The New Three Pillars of Discoverability: SEO, Brand Mentions and AI Visibility

Why "Just Doing SEO" Feels Less Effective Than It Used To

Here at My Brand Mentioned, we talk to a lot of business owners who've already "done SEO." They've invested in a decent website, worked some keywords into their pages, maybe published a few blogs—and yet they still feel strangely invisible. Traffic is flat, leads are inconsistent, and meanwhile competitors seem to pop up everywhere.

Part of the reason is that the internet itself has changed. It's not just "10 blue links" on Google anymore. People are getting answers from featured snippets, local packs, video carousels—and now from AI assistants that summarize the web for them in a single response. When a potential customer asks an AI tool for "the best [service] in [city]," that tool may answer without the person ever clicking a traditional search result.

That's where brand mentions and AI visibility come into play. They don't replace SEO, but they now sit right alongside it as essential pillars of modern discoverability. Your website still matters. But so do all the places your brand is talked about, quoted, and referenced across the web—and how clearly AI systems can understand who you are and when to recommend you.

If you're seeing fewer leads from organic search, noticing competitors show up more often in AI tools, or just feeling unsure what to do next, you're not alone. In this article, we'll walk through how SEO, AI visibility, and brand/PR work together as three pillars that support each other—and what you can do about it.

Example: Imagine a local plumbing company that's invested in SEO for years. They rank reasonably well for "plumber in Springfield" and get some calls from Google. But when a homeowner asks an AI assistant, "Who are the most reliable plumbers in Springfield who do 24/7 emergency work?", that company doesn't appear in the AI's answer—because it has almost no meaningful brand mentions across the wider web. The SEO is there, but the broader signals AI systems look for are missing.

We've seen this pattern over and over again: businesses that have done the basics of SEO, but haven't invested in brand mentions and AI visibility, hit a ceiling. Our job is to help break that ceiling by treating all three pillars as part of one strategy.

A Simple Look at the Three Pillars of Modern Discoverability

Pillar 1 – SEO: Being Findable in Traditional Search

SEO, in plain language, is about making your website easy for search engines to understand and recommend. It's how you help Google (and other search engines) connect the dots between what people search for and the pages on your site that can actually help them.

The basics include things like:

• Technical health: your site loads reasonably fast and works on mobile.
• On-page content: clear pages that explain your services, pricing models, locations, and process.
• Internal structure: logical navigation so people and crawlers can move around easily.
• Helpful content: blogs, FAQs, and resources that answer real questions your customers ask.

When this pillar is in good shape, you tend to see more qualified visitors from search, stronger local visibility, and more trust when people "Google you" before reaching out. If your site is confusing, out of date, or missing key pages, it's much harder for search engines to send the right people your way.

If you'd like a deeper primer on how search engines understand and rank content, we recommend this overview of how search engines understand and rank content.

Pillar 2 – AI Visibility: Being Chosen by AI Assistants

AI visibility is about how often AI tools—like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI features—choose to reference or recommend your brand when people ask for help.

These tools "read the web" at scale. They scan websites, articles, reviews, and other public content, then use that information to answer questions in natural language. Behind the scenes, they're connecting entities (companies, people, locations), looking for patterns, and weighing trust signals.

The technical acronyms (GEO, LLMO, AEO) all live in this world, but you don't need to memorize them. What matters is:

• Does the AI clearly understand who you are and what you do?
• Is it obvious who you serve and where you operate?
• Are you mentioned on trusted, relevant websites in a way that reinforces that story?

When your brand mentions and AI visibility are strong, AI tools are more likely to include you in their recommendations, summaries, and "assistant-style" answers that people rely on when making decisions.

Example: Picture a B2B software company that doesn't rank #1 for its main keyword but is consistently interviewed on industry podcasts, quoted in niche blogs, and featured in a couple of respected industry reports. When someone asks an AI tool, "What are some reputable tools for [problem] in B2B?", that company has a much better chance of being mentioned because AI systems have seen it pop up in multiple credible contexts.

Pillar 3 – Brand Mentions & PR: The Signals That Tie It All Together

Brand mentions are any time your business is named and described on someone else's platform—blogs, news sites, industry publications, directories, podcasts, YouTube channels, you name it.

These mentions act like evidence. They show both search engines and AI systems that you're a real, active player in your space, not just a lonely website floating in isolation. The more clearly and consistently other websites describe who you are and what you do, the easier it is for both humans and machines to trust you.

