Don’t just rank – resonate: how to improve AI search visibility

Clicks are declining. Traffic is tanking. Reporting and tracking are more confusing than ever. Sound familiar? You’re not alone… At this year’s BrightonSEO San Diego event, Beth Nunnington, VP of PR at Journey Further, delivered the session: “Don’t Just Rank. Resonate: How to Win Hearts, Headlines & Search Results.” Her message? The SEO landscape has changed and brands that want to thrive in an AI-powered search world need to stop chasing rankings alone and start building credibility and resonance. So, what does it really take to build credibility, earn attention, and thrive? Let’s dive into what you need to know.

The collapse of the “messy middle”

We’ve long accepted that the customer journey isn’t linear. People bounce between Google, TikTok, Reddit, review sites, blogs, and forums, piecing together the answer they trust most. But AI search, particularly LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews, have compressed that journey. With a single prompt, a user now gets an all-in-one summary, effectively cutting out all the stops along the way. That means fewer clicks and fewer opportunities for brands to show up and influence decisions. So the question is: if users are clicking less and evaluating faster, how do brands still get discovered?

AI’s new billboard – and how to earn your spot

Every time your brand is cited in an AI overview, it’s like being handed free digital billboard space – a front-row seat at the top of search results. But you can’t buy your way in. You can only earn it. And the currency for that visibility? Credibility. In an AI-powered world, trust isn’t optional – it’s the only way forward. Credibility isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about showing up in the right places, where trust already lives. As marketers, we’ve traditionally relied on keyword research and search intent to drive strategy. But today, resonance beats reach. It’s not enough to rank – you have to be trusted, cited, and talked about.

Resonate through relevance

Reddit, forums, and social media can offer invaluable audience insight, but they can also be overwhelming to navigate. That’s why we developed a proprietary content ideation tool that pulls insights from Reddit and other platforms to help brands understand what matters most to their audience. This understanding is the foundation for earning trust signals – the off-page validation that Google and LLMs use to decide who deserves the spotlight. Historically, SEO has rested on three pillars: technical, content, and links. But that framework no longer cuts it. We need to shift our mindset from links to influence.

Digital PR: the bridge between trust and discoverability

In this new landscape, digital PR is your bridge between brand reputation and organic performance. We’ve seen over and over again that third-party validation, through media coverage, expert commentary, and brand mentions, directly correlates with AI visibility. In short: if people are talking about you in the right places, machines are more likely to cite you too.

Real examples, real results

We’ve put this strategy to the test:

• For a hospitality company, we secured coverage in a “Best 50th Birthday Gifts” listicle – great for traditional SEO, but also gold for LLMs that pull gift ideas.
• For a retail company, we created a research-backed asset on the most dog-friendly cities in America. It landed in Time Out and was later cited in AI summaries.
• Together with an insurance company, we built an expert profiling strategy to surface internal expertise and research. The result? They’re now being cited directly in AI search results and driving more organic quotes than ever before.

Real expertise builds real trust

Expert voices are essential. As demand for credible, insightful commentary grows, so does the opportunity for brands to stand out by elevating genuine expertise. Whether it’s your in-house team or trusted external partners, showcasing real, relatable experts helps you earn trust with both audiences and algorithms. Authenticity is non-negotiable. Your credibility depends on it.

3 questions to evaluate your brand’s readiness for AI-powered search

• Is your content backed by real, identifiable experts?
• Are you cited in publications and platforms your audience genuinely trusts?
• Would an LLM consider you an authority in your niche?

If you answered “no” to any of the above, it’s time to make building trust and earning third-party validation a top priority.

3 rules for winning in the AI era

Your strategy should revolve around three core principles:

• Rank: Traditional SEO still matters. LLMs pull data from Google and Bing, so showing up in the SERPs remains critical.
• Reach: Get cited across the entire influence ecosystem – not just search results, but the platforms, publishers, and communities your audience engages with.
• Resonate: Be the brand both humans and machines trust. That means real expertise, real insight, and real impact.

As Beth Nunnington closed her session at BrightonSEO:  “My biggest piece of advice? Focus on building something worth finding. Your brand and reputation is more important than ever.”