the industry’s key news stories as covered in our Perspective Marketer newsletter with our perspective on how the impact of the story has changed over the course of the year:

January

Are People Clicking Links In ChatGPT Search? Brands Say Yes. The sub-head summary was: “Brands report anecdotal evidence that users are clicking links in ChatGPT and Google Gemini search results, driving traffic and sales.” What’s changed since then:

• There is now definitive analytical evidence that people are using AI engines and clicking on links as part of their purchase journey. In fact, we call ChatGPT the “Google” of AI search in terms of the percentage volume of clicks it delivers to websites.

• We’ve learned ChatGPT is using Google rankings as part of their algorithm for including link citations (see August below).

• We liked that ChatGPT had a search mode but the interface no longer supports that mode with a clickable button. In many cases you now have to prompt ChatGPT to provide its citations and links via prompts.

February

DeepSeek Now In Perplexity’s AI Search—U.S. AI Dominance Challenged. This story suggested Perplexity’s adoption of DeepSeek’s “innovative R1 reasoning model” solidified Perplexity as a leader in AI-powered technology. What’s changed since then:

• DeepSeek itself has not become a SAIO target for optimization as a stand-alone AI platform, and Perplexity is nowhere close to dominating the AI search space. According to Perplexity’s link citations, Perplexity has an estimated 22-30 million monthly users while ChatGPT has 782-838 million estimated monthly users. We are seeing corresponding disparities between ChatGPT and Perplexity in terms of the sessions and conversions data being captured in GA4. That said, we still believe Perplexity is an important independent AI search platform.

March

Google begins testing AI Mode while rolling out Gemini 2.0 AI Overviews. AI Mode was only available in Search Labs. It appeared to be Google’s response to DeepSeek “thinking” as a way to go deeper in your searching in ways that AI Overviews did not. With respect to a question posed in the article about Search Console filtering AI queries and data separately from Organic Search data, Google said “We currently don’t have anything to share about the reporting tools for this experiment, but will let you know if that changes.” What’s changed since then:

• Google opened AI Mode to all users in May – much faster than it took them to get AI Overviews out of the lab. According to Perplexity’s link citations, AI Mode is estimated to have 100 million monthly users.

• What hasn’t changed – Google Search Console is still not filtering AI Mode or AI Overviews usage data. It’s all wrapped up with the organic search data which has some in our industry speculating about what Google may be hiding.

April

Google officially rolls out links in AI Overviews to its own search results. Yes, it’s worth repeating, Google AI Overviews started including links back to its own search results. This further fueled industry speculation about the motive for this “enhancement.” Some saw it as an effort to monetize AI Overviews by moving searchers back to the traditional platform that includes ads. What’s changed since then:

• AI Overviews still includes links to Google search engine results pages. There is now discussion that in addition to the monetization aspect, Google is trying to bolster the losses of search referral clicks due to the zero-click aspect of AI Overviews results (an issue we also discussed in Perceptive Marketer in April).

May

Turn chats into checkouts. ChatGPT Shopping Search announced a pending feature that allows merchants to submit product feeds to allow Instant Checkouts with a sign-up waiting list. This feature will put ChatGPT more in direct competition with Google and Amazon shopping features. What’s changed since then:

• ChatGPT Shopping Search launched in September. Details on purchase volume are not yet available but consider that an estimated 60% of shoppers use AI recommendations for product searches.

June

90% of AI search traffic comes from desktop: Report. Surprised? We were, too, but there were reasonable technology issues with mobile (e.g., lag times in results displays and click functionality in AI apps) that affected referral clicks. What’s changed since then:

• Another surprise – not much has changed. Seems people who are using AI to research topics and/or create content are more likely to want to use desktop over mobile.

July

Explaining The Great De-Coupling To C-Level. Remember that story in March about AI Overviews impacting Google’s traditional search click-throughs? This story explains how AI Overviews and AI Mode data are dramatically increasing search Impressions in Google Search Console reporting but the Click-Through Rate is dramatically dropping which in turn translates to a drop in reported Organic Search Clicks. In fact, if your website shows up in both AI Overviews and traditional search results, Search Console will capture that as two Impressions when the likelihood is you will only Click on one of those Impressions. What’s changed since then:

• There has been growing discussion about what success looks like in SEO/SAIO. Should we just be counting Impressions as a sign of brand visibility? Should we ignore Impressions and just be counting combined traditional Search and AI referral clicks to the website? Stay tuned for developments and industry consensus on how best to align available data with brand KPIs.

August

ChatGPT is using Google Search, multiple tests suggest. We shared reports that showed occasions where up to 90% of ChatGPT’s cited URLs matched Google’s top results. See how quickly things change as we first started talking about ChatGPT Search in January.

September

Google’s Danny Sullivan: ‘Good SEO is good GEO’ . “Generative engine optimization (or whatever the new acronym is for optimizing for AI search experiences) is the same core work SEOs have always done: creating unique, valuable content for people and providing a great page experience”.

• So, in other words, what is good for the SEO goose is good for the SAIO gander. It’s furthering the concept that SEO and SAIO are complementary in nature while allowing for differences in execution.

Stay tuned to Perspective Marketer for what changes arise in the 4th Quarter 2025 and, in the meantime, let’s all sing along…

🎵 Time May ChAInge Search, But We Can TrAIce Time

Google’s been changing its Google Ads Serving Policy and how the company is capturing/counting AI Overviews and AI Mode data in Google Search Console. Here’s our double take on what it all means.

Let’s start with the change in Google Ads Serving Policy. Prior, Google would only run one of your company’s ads on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Now, the policy standard (or should we say double standard): they can run multiple ads on the same SERP so long as they are in different places on the page. 

At first glance, this sounds like a great opportunity for advertisers to double up their visibility. Indeed, Google Ad Impressions have seen great growth in the months following the policy change. But this Impressions growth is part of a double-edged sword, because most searchers are not going to click on both of the ads on the page. Therefore, the increase in Impressions leads to a decrease in Click-Through Rate (CTR). This means advertisers have to reevaluate CTR as one of the bedrock PPC metrics in reporting as a signal of relevance of ads with target audiences, or at least recalibrate expectations for what a “good” CTR is.

Moving on to the bind Google has created with Google Search Console (GSC) reporting… SEOers have long used improvements in the GSC Impressions, Clicks, CTR, and Average Position data as indicators of Organic Search optimization success.

The news that Google is now including data from AI Overviews (as part of the SERP) and AI Mode (as a separate search mode) could be initially seen as a way to gauge SAIO (Search AI Optimization) success via GSC. Until, that is, you find out the data from Organic Search, AI Overviews, and AI Mode is all being mixed together and not being presented separately. Not only is this a double cross in terms of Organic Search data transparency, but it also has the potential for double counting Impressions on the SERP with listings in both AI Overviews and the traditional search results. We are seeing a similar impact on CTR as with Google Ads and the blurring of the value of Average Position data as it now includes positions in AI Overviews and AI Mode as part of the overall average.

Will Google double back on the double trouble these double-barreled data actions have taken? *Picture me doubling over in laughter.*