I recently compared notes with my good friend Nick Eubanks, VP of Owned Media at SEMrush. We aligned on two truths: 1) classic SEO is table stakes; 2) GEO/AEO is now where growth compounds. Nick also shared what his team is seeing on the ground: traffic from LLM-assisted journeys tends to convert better because people use assistants to research and shortlist—so by the time they hit your site, they’re warmer. In one study, conversion rates were ~4.4× higher from LLM traffic vs. traditional organic. Combined with our own client data, the takeaway is clear: being present in AI answers isn’t a vanity metric—it’s a revenue lever. You can view the full video here.
What actually changed (and why you should care)
Under the hood, AI platforms(like Google’s AI Mode) follow a similar pipeline when they search the web: your content is chunked into passages, embedded as vectors (to capture meaning), fetched by high-speed retrieval, filtered by hybrid re-rankers, and then woven into a natural-language answer. If your passages aren’t crystal-clear semantically, they’re less likely to be pulled into that answer layer. Think “optimize for meaning and entities,” not just keywords.
Google has also published sensible basics for the AI era: keep your site crawlable, avoid blocking AI crawlers (Google-Extended, GeminiBot, GPTBot), use clear headings and schema, and ensure what’s in your structured data actually matches what users see. Over-restrictive snippet settings can remove you from summaries entirely.
No, SEO isn’t dead—it’s your eligibility layer
All of the fundamentals still determine whether you’re “in the pool”:
Technical hygiene: sane robots.txt and open sitemaps; don’t block JS/CSS required to render full pages; allow Google-Extended, GeminiBot, GPTBot.
On-page semantics: precise H1–H3 hierarchy, answer-like formatting, and schema (FAQ/HowTo/Product/Organization). Write in short, extractable passages with concrete stats and full dates.
Internal links & authority: interlink topic clusters with descriptive anchors; keep building high-quality links and local citations (they’re still a ranking and trust signal and they feed AI answers).
Think of this as your eligibility layer. Without it, GEO/AEO can’t help you.
GEO/AEO: the layer that gets you retrieved and quoted
Answer engines select passages, not just pages. That means writing “atomic” content—one idea per paragraph, tight sentences, tables or lists where they help, and entity-rich language (use exact names for people, places, and products, minimize pronouns). Each paragraph should stand alone as a mini-answer that a model can lift verbatim.
Two GEO/AEO practices our clients find immediately useful:
Vector validation: Before publishing, embed your draft passages and check similarity against your target questions. Iterate until the cosine similarity is strong (we treat ≥0.85 as a healthy threshold). It’s a quick way to pre-test “retrievability.”
Monitor AI citations: Track when your URLs surface inside Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and ChatGPT. If citations dip, refresh and tighten the affected passages. This is your “share of voice” in AI.
Local & service businesses
Local SEO is currently less affected by AI search engines. When people search in their local area for services, they almost always search into Google, and more specifically the map pack.
People have evolved to use LLMs to research about and compare local businesses, so think of AI search optimization as complimentary, not primary for local service based businesses.
Local also remains a smart place to invest because the evidence LLMs prefer—real reviews, practitioner bios, photos, and third-party citations—maps cleanly to what local SEO already does well.
Assistants won’t just list options; they’ll recommend one provider and explain why. Help them help you:
Fortify proof: Showcase review excerpts, credentials, and outcomes as short, quotable blocks.
Citations & consistency: Keep your NAP data clean and expand high-relevance local citations; it improves Maps visibility and gives answer engines more reliable signals to quote.
Watch GA4 and Search Console, but with added context: impressions and AI citations often lead the way; raw CTR can be misleading when assistants satisfy the query in-place.
What to do next (simple, high-impact moves)
You don’t need a full overhaul to benefit from GEO/AEO. Start here:
Open the gates: sanity-check robots.txt and server logs; allow Google-Extended, GeminiBot, and GPTBot; keep XML/RSS feeds current.
Make content “answer-able”: give each H2 a direct ≤80-word answer, then details. Use tables/lists for facts and include full dates.
Strengthen semantics: ensure one topic per page, clean H1–H3, and add relevant schema (FAQ/HowTo/Product/Organization).
Validate vectors: quickly test your top five money pages for cosine similarity against priority questions; revise ambiguous phrasing.
Distribute beyond your site: publish the same answers (adapted) across formats—web, video, and communities—because LLMs cite the whole web, not just your domain. For example, studies show that Reddit is a place that AI search engines love to quote from.
Will traditional SEO fade away?
Not in the next five, or ten, years. People will always compare, verify, and buy; what’s changed is the quality bar and the interface. In our clients’ data and in my conversation with Nick, the brands winning AI placements combine (a) clean technical SEO and authoritative content with (b) GEO/AEO practices that make them more likely to be cited in AI searches. That’s the new landscape for 2025-2026.
The search landscape in 2025–2026 presents both profound challenges and unprecedented—yet exciting opportunities. The emergence of AI-powered search interfaces (like Google’s AI Mode and ChatGPT-style interactions) has disrupted traditional SEO models. Executives and marketing leaders are grappling with a crucial question: How do we measure SEO performance when the connection between impressions, visibility, and traffic is increasingly blurred?
This article outlines a clear, structured framework for measuring SEO in this new era. Focusing on input metrics, channel metrics, and performance metrics, while offering practical guidance for organizations to navigate and succeed in the future of search.
I. Understanding the Decoupling: Traffic Down, Impressions Up
The foundational insight for SEO in 2025–2026 is the “great decoupling”: impressions are increasing, yet traffic is decreasing. Search engine results are no longer a linear, trackable funnel where a keyword ranking translates cleanly into a click.
Key Drivers:
AI-generated answers (ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews) reduce the need to click through to websites.
Search console limitations: There’s no equivalent console for AI environments, making it hard to gauge visibility.
Crawlers lack JavaScript rendering, so SEO teams must ensure content is served in HTML and is readily accessible.
This disruption demands a new mindset. Instead of measuring SEO purely as a performance channel, we must also embrace it as a branding and visibility channel, akin to social media or PR.
II. Three Stratified Layers of Measurement
To understand and communicate SEO performance in this AI-driven landscape, measurement must be stratified into three key layers:
1. Input Metrics (What You Control)
These are the levers SEO teams actively manage to influence visibility:
Content relevance scores: Use models to score how well passages of content align with user queries—especially synthetic AI prompts.
Competitor comparison: Benchmark content relevance against sites appearing in AI citations.
Indexability: Ensure content is properly indexed and can be crawled (avoiding reliance on JavaScript rendering).
Bot activity tracking: Monitor how frequently bots request your pages (via logs) to infer visibility across AI platforms.
Technical health: fixing broken links, optimizing XML sitemaps, improving mobile performance.
Why it matters: These metrics reflect SEO effort and foundational health. While they don’t tie directly to ROI, they inform higher-order outcomes like visibility and traffic.
2. Channel Metrics (How You’re Seen)
These measure visibility and share of voice across platforms—even when user behavior is opaque.
Citation appearance frequency: Are you cited in AI answers (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.)?
Visibility and share of voice: Tools like Profound.ai provide snapshots of how often and where your brand appears.
Sentiment analysis: Gauge tone and context of mentions across platforms.
Competitor visibility benchmarking: Compare brand visibility in key channels vs. rivals.
Caution: These metrics are probabilistic, not deterministic. They lack absolute accuracy due to the black-box nature of AI engines. But with consistent methodology, you can get precise trend data over time.
3. Performance Metrics (What Converts)
While visibility is critical, outcomes still matter. Performance metrics help you assess business impact.
Traffic and referral volume: Track click-throughs to your site (using GA4 or similar).
On-site engagement: Time on site, bounce rates, and session duration remain essential indicators.
Conversion actions: Leads, purchases, newsletter signups—standard KPIs still apply.