This pillar overlaps with classic PR, thought leadership, digital PR, and link-building. Whether it's a guest article, a quote in a roundup, or a detailed case study on a partner's site, each mention helps build:

• Stronger authority in your niche
• More trust from potential customers
• Better context for search engines and AI tools about your services

Here at My Brand Mentioned, we focus heavily on this pillar by creating and placing high-quality, context-rich content on reputable sites. Our experience has shown that when you combine strong brand mentions with solid SEO and intentional AI visibility work, your discoverability improves across the board.

How SEO, Brand Mentions and AI Visibility Support Each Other

The Feedback Loop Between Your Site and the Rest of the Web

When your SEO pillar is strong—clear pages, well-structured content, good technical health—it becomes much easier for other sites (and AI tools) to describe you accurately. Journalists, bloggers, and partners can quickly understand what you do, and AI systems can match their descriptions to the content on your own site.

Off-site brand mentions then reinforce and expand what's on your website. They might highlight specific services, success stories, niches, or locations that your own site only touches on briefly. Together, they create a bigger, more detailed picture of your brand.

AI tools look at both: what your site says and what the rest of the web says about you. If those stories line up, you're much more likely to be considered a relevant, trustworthy option.

Example: Think of a regional accounting firm that refreshes its core service pages (SEO), clearly explaining its focus on small manufacturing businesses. At the same time, the partners are quoted in industry blogs about tax credits for manufacturers and publish a guest article on a respected trade site. Over time, when business owners ask AI tools, "Who understands taxes for small manufacturers in [region]?", that firm starts to appear more often because the website and the brand mentions reinforce the same story.

Why Neglecting Any One Pillar Holds the Other Two Back

Here's how the three pillars can work against you if one is missing:

• Scenario 1 – Great SEO but almost no brand mentions: AI tools have limited proof that you're a leader. You might rank okay in Google, but you're missing the broader reputation signals that feed brand mentions and AI visibility.
• Scenario 2 – Lots of PR mentions but a weak website: People click through from articles or directories and land on a confusing, thin, or outdated site. You lose opportunities and make it harder for search engines to trust you.
• Scenario 3 – Strong AI visibility efforts without SEO basics: Even if you show up in some AI answers, your foundation is shaky. Any algorithm change or content shift can knock you down because your website isn't doing its share of the work.

We like to think of it as a three-legged stool: take away one leg and everything becomes unstable.

Most of the clients who come to us have one very strong pillar and one or two neglected ones. Our role is usually to rebalance that system so SEO, brand mentions, and AI visibility are all working together instead of pulling in different directions.

A Simple Framework to Evaluate Your Current Discoverability

Step 1 – Check Your SEO Foundation

You don't need to be an SEO expert to spot the biggest gaps. Start with a few simple questions:

• Do you have clear, dedicated pages for each of your main services?
• If you serve specific cities or regions, do you have location pages that actually explain what you do there?
• Does your site load reasonably fast, especially on mobile?
• Is it immediately obvious, above the fold, who you are and what problems you solve?

For most small and mid-sized businesses, "good enough" means: someone who has never heard of you can land on your site and understand in 10–15 seconds whether you might be a fit for their problem, and search engines can crawl your pages without running into major technical issues.

Step-by-step: A basic SEO self-audit using free tools

1. Open an incognito browser tab and search your brand name. Click your homepage. Ask yourself: "Would a stranger understand what we do within a few seconds?"
2. Search for your top service plus your city (e.g., "IT support in Austin") and see where you appear, if at all.
3. On your phone, load your homepage and a key service page. Does it load quickly? Is the text readable without zooming?
4. In Google, type site:yourdomain.com. This shows how many of your pages are indexed and what Google thinks is important.
5. Make a short list of pages that need clearer messaging, more detail, or a refresh.

That's enough to spot whether your SEO pillar is healthy or needs some immediate attention.

Step 2 – Map Your Current Brand Mentions

Next, you want to see how the rest of the web talks about you (if at all). This directly impacts both your reputation and your AI visibility.

Start by searching for:

• Your brand name alone
• Your brand name + key services (e.g., "My Brand Mentioned AI visibility")
• Your leadership team's names + your company name

Look through the first few pages of results and note down every third-party mention:

• Blogs and guest articles
• Industry directories and marketplaces
• Local news or chamber of commerce features
• Podcast appearances, webinars, or YouTube interviews
• Roundup posts and "best of" lists

For each one, ask:

• Is this description accurate and up to date?
• Does it clearly say what we do and who we serve?
• Does it link back to our site?

Step 3 – Test Your AI Visibility Today

Finally, you want to understand where you stand with AI assistants right now. This is where the "AI visibility" pillar becomes very real.

Open one or two AI tools you care about (for many businesses, that's ChatGPT and at least one AI-powered search tool) and start asking the kinds of questions your potential customers might ask, such as:

• "Who are the best [service] providers in [location]?"
• "Which companies specialize in [specific niche or problem]?"
• "What are some trusted options for [service] for [type of customer]?"

