AI Optimisation vs SEO: What We’re Seeing and What It Means for Your Brand

AI is changing how people search for information, discover brands and make decisions. From Google’s AI Overviews to LLM (Large Language Model) tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, users can increasingly find answers without visiting a website.

For businesses, this creates a challenge: how do you maintain visibility in AI-generated answers while continuing to drive valuable website traffic, enquiries and sales?

At Bluesoup, we’ve been closely monitoring these changes, testing approaches across client websites and assessing what the data actually tells us. Our findings support wider research suggesting that while AI is changing the search landscape, the fundamentals of good SEO remain essential.

What is AI Optimisation?

AI Optimisation is a broad term for improving a brand’s visibility across AI-powered search experiences. Two related terms help explain the approach:

• AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) focuses on making content suitable for use as a direct answer to a question.
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) focuses on helping AI tools discover, understand and reference your brand and content when generating responses.

For example, someone asking an AI tool to recommend cycling holidays in Italy might receive an answer combining information from several travel companies, review platforms and other websites. GEO aims to help your business become one of the sources informing that response.

While this may seem like a whole new field, both approaches overlap significantly with good SEO. Useful content, a recognisable brand and information that search systems can understand remain important across traditional and AI-powered search.

AI Overviews: More visibility, fewer clicks?

One of the most visible developments is Google’s AI Overviews, which summarise information from multiple sources to answer a user's query directly within search results. Depending on the search, these summaries can reduce the prominence of traditional organic links, pushing them further down the page, and affecting click-through rates.

This creates a challenge for businesses. If someone finds the information they need at the top of the search results, why would they click through to a website?

Our goal is still to get clients featured in AI Overviews, but we recognise that visibility doesn't always translate into traffic. Being cited can strengthen brand awareness and introduce your business to potential customers earlier in their decision-making journey, even if they don't immediately click through.

However, AI Overview visibility can be volatile. After reviewing or updating blog content, for example, we sometimes see an initial decline in AI Overview impressions followed by signs of recovery. These can coincide with wider search algorithm updates, making it difficult to attribute the results to a single cause.

This is why it’s important to monitor significant website changes and allow time to assess their effects. AI search is evolving quickly, and results can change from day to day.

Measuring AI performance

One of the biggest challenges is understanding what is working and which metrics provide a reliable picture of performance.

Google Search Console now provides a dedicated report showing impressions from generative AI features in Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. This gives us a clearer view of which pages are appearing in these experiences, although it doesn't tell us everything about how users interact with them or whether they lead to conversions.

Tracking visibility in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini is more difficult. These LLM platforms don't provide a single, comprehensive reporting system showing how often a brand appears across responses or which prompts trigger mentions.

Third-party tracking tools can help, but they generally submit prompts and record the responses. Because AI-generated answers can vary between users and repeated searches, these tools provide a sample rather than a complete picture. 

One metric we can track, is referrals from LLMs – where users click on a link to your site provided by ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. At the moment, referrals are low, accounting for 1-2% of a site’s traffic. But, it doesn’t account for how often you are recommended as a brand, which may lead to a user searching for your brand directly.

At Bluesoup, we're monitoring several indicators, including AI referral traffic, conversions and branded search demand. However, our monitoring hasn't yet revealed a clear, sustained increase in branded searches that we can confidently attribute to AI visibility alone.For now, we combine available data, acknowledge its limitations and focus on outcomes that matter to the business. Visibility is useful, but visibility that contributes to commercial results is more valuable.

Good AI Optimisation is an evolution of good SEO

Many recommendations around AI Optimisation reflect practices that have been central to good SEO for years.

• Understand search intent. Is the user researching, comparing options, looking for a recommendation or ready to buy? Content needs to meet that intent to show up in search and be an AI answer
• Structure content clearly. Focused paragraphs, logical headings and relevant information near the beginning of a page help users find what they need. They also make content easier for search and AI systems to interpret.
• Build topical authority. AI tools can break complex questions into several related searches, a process often called query fan-out. Covering a subject comprehensively can help establish your business as a useful source and demonstrate authority for search ranking.
• Build a credible reputation. AI tools draw on information from review platforms, digital PR and other websites. This overlaps with established SEO practices, including earning relevant backlinks and building trust through credible third-party mentions.

A consistent and credible online presence is a sensible strategy for both traditional and AI-powered search.

Why original expertise matters

As AI-generated content becomes easier to produce, genuine expertise is becoming increasingly important.

If a page simply repeats information already available across dozens of websites, it offers little reason for users or search systems to seek it out. Google's emphasis on helpful, original content reinforces the importance of providing real value rather than publishing generic material at scale.

Our approach is to draw on the knowledge that our clients already possess. For a travel business, this might mean explaining what makes a particular holiday special, sharing first-hand destination knowledge or answering questions that customers regularly ask.

AI can support research and content production, but it cannot replace the unique experience and perspective that make a brand worth listening to.

Can AI do your SEO for you?

We're increasingly hearing clients ask whether AI can manage their SEO entirely. We've been testing these tools ourselves, and while they can be useful, we've also encountered significant limitations and inaccuracies.

For example, AI tools have claimed that pages lacked meta descriptions when they actually had them, summarised competitor pages inaccurately, or generated technical recommendations containing errors.

These mistakes can sound convincing. Checking the output can take longer than completing the task manually, particularly when the user lacks the expertise to recognise an error.

We use AI to support research, explore ideas, develop outlines and assist with certain technical tasks. However, its output must be checked.

Effective SEO requires more than generating content or running a checklist. It involves interpreting data, diagnosing technical issues, prioritising opportunities and understanding commercial objectives.

AI can support these activities, but professional judgement remains essential.

Our Approach: Focus on what works

At Bluesoup, we're continuing to monitor AI developments, assess what can be measured reliably and incorporate useful findings into our existing SEO processes.

This includes using AI Overviews to identify key topics and questions, monitoring AI referral traffic and conversions, and prioritising valuable search traffic over referral volume alone.

We're also exploring how to improve the consistency of clients' wider online presence. Auditing websites, social accounts, business profiles and third-party mentions can reveal inconsistencies or gaps. While this doesn't guarantee how AI systems will interpret a brand, it can provide clearer information about its digital identity.

For businesses, our recommendations remain straightforward:

• Understand your audience.Create clear, useful content that demonstrates genuine expertise.
• Connect related content to establish topical authority.
• Build a credible reputation across relevant websites and platforms.
• Maintain accurate technical information and a consistent brand identity.
• Measure performance against meaningful business outcomes.

The bottom line

AI is changing how people discover information, and businesses need to take that seriously. AI Overviews can affect click-through rates and measuring visibility across platforms remains challenging, yet AI tools can provide another route to brand discovery.

However, our experience so far reinforces the value of doing the fundamentals well.

We're not abandoning SEO to chase AI trends. We're using what we learn to refine our approach, identify new opportunities and help clients build a stronger presence across search.

The aim is to create brands that are useful to people, easy to understand and supported by credible information across the web.

That matters in traditional search. It matters in AI-powered search, too.

Want to learn how your business can benefit from SEO? Get in touch!