Lift studies: Correlate campaigns with subsequent traffic or brand lift (especially when direct attribution is impossible).
Key takeaway: Although attribution is harder, ROI measurement still exists, especially when paired with thoughtful experimentation (e.g., pre/post visibility studies in ChatGPT or Google AI results).
III. Strategic Reporting for Different Stakeholders
Understanding who needs what data is critical in shaping your SEO reporting and communication.
For CMOs and Executive Teams:
Focus on high-level visibility and brand performance.
Show traffic and conversions.
Break visibility into three categories:
Brand protection: Are people seeing and engaging with your brand positively?
Category visibility: How do you perform for non-branded industry terms?
Long-tail specificity: Are you capturing niche but high-intent queries?
For SEO Managers:
Dive deeper into input metrics like content scoring, ranking shifts, crawl stats, and prompt analysis.
Develop frameworks for prompt taxonomy tracking to understand conversational intent.
Monitor bot activity and integrate clickstream data sources like Datos or SimilarWeb for AI-derived referrals.
IV. Tracking Prompts and Redefining Funnel Models
Search is no longer a clean funnel. With conversational AI, users ask multi-turn prompts that don’t always build on each other linearly.
The Challenge:
Prompt chains are hard to track: Subsequent questions often lack reference to the first.
Search intent is messier: Traditional categories (navigational, informational, transactional) fall short.
What to Do:
Start building a new taxonomy of prompts:
Use machine learning or clustering to group related queries.
Focus on entity-based tracking rather than keyword tracking.
Advocate for “also asked” datasets for ChatGPT and similar tools.
Track topical coverage over exact matches to ensure visibility across semantic variations.
V. Future-Proofing SEO Strategy
Here’s a blueprint for adapting and thriving in the evolving SEO environment:
1. Adopt Branding-Minded Thinking
Treat SEO as both a traffic driver and a visibility channel. Just like social media, the goal isn’t always a click—it’s awareness, perception, and presence.
2. Monitor New Metrics Religiously
Set up dashboards that reflect the stratified model:
Input (content quality, indexation)
Channel (AI visibility, share of voice)
Performance (engagement, conversions)
3. Invest in Visibility Platforms
Use tools like Profound.ai, Datos, SimilarWeb, and custom log analysis to monitor visibility in AI ecosystems.
4. Prepare for Attribution Limitations
Don’t expect clean lines between exposure and ROI.
Use proxy metrics (like sentiment and citations) as indicators.
Run pre/post experiments to estimate impact.
5. Educate Up and Down
CMOs: Ask your teams to deliver visibility + performance metrics.
SEO Teams: Prepare leadership for a branding-oriented, less attributional future.
VI. Looking Ahead: Ranking’s Role Isn’t Dead—Just Evolving
Contrary to popular belief, rankings still matter—but as an input, not a goal. Even as AI interfaces dominate, they’re still underpinned by traditional ranking models (e.g., RAG—Retrieval-Augmented Generation).
If the major platforms stop showing the “10 blue links,” third-party platforms like Ahrefs or Majestic may recreate ranking-based models to simulate that layer. So, ranking visibility will remain a valuable signal, but not the primary KPI.
Conclusion: Embrace the Complexity, Drive the Clarity
The new SEO frontier is complex, decentralized, and fragmented. Yet it offers an exciting opportunity for marketing leaders and technical SEOs to reshape their strategy around influence, visibility, and user experience—not just clicks.
By adopting a layered measurement strategy, building new taxonomies, and embracing AI as a visibility partner rather than an adversary, brands can position themselves for durable relevance in the next era of search.
Next Steps:
Audit your current SEO reporting and identify gaps in the three-layer framework.
Start tracking AI citations and build prompt-specific monitoring.
Schedule leadership alignment sessions to reframe expectations and educate stakeholders.
The brands that thrive in 2025–2026 won’t cling to outdated KPIs—they’ll be the ones shaping meaningful visibility in a world where awareness comes before the click.
Artificial intelligence is becoming more deeply embedded in the way users search for, engage with, and consume information online. Businesses are now facing a new visibility frontier: large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity. These AI tools are rapidly shifting how people discover brands and products, but there has long been a missing piece for marketers: how can you measure your brand’s presence across these tools?
Enter AI mention trackers—tools like Profound, Peec AI, and others that are helping brands figure out how often they appear in AI-generated answers. Think of them as the modern-day equivalent of media monitoring tools, but instead of scanning newspapers or websites, they scan what the AIs are “saying” about you. Let’s walk through exactly how these tools work, step by step, in simple and clear terms.
Step 1: Feeding Questions to AI Models
The first thing an AI mention tracker does is simulate real-world user queries. For example, if you sell coffee, it might generate prompts like:
“What are the best coffee brands for home brewing?”
“Which companies sell sustainable coffee beans?”
These questions are either preloaded by the tool or customized by the user. Then, the tool asks these questions to various AI platforms—ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others. These queries are sent using APIs or simulated browser sessions, mimicking the behavior of a real user.
To make the results more robust, the tool may vary how it phrases the questions, capturing a wider net of responses. This ensures the data reflects how real users might engage with AI tools.
Step 2: Collecting the AI’s Answers
Once the questions are submitted, the AI models reply with natural-language answers. The tracker collects all of these answers—a big pool of unstructured text. If the AI provides source citations or links (as Bing or Google often do), the tool grabs those too.
This phase is about capturing everything that the AI outputs, regardless of whether your brand appears yet.
Step 3: Detecting Brand Mentions
Now comes the scanning. The tool searches through each AI-generated answer looking for specific brand names, website URLs, or product terms. It checks to see if, for example, “Acme Coffee” or “acmecoffee.com” shows up in the text.
This is similar to a human pressing “Ctrl+F” and looking for their company’s name. The tool notes:
Where the mention appeared
How often it appeared
In what context (Was it a top recommendation? Just a mention in passing?)
If the brand doesn’t appear, that’s recorded too. These “non-mentions” are equally important because they show where the AI isn’t recognizing your brand.
Step 4: Counting and Aggregating Mentions
The tracker now tallies up the results across many queries and platforms. This helps quantify your brand’s visibility. You might learn that your brand appeared in:
8 out of 20 questions on ChatGPT
10 out of 20 on Google Gemini
Only 3 out of 20 on Bing Chat
These numbers are typically translated into metrics like “share of voice” (SOV) or mention frequency. Tools like Profound display this in an easy-to-read dashboard, comparing your visibility to your competitors.
Over time, this creates trend lines that show whether your brand’s AI visibility is improving or declining.
Step 5: Attributing Mentions to Sources
A crucial part of these tools is identifying why an AI mentioned your brand. In many cases, it’s because of external sources cited by the AI model. For example:
Bing Chat might footnote your brand with a link to a popular review site
Google’s AI Overviews might mention your company and cite your blog or Wikipedia
The tracking tool records these citations and links them to your mentions. This is called “citation analysis.” It helps you understand which articles, websites, or publications are fueling your AI visibility.
When an AI doesn’t mention you but mentions a competitor, these tools can also highlight what sources were cited for them. This gives you ideas about where you might need more coverage.
Step 6: Presenting the Results
All of this data gets organized into a simple dashboard. It might tell you:
Your brand was mentioned in 40% of answers about “best coffee brands” on ChatGPT this month
That’s up from 30% the month before
The most frequently cited source was HomeBarista.com
Competitor JavaWorld appeared more often than you on Google SGE
Some tools also analyze sentiment: whether the AI’s tone was positive, neutral, or negative about your brand. While more advanced, this adds another layer to understanding your visibility.
A Real-Life Example: Acme Coffee
Imagine you run a fictional brand called Acme Coffee. You want to know if AI tools are recommending you when people ask about coffee.
The tracker sends prompts like “What are the best coffee brands?” to ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and Bing Chat.
