AI is rewriting the way search works.
Generative overviews, multimodal inputs, and conversational interfaces are reshaping how people discover information. And how marketers earn visibility.
By the end of this guide, you’ll know the major AI search trends and what steps you can take to stay discoverable.
Understanding AI Search
AI search writes answers rather than ranking pages for users to assess. It pulls insights from multiple sources, interprets the query, and delivers a single synthesized response in real time.
In AI-powered search, your goal is to be referenced. To have your content cited, quoted, or mentioned.
Generative engines (like Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT) act like editors. They decide which pieces of content to surface, summarize, and stitch together to satisfy what users are looking for.
Major Trends Transforming AI Search
AI search is changing not just what people find—but how they look for it. Which is evident from these trends:
Queries Are Becoming Longer and More Complex
Searches are getting longer and more complex now that users get concrete answers instead of sifting through multiple results.
Searches are getting longer and more complex now that users get concrete answers instead of sifting through multiple results.
The shift to longer, complex queries means keyword targeting is giving way to context. Structure your content so AI systems can easily recognize and cite it.
Multimodal and Structured Exploration Is Growing
AI search blends text, images, voice, and video into one query. And returns synthesized responses.
This shift makes structure more important than ever. AI systems can’t synthesize what they can’t segment.
Appearing as a cited source in AI Overviews is becoming a new visibility benchmark.
As AI-generated answers cover more queries, citation signals determine which brands users see first. To capture this opportunity:
- Optimize for inclusion: Structure sections around direct, self-contained answers that can be easily quoted or summarized by AI systems
- Build trust signals: Keep statistics fresh, attribute data clearly, and ensure visible author or brand credibility
- Monitor citation performance: Use tools like Position Tracking to identify where your pages are mentioned in AI Overviews and measure how visibility shifts over time
How AI Search Differs from Traditional Search
AI search answers a user’s query by interpreting intent, retrieving information from credible sources, and composing a response. Traditional search finds the most suitable sources for a user’s query and presents them in a list.
With AI search, the goal is to be part of the answer. Not just displayed as one possible option.
Click‑Through Rates Are Decreasing
Click-through rates (CTR) are declining as AI summaries give users what they need directly on the results page.
When AI summaries appear, users are less likely to click through to individual websites. Reducing traffic even for high-ranking pages.
How to Optimize for AI Search: A Practical Framework
Visibility in AI search depends on how clearly your content communicates meaning and trust. To people and to the AI systems interpreting it.
Phase One: Build Clarity and Context (Weeks One to Four)
AI systems reward content that directly and completely answers user intent.
Write in natural, conversational language, lead with summary-first sentences, and structure sections so each can stand alone as a complete thought.
Start by ensuring that search engines and AI systems can access your content:
- Run a SemrushSite Audit to confirm full crawlability, indexability, and clean technical structure
- Identify which of your pages already appear in AI Overviews or other AI-driven summaries. This helps you understand where you’re visible now—not to avoid those terms, but to identify what’s already working.
- Use the Cited Pages filter in the AI Visibility Overview report to see what types of content and formats surface most often in generative answers. For you and your competitors.
Structured data can reinforce meaning, but clarity comes first. Google notes that schema types like FAQ, How-to, and Article markup may support inclusion in AI Overviews. But they aren’t guaranteed.
Phase Two: Optimize and Enrich Content (Weeks Five to Eight)
Once your foundation is in place, focus on content quality and multimodal reach.
Create high-value pages that users and AI systems find genuinely useful and extractable.
Here’s where to focus:
- Incorporate visuals, videos, and examples that make complex ideas easier to understand
- Add descriptive alt text and transcripts so your visual and audio content can be interpreted in AI search
- Update old content for freshness and relevance. AI models prioritize up-to-date, credible information.
- Use conversational phrasing that mirrors natural queries (“What’s the best…,” “How do I…,” “When should…”)
Phase Three: Refine Performance and Usability (Weeks Nine to Twelve)
Strong AI visibility also depends on site experience.
Refine performance factors that help users and AI systems interpret your content efficiently:
- Improve mobile performance and page speed: Compress images, minimize JavaScript, and reduce render-blocking elements
- Enhance UX clarity: Keep layouts simple, CTAs visible, and sections logically grouped
- Validate structured data: Use Google’s Rich Results Test and the Thematic report in Semrush Site Audit to validate your markup and confirm proper implementation
Putting Discipline Into Practice (short / long / BAU)
2026 is around the corner – and the SEO space has never been this noisy.
As we head into 2026, the real challenge is building a strategy with discipline – one that cuts through the noise and balances:
- Short-term wins that prove impact and build trust.
- Long-term bets that future-proof visibility.
- The boring but essential, business-as-usual (BAU) tasks that keep your foundations strong.
Why short-term wins matter
Short-term wins are critical because they:
- Prove progress.
- Earn trust.
- Buy time and budget for bigger bets.
- Keep people motivated.
One challenge with short-term projects is that many people struggle to classify them correctly.
If each page already targets a clear topic and keyword, you can “fan out” by collecting the related questions people ask around that topic.
Don’t skip the BAU basics
Business-as-usual tasks won’t earn applause in the next all-hands meeting, but without them, everything else rests on shaky ground.
The good news is these tasks are often easy to automate – and plenty of tools already exist to handle them.
For example, we use SEOTesting to:
- Generate a weekly report of all new and modified pages.
- Review on-page optimization elements regularly and catch issues early.
- Keep us from being blindsided if someone changes the title of an important page without notice.
It’s not glamorous work, but it keeps the site healthy.
Putting it all together
Building a sustainable SEO strategy isn’t about choosing between short-term wins, long-term bets, or BAU tasks. It’s about balancing all three.
- Short-term projects prove progress and build buy-in.
- Long-term bets secure your future.
- BAU keeps the foundation solid so you’re not building on shaky ground.
A framework that works well is to split your time and focus:
- 60–70% on proven short-term tasks that deliver results now (e.g., content refreshes, FAQs, structured data).
- 20% on scaling and BAU – maintaining site health, reviewing new pages, fixing errors.
- 10% on long-term bets that need planning, budget, and cross-team coordination.
- 10% on learning – staying sharp on industry changes.
- 10% on experiments – testing new ideas that could become tomorrow’s long-term bets.
The key is to keep sight of your north-star projects and adjust each sprint without losing track of the bigger goals.
What’s Your Take?
Is AI Search Eliminating Organic Traffic?
How Do You Optimize for AI Overviews?
What Content Formats Perform Best in Generative Results?
Which part of your SEO plan will you prioritise first for the AI era?