Introduction
Jules White: Hi, welcome back to the Website Success Show. It is Jules here, and I want to talk today about something I started kind of talking about last week.
Ended up down a slightly different tangent, a little bit of a rabbit hole, but it's a conversation that keeps coming up. So I think it's important to talk about it and to revisit it.
AI Search vs SEO: Are They Really Different?
Jules White: I literally had this conversation again yesterday about how AI search is a completely different animal to SEO and that we have to approach them differently, and that, you know, the things that they are totally separate basically. And I firmly believe still that that's just not true and that a lot of the work that you do to show up on searches on AI or to get recommended by AI are the fundamentals of SEO, and that without those things in place, you are gonna struggle to be the one, the business that's recommended in the AI searches, whether that is AI overviews or being recommended in a chat with ChatGPT or Perplexity or whichever AI tool people are using.
And I think there is a bit of a panic out there right now, and there's certainly a lot of people who are selling AI search services that are almost encouraging this fear out there that business owners have to be thinking about this completely different to what they've ever thought about with SEO.
And fundamentally, what I would say is that most business owners I speak to, they're kind of trying to now think about how, okay, how can I get AI recommending my business, and the foundations aren't in place?
So that's what I want to dive into today, and I really don't want to be just adding to the noise. I am hoping this episode will just give you a bit of reassurance that the work you've already done, even if it is just getting clear on your messaging, even if you feel like you are just getting started with SEO and with organic search and with actually just trying to get some more free traffic to your website, the right people finding you at the right time.
I just wanna reassure you that you are on the right path and that the work that you do to set up your business and to set up your website for searchability will still be relevant and will still help you to show up in those AI searches.
How Search Results Have Changed
Jules White: So there are a few things that have genuinely changed this year, but the main thing is in how search results are actually delivered to the end user. Google's AI mode has now become default, and people are now getting the AI mode as standard.
It is a bit different with local businesses, and I think this is where there's still a real opportunity for location-based businesses to really clean up and to really get some results from the AI recommendations, but also still from Google as well.
So things have been changing and evolving ever since Google first came out. When Google was first launched, it was very, very rudimentary, and the search engines were pretty bad, actually.
And over the years, every single update to Google's algorithm has helped people to get a better search result. It's helped Google to understand more and more about what people are actually searching for and what they're actually hoping to get from this kind of search.
And we've just been working more and more towards this over the years anyway. Whereas we used to get a page full of links and people would then click on those links and look for the thing that they're trying to find, we are much more likely now to see a summary at the top of the results.
A full conversational answer will just replace the list, and it will literally be one result.
And if we can be a business that gets cited in these results, we can actually get a link to our business there, depending on the type of search that it is. This is very much one of the big changes: a lot of the informational searches that would've maybe been answered by blog posts and things over the years, those answers are now just being generated with AI.
And this, for us as business owners, means that we need to be a bit more strategic about when we're creating content for our websites. It means that we can't get away with just creating generic content that any old AI could have written and that anyone could have written using AI.
And we've been talking about this a lot since AI came out. We've been talking about the fact that what's really important, if we want to be cited as the expert in what we do and as the business that people should trust if they're looking to buy something that we sell, is how we can show our human lived experience in that.
So if we can be that business that gets shown in those searches, people are already so much further along the buyer's journey. For a lot of websites, this means that they're getting fewer clicks coming through to their actual websites and fewer visitors to their website for those informational queries in particular.
But for the businesses that are getting those commercial intent searches, they're showing up there. For people who are actually looking to buy something, or to find a local business, or to solve a problem that they have, if you are the business that then shows up and gets cited in that overview, people coming through to your website are much, much more likely to take action and to actually become customers.
So it does mean that, yes, traffic has dropped off for a lot of businesses, but for those that are still getting the clicks coming through, it's okay.
And if you can show your business as the one that solves that specific problem and answers that specific query and is to be trusted in that as well, then this can be really powerful for your business.