Try multiple variations and pay attention to:

• Whether you appear at all
• How you're described, if you do show up
• Which competitors are mentioned repeatedly

Don't be discouraged if you're not showing up yet. For most businesses, this is still a new frontier—and that's exactly why now is a smart time to act.

Step-by-step: A repeatable AI visibility check

1. Make a short list of 5–10 "dream questions" that your ideal customers might ask AI tools when looking for a provider like you.
2. Run those questions in your chosen AI tools and capture the responses (screenshots or copy/paste into a doc).
3. Note which brands are mentioned most often and how they're described.
4. Repeat this process every quarter and compare results to see whether your brand mentions and AI visibility are improving.

If you'd like to understand more about how modern AI-powered search and answer experiences work, a useful starting point is this guidance on AI-powered features in Google Search.

Turning Insights Into an Actionable Plan for SEO, Brand Mentions and AI Visibility

Prioritizing Your Next 90 Days

Once you've done this quick assessment, you'll probably see one or two obvious weak spots. The key is not to fix everything at once, but to focus your next 90 days on the moves that will make the biggest difference.

Some simple priority examples:

• If your website is weak: Start by strengthening your core SEO pages. Clarify your homepage messaging, improve your main service pages, and make sure your site works smoothly on mobile.
• If your site is solid but you're rarely mentioned elsewhere: Focus on brand mentions and PR-style content. Pitch guest posts, participate in industry roundups, and look for local or niche publications that feature businesses like yours.
• If both are decent: Start intentionally creating AI-friendly, context-rich content on external sites. Make sure each piece clearly states who you are, what you do, who you serve, and why you're a good fit.

What Strong Execution Looks Like in Practice

You don't need a massive team to execute well on these pillars, but you do need some consistency. Here's what "doing each pillar well" looks like in practical terms:

• SEO: Your key pages are clearly written, well-organized, and focused on the problems you solve. Basic technical issues (like painfully slow load times or broken navigation) are fixed. You publish genuinely helpful FAQs and resources instead of generic filler.
• Brand mentions: You're regularly appearing in relevant places—niche blogs, industry roundups, local news, podcasts, or community sites. Each mention includes a short, accurate description of your business and ideally links back to your site.
• AI visibility: The content about you across the web makes it very easy for AI systems to understand your name, services, locations, and ideal customers. External pieces repeat those core facts in plain language, so there's no confusion about who you are or what you do.

Example: A small B2B service firm decides to focus on one key offer: "fractional CFO services for SaaS startups." Over 6–12 months, they:

• Redesign their service page around that offer, with clear messaging and FAQs.
• Publish guest articles on SaaS-focused blogs about financial metrics and fundraising preparation.
• Get quoted in a couple of startup newsletters and appear on a podcast about SaaS growth.
• Make sure every external piece clearly states that they provide fractional CFO services for SaaS companies.

As this builds up, their search rankings improve, they pick up more qualified leads, and AI tools start mentioning them more often when people ask for "fractional CFO options for SaaS startups." All three pillars are working together instead of in isolation.

At My Brand Mentioned, we typically build campaigns around a small set of "hero topics" like this. We reinforce those topics across on-site content and off-site mentions so that both search engines and AI assistants see a consistent, strong signal.

When It Makes Sense to Bring in a Partner Like My Brand Mentioned

You can absolutely take the self-assessment and many of the early steps on your own. In fact, we encourage it. The more clearly you understand your current SEO, brand mentions, and AI visibility, the better decisions you'll make with any partner.

Where DIY starts to break down is usually in three areas:

• Time: Writing high-quality content, pitching it, and following up with editors is a lot of work on top of running a business.
• Access: It's hard to consistently find reputable, relevant sites that are a good fit for your story.
• Structure: Even if you can get content published, it's not always clear how to structure it so search engines and AI tools actually "get it" and connect it back to your brand.

That's where a done-for-you partner can help. Our role at My Brand Mentioned is to handle the heavy lifting:

• Strategy: Choosing the right pillars, topics, and angles based on your goals and current visibility.
• Execution: Writing high-quality, context-rich articles, listicles, and features that clearly explain who you are, what you do, and who you serve.
• Placement: Getting those pieces published on relevant, reputable websites your audience and AI tools already pay attention to.
• Optimization: Structuring every piece so it reinforces your core message and supports both search visibility and AI visibility at the same time.

When you're ready to turn your brand mentions and AI visibility into a deliberate growth channel—not just something that happens by accident—My Brand Mentioned can help you put all three pillars to work in a coordinated way.