What makes a landing page work in the age of AI search

Answer the question

Start with what your customer actually wants to know.

Not Empowering businesses through innovative solutions.

Nobody searched for that.

Think about the questions someone asks before buying from you. How much does it cost? How does it work? Is it right for my business? How are you different? What results can I expect?

Then answer them.

Google recommends creating content that fulfils people’s needs rather than trying to produce what you think an algorithm wants. Its guidance for AI search puts particular emphasis on unique content that provides genuine value. 

Useful beats clever.

Get to the answer quickly

Your landing page does not need a 300-word warm-up.

Tell people what they need to know, then give them the detail.

This matters even more as search engines answer more questions before someone reaches a website.

Pew Research found that users clicked a traditional Google result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when there wasn’t one. 

Ahrefs found a similar pattern. Its 2026 research estimated that an AI Overview was associated with a 58% reduction in click-through rate for the top organic result. 

The click is becoming harder to win.

Give people a reason to make it.

Put real people behind your content

Who wrote the page?

Why should anyone trust them?

Google specifically recommends making authorship clear and adding accurate bylines where readers would expect them. It also suggests linking those bylines to information about the author’s background and expertise. 

This is an easy win for businesses with genuine specialists.

Use them.

Your people know things that generic content doesn’t. Put their expertise, opinions and experience on the page.

Bring receipts

Claims need evidence.

If you say something works, show how.

Use customer results, named case studies, original research, useful statistics and examples from actual experience.

This becomes particularly important when AI systems are choosing which sources to reference.

Microsoft now reports AI citations directly through Bing Webmaster Tools, including which pages are referenced across Copilot and AI-generated Bing experiences. Microsoft describes AI visibility as increasingly being about whether content is cited and referenced, not simply whether it ranks as a blue link. 

That changes the question.

Don’t just ask whether your content can rank.

Ask whether it is worth referencing.

Make your content easy to understand

Clear structure still matters.

Use descriptive headings. Break complicated subjects into sensible sections. Keep important information as accessible text. Use appropriate structured data.

But don’t treat schema as a magic button.

Google restricted FAQ rich results primarily to authoritative government and health websites back in 2023. Adding FAQ structured data does not automatically give a normal commercial website additional visibility. 

Structure supports good content.

It doesn’t rescue bad content.

Check whether AI search can actually access your website

This one is easy to overlook.

OpenAI says public websites can appear in ChatGPT search. It also says publishers that want their content to be discoverable, cited and linked should make sure they are not blocking OAI-SearchBot. 

The same wider principle applies across crawlers.

Your marketing team can create brilliant content, but somebody still needs to check the technical foundations.

Speak to whoever manages your website.

Think beyond informational searches

AI search is moving further down the buying journey.

Semrush analysed more than 600,000 keywords across ten industries and found the appearance of AI Overviews on commercial-intent searches grew by 71% during its six-month study. 

That’s important.

We’re no longer only talking about someone asking what an acronym means.

We’re talking about people researching options, comparing businesses and deciding what to buy.

Being part of the answer matters.

PR has a bigger role than it might think

AI visibility isn’t just an SEO job.

Brands need expertise. Evidence. Original information. Recognisable people. Useful commentary. Third-party credibility.

Sound familiar?

PR has been doing much of this for years.

The opportunity is to connect it properly.

Your website explains what you know. Your experts demonstrate it. Your research gives people something worth talking about. Your media presence builds wider credibility.

SEO helps make that information discoverable.

PR helps make it worth discovering.