Search isn’t something we tend to think about as communications professionals. It’s one of those things we know is important but can tend to feel like a secret we’re not in on. To help demystify it, we use it as a strategy in the PESO Model© Certification because it’s so important to getting your work noticed by the right audiences.
It’s also one thing that changes consistently and is hard to keep up with. There was Panda and Penguin; then came Hummingbird, Mobile, RankBrain, Medic, BERT, and EAT.
Last year, we got E-E-A-T and learned that Google began to place more emphasis on expertise and experience in content, especially in light of everyone wanting to use AI to craft their content.
Now, their CEO has revealed that search will “change profoundly in 2025.” He says we’ve been on a curve of information, and it’s hard to comb through it all. So, if your content doesn’t include stories about your experience and expertise, it won’t get ranked. It may be altruistic of Google to try to solve this, but it does mean we have some things to think through.
There will be a bigger focus on creating high-quality, informative content that can answer complex questions and provide more nuanced information. It also needs to adapt to new search formats, generative AI search, and interaction methods beyond the traditional keyword-based search box.
Let’s be honest—most of us have left SEO to the technical experts. I remember speaking to a group of CEOs several years ago, and someone in the group said, “Isn’t SEO just some sort of magic? There really isn’t any strategy to it, right?” I laughed because it certainly can feel that way. But if you think about it from the perspective of creating the very best content on the internet for your topic, content that includes your experience and expertise, there isn’t any magic to it at all. It’s simply storytelling that is compelling to your audience(s).
Create the Best Content on the Internet
Search has always played a crucial role in the PESO Model because it’s essential in getting our work noticed by the right audiences. In the past, we had to create content for humans and for spiders. It was focused on priority keywords and ensuring your web pages showed up in search for those keywords.
Now, with AI-powered search engines becoming the new gatekeepers of information, we need to understand how this affects our day-to-day work in communications. This new reality means getting noticed online requires a completely different approach. Your beautifully crafted content might become invisible if AI search engines don’t consider it worth surfacing. This is where our expertise in building relationships and creating meaningful content becomes more valuable than ever.
I want you to repeat this over and over to yourself: create the very best content on the internet for my topic that includes our expertise and experience. Create the very best content on the internet for my topic that includes our expertise and experience. Create the very best content on the internet for my topic that includes our expertise and experience.
If you do that, your content will be surfaced by AI and search engines.
Think Carefully About Your Media List
But it’s not just about content. We’ve talked for a year about all the changes we’re seeing to earned media—about how our pitches go unanswered and traditional media doesn’t have the time to take our calls (or emails or texts or DMs).
They’re not just ignoring us. They’re also ignoring AI. The New York Times and Wired are among some top-tier media that have opted out of AI to protect their content. On the flip side, others are embracing AI partnerships.
This means your earned media plan needs to consider these shifts. If Wired is a top-tier publication for you, but it will never see the light of day in AI searches because they’ve opted out, no one will see that hard-earned placement. You’re better off placing that story in a LinkedIn or Substack newsletter and using the PESO Model to attract your audiences there.
Think carefully about who you’re pitching, even if the publication is on your CEO or client’s “must have” list.
Your Crisis Plan Needs an Update
And then we have crisis work, which is about to get even more complicated. Remember when we thought social media made crisis management faster? We were so naive!
AI search is about to accelerate that timeline even further. These systems prioritize recent, authoritative content, which means our crisis response must be quick and impeccably credible. A delayed or weak response risks having misinformation embedded in AI systems, potentially causing long-term damage to brand reputations.
Where we once had hours to craft the perfect response, AI search has compressed this window dramatically. A crisis that breaks at 9 am could be synthesized, contextualized, and embedded in AI responses by noon. This means having pre-prepared crisis templates and rapid response protocols isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.
Consider a situation where misleading allegations about your CEO surface online. These allegations might appear alongside other search results about your company in the past, but users would need to actively piece together the narrative.
Today, AI could immediately synthesize the allegations with historical company data, industry patterns, and similar cases, potentially creating a more damaging narrative. When users ask about your company’s leadership or ethics, the AI might foreground these allegations as part of its analysis.
