SEO isn’t dead. It’s just not enough anymore.

Search is evolving, and it’s becoming more fragmented than ever. Just six years ago, Google accounted for an estimated 91% of all search traffic. Consumers still use Google extensively, but search traffic to manufacturer and brand websites is increasingly losing ground to AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and even Google’s own AI answers. Why? Because these new search options often provide more context and often more depth than conventional search links ever could. 

But here’s the real question we need to be asking as marketers: “Is my brand showing up in the places where buyers are actually searching?” And the answer might be more difficult than you think. 

Importantly, users aren’t just adopting new tools. They’re moving fluidly between them, often within the same research session—showing it’s no longer enough to optimize for just one channel. 

For decades, building products marketing operated on a relatively simple premise: get in front of the buyer. That meant trade shows, sales rep relationships, retail store shelves, distributor networks, advertising and search traffic to websites. Visibility often came down to proximity, presence and persistence. If you showed up enough, you might stay top of mind.

That model is playing a much smaller role today. Independent discovery is now the dominant force—largely accelerated by the rise and ease of AI.

Research shows 81% of shoppers conduct online research before buying. They’re searching on platforms like Google, but they’re also asking detailed questions in AI, which provides detailed answers to help them narrow down their selections long before a sales team has a chance to pitch. 

The data backs this up. According to Gartner roughly 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience for at least part of the buying process, and 45% report using AI during a recent purchase journey. Those numbers rise dramatically when considering younger consumers.

By the time someone engages your sales team, they are likely to have a shortlist, a point of view and in many cases, a preferred direction.

The only question is whether your brand helped shape that thinking, or if another brand did.

Very fast. 

Google still dominates search with an estimated 14–16 billion searches per day. At the same time, more and more consumers are bypassing traditional search completely in favor of new AI tools. And even when using Google, they increasingly rely on the AI summary rather than sifting through search results and coming up with their own conclusions.

•    ChatGPT now has 700+ million weekly active users 
•    Users generate billions of prompts (questions) per day 
•    AI-driven queries already represent an estimated 5–13% of Google-equivalent search volume 

While not disruption level yet, it marks a significant change in the buying journey. AI is even shifting the way users interact with websites. 

Google is increasingly delivering AI-generated answers directly in results, resulting in more than 50% of searches in some categories ending without a click. 

Visibility no longer just about ranking. It’s about being included in the answer itself.

And when users do click through from AI, the intent is different. Early data suggests AI-driven traffic converts at significantly higher rates than traditional organic traffic, because users have already done much of the research before arriving.

The takeaway is simple: AI is rapidly gaining influence. And influence—not clicks—is what shapes decisions.

There are too many search acronyms out there to count. But for today, these are the ones you need to know:

SEO—Search Engine Optimization: at its core, is about ranking. You identify keywords, build pages and optimize them to appear in search engine results. The goal is to earn a click and bring someone to your website.

AEO—Answer Engine Optimization: shifts the focus from ranking pages to delivering answers. Instead of competing for a position in a list, you’re optimizing content so it can be extracted, summarized and presented directly in search features like featured snippets or AI-generated overviews.

GEO—Generative Engine Optimization: goes a level deeper. It’s not about a single page or even a single platform. It’s about shaping how AI systems understand and describe your brand across the broader digital ecosystem.

There’s a tendency to treat SEO, AEO and GEO like interchangeable buzzwords. They’re not. Each represents a different layer of how buyers discover and evaluate information.

The distinction matters:

•    SEO asks: Can I rank? 
•    AEO asks: Can I answer? 
•    GEO asks: Am I part of the narrative? 

Or more simply: SEO helps you get found. AEO helps you get used. GEO determines whether you’re included at all.

Google still dominates search behavior, and AI tools often rely on content that already ranks well. Ignoring SEO means losing visibility entirely.

But treating SEO as the end goal is where most teams go wrong.

SEO is now the foundation. It ensures your content can be found. It does not guarantee your brand will be included in how decisions are shaped.

If you only optimize for rankings, you’re optimizing for visibility without influence

There’s a lot of speculation about whether AI will replace traditional search. That’s probably the wrong lens. What’s actually happening is convergence. 

AI will be part of the future. Google has already integrated AI directly into its results, and AI platforms are increasingly becoming starting points for research. Users are adapting to this and using both.

According to Semrush, “AI-powered discovery is accelerating fast, and brands that don’t react will lose visibility, authority, and ultimately sales/customers to competitors. AI search visitors will surpass their traditional search counterparts in 2028.” 

The exact timeline matters less than the direction. The influence of AI on how decisions are formed is already significant, and it’s growing rapidly.

If your brand isn’t showing up in AI-generated answers, someone else is. That might be a competitor. It might be a distributor. It might be outdated or incomplete information. Over time, those inputs shape how your category is understood and where your brand fits within it.

