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At some point this year, I stopped Googling things.

Unless I’m looking for a specific site (like “Shopify admin”), I default to ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. I just get answers faster.

Then I thought: If I’ve changed how I search, odds are your customers have too.

The last push was reading Semrush’s groundbreaking AI Search study, which confirmed it’s not just me.

People are using AI to search instead of Google and these users are likelier to buy.

Today I’m sharing the key takeaways from that research, plus what we’re thinking about at RV SnapPad to adapt.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• AI Search is rising

• What works for SEO and AIO

• Why YOU can win

• LLM optimization

• The analytics gap

Let’s get into it 👇

🧠 AI Search Is Rising

Let’s start with the big shift:

AI-powered search is on the rise, and its users are 4.4x more likely to buy. 

AI search comes in two forms:

1. Google’s AI Overviews — condensed answers pulled from multiple sources and shown at the top of search results. People get answers and don’t need to click anymore.

1. Direct searches through AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude instead of using traditional search engines like Google.

In both cases, AI will pull up brand names and links if relevant. If you aren’t mentioned, then where are you? 

Here’s where: 

• Right now, 90%+ of buyers still search with Google (SEO isn’t dead)

• By 2028, the shift will be quasi complete – and 25% of buyers will still be using traditional engines, says Semrush. 

In this new world, both SEO and AIO matter. 

Lucky for you, optimizing them is 70% the same. 

🐦 Two birds, one stone

Here’s what works for both SEO and AIO:

• EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). Write expert, original content that’s useful to people goddammit. 

• Structure and crawlability. Use proper headings, lists, and tables so that both search engines and AI models can easily understand and extract your content.

• Consistency. Consistently publish unique and high quality stuff in the same niche, with a consistent image of your brand and its values and value prop. 

• Authority. Either be considered an authority on the subject (built through consistency and EEAT) or get mentioned by authoritative sites and alongside authoritative brands (like side by side comparison or lists)*.

• Empirical truth. Don’t talk vibes (i.e. “we vastly improved results”), talk truth (i.e. “we increased MoM revenue by 34%). Use customer data!

• Get mentioned on other authoritative sites. Not easy to do but here’s a trick: publish original guides with research and conclusions drawn from your data. Then reach out. 

* Not easy to do but we’ll cover it in an upcoming issue

📍 Be in the right places

Here’s one of the most surprising findings from the Semrush study:

🤯 Quora is the #1 most-cited domain in Google AI Overviews. Reddit is #2.

Not major news outlets. Not SEO-optimized blog posts. Community content wins.

Here’s why:

• Filled with natural language Q&A

• They answer niche questions AI models love

• Their content tends to be clear, specific, and quote-friendly

And now, that content is shaping what millions of users see when they search. So how do you show up in these environments without getting flamed?

🟥 Reddit: The Anti-Marketing Goldmine

Redditors hate obvious promotion—but they trust:

• Personal stories

• Honest product comparisons

• Native answers to real user problems

✅ What works:

• Participating as a founder or actual user (not a brand account)

• Seeding posts through customers or fans

• Hosting AMAs in relevant subreddits

• Engaging in threads like r/GoRVing, r/VanLife, or r/TravelTrailers

❌ What doesn’t:

• Dropping links with no context

• Overly polished copy

• New accounts that look like burner promos

🟦 Quora: The Underrated SEO Shortcut

Unlike Reddit, Quora is more tolerant of thoughtful promotional content. It also ranks well and gets scraped by LLMs.

✅ What works:

• Detailed responses to longtail questions (e.g. “Best way to stabilize an RV on wet grass”)

• Clear, quotable advice with optional linkbacks

• Real names and credentials for authority

Both platforms are now training grounds for the next generation of AI search.

🫵 Why YOU can win

Check this out.

According to Semrush, ChatGPT cites pages that rank 21st or lower in Google over 88% of the time.

Let that sink in.

Ranking well ≠ Being quoted in AI responses.

AI only cares about 1 thing:

What helps it do its job: answer questions with precision. 

1. You don’t have to rank

2. You don’t have to be linked

3. You don’t have to match a specific keyword

🎯 What you do have to do (LLM optimization)

Everything we mentioned earlier in the SEO + AIO part, plus:

• Markdown formatting. I hardly know what this is myself, but AI can help you do it and, according to Semrush, it works. 

• Robot snacks. They gobble up things like:

  • Bullet points 

  • Tables Datasets* 

  • FAQs 

  • Step by step guides 

  • Checklists

🕳️ The analytics gap

You can’t really track people finding you through AI.

If it links to you directly, it’ll show up as direct traffic in your analytics.
If it doesn’t link to you, people often Google your brand name instead—so it shows up as branded search.

Here’s what to do: 

1. Use Semrush AI Toolkit or Gumshoe.ai to see where your brand is showing up in AI-generated answers (like ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews).

2. Check how often you're mentioned, what prompts trigger those mentions, and how you stack up against competitors.

3. Look for gaps — are your key features missing? Are competitors being cited instead?

4. Update your content so it’s clearer, more quotable, and structured in formats LLMs like (FAQs, comparisons, stats).

5. Track branded search and direct traffic in your analytics — if those go up while organic clicks drop, AI is likely sending people your way.

🔚 Conclusion: SEO Isn’t Dead. It’s Being Rewritten.

We’ve got a new channel that comes with 4.4x higher purchase intent. 

With a few minor tweaks, you can add LLM optimization to your current SEO strategy (haven’t gone one? Start here). 

It isn’t really optional and small brands have a great chance to disrupt here. 

The time to jump on is now. 

• Kent