I think by now, we all know that AI isn’t going anywhere – or at least it isn’t going away. It is definitely going somewhere, and that place is called the future.  

You can find any number of articles on LinkedIn explaining why AI isn’t the future, and how it’ll never replace human writers (phew) but the truth is, human writers who understand AI and know how to leverage it, will do much better in their chosen business than writers who ignore it.  

I’m not just talking about knowing how to use prompts to automate some of the more time-consuming tasks involved in marketing and PR, neither am I talking about spotting AI-generated content (don’t get me started on the em-dash argument that perpetuates on LinkedIn…).  

This is about understanding how AI accesses and uses what you write. I’m talking about the rise of no-click search.  

You’ve most likely seen the AI-generated results when you Google something nowadays. Depending on the search and what AI can quickly find, you will see a few paragraphs of AI-generated copy at the top of the search results giving an overview in response to your query. This means that while AI can drive traffic to your website with references and citations for the information it uses, there’s a growing percentage of AI generated results that conclude with a no-click search; because AI has gone to your site, read the information and delivered the results that the human would have got, had they clicked through to your website. Your information has been served to a potential customer, but they haven’t visited your website. 

So, should you be encouraging clicks through other means to bypass the AI? Well, yes, driving traffic that is engaged and could potentially spend longer on your site will always be the holy grail, but more importantly, there is a real need to understand how AI searches; to make sure that when a user gets AI generated results, it’s pulling content from your (or your client’s) site, articles, blog, product info etc. Because if it doesn’t get that from your site, do you know where it will go? That’s right… straight to your competitors.  

The key to making sure it’s your content that is displayed relies on an understanding of what AI likes. And to a greater extent, there are many similarities to what Google’s algorithms like too, so hitting the mark for one, should get you in the ballpark for the other. Content should be clearly marked and structured to tick the boxes; if Google and/or AI can’t (quickly) figure out what your article, blog, or product page is about, then it will be disregarded. This stands for click-search results too. If Google doesn’t understand what your blog is about because it’s not structured right, then it isn’t going to display highly in search results.  

The second point, and one that hits very true with RDP, is to display an understanding of what your customers – and your client’s customers, if you’re writing for their websites – are actually looking for. By understanding what they need, the pain points they are struggling with, and the issues they need solutions to, your articles and blogs should answer their search query perfectly. Then either through click or no-click, the answer comes from you and even if there’s no direct web traffic, the perception of your brand is that it helped. It delivered, even without (apparently) trying.  

And that’s the RDP way – we pride ourselves on our insights. We base our client campaigns on meaningful insights, rooted in a deep understanding of their business, brand, and customer personas. This ensures that everything we create is grounded in real-world knowledge and is a very close proximation of what their customers want to know and how they are searching for it.  

So, if you want to make sure your content is seen, even when it’s not viewed – RDP has the tools to make sure it shines, even if the lights are off and nobody’s home.