So some things have moved on, and some things have changed. The way that results are given has changed, but people will always be out there searching, and it's just the way that people search that has changed, really.
Traffic Drops: Should You Panic?
Jules White: So don't panic about things if you have seen a big drop-off in traffic to your website. A lot of websites are actually finding that their traffic has literally dropped off a cliff.
I've had a few power hours from this with people where they've come through and they just want to understand what's actually happening, what's actually made their traffic drop off a cliff.
And for some businesses, it is that a lot of their traffic was coming from those informational queries. For other businesses, there can be fundamental things that are now causing their business not to show up in search.
You know, there are fundamental problems there that can be fixed, basically.
I talked about this back in episode 135 of what Google actually says about AI search and what we can stop worrying about. That was where I looked at a document that Google has released about what we need to do differently and what fundamentals Google are still saying are there.
And I've seen a lot over the last few weeks in particular. I've seen a lot of people really focused on: if you're not showing up in ChatGPT, if you're not showing up in Perplexity, then you are missing out on all of the customers that are out there.
There is quite a lot of sensationalist marketing around this as well. The fear-based marketing around AI visibility and around all of the changes in the world right now makes me think there is a lot of fear out there.
What Google Says Still Matters
Jules White: But fundamentally, what Google said was that we still need to be creating useful content pages that can be easily read and indexed by Google and by the AI bots. Accurate business details are needed so that the bots understand what you do, what services you offer, where you are located, how people can find you, and what's different in the way that you do it.
You need structured data on the back end of your website and to avoid doing things that are spammy shortcuts, basically. That's what a lot of this fear-based marketing is actually promising: that you can have quick fixes that can almost game the system, which has always been there for as long as SEO has been there.
There have always been people trying to game the system and looking for hacks that might work in the short term, but over the long term, the bots catch up and you get penalised for that.
One of the things that we're seeing right now with this is AI-generated content, where businesses were just churning out loads and loads of content on their website about a topic to make them appear as an expert.
Google has had a massive clear-up of that kind of content out there.
So the fundamentals are that we need to be creating good content that's helpful for our users, really.
If you think about a page on your website, if you wouldn't share that page with a customer or a potential customer, regardless of whether Google existed or whether this page was going to bring you traffic into your website, that page should go. If there's nothing on that page that you would share with one of your existing or potential customers, it should be edited to actually be something that you would be proud to share with somebody and know would be helpful to share.
What this document from Google said is that most of the stuff hasn't changed, and this is where that whole thing of AI search being a completely different animal just isn't true. The things that still matter are, as I say, that we have useful content and that our pages are set up in a hierarchical way that is easy for the bots to understand.
If you've listened to any episodes, you would've heard me talk about page hierarchy. Think about our individual web pages like an English essay, so we have one H1 heading at the top, which is about the topic of that page and sends really strong signals to the bots on what this page is about.
It also sends strong signals to the humans coming and reading that heading on the page. Coming down, we then have H2 headings, which break that down further.
They are the subtopics of the page, the related ideas, and those kinds of things. Within that, if you break it down further, you would have H3 headings, which are the sub-subtopics or the categories within those H2 headings.
So that's still really important. Google and AI bots can then understand that these are the most important parts of this page.
And the big thing with AI is that it can then pull out those subheadings on that page. It can pull that out as a unique piece of content, and it still makes sense without the context of that whole page.
That's one of the things that can help you if you do want to get mentioned in AI overviews: actually having those sections on your page. That would make sense even if you didn't have the whole of the rest of the page to read, really.
Keywords vs Topic Clusters
Jules White: So there's a lot of talk about keywords being dead. I talked about this a little bit last week, as keywords have always been something that feel confusing.
When I talk to clients and potential clients, people always feel a bit confused. Keywords are one of the questions that come up a lot if I'm delivering training for a group or those kinds of things.
Keywords seem to be a bit of a mental stumbling block for people, and this has changed a little bit when you hear people talking about AI.
We're talking about topic clusters and about becoming an authority in what you do. Fundamentally underneath it all, we are still talking about the words that you use on the pages of your website that help Google, AI bots, and humans to understand what you do.
