Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 28.10.2026 
Search has changed significantly over the past few years. Google is still an important part of how people find businesses, but it’s no longer the only place they look for answers. AI-powered experiences, including ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews, are changing how information is discovered, compared and presented.
For businesses investing in SEO, that creates an important question: should they be shifting their attention away from traditional search and towards AI?
At Pod Digital, we don’t believe it’s a choice between the two.
Our approach has always been to build strong SEO foundations while adapting to how people search. That thinking is central to our work and one of the reasons we’re particularly proud to have been shortlisted for Best Large SEO Agency at the UK Search Awards 2026.
Over the past two years, we’ve learned some important lessons about what effective search strategies need to look like as the industry evolves.
1. AI Search Doesn’t Make SEO Fundamentals Less Important
Understandably, businesses are paying attention to AI Search. When people can ask a question and receive a direct answer, sometimes without visiting a website, the implications for organic visibility are significant. However, that doesn’t mean the work behind traditional SEO has suddenly become irrelevant.
Technical accessibility, clear website structure, useful content and genuine subject expertise still matter. In fact, many of the qualities that make a website valuable to people searching on Google also help make its information understandable and useful in AI-powered search experiences.
The mistake would be to treat AI Search as a completely separate activity, disconnected from the foundations businesses have already invested in.
We’ve seen the value of combining both approaches through our work with DPH Legal, a Reading-based employment law firm.
Employment law is a particularly demanding area of search. People are often looking for answers to sensitive questions about dismissal, discrimination, redundancy or settlement agreements. Accuracy and expertise are essential, and businesses need to earn trust rather than simply attract traffic.
Our initial strategy focused on building depth across the firm’s core areas of expertise. We developed 12 topic clusters, each supported by a pillar page, and worked with DPH Legal’s solicitors to create and refine more than 100 pieces of content.
The aim wasn’t simply to publish more pages. It was to build a useful, connected resource that addressed the questions potential clients were asking, with information grounded in the knowledge of practising legal professionals.
That content became the foundation for the next stage of the strategy.
2. You Can’t Improve AI Visibility Without Understanding It
When we began developing our dedicated AI Search offering in 2024, one of the biggest challenges was measurement.
Traditional SEO has established ways of assessing performance, from rankings and organic traffic to enquiries and conversions. AI Search introduced a different set of questions.
Was a brand being mentioned in AI-generated answers? Which sources were being cited? How did visibility differ between platforms? And, most importantly, was that visibility contributing to meaningful business outcomes? There wasn’t a universally established framework for answering all of those questions.
Rather than wait for one, we invested in specialist tools, including Peec.ai, and developed our own approach to monitoring AI visibility alongside conventional SEO performance.
For DPH Legal, this meant identifying relevant prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, monitoring where the firm appeared and using those insights to improve the existing content.
From October 2025, we introduced a structured AI Search optimisation programme alongside the established SEO strategy.
That distinction matters. We weren’t starting again or abandoning the work that had already been done. We were using a strong content foundation to pursue visibility in additional search experiences.
It’s also important to recognise that AI visibility isn’t the same as a traditional ranking. AI-generated responses can vary by prompt, platform and context, so measurement needs to be interpreted carefully.
For us, the purpose of tracking AI Search isn’t simply to produce another visibility report. It’s to understand where clients have opportunities to be discovered and whether those opportunities are contributing to their wider goals.
3. Search Success Needs to Be Measured Beyond Traffic
One of the biggest changes in search is that website traffic alone no longer tells the whole story. A business might be visible in an AI-generated answer without receiving a click. Someone might discover a brand through ChatGPT and visit its website later through another channel. And even when traffic does arrive, the commercial value depends on what those visitors do next.
That’s why we’ve increasingly focused on connecting search performance with enquiries, conversions and acquisition costs. The DPH Legal campaign illustrates why that matters.
Between October 2025 and May 2026, the firm’s monthly leads increased from 932 to 2,372. Over the same period, its website conversion rate rose from 0.3% to 1.49%, while cost per acquisition fell from £1.45 to £0.53.
Our AI Search monitoring also recorded an increase in share of voice from 39% to 50%, with an average citation position improving from 1.8 to 1.5 across the prompts and platforms being tracked. AI-referred traffic recorded a conversion rate of 26.98% during the reporting period.
