SEO Best Practices in the Age of AI for Communications Companies
In 2025, the relationship between online search, content, and communicating with customers is being rewritten. Companies across the communications landscape – from telecom to technology and everything in between – are feeling the shift firsthand.
Generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and personalized search are transforming how audiences discover, evaluate, and ultimately purchase from brands. Traditional SEO tactics like keyword targeting and backlinks still matter – but they’re no longer the primary drivers of visibility. The channels, tools, and algorithms powering content and brand discovery are evolving, and communications leaders must evolve with them.
We recently explored this shift in the telecom sector, where AI-driven search experiences are reshaping how consumers choose providers and compare services. The same forces extend across every communications-driven industry, redefining how organizations reach and engage their audiences.
Read our full analysis on how AI is transforming digital marketing for telecom providers here.
The message is clear: Those who adapt to AI-driven search will own the conversation; those who don’t risk being written out of it.
How AI Is Changing the Search Landscape
For years, the playbook for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was clear: optimize for humans. The approach was well known: anticipate user queries, structure content for easy consumption, and compete for top rankings to secure visibility. Those fundamentals still matter, but AI intermediaries are rewriting the rules of discovery.
Platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT Search are surfacing concise, conversational answers synthesized from multiple sources – often without users ever clicking through to a website. Meanwhile, voice and visual search continue to expand, changing how users express intent.
According to recent industry research, by 2028, searches originating in AI-driven tools are projected to surpass visits from traditional search engines. That means the majority of online discovery will happen through AI summaries, not SERPs.
For communications companies, this is a double-edged sword:
- On the one hand, AI tools offer new opportunities for message amplification: Your insights can be cited, quoted, and shared more widely than ever.
- On the other hand, visibility becomes less predictable. If AI engines don’t “see” your brand as credible or authoritative – or worse, overlook your content entirely – you risk being left out of the conversation.
Combining Search Optimization with Generative Optimization
Enter Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, the emerging discipline focused on making content visible, quotable, and trusted by AI-driven platforms.
In this new era, the goal isn’t just to rank well on traditional search engine results pages. It’s also to be referenced by increasingly popular AI and LLM tools as their adoption grows. That means creating content that:
- Demonstrates deep expertise and unique perspective that AI models can’t easily replicate.
- Is structured and sourced in ways that help AI systems interpret and summarize it accurately.
- Exists and aligns across the full digital ecosystem, from industry publications and review aggregators to social and earned media channels.
For communicators, this marks a shift from “optimizing pages” to “optimizing presence.” Success now depends on ensuring your brand’s narrative is discoverable, contextual, and credible wherever AI – and your audience – are searching.
Gone are the days when a brand’s authority alone could propel a blog post to the top of Google. Soon, the real question won’t be how high you rank – but whether AI is talking about you at all.
The New Rules of SEO for Communications Leaders
To thrive in the AI era, communications professionals should evolve their approach around four key principles:
Write for E-E-A-T – and Make It Easy for AI to Prove It
Google and other engines prioritize Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness more heavily than ever. Make those signals explicit:
- Attribute insights to real experts within your organization.
- Showcase awards, publications, and media mentions.
- Use structured data and schema markup so AI systems can easily validate your credibility.
Create Multi-Layered Content That Answers Questions – and Anticipates Them
AI tools reward content that reflects completeness. Instead of focusing narrowly on keywords, build topic clusters that address related questions in a natural, conversational way.
The deeper and more cohesive your content network, the more likely AI engines are to recognize your brand as an authoritative source.
Expand Optimization Beyond Google
Visibility now extends across AI ecosystems, social platforms, and aggregated data sources. It’s essential that brand presence is:
- Consistent across owned, earned, and shared channels.
- Structured with schema markup, metadata, and even LLMs.txt files to guide how AI systems interpret your content.
- Monitored and updated regularly to reflect evolving language and search intent.
Measure Influence, Not Just Traffic
AI-driven search introduces an era of “invisible reach,” where your content might reach users and influence their decisions without ever generating a single click to your website. Therefore, clicks are no longer the dominant North Star metric for SEO. Shift performance frameworks to include:
- Mentions and citations within AI-generated answers.
- Sentiment and share of voice across digital channels.
Success in this new environment requires flexible, directional analytics that evolve with the platforms themselves.
The Capability Shift
The fundamentals of SEO haven’t vanished – they’ve expanded. The same core skills that drive communications success – understanding audiences, crafting narratives, and building credibility – now apply to how AI perceives your brand.
The next generation of SEO isn’t going to be about gaming algorithms. It’s going to be about earning trust at scale, from both humans and machines.
Communications companies that embrace AI-aware content practices – balancing automation with authenticity – will define how brands are discovered, discussed, and believed in the years ahead.
How Cartesian Can Help
Cartesian helps communications teams navigate this transition with confidence. From foundational SEO strategy and technical site audits to innovative AI visibility tracking and content development, we enable brands to stay visible and credible as digital discovery evolves. Our work spans the full spectrum of search and AI optimization – combining data, technology, and communications expertise to uncover growth opportunities, strengthen authority, and ensure your brand is discoverable wherever audiences – and AI – are looking.
With Cartesian, you gain a partner dedicated to building a resilient foundation for discovery in an AI-first world. Contact us today to start shaping your future-ready search strategy.