Ultimately, this is all about humans understanding us and buying from us.
Keywords became topic clusters, which has always been the way anyway. Maybe it's because I've only come into SEO in the last sort of five years or so, and maybe I've been lucky that I've learned SEO from people who have been teaching it well.
But this is something that I've been taught anyway: as much as we might have a focus keyword for each page of our website, I am thinking about how all of the different pages on your website have a specific job to do.
They all link together and they all help to reinforce the idea that you know what you're doing and that you are an expert in this.
The keywords—the words that you mention—are not just on your website, but also on your Google Business Profile as well. If you're a local business using social media, the words that you're mentioning there and the words that other people are mentioning about your business across the internet are still the things that help the bots understand what you do.
So regardless of whether you call them words, topics, sentences, key phrases, or copy, whatever you call it, it still is fundamentally that same thing. The words that are out there on the internet about what you do are helping the bots and the humans to understand more about what you do.
That feels like a real ramble there about that, but it's one of the things I hear and see all the time. I see it in my inbox, and I see it on webinars and things that I watch where people are talking about keywords and keywords being dead.
I don't feel like it has fundamentally changed.
I don't feel like I have changed what I'm teaching, because I was always about creating content with intention rather than just churning out content for the sake of it. I've always been about creating and focusing on your core pages of your website first.
So make sure the pages that are closest to the sale—the ones that are specific to what you sell, and first and foremost, your most profitable product or service—are prioritised.
Start there, as well as your homepage, which sends big signals about your business as a whole, and your about page as well. Make sure they are set up to actually show up for what you do.
That's really important. Then we can start thinking about creating additional content if we need to.
Trust Signals and Digital PR
Jules White: Another thing that hasn't really changed is that trust signals are really important. This is something that, again, is very much set up as a big change in AI search—that we need to have a positive brand sentiment throughout the internet.
That is definitely true for AI search, but it has kind of always been there in one way or another. Before, it was building backlinks coming into our website.
Fundamentally, this is still the same thing. It's still building that positive sentiment about your business and those links to your business.
If you have your website as the hub of your business and that's where everything comes back to, that is a place where you have control of that. You own your website, and if you can keep the thought in mind that everything you do comes back to your website as the hub of your business online, then that's the most important thing.
All of those trust signals that you try and build have always been there.
I was always taught that it's not about the volume of links that you've got coming into your business; it's about the authority of those links.
Certainly years ago, before I was into SEO, it was about the volume of links.
You could just go out and buy a load of spammy backlinks and that would help you to rank on Google.
Whereas now that's not the case, and certainly with AI it's not the case. AI is looking for trust signals out there across the internet.
So that can be reviews on your Google Business Profile, or it can be mentions on forums that can be really, really helpful.
With positive brand sentiment, digital PR has become more important than ever. But that's not to say this wasn't fundamentally a part of good SEO anyway.
Coming back to the keywords, what people are saying in your reviews can now be read by the AI bots.
An example is a café that says it's dog friendly, but it doesn't have any reviews or photos showing that there are dogs there, people visiting with dogs, or that they do anything around it being dog friendly.
If they have that on their website and say that's what they do, but there's nothing out there that's actually reinforcing that fact, then the AI is unlikely to deliver that for people who are looking for a local dog-friendly café.
One of the things you can do is use things like case studies as well.
It's another way you can build your authority and the trust signals on your website. If you've got case studies where you back it up by facts, or if you've done any actual studies, white papers, or polls with your clients and you deliver the results of those on your website with the real facts about talking to a specific number of people and showing the results that came up, that can be a really great way to build authority.
Then you can find that other people might link to that and actually cite that research that you've done yourself.
The words that you're using across those pages, the words that are being used throughout the internet by you, by your customers, and by other authoritative people are what tell Google and AI what you do.
Most businesses aren't clear enough on the foundations. That's the thing I would say: I see lots of people teaching about very in-depth AI strategies.
