We Need To Have a Conversation About Garbage AI Content

5. How can we show clients that branding assists SEO and AI visibility?

Brand has always mattered in SEO, but now it’s everything. 

When an LLM generates a response, it pulls from known, authoritative sources. In a piece I published on the Moz blog, we found that LLMs favour brands with high Domain Authority and strong third-party recognition.

Think major media websites, high-authority publications, and established industry voices.

Check how much traffic comes from commercial and transactional keywords, then look for gaps your competitors are using to drive revenue.

Explain the value of impressions

Impressions mean people are seeing you. Even if they’re not clicking right away, the visibility builds recognition. 

Think about how people search in a fragmented journey. They might not click the first time, but if they see your name repeatedly across different queries and platforms, they’re more likely to choose you. 

Mark Williams-Cook gave an excellent example of using ChatGPT to find a vendor and then going directly to the website to convert. That's zero clicks attributed, but impressions did the work.

7. How do we educate the C-suite who make decisions based on traffic growth and content volume, even when it doesn't show the full picture?

Start by questioning the goal, not defending the metric.

When a client says, "Our competitors are publishing 50 pages a month, why aren't we?", ask why they want to copy their competitors because FOMO is not a strategy.

The most effective way to educate leadership is to make goals the filter for every decision. What is SEO supposed to do for this business — drive leads, build brand awareness, or win market share in specific areas? Define KPIs, then measure every tactic against it, including competitor activity.

Next, make these changes:

Replace vanity metrics with business outcomes 

Stop reporting impressions and traffic in isolation. Show leads, consult bookings, and pipeline activity alongside them. When leadership sees the connection between visibility and revenue, traffic becomes a means to an end rather than the end itself.

Reframe competitor activity 

Instead of copying competitors, identify the strategies that align with your goals and the gaps they've missed. Copying keeps you reactive, but finding gaps and innovating puts you ahead.

8. If every LLM prompt generates a unique response, how should business owners and SEOs track AI visibility?

There is no single way to track AI visibility right now, and anyone telling you otherwise is oversimplifying.

Every prompt is unique. No two people type the same thing into ChatGPT or Perplexity, which means traditional search volume as a measurement framework doesn't apply. 

What AI visibility tools are doing instead is aggregating prompts with similar intent to show you the types of queries your brand is appearing in. It's directional guidance and should be treated as such.

Here's how to track AI visibility in a holistic way:

Track AI search traffic in GA4

First, set up GA4 to see referral traffic from LLMs. Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. 

It gives you a baseline view of how much traffic you’re getting from these tools and whether it’s driving results.