For years brands have battled it out to win the billboard, dominate in digital or hog the headlines. But to focus only on those super spots is to miss where the real action is… the search bar.Â
In the changing world of Gen AI search, where we go to begin purchase journeys or edge forward our product discovery is the most important battle to win. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the battle to win in today’s brand warfare.
Failure to appear in Gen AI overviews on Google, or in the responses of LLMs like Claude and ChatGPT, is dangerous.
That’s because around a quarter of search queries are abandoned if a Google summary exists – it’s being termed Zero Click search – meaning that being included in Gen AI overviews is crucial.
This is a world where AI has the power to decide whether you exist to audiences or are irrelevant. It’s crucial brands enter the field of play in the search bar. But how?
That’s where the power of editorial steps in.
For years PR has owned the ‘awareness’ part of the funnel. Like it or loathe it comms has been considered the noisemaker getting people talking, but not necessarily clicking.
That’s what GEO has changed.
Roughly a quarter of GEO results cite at least one source of earned media, usually a mixture editorial in a well-known or specialist media title, plus newer areas of Earned influence like social media posts by creators or subreddit threads.
Suddenly PR has power to leverage. The ability to create genuine news which is valuable to audiences, media and AI and infiltrate multiple stages of the purchase journey and demand greater utilisation further along the funnel.
Only PRs have the power to turn what people are searching for into stories.
And this is where Serpent comes in. The GEO tool built by comms people for comms people. This is not a tool stacked with data and charts which tell you a lot about numbers but not a lot about what to do with that information.
Serpent analyses what Gen AI values and it digs deep into the detail, reviewing coverage like a PR Pro, asking why is this interesting, where is the angle, what’s the hook?
It serves back insights in a strategic way clue-ing you in on what to do with this information by providing step-by-step analysis of each piece of media content against four key criteria (citation, authority, structure and reputation) and then offering angles, hooks and even ideas to go ahead and make that pitch.
Whatever you do, don’t turn up with a knife to a gun fight. And don’t turn up to a brand fight for the search bar without a really good GEO tool in your arsenal. (That’s Serpent, case you hadn’t guessed).
Find out more at www.serpentsearch.com
