AI search and why content strategy matters more than ever

If you've looked at your organization's website analytics lately you've probably noticed shifts in the past year. Maybe even the past few months.

Search traffic may be down. ChatGPT and other AI tools may be showing up as referrers.

Your paid search campaigns aren't working as you expected. If you're a nonprofit with an AdWords campaign you've probably heard about AI Max. It's all a bit confusing.

The concern and confusion are real. There are two parts to it. The first is that everything we know about SEO seems to be changing and, hoo boy, what the heck does that mean for our websites and content?

More and more people are going to their AI powered browser search or just the Claude or ChatGPT interface and asking questions. What they're getting are answers. Maybe just one answer. And not long lists of keyword-loaded links.

This is zero click search. You ask. You get an answer or two. Maybe a wee little link back to the source for the answer. You have your work cut out for you if you want to be that answer.

The second problem should be apparent. It's this: YIKES...nobody will come to our website and join or donate or subscribe. This seems bad.

And, yes, if your business model is tied to site traffic this could be bad.

A reason to take content strategy seriously

For too long (aka since the dawn of google search) we've talked about content strategy while spending our time optimizing titles, headings, and meta tags and ads for keyword relevance.

In practice this means use cases like this:

Our general issue is climate change. We know that people who could take action on climate or clean energy policy (and, better yet, donate to that work) are interested in electric vehicles and rebates.

So we write blog posts about electric vehicle subsidies and make sure there are keywords in there. We talked about creating and updating an authoritative database of state by state EV rebate amounts but that's a lot of extra work so we wrote a blog post with some links and stopped there.

The reality is that we aren't really experts on EVs or rebates. We care about it. A lot. But we're covering all kinds of national and global climate change issues, especially international standards where change is really happening and where we have some expertise.

Strangely enough, our EV keyword campaigns drive decent traffic but not conversions. Even that is slipping, maybe because of AI search.

Keywords aren't content strategy. Neither are blog posts. Content that isn't authoritative has never been good for search results or content strategy.

Thing is, AI search (including AEO or GEO or EIEIO) relies on clarity and authority. Clarity and authority have always been central search and content strategy.

It's just that we've been gaming search with keywords. Search companies have been happy let us do it because it got us dependent on their tools and thus dependent on search companies as gatekeepers. And gatekeepers love to charge for the use of their gates.

Keywords and money have always been easier and faster than content strategy. Even if they haven't been as successful over the long haul.

AI search and Clarity

Most of what I've seen about AI search for nonprofits has highlighted how we manage individual pieces of content. Basically, make content clear and on message.

Here are a few ways to approach clarity for AI search.

• Be consistently on message. You have a lane of authority. Create to that. Consistently.
• Work your key messages into the wording of headlines and headers.
• Summarize. Provide brief clear (two sentences works) content summaries at the top of every post. Think of these as the answer to the prompt someone is writing.
• Use content structure and hierarchy. Headings (H1, H2, etc.) and alt text that make it easier for AI systems to understand and represent your content.
• Have a clear topic that aligns with your focus area and the message that answers questions people are asking. Use your own AI prompt testing and tools like Google Search Console to help identify the prompts and questions people are using to find relevant information.

In general, these are long standing good content creation and SEO. Summaries are perhaps more useful than before. The biggest conceptual change is to approach content and storytelling with user intent and need in mind. People have always been looking for answers with search but what they got were lists of links to potential answers. What they're getting with AI are answers. Or facsimiles of them but let's set aside AI's mistakes for now.

You're not marketing. You're solving. You're helping. You're answering the questions people have.

AI search and Authority

We've long been told that search engines value authority and legitimacy. You want backlinks from trusted sources in your field: academics, news stories, well known bloggers, and other legitimate organizations.

Zero click means AI search leans more heavily on authority. The AI search result is built as an answer. You want to provide that answer and be the one (or two) linked sources that readers will see.

The clarity you're building into your content and messages needs to exist across a range of sources, not just your site.

Earned media has always been a part of content strategy. But many organizations lack the capacity or skill to do earned media well. Or they see it as public relations work and don't trust or want to pay for PR.

Here's the thing: authority isn't just placement, it's clarity (see above), mastery, and depth.

Now, more than ever, is why it's time to take content strategy seriously and invest in content teams.

You already have mastery over your topic (I hope). With a team of content creators, even a small team with creativity, you can turn mastery into authority.

Start with an in-depth case study, report, or analysis. Here's a quick breakdown of how you turn a big piece into many many authority building content products.

• Post the full thing on your website.
• Structure the content with a title and headings. Use AI prompt research to inform the content.
• Show your work. Include information on how the research was done. Talk about and link to sources be those books or articles, discuss surveys and polls and confidence levels, link to interview subjects.
• Create audio and video pieces discussing parts (and the whole) of the piece. These can be various sizes and lengths (a minute, five minutes, more).
• Create shorter versions of the piece, and build content piece from various elements so that you have blog posts, FAQs, charts, image galleries, etc. These content chunks and shorts are where it's good to have a content team with the time and skill to make good choices and understand your audience.
• Make video and content available to your sources, interview subjects, and the journalists, bloggers and creators who cover these issues. They want to talk about the project they were involved in. They want good content they can share. Make it easier for them to use your stuff (and boost your authority).
• Focus outreach efforts for stories and coverage not just on big news outlets but on the niche publications, journalists, and creators who are trusted in your space. You can use Search Console and tools like Muckrack (including Generative Pulse), and your own search data to identify outlets.
• Continue your no doubt amazing efforts to get key staff and contributors onto podcasts and into interviews with content creators like bloggers and journalists and relevant social media influencers. Now you have some materials to talk about and show off during the conversation.
• Your chunks of content, video, and graphics will also be material for emails to supporters–advocacy, fundraising, newsletters–as well as social media posts.

This is all work that should be happening anyway. But it seems that AI search crystallizes the importance of strategic content projects that can build an authoritative ecosystem of content. This won't just help keep you and your message in search results. It will build a network of trusted collaborators, supporters, and sources.