INDUSTRY INSIGHT
This shift is dismantling the traditional‘ click‐through’ model that brands have spent decades perfecting. New ways of searching introduce new paths to visibility, but also new ways to disappear entirely. In an AI‐mediated environment, brands are no longer competing just for rank; they’ re competing to be recognised, trusted and included in how algorithms make sense of the world.
How can brands still be discovered in the age of LLMs?
To understand the challenge, imagine discovery from the algorithm’ s perspective. LLMs do not browse websites the way people do. They synthesise, compare, assess credibility across millions of signals. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini answer questions directly, pulling insights from multiple sources into a single conversational response.
For many organisations, this means the website is no longer the first – or even primary – point of interaction with their audience. This forces a deeper rethink of the digital experience infrastructure behind the brand – how content is created, structured, distributed and governed so algorithms can accurately understand, represent and keep it current. credibility across the web. For marketers, this translates into a clear strategic shift:
• From keywords to conversations – Brands must optimise for natural language prompts, not keyword clusters. People search the way they speak, and they expect confident, evidence‐based answers in return.
• From volume to point of view – While machine‐generated content can scale production, algorithms increasingly reward original thinking. Human judgment – critical reasoning, experience and creativity – remains a differentiator. That’ s the content that earns visibility.
• From owned channels to everywhere – Off‐site brand presence has become exponentially more important. Authority is reinforced through consistency across platforms, communities, partners and third‐party validation. Every surface where a brand appears contributes to the signals that LLMs learn from.
As organisations adapt, a once‐unthinkable question is becoming common in strategy sessions: Do we even need a website anymore?
Why the need for trust is bringing audiences back to websites
Sara Faatz, Senior Director, Strategic Awareness, Digital Experience, Progress Software
LLMs are tuned to favour content that is authoritative, distinctive and verifiable. They‘ trust’ patterns of expertise, consistency and
At first glance, the data can feel unsettling. Some research suggests that average website traffic has declined by 20 – 40 %, largely because
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