Should SEO be a priority in your marketing plan?
Search visibility matters when relevant customers use search to understand a problem, compare options or find a supplier. Before committing to SEO, examine those buying situations and the value of reaching them. The aim is useful discovery that supports your commercial priorities, with a website capable of turning interest into a next step.
Editorial responsibility: Nardus Oelofse, Chief Consultant.
By Chase & Marshal
Look for a meaningful customer search
Start with the questions and terms a suitable customer might use at different stages. Compare them with actual enquiries and the language used in sales conversations. Consider whether the search signals a relevant need or merely broad curiosity.
A specialist business may find value in a narrow topic with a clear buying context. High-volume general searches can be less useful if the visitors have little reason to buy the offer. Judge opportunity through customer fit as well as potential traffic.
Check whether the website can support the opportunity
Review the service pages, evidence and enquiry journey a search visitor would reach. Make sure the business can explain its offer clearly and answer the important questions. Attracting more visitors to an unclear page can increase activity without improving the commercial result.
Google's SEO Starter Guide describes work that helps search engines understand content and people find it. It also makes clear that no change guarantees first-place rankings. Use that guidance as a foundation while prioritising the pages and topics most relevant to your customers.
Keep AI search claims in perspective
Google states that established SEO practices remain relevant to its AI search features and that no additional special optimisation is required for inclusion. Eligibility does not guarantee that content will appear. Assess promises of assured visibility against that official guidance.
For your business, the practical focus remains clear information, useful evidence and a coherent website. When considering work described as AEO or GEO, ask what will change, why it helps your audience and how the provider will evaluate progress.
Choose a scope and review commercial progress
Begin with an important offer or customer question and a realistic body of work. Agree the technical, content and measurement responsibilities. Consider the ongoing effort needed to maintain accurate material as services and customer needs change.
Review relevant visibility and visits alongside enquiry quality and sales outcomes where those can be connected. Compare the investment with other routes to the same customers. SEO deserves priority when the opportunity, website and resources support a credible plan, with expectations grounded in evidence rather than a ranking promise.
Questions answered
Can anyone guarantee our business will appear in an AI answer?
Treat assured inclusion claims cautiously. Google explicitly states that meeting its requirements and good practices does not guarantee indexing or serving. Agree concrete work and useful measures instead of buying a guaranteed appearance.
Related
Sources
Sources supporting the factual statements in this article. Findings should be read within their stated dates, geography and scope.
- The Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua - dia.govt.nz. www.dia.govt.nz. Publication date not supplied.
Assess the search opportunity for your offer
We can help assess where search belongs in your marketing plan and improve the pages, content and customer journey needed to make the opportunity useful.