If we don’t provide accurate information quickly enough, AI systems might generate responses based on incomplete or incorrect information, and those narratives can be surprisingly persistent. It’s like having to correct a rumor that’s been automated and amplified across the entire internet. It was bad enough in high school. Now we might have to live through it in front of the entire world. Sounds fun, eh?
Make sure you have a crisis plan that allows you to respond immediately—not in three hours or three days. Immediately.
Answer Questions from Your Audiences
Creating high-quality, informative content has always been important, but now it needs to work even harder. Generative AI search looks for content that answers complex questions and provides nuanced information. This means moving beyond surface-level blog posts and news releases to create genuinely insightful content demonstrating expertise and experience.
Back in the day, Marcus Sheridan launched his “They Ask, You Answer” mantra, eventually becoming a media company for him. The reason it’s so effective is because answering our audiences’ questions is all we need to care about. When going through the PESO Model Certification, one of the first exercises you must complete is creating a list of questions your audiences ask.
Generative AI search is particularly good at understanding natural language queries, so our content needs to address real human questions. Yes, you can have AI draft content for you, but if you don’t add the magic—providing genuine value and demonstrating authentic expertise—your content will never be surfaced. You may as well build the ballpark and never see a single person.
Think about structuring your content to directly map to how people ask questions. Consider the questions your audience might ask: ‘How does your company handle sustainability?’ or ‘What makes your approach different?’ Then, ensure your content provides clear, authoritative answers to these specific queries.
Consider Content Resonance
The good news is that our core skills are more valuable than ever. Building relationships and creating compelling narratives haven’t gone out of style—they’ve become more crucial. We need to focus on developing deeper connections with the places that feed into AI systems, understanding which outlets influence AI-generated responses, and creating content that effectively serves human readers and AI crawlers.
This evolution amplifies the importance of traditional expertise. The ability to craft authentic stories, maintain media relationships, and understand audience needs becomes even more vital when AI systems evaluate content quality and credibility. It’s not just about having your content seen—it’s about having it understood and valued by both human and artificial intelligence.
The PESO Model becomes even more powerful in this context. Our owned media needs to demonstrate genuine expertise and authority. Earned media placements in AI-friendly publications carry extra weight. Shared media helps amplify our message and drive engagement. Paid media can help ensure visibility while we build organic authority.
But there’s a new layer to consider: content resonance. Your materials must be rich in verifiable facts and data that AI can reference. They should be structured to address specific questions your audience might ask AI search engines. They need to connect to broader industry trends and conversations that AI systems track. Your content should remain consistent across all channels to reinforce authority. Finally, it must be regularly updated to maintain relevance in AI-driven search results.
The key is to think holistically about your communications strategy. Every piece of content, every media placement, and every social media interaction should be viewed through human and AI lenses. This doesn’t mean writing for robots—quite the opposite. It means creating such high-quality, authoritative content that both human readers and AI systems recognize its value.
By focusing on these qualities in our communications, we’re not just adapting to AI—we’re creating better content overall.
Play to Your Strengths
The changes to search that are coming in 2025 might seem daunting, but they actually play to our strengths. The emphasis on expertise and experience means that genuine thought leadership and authentic storytelling will matter more than ever. Our role is evolving to help brands build authority and credibility in ways that resonate with human audiences and AI systems.
Don’t get overwhelmed by the technical aspects of these changes. Focus on what you already do well: building relationships, creating meaningful content, and telling compelling stories. The tools and platforms might be changing, but the fundamental principles of effective communication remain the same. The key is understanding how these new systems work so we can adapt our strategies accordingly.
This evolution also means rethinking how we measure success. Traditional metrics like page views and rankings will need to evolve. Start thinking about new metrics that matter in an AI-first world: How often does your content get surfaced in AI-generated responses? How accurately do AI systems represent your brand’s key messages?
These will become crucial KPIs for measuring communications success.
AI Search Belongs to You
You don’t have to reinvent how you work—you should worry about evolving your approach to ensure your stories continue to reach their intended audiences, even as the channels and gatekeepers change.
As we move through 2025, the most successful comms pros won’t be those who chase every AI update, but those who master the art of creating content that serves both human curiosity and AI understanding. The future belongs to those who combine deep industry expertise with an understanding of modern discovery systems.