ChatGPT responds with: “Some great coffee brands are Acme Coffee, BeanCo, and JavaWorld.” The tool flags that Acme was mentioned.
Google’s AI says: “According to HomeBarista.com, Acme Coffee roasts top-tier beans.” The tool notes the mention and attributes the source.
Bing Chat doesn’t mention Acme at all but includes JavaWorld. That’s also important intel.
After querying multiple questions and platforms, the tracker produces a report:
Acme was mentioned in 7 out of 10 queries on ChatGPT
5 out of 10 on Google Gemini
3 out of 10 on Bing Chat
Most Acme mentions cited HomeBarista.com
JavaWorld beat Acme by 2 mentions across the board
Tools Like Ahrefs Add Another Layer
Some platforms, like Ahrefs, take a slightly different but powerful approach. Rather than running queries in real time, Ahrefs leverages a vast existing database of AI responses and questions. You can type in a brand name or topic like “sneakers,” and instantly see a list of relevant queries and AI answers that reference the topic.
This lets you:
Identify competitor gaps (queries where your competitors show up but you don’t)
Discover new topic opportunities (queries you never thought of that relate to your niche)
This retrospective approach complements real-time trackers like Profound or Peec AI by giving you a broader strategic view.
Tracking LLM Traffic in GA4: Why It Matters
AI visibility isn’t just theoretical. Brands are already seeing meaningful traffic driven by AI tools. Tracking this traffic in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is now essential.
While Google Search Console still blends AI Overview and AI Mode traffic with regular search, GA4 gives you tools to segment this data more precisely.
Two Main Tracking Approaches:
GA4 Explore Reports:
Create a session segment using a custom regex filter to capture traffic from AI sources like ChatGPT, OpenAI, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.
Visualize this data with line graphs, bar charts, or tables.
Looker Studio Reports:
For detailed reports: Create a new channel group in GA4 for AI traffic.
For quicker views: Use the same regex filter in your Looker Studio tables and charts.
These dashboards let you:
Track how much traffic is coming from AI tools
See which pages are being visited from AI answers
Understand whether your AI visibility is translating into real engagement
Final Thoughts: Why This Matters
The future of search is increasingly conversational and AI-driven. Tools like Profound, Peec AI, and Ahrefs help marketers stay ahead by answering this crucial question:
“Are the AIs talking about me?”
If they are, great—you can double down on what’s working. If not, you can take action to increase visibility by improving the content on sites that AIs pull from.
AI mention trackers give marketers, PR pros, and SEOs a crucial lens into how modern algorithms perceive and recommend their brands. By bridging the gap between traditional SEO metrics and AI-powered search behaviors, these tools ensure your strategy remains both measurable and forward-looking.
Start tracking now, and you’ll not only see how often you appear in the AI conversation, you’ll start shaping it.
Why “Trust” Is Your Fastest‑Growing Practice Asset
Trust Surge Framework
When someone Googles “implant dentist near me” or “dermatologist that actually listens”, they’re half‑deciding whether to hand over their health (and a few thousand dollars) before they ever meet you. In a 2024 BrightLocal survey, 87 % of patients said they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation when choosing a provider. Translation: your digital presence is now your front‑desk receptionist, chair‑side manner, and waiting‑room aroma—all rolled into one.
The Trust Surge Framework compresses what marketing pros normally spread out over months into a tight six‑and‑a‑half‑minute routine you can repeat every quarter. Grab your stethoscope (or mirror and explorer) and let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
Step 1 – Perfect Your Profile
Fill Every Blank Space
Google Business Profile (GBP), Healthgrades, Zocdoc, each listing is a formal introduction. An incomplete profile is the digital equivalent of showing up to the OR without scrubs. Make sure:
Name‑Address‑Phone (N‑A‑P) are identical everywhere (Suite # vs. Ste. throws algorithms into an existential crisis).
Categories are procedure‑specific: “Periodontist—Implant Dentistry” will outrank plain old “Dentist.”
Business hours include phone‑answering times, not just when you’re drilling or prescribing.
Pro‑Tip: Copy‑paste your N‑A‑P into a pinned note. Whenever you open a new directory, paste, rinse, repeat.
Visual Proof
Slip a side‑by‑side screenshot into your marketing playbook: one perfectly filled GBP, one “sloppy” with a generic logo and no hours. Let the night‑and‑day difference humble the team.
Step 2 – Show, Don’t Tell
20+ High‑Res Photos
Humans process images 60,000× faster than text (it’s science—and also why we can spot a crooked painting before reading the caption). Aim for:
Team headshots that reveal you own an iron, not just a white coat.
Facility shots—reception, operatories, even your fancy autoclave.
HIPAA‑safe before/after photos. (Crop faces or get explicit consent—patients in 2025 know their rights and how to leave one‑star missiles.)
A 15‑Second Walkthrough Video
Smartphone + gimbal = a mini Netflix tour. Keep it:
Tight: 15–20 seconds—long enough to show you have walls, short enough to finish before the anesthetic wears off.
Vertical: Reels and Shorts love 9:16.
Captioned: 85 % of viewers watch on mute while waiting for the hygienist.
Step 3 – Ethical Review Harvesting
The Post‑Visit Email
While the patient is still marveling at their symmetrical gumline, send an email:
Subject: “How did we do? (takes 30 seconds)”
Body: single sentence + bold “Leave a Review” button that lands directly on your GBP review box.
Open rates average 61 % for post‑care emails—triple most newsletters.
The Discreet QR Card
On the checkout desk, place a 3 × 5 card:
Scan ➜ Review ➜ (optional selfie with new smile)
Patients love high‑tech touches; you love not handing out paper forms like it’s 1999.
Zero Incentives = 100 % HIPAA‑Safe
“You’ll enter a gift‑card raffle” sounds generous until the Office for Civil Rights comes knocking. Keep it to gratitude only. (Besides, no one wants a $15 coffee card from the person who just billed their insurance $3,000.)
Step 4 – HIPAA‑Proof Responses
The 48‑Hour Rule
Reply to every review—glowing or scathing—within two days. Silence reads like guilt; slow replies read like you’re too busy counting money.
Reviewer Mood
Your HIPAA‑Safe Template
Ecstatic: “Dr. Lee made my veneers look natural.”
“Thank you for the kind words! We love creating confident smiles. – Dr. Lee’s Team”
Furious: “They ruined my root canal!”
“We’re sorry to hear you’re disappointed. Please call our office at 555‑7890 so we can help.”
Notice what’s missing? No protected health info. No: “Ah yes, Mrs. Gonzalez, about that molar #19…”
Gold Standard: Thank ➜ Apologize (if needed) ➜ Move offline. In that order. Every time.
Step 5 – Audit & Repeat
Monthly Citation Scan
Use a free tool like Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder or low‑cost BrightLocal to export every listing. Fix any N‑A‑P drift (suite #, new phone line, spelling variations).
Track Star Ratings
Dump ratings into a Google Sheet:
Month
Google
Yelp
Zocdoc
Healthgrades
Avg.
Jan
4.6
4.2
4.7
4.5
4.5
Feb
4.7
4.3
4.8
4.6
4.6
If any platform drops 0.2 stars or more, launch a micro‑campaign: email last month’s satisfied patients and politely ask for a review.
Quarterly Photo Refresh
New team member? Remodel your lobby? Swap out images before they start looking like dental X‑rays from the ’80s.
Putting It All Together (Spoiler: It Compounds)
Individually, each step nudges conversion rates. Together, they create a trust flywheel:
Optimized profiles rank you higher in Maps.
Visual proof keeps bounce rates low.
Fresh reviews raise click‑through rates (CTR) by up to 35 % compared to listings with fewer than five recent reviews.
HIPAA‑safe responses show regulators—and patients—you know the rules.
Routine audits prevent “citation creep” that erodes local rankings over time.
By month three, most practices see:
10–25 % lift in organic phone calls.