What I see more often than not when somebody comes to me is that the foundations aren't there because they've just never taken the time to think about their website, their online visibility, the words that they have actually used, and what they want to show up for, really.
Case Study: Getting Foundations Right
Jules White: They often haven't mentioned the things that they need to. I've used this example a few times on the podcast of the therapist who was a PTSD trauma-informed therapist.
That was the biggest thing that she used to do and the biggest way she used to help people. But because somebody had said that was much too competitive for her to rank for, she hadn't mentioned it anywhere on her website.
Thinking about this now with the AI angle, she would be wanting to make sure, obviously, that she is talking about PTSD and the specific way that she helps her clients with that. The PTSD topic is going to be very broad, but what could help her to show up for that in her local area is making sure that she's mentioning her local area as well.
So she should definitely mention the location where she works with clients, share case studies of people whom she's actually helped with PTSD, and include a little bit more about the specific types of people she works with or specific types of PTSD, such as chronic PTSD or PTSD from childhood traumas. There are so many different angles that you could actually use for this.
This ensures that once she's got those core pages in place—so she's got her services pages for PTSD and trauma therapy and those specific things she needs to mention—Google and the AI bots understand what she does.
Making sure her Google Business Profile also mentions that as well is key. So she's showing PTSD therapy as a service.
You can dive into Google Business Profile and see what Google understands as services that are related to PTSD.
Once she's done that, then she can start to think about what else she needs to do to strengthen that message that she knows what she's doing around PTSD. Getting reviews is a little bit harder for therapists—I know that's one of the things that is a bit of a struggle for therapy clients of mine—but even things like getting mentioned in industry magazines or in any authoritative places can help.
For that particular client, it could even be being mentioned in her local chamber if they do an online magazine. If it was somebody who worked with children, getting mentioned in local publications related to that, local mental health publications, or local women's organisations would work well.
Getting your name out there as the expert in what you do and mentioning those words around what you do can be massively helpful in terms of building that trust, building that authority, and building those foundations.
Those actions give a clear message throughout the internet of what you do.
This is often something that comes up when I do power hours with people, where we dive into their Google Search Console and their Google Analytics, or we just have a little look at how their business is performing in search and what's actually being associated with their business.
Quite often, just that realisation of what they're not showing up for, and seeing it there on the screen in black and white, can in itself be that lightbulb moment.
It can help them then to think: okay, if I want to show up for a particular search term, which page of my website is the most relevant to show up for that?
What do I need to do to add those words throughout that page?
Where else can I get other people mentioning me in relation to those words? How can I cover this topic really well?
And that doesn't mean creating loads and loads of content. It means being really thoughtful and strategic about the content we do create so that we are actually creating that with a plan in mind and with intentionality, rather than just churning out content for the sake of it.
This is that big thing that I see so many people talking about regarding AI search: you've gotta do this to show up in AI search, you've gotta do that, and you've gotta do the other thing. Fundamentally, if we can get those foundations in place, get that core in place, and start sending the right signals out there, then we can get rid of all of the other noise.
We can stop with the social media posting all the time.
I still talk to so many people in conversations practically every day. Whenever I do networking, I talk to so many people who are posting, posting, and posting, and hoping, but have no results from that and feel like they are just shouting into the void.
I was talking to somebody yesterday on a networking call, and she said that she'd posted a picture of a blank wall because she was having some issues with a decorator, and this post had blown up. Yet she posts about what she does, and it's crickets.
That seems to be the thing that's happening time and time again to people. Yet we still ignore this thing that we own.
We still ignore our website. We still ignore the thing that needs to send those fundamental messages out there into the world about what we do, so that we can show up in AI search, show up on Google searches, and connect with people when they're out there searching for what we do.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile
Jules White: If you are a local service-based business—such as physios, clinics, mental health practitioners, salons, boutique and specialty local shops, or any location-based business—a lot of this ties in with your Google Business Profile as well.
Make sure that your Google Business Profile is set up properly so you've got the right categories and the right services mentioned on your profile in relation to the things that Google actually understands about what you do.