These figures are encouraging, but the important lesson isn’t that AI Search automatically delivers better results than traditional organic traffic. Different traffic sources, audience sizes and attribution methods can affect conversion rates. What the results demonstrate is the value of measuring how different search experiences contribute to the same commercial objectives.
Across our wider client portfolio, Pod generated 112,402 qualified leads between May 2025 and June 2026, with more than £15 million in attributable client revenue influenced by SEO, AI Search and content activity.
Those are the outcomes we want search strategies to support.
4. The Best Search Strategies Need More Than SEO Specialists
As search becomes more complex, the work involved in improving performance increasingly crosses traditional marketing disciplines.
Content teams need to understand search intent, subject expertise and how information is structured. Technical SEO specialists need to make sure websites are accessible and their content can be understood. Web developers need to consider user experience and conversion journeys. Data specialists help connect visibility and traffic with meaningful outcomes.
And all of those activities need to support the wider business strategy.
At Pod, our SEO and content department works closely with paid media, web development and data specialists. That collaboration helps us look beyond individual channel metrics and consider what happens throughout the customer journey.
It’s particularly important when experimenting with newer approaches to search.
When we introduced AI Search services, we didn’t want that knowledge to sit with one specialist or become an isolated offering. We invested in training and shared processes so that teams could understand how AI Search fitted into the work they were already doing.
That approach also helped us respond to a challenge facing the wider industry: how to develop expertise in an area where the platforms, reporting capabilities and best practices are still evolving. Testing, reviewing results and sharing what we’ve learned have become essential parts of the process.
The lesson is that adapting to search isn’t just about buying new tools. It’s about giving people the knowledge and support to use them effectively.
5. Don’t Wait for Search to Change Before You Adapt
One of the most valuable lessons from our experience is that businesses and agencies can’t afford to base every decision on what has worked in the past. That doesn’t mean chasing every new feature or assuming the latest technology will transform results overnight.
It means being prepared to test new approaches while continuing to invest in the things that already work.
We began developing dedicated AI Search services in August 2024, before there was widespread client demand for them. At the time, there were genuine uncertainties about measurement, platform behaviour and the commercial value of AI visibility. Those questions haven’t all disappeared. However, building that capability early meant we could begin learning, testing and improving our approach alongside our existing SEO work.
It also meant we were better prepared to help clients understand what was changing and what it meant for their businesses.
For us, that’s an important part of being a search agency. Clients don’t just need someone to respond when their rankings fall or a new platform becomes popular. They need a partner who is thinking ahead, questioning established approaches and identifying opportunities before they become urgent problems.
Mike McKinlay, Managing Owner/Fouder at Pod Digital, reflects on the team’s approach:
“We’ve always believed that being a good SEO agency means looking ahead, not just reacting to what’s happening now. When we started investing in AI Search, we didn’t have all the answers, but we knew the way people find businesses was changing and we wanted our clients to be ready for it. I’m incredibly proud of how our team has embraced that challenge while continuing to deliver strong SEO results. Being shortlisted for Best Large SEO Agency is recognition of their hard work, curiosity and commitment to doing what’s right for our clients.”
What Does the Future of SEO Look Like?
We don’t believe the future of SEO is about choosing between Google and AI Search.
Maisie Bee, Head of SEO at Pod Digital, explains how the two approaches fit together:
“The future of search isn’t about choosing between traditional SEO and AI Search. It’s about understanding how they work together. Strong SEO foundations remain essential, but businesses also need to adapt to how customers are discovering information. Our focus is on bringing both approaches together to deliver meaningful results, not just greater visibility.”
Maisie Bee, Head of SEO at Pod Digital
That starts with the fundamentals: technically sound websites, useful content, genuine expertise and a clear understanding of what customers need. It also requires a willingness to develop new skills, measure new forms of visibility and connect search activity to commercial results.
Being shortlisted for Best Large SEO Agency at the UK Search Awards 2026 is a proud moment for our team. It recognises not only the results we’ve achieved for clients, but also the investment we’ve made in developing our approach as the industry changes.
Search will continue to evolve. The platforms people use, the answers they receive and the journeys they take towards becoming customers won’t stand still.
The agencies that deliver lasting value won’t be the ones that choose between SEO and AI Search. They’ll be the ones that understand how to make both work together.
About Pod Digital
Pod Digital is a UK digital marketing agency specialising in SEO, AI Search optimisation, content marketing, paid media and web development. With teams working across Leicester, London and Dubai, we help businesses improve their visibility, connect with customers and achieve measurable commercial growth.
