How AI Search Is Changing SEO Visibility and What Your Business Should Do

Gary Wilson, one of our Marketing Managers, recently attended the latest SEO Collective Meetup in the heart of Sydney - hosted by Regan McGregor (Airtasker) and Aaron Taylor (Prosperity Media).

The session, presented by Kai Forsyth, explored “SEO Tooling for AI Search Explained: Beyond the Marketing Hype.”

Bringing together SEO specialists, agency leads, and curious business owners, the event offered practical insights into how AI is transforming search visibility.

You’ll find Gary’s key takeaways and how we at Sierra are translating these insights into action below.

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You would have heard it: search is evolving (and rapidly).

AI assistants and answer engines are changing how people find products or services, and ask for advice.

Users now receive concise answers directly within the platform they use (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok, and the list goes on).

For you, this means fewer “traditional” clicks and a new definition of visibility.

What’s Actually Changing

• Answers first: Many platforms now provide summaries and recommendations before listing links.

• Zero-click outcomes: When questions are answered in-line, there’s often no site visit involved.

• Fragmented discovery: People switch between traditional search, AI chat, agentic browsers, and voice, so your brand must be visible across all these channels.

• Entity clarity matters: AI assistants rely on brand and product entities, structured data, and reliable sources to determine what to trust and cite.

What This Means for Your SEO

Traditional SEO isn’t disappearing; it’s expanding.

Classic organic ranking still matters, but it can no longer be the sole focus.

You should now also track how often assistants mention your brand and which of your pages are cited as sources (if they are cited at all).

Think of this as an extra layer above the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

A Practical Guide to Prepare for 2026

1.         Build an AI Question Universe

Capture buyer questions that lead to revenue: think “best”, “alternatives”, “versus”, and “pricing”. Keep each question short and natural.

2.         Make Content Answer-Ready

Add essential answers to your opening paragraphs. Use clear headings, lists, tables, and facts that are easy for AI to interpret. And add relevant schema.

3.         Ensure Server-Rendered Essentials

Titles, descriptions, and key copy should exist in HTML so non-JavaScript crawlers can read them (easy to implement in WordPress!)

4.         Track Mentions, Citations and Referrals

Monitor which platforms cite you, and map AI-driven referrals and assisted conversions in analytics.

5.         Strengthen Authority Signals

Contribute expert commentary to trusted publications and maintain consistent brand naming across all profiles and platforms.

How Sierra Can Help

We can help get your business ready for the new search landscape with a simple, focused package:

• AI Visibility Audit: We first assess where your brand appears across major AI platforms and identify the gaps. You might not be there at all yet… But with some strategy and planning, you can be. :)

• Question Mapping: We map your buyer-intent question set by customer segment and stage in their journey.

• Content and Entity Upgrades: We refine page structure, schema, and on-page answers so assistants can better understand and cite you.

• Technical Readiness: We fix rendering and performance issues that prevent AI crawlers from effectively parsing your content.

• Reporting: We create dashboards that combine citations, AI referrals, and conversions so you can track the impact of our marketing activities all in one place.

If you want a clear, measurable plan for Q4 and into 2026, contact us to request an AI visibility audit and plan. We’ll assess where you currently stand and map out the steps we need to take to ensure your business is found online.