As AI reshapes how consumers discover and evaluate products, marketers face a fundamental question: how do you remain visible? In this guest article, Tifenn Dano Kwan, Chief Marketing Officer at product tracking platform Amplitude, reveals why the traditional playbook of SEO is no longer sufficient, and what forward-thinking brands must do instead.
For years, the job of a marketer was to reach people by climbing the search rankings. Teams obsessed over keywords, backlinks and page structures in order to capture attention at the top of Google results. But the rules of visibility have changed. Today, your most important customer is no longer just the person buying your product, but the AI that decides whether that person ever sees you at all.
Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google Gemini are becoming the new gatekeepers of brand and product discovery. Unlike traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) which presents long lists of links, these systems deliver direct, and most importantly, personalised answers. That means your brand is no longer one of ten blue hyperlinks on a page, but at best, it is one of two or three names mentioned in a summarised response. For marketers, the implications of this shift are monumental.
The End of SEO as We Knew It
Traditional SEO relies on long understood tactics. It involves identifying keywords, producing content, securing backlinks, and hoping to climb the rankings, but that system is eroding fast. Bain & Company recently reported that 80 percent of consumers now rely on zero-click results for at least 40 percent of their searches, meaning they never reach a website at all. That shift is already moving beyond discovery to purchase. OpenAI’s new Instant Checkout feature within ChatGPT allows users to buy products directly without ever leaving the chat. If customers can use AI to browse and now to buy, the traditional customer journey has effectively been rewritten. McKinsey’s latest B2B Pulse Survey shows that almost one in five decision makers are already using generative AI tools to research and compare products.
In other words, your audience is consulting generative AI for answers rather than manually sifting through search results themselves. And because these LLMs prioritise authority over volume, the old playbook of churning out generic blog posts is no longer enough.
What AI is Looking For
If LLMs are now the intermediaries, the question becomes how to get on their side. The answer lies in understanding what they are trained to privilege. This is where a new discipline is starting to take shape, Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO. In simple terms, GEO is the practice of ensuring your brand’s content, structure and reputation are recognised and accurately represented by generative AI models. Just as SEO helped brands rise through search rankings, GEO is about teaching large language models to trust, reference and recommend you.
First, they reward authority. Content with clear authorship, subject matter expertise and depth stands a better chance of being surfaced. Second, they lean on reputation signals from across the internet. Independent reviews, analyst coverage and mentions on trusted platforms all shape how language models perceive your brand. Finally, they value consistency. Conflicting or outdated information across different touchpoints can dilute your visibility, because LLMs are less likely to recommend brands with mixed signals.
The reality is that what others say about your brand matters more than what you say yourself. Third party validation such as a recent customer review or an analyst mention may weigh more heavily than your carefully optimised homepage.
Building a New Playbook
So how do you market to a LLM? The best way to start is by auditing your visibility directly in generative AI chatbots. Ask the questions your customers might ask: “What are the best CRM tools for small businesses?” or “Which analytics platform scales best for enterprise?” Do you appear? If not, why?
Next, prioritise first party content with clear authorship. A thoughtful article written by your head of product will carry more weight than a keyword stuffed explainer as LLMs are growingly learning to recognise expertise.
Then, build third party validation deliberately. Invest in analyst relationships, encourage authentic customer reviews, and seek coverage in credible industry outlets. Think of this as PR for the LLMS, where every external mention is another signal reinforcing your authority.
The technical side also matters. Models, like search crawlers, need content to be well structured and LLM readable. Clear data hierarchies, schema markup and mobile friendly design all help ensure your content is both accessible and understandable.
Finally, treat AI sourced traffic as its own channel. A recent Semrush study found that an average AI search visitor delivers 4.4 times the conversion value of a traditional organic visitor. Even if traffic volume looks smaller, the quality and intent are much higher. Tracking how often your brand is cited by AI systems, and monitoring the downstream impact on leads, should become a core part of your marketing analytics.
Balancing Machines with Human Perspective
While LLMs are now critical intermediaries, it would be a mistake to assume they replace the human perspective. Algorithms can surface answers, but they lack empathy, creativity and context. As marketers, we must ensure our brand retains its voice, its values and its point of view. Optimising for language models does not mean stripping out personality. It means making sure that authenticity is structured in a way LLMs can recognise and amplify.
The Opportunity Ahead
The shift from SEO to AI discovery doesn’t mean SEO no longer matters. It means its purpose is expanding. Traditional SEO remains the foundation of visibility, but marketers now need to build on it by optimising for how AI understands and surfaces content. Many brands are still pouring energy into the old keyword driven model, while a forward-thinking few are already training the LLMs with authoritative content and credible signals. The balance lies in doing both, keeping your technical SEO strong while ensuring your content, structure and reputation are ready for generative engines.
Those who adapt fastest will not only be seen by the algorithms, they will shape the very answers those algorithms deliver. AI is already deciding which brands people see, and it increasingly relies on the same trust signals that good SEO has always valued, relevance, accuracy and authority, but applied through a new lens. The marketers who act now by auditing their visibility, investing in authority and building reputation signals across the web will secure an advantage that compounds over time. Your most important customer has changed, and it’s time your marketing changed with it.