5‑point jump in review counts (without begging Grandma to write another).
A noticeable drop in lead cost from Google Ads because the algorithm rewards listings with higher Quality Scores.
Common Excuses (And Their Cavity‑Free Counterpoints)
Excuse
Rebuttal
“I’m a surgeon, not a TikToker.”
Great—record once and let your receptionist upload. You’ve spent years mastering sutures; this is 15 seconds with a smartphone.
“Patients don’t care about photos.”
Before scrolling any further, check your phone. Count how many photos you liked today. Your patients did the same—right before Googling you.
“Responding to reviews is awkward.”
So is explaining a root canal. Yet you do it daily. Have an assistant do it for you.
Metrics That Matter (Steal‑This Dashboard)
Profile Completeness Score – Aim for 100 % across top five directories.
Photo Count – Minimum 20, update quarterly.
Review Velocity – ≥ 3 new Google reviews/month.
Average Response Time – < 48 hours.
Citation Consistency – 0 mismatches.
Plug these into Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio). Set red/yellow/green conditional formatting—because nothing motivates like a bright‑red cell screaming “FIX ME.”
Final Checkup: Your 30‑Day Sprint Plan
Week
Action
Outcome
1
Audit & perfect GBP + top directories
100 % profile completeness
2
Shoot photos & 15‑s walkthrough
20+ images uploaded
3
Launch post‑visit email + QR card
First wave of new reviews
4
Reply to all reviews, build KPI tracker
HIPAA‑proof reputation engine
Rinse, repeat next quarter. The Trust Surge framework scales: whether you’re a solo endodontist or a 10‑op insurance‑free powerhouse, the principles stay identical, just swap one practitioner selfie for ten.
Parting Wisdom from the Mouth (Mirror) of Experience
Patients can’t smell your lavender essential oils through a screen, but they can smell neglect. Show them you care online, and they’ll assume you care even more in person. Besides, nothing tastes sweeter than a five‑star review, except maybe post‑op ice cream (try the vanilla, skip the nuts).
Ready to spark your own Trust Surge Framework? Crack open that spreadsheet, pop your phone on the charger, and book a 30‑minute strategy call with SEO Rank Media. When the timer dings, you’ll be one step closer to a waiting room that feels like a Beyoncé concert—minus the pyrotechnics, plus a whole lot of booked appointments.
Is it the end of ‘the click’? Okay, maybe that’s a tad bit dramatic. If you’ve heard of zero-click marketing, you’ll know that it’s not exactly new, but it’s making serious headway in the digital marketing world, and it’s time for you to hop on board.
See, the quiet revolution we’re seeing online isn’t about long-tail keywords or 3D landing pages (that would be kind of cool, though). Instead, it’s more subtle. Things are happening right in front of you that you probably aren’t noticing.
So, if you’re not updated with the latest trends, you might feel like you’re falling behind and that your business is fading into the background. But if you’re reading this, don’t worry; you’re already one step ahead.
Zero-click SEO is where users can see your content and engage with it, without a single click.
I know, I know. You’ve been spending years focusing on building your business’s website traffic. But zero-click doesn’t mean your efforts have zero value.
Let’s talk about what zero-click SEO is, how it’s changing the online world, and what you can do to avoid being left behind.
Table of Contents
What Is Zero-Click SEO?
Normally, SEO focuses on optimizing your content to bring traffic to your website.
Ah, traditional SEO. Those were the good ol’ days. And while the traditional idea behind SEO is still valuable, zero-click SEO is a bit different.
Instead of creating a strategy that drives traffic to your website, zero-click SEO focuses on showing your content where people are already spending their time and consuming content without directly clicking through to it.
What does this mean? This can include:
Featured snippets and AI Overviews on Google
Engaging content posted on your Google Business profile
In-app content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok
AI-generated summaries from tools like Perplexity or ChatGPT
Podcast mentions, newsletter blurbs, and other coverage that doesn’t link out
Now, don’t take it personally. Zero-click SEO is not here to leave your website in the dust. Instead, it’s about influencing people where they already are. And that can be even more powerful than traffic.
Is Zero-Click Taking Over?
It’s a question everyone has when new information like this pops up. With so many things changing, it’s normal to think, is this something I should pay attention to? In short, yes.
According to a study by SparkToro, almost 60% of all Google Searches end without a click. That’s a lot. This means most people who look up a query on Google end their session without clicking on any results. In other words, most people aren’t going to your website.
What happens to the other 40%? Those users know where they want to go—and that’s great. But for the remaining 60%, they’re still figuring out.
Let’s go over why zero-click SEO is a necessity.
1. Google isn't sending you traffic anymore
It’s time to accept the truth. As you saw above, almost two-thirds of all Google searches end without a single click. I even used an italicized font—that’s how serious it is.
What this means is that Google is answering queries directly within the search results, whether it’s through AI overviews, product previews, featured snippets, or knowledge panels.
Maybe you see this as a bummer because you want people to come to your website. But remember what we spoke about earlier? You know, the 60% of users end their search sessions without making a click? So for most queries, you weren’t getting the traffic anyway.
Instead, you need to look at this from a different angle. Google’s goal is to give people what they want, which is straightforward, concise content that answers their queries.
How will this affect your business? Taking advantage of the advice given in this article will help position you as a trusted expert, influencing the user whether they click or not.
2. Social platforms aren’t link friendly
Sorry, but the glory days of social media as a place to share blog posts and drive traffic are long gone.
And it doesn’t matter which platform we’re talking about, whether Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, or X. Algorithms are deprioritizing content with external links. It’s not a myth, it’s a reality. Hootsuite found that tweets without links receive 25% more engagement than those with links.
Why? Because these platforms want their users to stay on their apps. An external link means they leave the app, and that’s a no-no. If you’ve been on Instagram or X lately, you’ll have noticed they don’t allow clickable links in captions at all.
In this case, you want to focus on creating content on those platforms that are so valuable users won’t want to leave. Sure, you may not get the website traffic you want, but you’ll earn trust and attention.
3. Outreach without links is a winner
Backlinks are the holiest of all when it comes to off-page SEO. However, these days, there’s more that’s usually needed.
If you haven’t seen a link request email in some time, that’s because they’re in your spam folder. Backlinks have been so used and abused by SEOs that they usually end up in spam.
Rather than requesting links, sending pitches that focus on your product, brand, or research as something newsworthy is more relevant. Remember, zero-click SEO is about influencing without the click.
So, getting mentioned in a trusted newsletter, having a soundbite on a podcast, or a shoutout on a subreddit may not bring in traffic, but it’ll help you gain attention and trust.
4. AI and LLMs aren’t into links
We can’t forget this one. Language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI tools like Perplexity and Bing Copilot are the shiny new innovations.
But these platforms aren’t always going to send you traffic.
They like to answer the users’ questions right within their platforms, with no need for backlinks.
You want your brand to be mentioned within your niche—frequently. These platforms base their answers on context and relevancy. If your brand shows consistency in its niche and provides relevant content, these platforms will take information from you. In other words, you need to be everywhere possible that people are talking about your industry. It’s the best way to be seen.
How to Shift to Zero-Click SEO
It’s a lot to take in, we know. If people don’t need to click, how can you measure what’s working?
See, we all know that traffic is a vanity metric, and the digital marketing world needed a shake-up. Traffic doesn’t mean conversions, and we all know that. Here’s what matters more:
Who’s hearing about you?
Are you influencing decision-making?
Are you building brand trust and awareness?
Are the impressions becoming conversions?
You might have seen the LinkedIn post by Wil Reynolds, where he wrote about how his traffic dropped by 41% but his newsletter sign-ups were up by 65%. How does that happen? Because conversions don’t only come from traffic, but also from trust, recommendations, and delivering value wherever the customer finds you.