I had this with a client who offered a specific type of hypnotherapy, and they hadn't really mentioned that on their Google Business Profile because they didn't call it hypnotherapy themselves. But underneath it all, it was still a type of hypnotherapy—a very specialised type of hypnotherapy.
If we don't tell Google that you offer hypnotherapy, then it can't offer you up as a solution. It doesn't know to put you in the arena against all of the other people who are offering hypnotherapy against all of your local competitors.
Yet these therapy sessions could be massively helpful for clients and for the people that need that help.
So actually, sometimes it's a case of swallowing what we want to be known for and connecting with what Google understands.
The reason Google understands this is because years and years of people searching for those kinds of solutions show this is what they are searching for. This is what people are actually out there searching for in relation to what you do and the services that you offer.
So unfortunately, sometimes we have to suck it up a little bit and use those words on our website to help us to show up for what we do, really.
We want Google to understand the location that we're in as well. That's where Google Profiles can massively help, making sure that our website is also tied into that as well.
That's really important for AI search.
Make sure that we have a really clear name, address, and phone number that ties in with both our website, our Google Business Profile, and any local directories as well. That can be really helpful.
Sometimes you can find the directory listings actually show up on Google or get mentioned in AI search.
That's fine. As long as there's a link to your website or your booking link in there and people can actually buy through that, then that's great.
That's not a problem at all if people find us through a directory listing or something.
What that all does, by making sure that those words are right on your Google profile and tie in with your website and everywhere that you are online, is put you in the arena.
It helps you to be in the running to even show up for these things.
Then your unique take on things, your unique strategies, your unique philosophies, your unique lived experience with clients over the years, and your unique niche (if you have one) come into play. There needs to be something that helps you not just be in the arena, but actually be the business that the bots decide is the one to show up.
They will select the trusted businesses that are so specific to that person doing that search that there's no other choice but to show your brand, making your brand the trusted choice for those AI bots and for Google.
There are lots of wild stats out there right now, creating massive panic and a heavy focus on tactics that work for bigger brands but just aren't needed for smaller local businesses.
As I say, for so many businesses, the foundations aren't in place. Local businesses are spending hours and hours on social media, while their Google Business Profile isn't even set up with those basics of the categories and the services that they offer, nor does it tie in with their websites.
If you would like some help with this and would like my eyes on your website, I've just launched my search gap check. This is a free video you can get by going to my website and looking for the freebies; I'll also put the link in the show notes.
I'll have a little look at your site and your Google Business Profile to see what the most important things are for you to focus on.
I'll send you a short video, usually less than five minutes, with immediate recommendations for your unique business.
So if you'd like one of those, go and grab the link in the show notes and request one.
Using AI for Strategy: A Word of Caution
Jules White: One of the things that I'm seeing a lot recommended is using AI for strategy, and I would be really cautious about this.
I've had a couple of clients this year who have used a lot of AI for strategy, and I've realised that that doesn't work particularly well.
If somebody came to me and said that they were working with 10 different SEO agencies and wanted my input into it as well, there is no way that I would take that person on as a client.
When you're using AI for strategy to help you come up with an SEO plan, there are certainly parts of it that can be helpful with AI. Things like generating page titles and descriptions that you can then tweak and give your human take on can be helpful.
Things like generating ideas for posts and blog outlines that you can then humanise and add your own content to are examples of what you can use AI for.
But using it to generate a complete strategy for your business is a little bit dangerous to do.
I've definitely played around with this and tried different tools. What I'm honestly finding is a lot of the results are just full of noise, and, like you do with a lot of AI stuff, you end up with 1,000,001 ideas that aren't necessarily the right ideas for your business.
They aren't necessarily taking into account everything that you need to before you start creating that strategy, which can just lead to either more overwhelm or creating content that still doesn't do the job that it needs to.
I talked about this back in episode 128: "Is ChatGPT Making You Doubt Yourself, and Why I Switched to Claude." I talked in that episode about some of the feelings that I was getting from using AI too much for the thought process.
