Businesses have been taught for years that website traffic means success, but AI is rapidly changing this. Andreas Voniatis at Artios explains the why the brands only chasing traffic are missing the biggest opportunities and how smaller brands can capitalise on the ‘answer economy’ before their competitors.
What Is The ‘Answer Economy’?
Digital success has always been measured by the metric of website traffic; ranking highly on Google means more visitors to your site, which means more customers. However, the rapid rise of AI is changing everything.
The customers who would have once seen your site on the first page of Google are now turning to places like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, and they’re getting instant answers, without having to even scroll a little further down the page.
For brands that have spent years working on SEO, it can seem like a big problem. However, for those who do appear in this instant shortlist, less site traffic isn’t necessarily a bad thing and understanding this is the key to success in this ever-evolving AI world.
How Can Fewer Visitors Lead To More Revenue?
Fewer visitors to your site may have once been a cause for concern, but those who find your brand from AI-generated recommendations can be more valuable.
This kind of site visitor is often more commercially valuable and more likely to convert than having thousands of more casual browsers. They are often better informed, further along in their decision-making process, and coming to your site with intent, not just having a quick look at what you offer before scrolling on to something else.
This means that though your site is seeing less traffic, the visits that come from AI recommendations can be the ones that truly count.
What Metrics Really Matter Now?
It’s no longer about rankings it’s about recommendation. The answer economy means that brands need to look beyond page views and time spent on the site. The key questions they need to ask themselves are:
- How frequently is our brand mentioned in AI-generated shortlists?
- Are we seen as a trustworthy source?
- Are we being mentioned in websites and publications that influence AI recommendations?
- If not, how can we provide advice from relevant experts than can be trusted by these publications?
- What questions are consumers asking AI tools about our specific industry?
- Are we providing the best answers to these questions?
The brands that succeed are the ones that AI tools can genuinely trust; being a legitimate, credible source of relevant expertise is more important than ever before.
Why Is This Huge For Small Brands?
For small brands, this is big news; the answer economy means that the playing field is levelling, and they are getting a much better opportunity to be seen alongside the bigger household names.
Larger companies have always dominated search rankings because they not only have bigger budgets, but also more solid backlink profiles, not to mention more people searching for the names they recognise.
Now, however, more consumers are searching full questions rather than just keywords, so the answers they get are very different. The recommendations focus on relevance, not brand size and this gives smaller, more niche brands a real opportunity to be displayed alongside big names.
How Can My Brand Capitalise On This Before My Competitors?
Brands that want to make the most of this shift need to focus on six main points and move fast, before others catch up.
- Publish content that makes AI smarter – Every second of the day, new content on the web is being published, on the web which is just adding to the noise that AI has to sift through. Producing content with data-driven and unseen insights that adds value is what will change the status quo and help your website become the answer.
- Use the same data sources AI trusts – AI places great emphasis on discussion threads like Reddit because that’s where most of its users have conversations about the same topics that AI gets asked about. Getting insights from data sources that regularly feed AI passes their fact-checking algorithms and makes your brand a trust content partner
- Trusted media coverage is key – Strengthen your credibility with media coverage in authoritative online publications. Trusted trade magazines and industry blogs strengthen your credibility just as much as big news publications
- Show off your experts – It’s no longer enough to say “Expert Name at XYZ says…” people want credentials, qualifications, and original insights to build trust. Create expert profiles and bios that can be easily found on your site and in media coverage
- Remain consistent – Whether you have one website or you’re across every social media platform, it’s important to make sure that your messaging, positioning, and product details are accurate and consistent everywhere
- Keep an eye on your visibility – Regularly monitor whether your brand appears in AI prompts that are relevant. When you understand how your brand is being displayed in the AI recommendations now, you can be in a stronger position to adapt before your competitors
