Senior marketers face a reality where discoverability has fragmented an ecosystem that barely resembles what we optimised for two years ago.
Users now find brands through ChatGPT responses, TikTok search results, Reddit threads and YouTube tutorials, often before they ever land on a brand’s owned website. This isn’t a trend. It’s already reshaping how brands need to think about organic presence, measurement and investment. The question isn’t whether to adapt, but how to adapt without diluting efforts or chasing every emerging platform.
Search intent didn’t disappear, it redistributed
Aimee Metcalf, Organic Content Lead, explains why discoverability today looks very different to even a few years ago:
“Potential customer intent hasn’t disappeared; it’s been redistributed. Brands can no longer rely on their website alone for driving discoverability. Instead, both B2C and B2B brands must diversify efforts through channels like organic social, AI search and digital PR alongside traditional Google search efforts to succeed.
The rise of LLMs and social channels within the search landscape has amplified the importance of content both on-site and off-site. Brands must now produce both search demand-led content and audience-centric content. At every Organic touchpoint, brands need to demonstrate expertise, not only for building trust, loyalty and differentiation against competitors but for driving overall discoverability efforts.
Organic success is no longer about just optimising content for traditional website KPI’s such as Organic clicks, impressions, rankings and CTR’s.”
Organic success has been redefined
Brands must now optimise for influence, presence and overall discoverability. This means measuring success through AI search citations and mentions, social reach and engagement, overall brand sentiment and share of voice against competitors alongside traditional organic measurement frameworks.
Success metrics have evolved
Traditional organic KPI’s (clicks, impressions, rankings, CTR, SERP features) still matter.
However, they are no longer sufficient.
Brands now need to track:
- AI search citations and mentions across LLM platforms
- Social reach and engagement rates as discoverability signals
- Brand sentiment across fragmented touchpoints
- Share of voice versus competitors in AI responses
- Visibility across platform-specific searches (TikTok, YouTube, Reddit)
This isn’t about vanity metrics. It’s about understanding where your brand exists in the customer journey before they reach your website.
Monitor how AI represents your brand
John Campbell, Head of AI & Innovation at ROAST, points out that…
“brands should investigate how they are being represented in AI conversations and searches. In 2025, many brands set-up AI search rank tracking for generic prompts with tools like Peec.AI, Profound and Evertune.
Tools like Profound are launching features where you can view real prompts data that either mention your brand name or content from your website is cited. This gives real insights into content gaps, missing website features and comparisons users are making with your brand.”
AI search is fast becoming a critical discovery layer, one that brands can no longer afford to ignore.
Different products require different strategies
Discoverability is not uniform. It changes depending on the product and the decision being made.
As Rob Knight, MD for Web Design & Development Agency Kitty explains:
“Discoverability is different for different products and services. If I know what I am looking for and it is a relatively uniform product (e.g. a BIC Biro), I am most likely to just search in Google and pick the best-priced Google Shopping Result.
But for more considered purchases, I might conduct numerous searches on Google, ask friends, family or social connections for their opinions or advice, and more likely these days, provide ChatGPT or another AI the details of what I am looking for and ask it for recommendations backed up with sources and recommendations.
Media remains effective for building awareness, particularly for unfamiliar products. From an ‘onsite’ website perspective, paid can only be ‘influenced’ with the use of third-party pixels to help retarget potential customers online or identify potential customers similar to those who have already converted.
You can only really influence the organic channels (SEO and GEO). There are many ways a site can be optimised for SEO and ensuring as many of these are addressed as possible is important to help stand out above your competitors.
As for GEO, structured and easily digestible information, from FAQs to hidden pages of in-depth information, helps both users and AI models to understand, assess and recommend a brand.”
Knight explores this concept further in his article web discoverability entering its forked path era.
Benchmark across the entire ecosystem
Haider Ali, Head of Organic Performance at ROAST, argues that…
“Brands should reduce reliance on Google-only metrics like keyword rank and clicks, instead, monitor discoverability across the whole organic ecosystem including traditional search, social search (YouTube/TikTok/IG), communities (Reddit) and LLM-driven answers.
The starting point is benchmarking current visibility by intent and platform. This helps brands to understand where demand is forming, where you’re already present, and where gaps exist. From there, organic strategies should adapt to focus on areas where brands are limiting discoverability.
Tactics to focus on:
- Answering micro-intents quickly (how-to, comparisons, FAQs)
- Creating content in formats that platforms reward (guides, video, short-form content, community assets)
- Strengthening trust signals (social proofing, reviews/UGC, EEAT, brand/entity presence).”
Paid discoverability is moving to AI
As discoverability evolves beyond organic channels, paid media is beginning to follow users into AI-driven environments. George Stolton, Head of Paid Media at ROAST, outlines what this next shift looks like:
“The next shift in paid discoverability has all eyes on ad units in AI and LLMs. On Google, ads are officially rolled out in AI Overviews in the US with AI Mode being tested, but there is no data on how often these are appearing. Meanwhile ChatGPT are imminently launching their ad product. While there is minimal information on how the ad targeting will work, these will be AI powered and likely rely on strong page content to fuel intent signals and ad generation.”
Don’t forget Media
Much of the noise in the industry has been focused on Organic change as we witnessed the very first vulnerabilities in Google’s dominance appear and user search behaviour fragment.
John Barham, Managing Partner, draws attention to the paid side of the discoverability equation:
“As predicted, we are now seeing the first paid-for ad opportunities launch into Beta phase on AI platforms. OpenAI is currently testing ads within ChatGPT to bring revenues beyond the current subscription model. As more AI platforms inevitably follow suit in 2026, we would fully expect brands to embrace the opportunity to capture visibility on emerging digital real estate. Media investment will go to where users are discovering solutions to their needs.
It’s not just about new spaces for users to find brands though. As AI creative solutions continue to advance, a traditional barrier to entry for many advertisers is potentially being eroded. Expect more brands to expand activity on existing platforms as they now have the messaging and assets to reach their audience.”
From a media perspective, Lynsey Rollinson, Managing Partner, frames what discoverability means in an attention scarce world:
“In today’s world of fragmented attention, discovery is no longer linear and attention can’t be bought at scale in the way it once was. People move fluidly between platforms, communities, creators, search, AI, and with this brands are no longer discovered through planned journeys fundamentally changing the role of media.
Discoverability is not driven by volume, but by presence in moments that already matter, when questions are asked, behaviours repeat and conversations unfold. Media becomes the system that connects these moments into a coherent brand experience, building memory through relevance rather than repetition.
In an attention-scarce world, the brands that win are those designed to be found, remembered and chosen, not the ones that shout the loudest.”
Discoverability becomes less about scale and more about relevance and trust now that it matters.
