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Nearly 30 years ago, the dot-com revolution was dawning. Established and emerging companies fought hard to be relevant on search engines and directories, such as Altavista, Yahoo and Lycos. No one really knew how to do it.
It wasn’t until Google came in with its PageRank algorithm that the game and its rules slowly became clear. The concept of search engine optimization (SEO) saw the light, with one simple goal that is still the same today: to have your content appear in the top results of search engines for specific keyboards.
Thirty years later, AI is redefining the game. The center of gravity is shifting from search engines to AI bots. Instead of search terms, we are starting to have a conversation with bots that will not only find the information you are looking for but also aggregate it, analyze it and come up with insights and recommendations. And people will trust that information. AI engines are positioning themselves to be the new gatekeepers.
In order to remain influential, SEO will not suffice. Companies will have to evolve their marketing and SEO strategies, shifting their focus from merely standing on top of search results to being able to embed their brands, messages and expertise into the fabric of AI’s decision-making process.
In this new era, you will need more than SEO to convince search engines about the quality of your content. You will also need to persuade smart, decision-making, sometimes biased AI engines. Just as we were 30 years ago, we don’t know yet how that game will shape up, but we do know that the change has started.
AI visibility optimization (AIVO) is the set of tools, techniques and patterns that will be required in the AI-powered search space. Just As SEO emerged as a set of strategies to signal the relevancy of your content to search engines, AIVO is emerging as a set of methods to help your content be relevant to AI engines. It will not only be about coming up with relevant content in your digital properties but also influencing the larger space that feeds AI-bots opinions.
Although SEO and AIVO are relatives, they are different animals. Here are some of their core contrasts:
In AIVO, the goal isn’t just to drive traffic through clicks but to be integrated into AI’s decision-making process. This way, your brand is recommended even when users don’t directly visit your site. We have mature analytics to measure the success of SEO strategies, but we have nothing (yet) to measure AIVO.
Just as we once learned to bow to Google’s PageRank algorithm, we must now learn to court AI bots. Like any new relationship, it’s going to take some time to figure out what they like, how they think and, most importantly, how to make them believe we are the best choice in a specific context. On top of that, unlike search engines, it is very likely that AI-powered bots will have more diverse players.
To thrive in this new world of AIVO, organizations will need to adjust their skills and practices to target AI bots instead of solely search engines. Those skills are not yet identified, but they will likely have ingredients such as natural language processing and a deeper understanding of LLMs. These new skills will force organizations to expand their expertise in creating narratives that resonate not only with humans but the algorithms that will influence them.
AIVO is not just an evolution of SEO. It’s a metamorphosis of how brands should approach marketing. As AI engines establish themselves as a primary source of information acquisition, becoming visible and reputable to these engines will only increase in importance.
Companies must educate themselves on the value of AI visibility optimization and invest in strategies to stay ahead. The sooner your company starts using these new roadmaps — which will include a lot of trial and error — the better you will be positioned in this new AI reality.
The future of digital marketing is here. It’s vital to gain the trust and visibility of not only humans, but also the AI engines that heavily influence humans.
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