Conversational Search is Here. Your Brand Probably Isn't Ready.

Conversational search isn't coming. It's here. ChatGPT has 200 million users. Google has rolled out AI Overviews in search. Claude answers follow-up questions that would've required five separate Google searches a year ago. Your customers are asking questions to machines instead of clicking links to websites.

But most brands still don't understand what conversational search actually means. They think it's just voice search with longer queries. Wrong. Conversational search is fundamentally different because the AI doesn't return a list of results. It returns a single synthesized answer drawn from multiple sources. Your brand either gets cited in that answer or it doesn't. There's no ranking position seven where you can hide.

The machine reads your content. It extracts information. It combines that with information from dozens of other sources. Then it generates a single response for the human. Your job is to make sure the AI reads your content and finds it trustworthy enough to cite. That's AI-optimized content (AEO). It's different from SEO.

SEO rewards density and keywords. AEO rewards clarity and expertise. An AI doesn't care if your heading matches your title tag or if you've hit a keyword density target. It cares whether you answer the question directly. It cares whether you cite sources. It cares whether you sound like someone who actually knows what you're talking about.

Take a simple query: "Is sourdough bread healthier than white bread?" In traditional search, Google returns ten blue links. You click one. You read it. You decide if it answers your question. In conversational search, Claude reads fifty pages about sourdough. It reads fifty pages about white bread. It synthesizes a response. That response cites two or three sources. Your site was one of those fifty pages. But it wasn't cited.

Why? Maybe your answer buried the key facts in the third paragraph. Maybe you hedged too much with caveats. Maybe you didn't cite your sources, so the AI didn't trust the information. Maybe a competitor's piece was more direct. Conversational search amplifies authority and clarity. It punishes fluff.

Most brands are still optimizing for what Google's algorithm values. They're building content around keyword difficulty. They're thinking about backlinks and domain authority. Those things matter less now. What matters is whether an AI can quickly understand your expertise and trust your answer. An AI citation is worth more than ten organic clicks because it's the only answer the user sees.

The shift to conversational search means you need to rethink your content strategy entirely. Start by asking what questions your audience actually asks AI tools. Not what they Google. What they ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. The questions are often different. They're longer. They're more specific. They assume the AI can follow a thread of reasoning.

Then write answers that AI tools actually want to cite. Be direct. Answer the question in the first paragraph. Show your work. Link to primary sources. If you're making a claim, explain how you know that. If you're sharing data, cite the study. If you're sharing an opinion, label it as such. An AI doesn't want your filler. It wants your signal.

Your existing content probably isn't optimized for conversational search. That's not a criticism. Most brands' content isn't. You've spent years optimizing for Google's ranking algorithm. That optimization was valuable. It still is. But AI visibility (whether you show up in AI answers) is a separate metric. You can rank first on Google and still be invisible to ChatGPT.

The brands winning at conversational search right now are the ones who've accepted that AEO and SEO are different challenges. They're writing for both. They're auditing their content to see where AIs cite competitors instead of them. They're closing those gaps. They're thinking about GEO (Google Expanded Output, the format of AI Overviews) and how to structure information so AI tools extract it correctly.

This isn't theoretical anymore. Your customers are using these tools every day. They're getting answers without visiting your website. Some of those answers could mention your brand. Most don't. The question is whether you're going to wait until this shift is complete or start optimizing now.

If you want to know where your brand actually stands in conversational search, check your AI visibility score. Engagemii gives you a free AEO score at engagemii.com/aeo. You'll see which AI tools cite you, which ones don't, and where your competitors are pulling ahead. That's your baseline. Everything else follows from there.

Originally published on Engagemii