Your Google Analytics is lying to you about AI search
I went through 41 client GA4 accounts to see where AI search's influence ends up. GA4's AI Assistant channel shows about half a percent of sessions, and files the rest under other names.
AI search optimisation
Getting found, cited and recommended across AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Written from delivery, not theory.
Also sold as generative engine optimisation (GEO), answer engine optimisation (AEO) and LLM SEO. The labels move faster than the practice, and underneath them the job stays the same: clean technical foundations, content that answers real buyer questions, and an off-site footprint that tells machines who you are and why to trust you.
Nobody controls what an assistant says, but AI visibility is measurable, and most of what AI says about a brand comes from sources the brand doesn't own. These are the case studies and guides, with numbers where I have them.
Key takeaways from brightonSEO and MeasureFest, October 2026
My takeaways from brightonSEO and MeasureFest October 2026: measuring AI visibility properly, attribution and getting SEO budget signed off.
"Can't we just use AI for our SEO instead?"
I use AI for SEO every day, and I've corrected it 487 times in four months. So who's catching the mistakes when a brand hands its SEO over to AI?
Spotting SEO and AI search gaps before Black Friday
I wrote for Advanced Web Ranking on how to find the SEO and AI search gaps that cost brands at peak, using a live Black Friday project. The full article is on their blog.
Black Friday is won in search (and it's already started!)
AI and agents influenced one in five global orders last Cyber Week. The work that shapes who gets surfaced and recommended is happening now, not in November.
You can rank first and still lose the sale
Ranking first no longer wins the sale. How AI search decides who gets recommended, why your authority is earned off-site, and how sentiment loses deals before buyers reach you.
What Google I/O 2026 means for the next 12 months of search
What Google I/O 2026 means for SEO, PPC, AI search, measurement and commercial planning over the next 12 months.
Visible but not chosen: why good SEO is no longer enough on its own
Good SEO is still essential, but AI search also depends on whether your business is understood, trusted and worth mentioning.
My collaboration with Writesonic on an AI search case study for SOZO
My collaboration with Writesonic on an AI search case study: a Shopify migration with a 10%+ uplift in AI search visibility within 30 days of launch.
From page 5 to position 1: how I won visibility in AI Overviews
How a UK e-commerce brand went from outside the Top 50 to position 1 and became the most-cited source in the AI Overview, without ad spend.
Everything else I've written is in the full insights archive, and I speak on AI search at conferences.
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18+ years in search · SEO · PPC · CRO · AI Search