The deeper change isn’t technological—it’s behavioral.

Traditionally search is linear: a user enters a keyword, scans a list of results and clicks through to a site. Today’s model is different. Users ask more complex, contextual questions. AI tools interpret those prompts, pull from multiple sources and deliver a synthesized answer.

For example, instead of searching “vinyl siding,” a buyer might ask:

•    What siding performs best in cold climates? 
•    How does composite siding compare to vinyl in durability and cost? 
•    What materials hold up best in high-wind environments? 

They’re not looking for links. They’re looking for clarity. And in many cases, they get that clarity without ever visiting a website.

That’s the shift from click-based discovery to answer-based influence.

A lot of building product content is still written like a brochure. It emphasizes features over understanding, uses vague language and often lacks consistency across channels.

That approach creates friction—not just for users, but also for machines.

AI systems are looking for signals they can interpret and trust. They prioritize content that is:

•    Clear: Can it quickly understand what you make, who it’s for and why it matters? 
•    Consistent: Does your positioning align across your website, distributors and partner platforms? 
•    Validated: Are credible third parties reinforcing your claims? 
•    Structured: Is the information easy to extract, summarize and reuse? 

When content is difficult to parse, inconsistent or unsupported externally, AI tools are less likely to surface it confidently. And that’s the key word: confidently.

AI is processing your content and making a judgment about what it trusts enough to present as an answer.

Across the value chain, AI is being used in practical ways to accelerate the research phase. 
Architects use it to compare materials and explore applications. Engineers rely on it to validate performance and understand standards. Contractors use it for troubleshooting and substitutions. Distributors use it to educate customers and support sales conversations.

There’s no completely new playbook here. The fundamentals still apply—but they need to be executed differently.

1.    AEO: Build Content That Answers Real Questions
Start with the questions your buyers are already asking. What objections do your sales teams hear repeatedly? What comparisons do buyers struggle with? What misconceptions do you constantly have to correct?

Then structure content to answer those directly.

Lead with clarity, and don’t bury key information under marketing language. Use headings that reflect real queries, and organize your content in a way that makes it easy to extract.

The goal isn’t to sound impressive. It’s to be understood.

2.    GEO: Expand Beyond Your Website
This is where a lot of manufacturers fall short. Your website is one input into how AI understands your brand, but it’s not the only source of truth.

AI systems build context from across the web. That includes distributor listings, partner sites, trade publications, association content and more.

To show up consistently, you need:

•    Aligned messaging across platforms so your positioning doesn’t shift 
•    Third-party validation through credible industry sources 
•    Content distribution that extends beyond your owned channels 

In simple terms, your brand needs to be described the same way—accurately and repeatedly—across multiple trusted sources.

If you’re behind, don’t try to overhaul everything at once. Start with the fundamentals. 

Audit your core product and company pages. Make sure it’s immediately clear what you offer, who it’s for and what differentiates it. Strengthen your content structure with FAQs, specifications, comparisons and use cases. Align messaging across distributors, directories and partner platforms.

Then build external credibility through trade publications, association content and industry visibility. If you need help putting that together, contact us to start working on a plan. That’s where most teams get stuck.

SEO often feels transactional. You optimize a page, improve rankings and capture traffic. GEO works differently—it has a more compounding effect.

Every mention, citation and structured explanation strengthens your position within the broader information ecosystem. Over time, those signals reinforce each other, making your brand more likely to be included in future AI-generated responses.

As that presence grows, it becomes harder for competitors to displace.

That’s what makes inaction risky. You’re not standing still—you’re falling behind brands that are actively building that authority.

6 key takeaways

1.    GEO is digital ecosystem inside and outside your walls, while SEO is optimizing inside your systems
2.    GEO is about understanding the “prompt”, SEO is understanding the “key word”
3.    GEO is about creating/updating AI friendly content that can be easily spit back out in answer format and depth, SEO is about embedding key words into your website
4.    Content Syndication is Key: 3rd parties talking about (endorsing) your brand is critical. Make sure you’re being mentioned by authoritative 3rd parties accurately—and often
5.    Distributing thought leadership content to industry publications, getting cited in relevant articles, or influencing mentions on high-value forums
6.    The GEO Effect Compounds: the more citations you have, the more authority gained, the deeper your content gets entrenched inside the models’ internal knowledge graphs, the harder you become to dislodge.

If you’re still thinking in terms of keywords instead of questions, pages instead of topics and clicks instead of influence, you’re optimizing for a dated system that’s evolving. It’s vital to adapt to how decisions are made today, and make sure your brand is part of that journey.

The brands that win won’t be the ones producing the most content. They’ll be the ones with understandable and detailed content; that are easy to trust via third parties; and seamless enough to write these brands and products into the deep answers these platforms now provide.

Most manufacturers aren’t there yet. But the ones that get there first have an opportunity to reshape how their category is understood moving forward.