Since I broke up with social media at the end of January, I've found that I did have a lot more mental clarity and a lot less noise in my brain. But I definitely need those days without my phone and days without using AI too much to just help me not doubt myself, I think, really.
All that to say, when talking about AI strategy, I would just be cautious about AI-generated SEO strategy because there's so much nuance out there. A lot of it is trained on the internet, and a lot of the information on the internet is outdated SEO strategies that aren't necessarily going to work right now, or sensational AI search strategies that have been released more recently that haven't been proven or stood the test of time.
Tool Recommendation: Mine My Brand
Jules White: Now I was thinking: what's one thing I want you to do this week? What's one thing that can help you to understand how your brand is doing in AI search?
I listened to Exposure Ninja, who are among the people that I do trust around SEO strategy. They do lots of work with bigger businesses, so you do have to take some of it with a pinch of salt in terms of smaller local businesses.
But they've created a great tool that I only found yesterday, actually, but I thought I would share it with you. It's called minemybrand.com.
It does a brand analysis of your business from multiple AI models, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, and Gemini. It doesn't have Claude in there right now, but it gives you a general sentiment of your brand.
It tells you things like the tone of your business, the price point, and a celebrity match, which is one of the fun things they've got in there. According to ChatGPT, my celebrity match for my business is Davina McCall.
It says this analogy reflects the personality traits the model associates with your brand.
I don't mind that! I love Davina, so I think that that's quite cool.
It also gives some helpful advice and highlights areas you could focus on regarding what AI is actually understanding about your business, such as mission and values.
For example, in my brand mission and values, I saw it noted that I help business owners turn their websites into a reliable source of visibility, inquiries, and sales through practical SEO, website clarity, and sustainable marketing that reduces dependence on social media and paid ads.
Now I love that! I love that AI is actually understanding that about my brand.
However, it also gave me a few things that I need to work on. A couple of them suggested that I've got too many offers, which I kind of feel a bit like that myself as well—it's one of the things I've been working on this year.
It also noted that I need to do more digital PR for my business. I need more of those other people on the internet talking about me and what I do.
I've known that for a while, and it's definitely something that is on my agenda and radar, such as getting on more podcasts and getting more authority content out there about my business.
So go in and have a look at that. As I say, I'll link to that in the show notes; you can get two free checks for free, and then you can just pay as you go (£10.99 for 20 reports).
It was quite good! I ran it for a couple of client sites as well, and if you are seeing positive brand sentiment and that it's fundamentally understanding some of the things that you are doing in your business, then that's great.
It doesn't necessarily mean that AI is mentioning you, because you might be competing against a lot of other people out there.
For location-based businesses, if it's not mentioning the area that you are in, then that could be something to explore a bit further. If you want some help exploring this—such as if you get an analysis and you're not quite sure what to do with that information—then send me a message or book a power hour so we can have a chat about how you can do something practical with this.
This is also something you can do manually: you can go into AI tools and ask questions about your brand, your unique positioning, your philosophy, and gaps in what you do. That's definitely one way to see how AI is actually seeing and viewing your brand.
With all of this, the way that we fix this is by making sure that those foundations are there on your business, on your Google Business Profile, and out there throughout the whole of the internet—throughout the wider web on different sites as well.
If you are a location-based business with a Google Business Profile and you would like more local customers but need some help getting this sorted, you can book one of my local SEO sessions.
This is where we spend some time together on Zoom, working through your profile and actually making the changes there.
This way, you not only get a stronger profile, but you also understand what to do moving forward to keep your profile strong and make sure that you are showing up for what you do in your local area.
I'll link to that in the show notes as well. You can come and book a session if you'd like to, and we can get your profile sorted together.
Final Thoughts and Actions
Jules White: A final thought is that people are out there searching, and if you want to show up for what you do, you can; you just need to take some action.
Until next time, just take a deep breath, trust your website as a way to bring you clients, and remember: social media is optional.
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