To pivot your strategy and incorporate zero-click SEO in your business, do the following:
Write for AI
While you should write for your audience, you also want to make sure your content is clear and concise (AI loves that). You should use bullet points, lists, and short paragraphs. Write for your readers and for AI.
Create social content
Create content that doesn’t need a link to prove its value. Focus on storytelling, infographics, accurate data, and tutorials to create content that engages and provides value.
Track the right KPIs
Rather than only focusing on “website visitors” (it’s time to let it go), focus on the following metrics:
Branded search volume
Social engagement and reach
Direct traffic or type-in visits
Conversion rates and revenue
Podcast or media mentions
Share of voice in AI outputs
Don’t only focus on links
Don’t spend all your time and effort worrying about links. Instead, also focus on getting your brand talked about. Connect with journalists and content creators to gain attention and trust.
Influence > Traffic
Zero-click SEO isn’t something new, but it is becoming a serious part of digital marketing. Whether it’s Google or a social media platform, their goal is the same: they all want users to stay on their sites. For AI, this means providing the information they need without them having to leave the platform.
To give users what they want while also getting what you need as a business owner, focus on building influence. It’ll last you longer than a click. So, build trust, show up everywhere, and create the value your audience needs.
Will you get the traffic you want? Maybe not, and you’ll need to accept that, at least in the short run. But what you will get is a deeper, more genuine, and more aligned marketing strategy that you’ve needed all along.
SEO Rank Media believes that the best digital strategies integrate the best of both worlds, leveraging traditional SEO alongside zero-click SEO for a more holistic approach. By balancing efforts to drive website traffic with strategies that capture direct attention through AI, social media, and other zero-click platforms, businesses can maximize their online influence and establish greater trust with their audience. To explore how this dual strategy can be tailored to your business’s unique needs, feel free to reach out and set up a call with our team.
Remember the good days of SEO? Where you could cram in a few related keywords into your website content and Google would (maybe) reward you with top-ranking glory?
These were simpler times, and now we unfortunately find ourselves waving goodbye to the simplicity of it all. These days, AI-driven search tools like those found in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are re-writing the playbook (or just setting it on fire).
For businesses, the SEO game has changed.
It’s not just businesses pulling their collective hair out over this. Searching online as a regular human being has turned into an Olympic-level patience test. You type a question into Google and rather than getting a helpful answer, you’re bombarded with ads masquerading as advice. Those of us who have recently made use of AI-driven search have discovered a little secret: AI can sometimes answer our questions better than Google ever could.
Welcome to the Future of Search (or How We All Lost Our Minds)
So, how do we fix this? Well, we don’t. Instead, we adapt to this new wave of search technology that’s fast becoming a survival strategy for brands that need to stay relevant.
Say hello to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — a new lifeline for traditional SEO experts feeling the sting of AI-driven search. GEO offers more than merely surviving the noise but allows your brand to stand out where it matters the most, with visibility that actually counts.
The G.E.O.D.A.T.A Framework from SEO Rank Media is a seven-step strategy that covers everything from ensuring bots can crawl your content to dealing with those AI “hallucinations” where facts go to die.
Instead of fighting the system, make it work for you. If you’re ready to drop the SEO tricks of yesterday and learn more about GEO, let’s get started.
The G.E.O.D.A.T.A. Framework
AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity have opened up a whole new world for businesses to connect with audiences. Sounds great, right? But here’s the twist—this isn’t “business as usual” SEO anymore.
If your strategy is still clinging to Google SERPs like a security blanket, you’re already behind the curve.
That’s where the G.E.O.D.A.T.A. Framework comes in. Developed by SEO Rank Media, the framework gives your business a head start in the AI-driven search arena.
What makes the G.E.O.D.A.T.A. Framework different?
Practical from Day One: Each step is clear and actionable—you can actually do something with it.
Bigger Than AI Rankings: Sharpen your overall marketing game.
Team-Friendly: Easy enough to explain to your boss, clients, or that one coworker who still doesn’t “get” AI.
Why Bother with a Framework?
The field is no longer about simply “ranking in Google.” Today’s search environment demands leadership and strategy. Brands need guidance to navigate:
How to perform across multiple AI search platforms.
What kind of content to produce to engage these platforms.
Where and how to distribute content to maximize visibility.
The Steps of G.E.O.D.A.T.A.
The framework outlines a step-by-step process to align your content and search strategies with the AI-dominated world. Each step builds on the last to ensure your brand is positioned for success:
Gather Intelligence – Know what’s happening in the AI search world.
Evaluate Accessibility – Make sure bots can actually find your stuff (duh).
Optimize Brand Presence – Be unforgettable, or at least noticeable.
Develop Sentiment – Build a brand people (and AI) actually like.
Analyze Competitors – See what’s working for them and learn.
Target Data Sources – Be where the algorithms are pulling from.
Answer Accurately – Deliver real answers, not fluff.
1. Gather Intelligence
Tools like ChatGPT and Claude are shaping the way people perceive your business, whether you’re aware of it or not. So, understanding how these AI platforms view your brand is a big deal. If AI gets it wrong, like misrepresenting your brand or offering answers that aren’t very accurate, you’re left with customers who are judging your offerings based on bad info.
So, how do these AI platforms know what to say about you? It all comes down to the data they have been trained on. AI pulls from all sorts of sources, including:
Websites, blogs, and forums (including user-generated forums).
Ai synthesizes all this information and uses it to generate answers. The quality of those answers depends heavily on the data available. If your brand isn’t well-represented, or worse, represented inaccurately, the AI delivers those misleading results—with confidence.
So the first step is simple: start asking questions. Fire up an AI tool like ChatGPT and test the waters with queries like:
“What is [Your Brand]?
“What does [Your Brand] offer?
Is [Your Brand] trustworthy?”
Pay close attention. Does the AI accurately summarize your business? Are there outright inaccuracies?
Armed with these insights, you can identify where your messaging needs to improve and take steps to fix it. This isn’t guesswork, it’s actionable intelligence, and the very foundation of effective GEO.
2. Evaluate Accessibility
There’s been a lot of chatter lately about blocking AI from crawling websites—like letting bots read public information somehow equals grand theft data. Unless you’re sitting on government secrets (which shouldn’t really be public in the first place), blocking AI does more harm than good.
AI platforms use bots to crawl sites to get data for their models, the same way Google does. The difference is Google relies on structured indexing, and AI pulls data from a wider range of sources.
If you want to show up in AI search results, then you need to give these bots access to your page. It’s as simple as that.
Start by checking your robots.txt, the gatekeeper for bots. This file tells crawlers what they can and can’t access. Yes, it is smart to block some bots to save resources or secure sensitive areas, just make sure you’re not accidentally excluding AI too.
It’s likely you’re no stranger to how important brand presence is when it comes to SEO. AI platforms pull all of the information they find online and use it to understand and then represent your business when a user searches for it.
If your messaging is long-winded, vague, inconsistent, or missing, you’re risking misrepresentation, or worse, being completely ignored.
Your landing pages need a very frank and straightforward brand statement that answers the basics:
Who you are: “[Your brand] leads the way in sustainable home goods.”
What you do: “We create eco-friendly furniture for modern living.”
Why you’re different: “Our designs combine style, sustainability, and affordability.”
Make sure this messaging is everywhere AI platforms might be looking. Put it on your website, LinkedIn, and social media, and review responses as AI will draw answers from a multitude of sources.
Consistency is what gets your brand represented the way you want, and not as some random mashup of outdated info. Set the record straight before anyone can even get the wrong idea.
4. Develop Sentiment
AI platforms don’t just pull out the facts, they piece together a brand’s overall vibe from an array of sources: forums, reviews, and social media. The catch is that bad press tends to stick around like gum on a shoe.
Take AT&T, for example: ask ChatGPT about their reliability as a service provider and you’ll likely hear all about their 2024 outage alongside mentions of their reliability. Ouch.
