Why AI Can't Find You
If you're only on one platform, you're invisible to the next wave of search.
Hey everyone,
Yesterday, I was browsing through my LinkedIn feed when suddenly a so-called personal branding expert appeared. His post had a decent number of likes and comments, so I took a look. What he was doing was pushing the same narrative that has been around for a while now:
“You don’t have to be present on every channel, only master one.”
And my first thought was: “yes, he is right. That’s how it worked over the last few years.”
But my second thought was: “Wait a minute. Is this actually still true today?”
The new cool kid in marketing town is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), meaning being cited, trusted, and used as a source within AI-powered answers - which is starting to replace traditional SEO.
And as sad as it sounds, this is also becoming the dominant way people search. Think about the last time you Googled something, visited a blog, and read the entire article instead of just reading the Google summary… yeah, me neither.
But to be found and mentioned by AI, you need to be present and discoverable and not only on one channel or in search engines, but on multiple.
Like Google’s summary says on this topic:
“AI models use an astronomically large and diverse range of sources to gain information, often pulling from petabytes of data, which includes almost the entire public internet, books, and proprietary databases.”
This includes LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube and all the other channels out there.
So that means no matter how much someone has mastered one channel, there is still a need to be present on other channels for AI systems to find and reference them.
Take this example (it’s an Ahrefs ad, but the core message is exactly about this):
Staying relevant nowadays requires a presence across multiple channels… at least for AI systems to be able to find and reference a brand or business.
And this is the direction things are moving toward. People are relying more and more on AI to search for information, educate themselves, and even make buying decisions (looking at OpenAI’s ads plans).
The bad news: the requirements for being found have increased.
But the good news, at the same time, the possibilities for creating and repurposing content have expanded as well … thanks to AI.
AJ
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By Andreas Just
Thanks for this post, Andreas. This is an interesting topic that I want to learn more about and understand the pros and cons in more detail.
I understand the potential benefits of increased visibility and traffic. However, if AI search is becoming the dominant force in search, how come many of the major media and publishing houses are blocking it?
There must be concerns around copyright and the content showing up in AI search without the user needing to visit the original website source.