Now, compare that to CrowdStrike. Despite their infamous broken Windows update causing probably the biggest global IT outage in history, you won’t see AI harping on it.
Why? They have absolutely mastered sentiment management, strategically flooding the digital space with positive content and well-managed review responses that overshadow their epic blunder.
If you want AI to focus on your wins, start by testing how platforms portray your brand. Ask questions like “Is [Your Brand] reliable?” Spot the negatives and tackle them head-on with corrective content.
Strong sentiment GEO means when people search for your brand, they see your strengths and not your stumbles.
5. Analyze Competitors
Keeping tabs on your competitors in the SEO world is a necessary evil, but with AI, it becomes a whole lot easier to see just where your business could sit in rankings.
AI rankings heavily influence user decisions, especially for the juicy middle-of-funnel searches like “Best in [location]” or “Top providers for [service].” Having an understanding of how your business stacks up against the competition reveals where you can step up your game, be more visible, and take your place in the share of the market.
Start by identifying the key competitive queries that are relevant to your industry. AI tools like ChatGPT make this quite easy, but for the best results, use a GEO service like SEO Rank Media to map out how competitors are ranking.
With this intel, it’s time to take action. Create content that answers these questions better than anyone else. Use clear, direct language, highlight your benefits, and make sure your expertise comes through in a specific way AI platforms recognize.
The goal here is to make sure your brand is the obvious choice for these searches.
AI platforms don’t just make things up (well, most of the time), they draw from trusted data sources like LinkedIn, GitHub, and even Reddit to create their responses. If you want your brand to show up in those results, you need to meet AI where it’s looking.
Here are a few ways you can improve your visibility:
Publish technical content on GitHub: This platform is a favorite for technical queries, so it’s perfect for showcasing your expertise in a concrete, credible way.
Share insights on LinkedIn: As a part of Microsoft’s ecosystem, LinkedIn is practically a VIP source for professional and industry-specific content.
Have some fun on Reddit: Claude and ChatGPT crawl Subreddits to gain community-driven perspectives. Join in on relevant discussions in an informational (not sales) way to boost your authenticity.
Get strategic in the way you place content and you’ll ensure your brand’s voice is part of the AI conversation.
7. Answer Accurately
AI “hallucinations” aren’t as fun as they sound. These occur when AI platforms respond with incorrect or misleading information that is so confident it would give ToastMasters a run for their money. Basically, they’re not something you want to happen when someone uses AI to look up your offerings.
The GEO fix for this issue is to create well-structured and relevant FAQ pages that answer critical questions like:
“Does [Brand] ship internationally?”
“How does [Brand] handle refunds?”
“What services does [Brand] Provide?”
Here’s some proof in the pudding. Taking a look at Ancestry.com’s FAQ page, you can see they have answered commonly asked questions about their service, with one being what do the results tell me?
Jumping onto ChatGPT and asking the question “What do my ancestry.com results tell me?” yields a result that was quite clearly taken from this FAQ page.
Understanding your audience helps here. You need to know what kind of questions they’re likely going to be typing into an AI search engine and give straightforward and simple answers to them on your website’s FAQ page.
The payoff will be fewer opportunities for hallucinations and a more accurate representation of your business in AI-generated results.
Why GEO is the Way Forward
Let’s be honest: AI search has turned SEO into a wild roller coaster. One minute, you’re impressed by ChatGPT’s ability to summarize complex topics; the next, it’s confidently claiming your brand sells banana-flavored widgets (which, of course, you don’t).
Staying ahead feels like having to learn SEO all over again, but it doesn’t have to.
With SEO Rank Media and the G.E.O.D.A.T.A. Framework, you’ve got a reliable roadmap to tame the chaos and put your brand back in the spotlight. It’s your chance to future-proof your digital strategy, outsmart AI’s quirks, and thrive in this unpredictable search landscape.
Ready to take charge? Let SEO Rank Media help you GEO your way to success.
Marketing in 2025 just isn’t what it used to be. There was a time, a glorious time when hitting “publish” on a blog post was like unlocking a floodgate of traffic. A well-placed keyword here and there, a handful of backlinks, and boom! You were on page one of Google, or at least in the top five.
Fast forward to 2025, and as you’re probably already painfully aware, it’s a totally different game. Consumers don’t just stumble onto blogs and convert overnight. Instead, they hop nonchalantly between Google, Instagram, AI-powered search, email, and social ads. It can also take quite a few of these hops, or “touchpoints,” before they’re ready to make a purchase.
For your business, this means that you can no longer just rely on a blog post or a single ad campaign to get the lead ball rolling. Marketing success today means you need to concentrate on these three things:
Multi-touch attribution, so you know what’s actually driving sales.
Building up and commanding omnipresence, so your brand shows up everywhere your customers are looking.
Creating a steady flow of good content to build trust, not just traffic.
Blogging used to be the golden ticket to online success, and brands that leveraged it dominated search results and thrived. Now, in 2025, competition is fierce, algorithms are smarter, and consumers are bouncing around between platforms before making a move.
So, is blogging dead? Not even close. It’s just playing a new role.
Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane to see how blogging and digital marketing came to be and why they’re still relevant today.
The 2000s: The Early Days of Blogging and SEO Goldmines
In the early 2000s, blogging was like rocking up to a nearly empty street, whipping out a megaphone and shouting out to anyone in earshot. There weren’t many people around, but anyone who showed up got heard. With such little competition, a well-optimized blog could rank in Google fairly effortlessly and drive thousands of visitors to your website.
Businesses could even monetize blogs, even back then. In fact, monetization occurred as early as 2003 with BlogAds, arguably the precursor to Google AdSense.
But, as with all things that actually work, businesses soon caught on. Those who invested in blogging saw huge returns, and a solid blog could single-handedly fuel brand awareness and generate real organic sales.
No paid ads, no complex funnels, just good quality content and strong SEO (even if we didn’t really understand what SEO was).
Yes, blogging was not only a marketing tool; it was the only marketing tool that really mattered. But then, social media arrived.
The 2010s: Social Media Disrupts Everything
The 2010s changed everything. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram utterly exploded in popularity and stole the attention away from traditional blogs.
People were still searching on Google, but they were also scrolling, sharing, and consuming bite-sized content on social media.
Smart brands saw the writing on the wall and used their long-form content, storytelling, and new-found expertise to provide the things social media couldn’t.
Blogs became a sort of “home base” where brands could deep-dive into topics, and social media posts became the vehicle through which traffic was directed.
It worked well, for a while. But today, even that strategy isn’t enough.
2025: Blogging as a Relationship-Building Tool
Here we are in 2025, and blogging is still alive and kicking, only now it’s no longer just about traffic, but trust. Every day, 7.5 million blog posts are published. That’s like the entire population of Hong Kong hitting the publish button on a daily basis, and Google has to catalog it all.
With so many posts, needless to say, simply ranking on Google won’t cut it anymore. Instead, blogs have become engagement hubs—places where brands educate, mature, and build loyalty with their audience.
The numbers back this up:
Businesses with a blog receive 55% more website visitors than those without.
Companies maintaining active blogs generate 67% more leads per month.
So, given all these intricacies, the dominance of social media, and the sheer number of blogs out there, why do they still work? Blogs give brands a voice, credibility, and a way to stay top-of-mind.
The brands winning in 2025 aren’t just writing for the clicks. They are creating blogs that:
Keep audiences engaged through email and social distribution.
In short, if you’re using your blog as just a content dump or creating content no one will realistically want to consume, you’re not building any trust. Play the game right, and your blog will not only attract visitors but also turn them into long-term customers.
Why Attribution Is Still Broken (and What to Do About It)
Ever taken a good look through your marketing analytics and asked yourself the quiet question, “Wait, which marketing effort actually got that sale?” Trust me when I say you’re not alone in this. Tracking customer journeys nowadays is very complicated.
The days where you could simply slap a “conversion” label on a single touchpoint have gone out the window. Today’s buyers are zigzagging their way through multiple platforms before they come to that all important decision to buy. They’re watching videos, reading reviews, searching for you on social media, and even asking ChatGPT.
And yet, most marketing attribution models are still stuck in the 2000s. Let’s break down where they fail and what to do about it.
The Old Way: Single-Touch Attribution
Back in the day, marketing attribution was super simple. You could either credit the first touch (where the customer first discovered you) or the last touch (where they finally converted).
First-touch attribution: “They found us through a blog post, so blogging gets the credit!”
Last-touch attribution: “They clicked an Instagram ad and bought it, so Instagram gets the credit!”
It all sounds so neat and tidy, case closed. Only it’s not. It’s actually wildly inaccurate.
These models completely ignore the journey in between. What if a customer found your site on Google, read a few blog posts, watched your YouTube video, then got retargeted through an email. Then they later clicked on an ad they saw before converting? Should that ad really get the credit? Probably not.
The New Reality: Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)
Enter multi-touch attribution (MTA). This is a model that spreads the credit across multiple interactions in the buyer’s journey.
For example:
A Google search for a hair dryer over a lunch break: This finds a blog post on your website.
The customer reads more of your content while having a coffee: They are engaging with your expertise.
Instagram ad: They’re off their lunch break but later at home while doom scrolling an ad pops up for your product and they’re reminded they need to keep reading. They subscribe to your blog’s newsletter.
Email newsletter: A final nudge from your campaign offering a 12% discount on hair care appliances.
Direct visit: They decided to jump on your site and buy the hair dryer.
This approach doesn’t just give all the credit to the discount offered in the newsletter or even the blog post itself. MTA assigns value to each and every step. It’s a huge improvement over single-touch, but it’s still far from perfect.
Why Multi-Touch Attribution Still Fails
Sorry to be the breaker of bad news, but MTA still has some massive blind spots:
The dark funnel problem: Analytics can’t track word-of-mouth referrals, a private recommendation over WhatsApp, or a few colleagues at work talking over Slack.
AI search: If someone found out about your product during a late-night session with ChatGPT or DeepSeek, how would you ever know it happened?
External influence: What if your competitor has a flash sale or a TikTok influencer makes a viral post featuring your product? No attribution model can account for these events; you have no insight here.
So, what’s the solution?
Ask your customers how they figured out you exist with a post-purchase survey.
Combine multiple tracking tools like Google Analytics, UTM tags (great for AI search), and social analytics.
Choose to accept that sometimes you just can’t keep tabs on everything. Instead focus on creating valuable touchpoints instead of chasing the “perfect” attribution model.
Attribution is never going to hit 100% accuracy, but understanding how these gaps account for success makes you a smart marketer.
The 2025 Marketing Playbook: Omnipresence (Without Burnout)
If you’ve been told you need to be “everywhere, all at once” online, take a deep breath, you don’t. The idea that brands need to dominate every single platform is one of the biggest marketing myths of the digital age.
What Omnipresence Actually Means
Being omnipresent doesn’t mean blasting your content across every channel possible, like an emergency broadcast. That’s a surefire route to burnout. Instead, the smartest brands in 2025 are strategically present where their audience already spends their time.
For some that might mean Google + LinkedIn, for others, it’s Instagram + email marketing. The key here is to choose the right platform, showing up consistently, and making every single interaction count.
Trying to be everywhere at once means you spread your resources way too thin. Instead, focus on being discoverable (SEO), engaging (social), and retaining (email). Nail those three, and you will be present where it actually matters.
Step 1: SEO
Even in 2025, Google is still the king of discovery, but now you can also add the web search capabilities of generative AI to the mix. Tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Perplexity pull much of their information straight off of search engine data, so that means if your content is optimized for search, you’re invisible across both fronts.
Tactic: Invest in SEO-friendly content and the occasional press release to get visibility in AI-generated responses. We outline this approach in detail across our G.E.O.D.A.T.A framework articles.
Step 2: Social
Social media is the new discovery engine, with 61% of consumers discovering new products on Instagram alone. Does that mean you need to be on every single one of them? No.
Tactic: Instead of trying to master TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube all at once, pick just one or two that align with your audience. If your customers are B2B pros, use LinkedIn. If you sell lifestyle products, Instagram is perfect. If you’re a financial institution, YouTube works wonders.
A strong presence on one well-managed platform beats a scattered presence across give every single time.
Step 3: Email
Social gets you noticed, but email keeps you remembered. In fact, 59% of consumers say that marketing has a significant effect on their purchase influence.
Unlike social media, where you’re at the mercy of algorithms, your email list is yours to keep forever. That’s why all the winning brands are still using it in 2025.
Tactic: Capture every single email address you can. Get them through blog CTAs and social bios, and create irresistible lead magnets. Then, nurture those leads with a steady feed of personalized, valuable, and engaging content. That way, when those customers are ready to buy, you’ll be right there, top of mind.
How Many Interactions Does It Really Take to Make a Sale?
If you’ve ever heard of the old marketing “Rule of 7” (the idea that a customer needs to see your brand at least seven times before they commit to a purchase), it’s time to forget it. That rule was made for an era when people had to get up off the couch to mute their TV and still read newspapers.
Rule of 7? More like 20+ Touchpoints
It’s 2025, and most people don’t make snap decisions anymore. Instead, they willingly enter a maze of interactions before finally settling on a purchase. And the number of touchpoints they went through to get there? Well, it’s a lot higher than seven.
Warm leads: These are people who already know and like your brand, but even they need 5-12 touchpoints before they trust you enough to type in their credit card number.
Cold prospects: Well, they’re called cold for a reason. These potentials need 20 – 50 touches before calling a decision.
Inactive customers: Breathe a sigh of relief. Typically, they only need 1 – 3.
Your brand needs to be seen, heard, remembered, and trusted across multiple channels. If someone discovers you first on Google with a search but then sees you again pop up on LinkedIn, they’re more likely to follow the trail and become a customer.
How to Speed up the Buyer Journey
If you wait for those 50 touchpoints to happen organically, you probably won’t be selling much in the near future. You need to give the process a gentle nudge:
Use remarketing ads: Most visitors won’t buy on their first visit, so retarget them on Google, Facebook, and Instagram as a gentle reminder.
Offer micro-commitments: Free trials, lead magnets, a newsletter—anything to nurture the lead and keep them engaged.
Keep the message consistent: If your website, ads, and social content all tell the same clear story, then people are going to recognize you fast, and remember you.
The brands that win the marketing races of 2025 aren’t just going to pop up once or twice. They’re going to strategically plant themselves in front of their audience until the time is just right.
The 3-Part Marketing Formula for 2025
The one magic marketing trick doesn’t exist anymore, so 2025 is the year when you should stop chasing it. Instead, focus on playing a long game with a strategy that actually works. That means concentrating on the three core pillars we already discussed:
Engaging blog content: Think of blogging as more than just luring traffic to your site. It has to be valuable and engaging. Use it to build trust, authority, and brand loyalty.
Smart tracking: Multi-touch attribution helps, and you should use it. Just understand that it’s not perfect, know its blind spots, get surveys out there, and track what you can.
Use strategic omnipresence: You absolutely don’t need to be everywhere all at once on a biblical scale. Just be present where it matters. Remember: SEO, social, email.
Master these three, and you will no longer be chasing down customers. You’ll be attracting them.
It’s 2025 and if you’re still overlooking local service ads, then your business is already falling behind!
Right now, over a dozen of your competitors are taking up Google searches for the right keywords in your industry. They are getting all the customer attention and beating you before you have a chance.
But the good news is: that could be you.
Those competitors aren’t waving some sort of magical wand; they only know how to use local service ads (LSAs) to make this possible. But with this article, you can beat most local businesses at this game and be the front and center for eager, ready-to-book customers.
Here, we’ll give you all you need to know about how LSAs work, why they are a game changer, and how to set up and optimize them to undoubtedly crush your competition. You can also checkout this video to see them in action.
Table of Contents
What Are Local Service Ads (LSAs)?
LSAs are a special type of Google ad that connects local businesses with people who are actively looking for their services.
LSAs are different from regular Google Ads because they are made to directly meet local needs. That means you’ll find it really useful if you’re a dentist, plumber, lawyer, or other service provider.
LSAs are pay-per-lead rather than pay-per-click (PPC), meaning you only pay when you receive a real, qualified lead. This targeted approach not only saves businesses money but also makes sure they get real questions from people who are truly interested in potentially using your service, not just clicks.
How Do Local Service Ads Work?
When people search for services “near me” in their city, LSAs are right at the top of the local search results. Customers who see your ad can click or tap on it to call you or send you a message.
The Local Services Ads app and email will let you know when they get in touch. From that point on, it is up to you to turn the lead into a customer.
The best thing about them is that they come with extra perks that will help you build trust, like the green “Google Guaranteed” badge from Google, customer reviews, and star ratings. These all help establish credibility right away.
Here’s how LSAs differ from regular ads:
Priority Placement: LSAs appear above organic search results and other types of paid ads to give your business the topmost visibility.
Better Engagement: They show important business details like location, phone number, reviews, and business hours. This way, potential customers can quickly and easily learn about your services before even clicking.
Pay-Per-Lead: LSAs let businesses avoid click-based costs. So you only get charged for valid leads (if you sponsor it).
The Pay-Per-Lead Model
Why pay for clicks when you can pay for leads? The brilliance of LSAs lies in their pay-per-lead model. With LSAs, you only pay when you get a real lead, not for every random visitor. This gives you total control over your ad spend and guarantees a better return on investment (ROI).
If you run a service-based business, LSAs deliver actual inquiries from people ready to take action. So every dollar you invest goes toward landing real customers.
Google’s Automated System for Handling Low-Quality Leads
If you’re sick of wasting money on bad leads, then Google’s got you covered!
One of the biggest frustrations with online ads? Paying for low-quality leads. But with LSAs, Google’s automated system now flags and disputes invalid leads in real time.
This tool has been made open to all LSA users since July 2024. That means you can say goodbye to manually disputing bad leads.
Instead of charging you for unqualified leads, Google will give you credit automatically. You can even see which leads Google returned to your account by looking at their report on disputed leads. This gives you a clear picture of how much you’ve spent on ads.
However, if Google’s system fails to catch an invalid lead, you can still dispute it manually! This way, you’ll always be in charge and never have to pay for leads that don’t meet your needs.
At the end of the day, it’ save you time and money in the long run. It’s a better and easier way to make sure you only pay for real customers.
Google’s Automated System for Handling Low-Quality Leads
1. LSAs put your business right at the top!
With LSAs, your business isn’t just another search result; it becomes the first thing potential customers see.
This top spot is a big advantage, especially if you’re a small business owner, where being seen first can mean the difference between getting a customer and losing them to a competitor.
2. Pay only for real leads!
Are you sick of shelling out cash for clicks that don’t turn into sales? Let’s just say that you’re only charged when there’s genuine engagement, that is, when someone calls or sends you a message.
Nothing builds trust faster than Google’s green “Google Guaranteed” badge. This badge means Google has verified your business, which sends a message of credibility and security to your potential customers.
Knowing that they’re dealing with a trusted service provider makes them more likely to reach out. The guarantee that Google backs your business can tip the scale in your favor, especially in competitive markets.
4. Simplify customer contact
One of the best parts about LSAs is how easy they make it for customers to contact you.
Prospective customers can call or text your business right from the ad with just one tap. Your potential customers will take a lot fewer steps between finding your website and getting in touch with you now that the process has been streamlined.
The easier it is to reach you, the faster you can close the deal.
5. Understand your customers better with valuable insights!
The first thing an LSA does is find new leads, but they also give you real insight. They allow you to see what demographic is responding to your ads, what services they’re interested in, and how they generally prefer to connect with you by keeping track of their interactions.
If you want to refine your marketing and make your services better fit the needs of your customers, these insights are like pure gold.
6. Flexible budgets, easy setup, and total control!
Worried about how to set up your ads? It’s easy with LSAs. In fact, it’s so fast and easy that you can start using them almost right away.
Also, if you have a flexible budget, you’ll find it easy to adjust how much you spend.
7. Target your neighborhood or the whole city
With LSAs, you can precisely target the places that are most relevant to your business.
They help you get in touch with local customers in places where you’re most wanted. You can also reach people in more than one area or zip code.
8. Mobile-first design
These days, everyone reaches for their cell phone when searching for services or handling everyday tasks.
How to See if a Local Service Ad Is Available
Before you start using LSAs, you should make sure they are available in your industry and area. Here’s how:
Testing LSAs in Different Zip Codes: If your main zip code is not supported, try testing nearby zip codes to broaden your search. You can use this to widen your service area and capture leads from nearby locations to maximize your leads.
Setting Up Local Service Ads for Your Business
“Ready to get more leads now? Here’s how to set up LSAs in just a few key steps to bring in leads:
Remember to keep it simple and strong. Simply put, you need to include the essentials, like the name of your business, its address, a phone number, and a detailed explanation of the services you offer. Do not stop until you have uploaded videos and photos that show off your work in the best way.
3. Encourage Customer Reviews
Positive reviews are like gold for your LSA rankings, so actively encourage satisfied customers to leave feedback.
4. Master the Art of Response
Set up instant notifications to quickly address customer inquiries. Since you don’t want to keep prospects waiting, you need to respond promptly, as that will improve your visibility and conversion rates. Then go further by showing genuine care and attention to each customer.
Understanding LSA Ranking Factors
Getting your local service ads (LSAs) to rank high on Google isn’t magic. You just have to manage a few key factors that can push your business to the top spot. Here’s what you need to pay attention to:
1. Customer Reviews and Ratings
The more positive reviews you get, the better!
2. Proximity to Searchers
LSAs are meant to connect customers with businesses in the area. You will rank higher if you are closer to the searcher. Just be sure that your location details are accurate!
3. Fast Response Time
Google really likes businesses that reply quickly. You’ll really be helping yourself by setting up real-time notifications. And since you get notifications, you can respond to inquiries as soon as they come in, which will in turn improve your ranking.
4. Complete Profile
Google rewards businesses that have complete profiles that list their services, hours, photos, and how to contact them.
How to Maximize ROI from Local Service Ads
To get the best return on your LSA investment, track and optimize performance metrics that matter:
Track key performance metrics: Focus on cost per lead, conversion rate, and customer satisfaction. High ROI comes from closely monitoring these indicators and adjusting campaigns based on performance.
Handling Disputes for Low-Quality Leads: If you receive unqualified leads, you can manually dispute them, ensuring you only pay for legitimate leads.
Tips for Budgeting Your LSA Campaign: To get the most out of your advertising budget, plan how to spend it based on your service area, competition, and seasonal demand.
Bottom Line
You need local service ads more than anything else in your marketing arsenal if you want your business to stand out from the rest in 2024 and beyond. There’s almost no better way to rank high at the top of Google’s search results, especially if you don’t want to overspend.
The nicest thing about this is you are attracting “ready-to-purchase” prospects.
Think about it! You could be at the top of local search results, closing deals, and growing your business while your competitors are still spending money on old-fashioned ads or waiting months for SEO to work.
The question isn’t whether you should start using LSAs—the question is, how fast can you start?
Get ahead of your competitors now by setting up your profile and optimizing it for success. The earlier you start, the sooner you’ll see results.
For expert guidance in maximizing your LSA marketing efforts, your best and, we must say, only option is SEO Rank Media. Rest in the power of a supercharged team that lives and breathes LSAs!
