The symbiotic future of PR and search: why visibility now starts with reputation

The search landscape is shifting dramatically – and it’s leaving many marketers wondering how to futureproof their strategy.

AI is fundamentally changing how people discover brands online. Gone are the days of focusing solely on website optimisation for search visibility – today’s strategies need to be developed for the entire content ecosystem.

Platforms like ChatGPT are generating answers directly from a wide range of online content, not just websites. Instagram and TikTok are increasingly being indexed in Google search results, especially for trend-led and local searches, while the likes of YouTube and Pinterest are shaping how audiences find and engage with information.

LinkedIn is abuzz with debate, with expert (and not so expert) views being exchanged. The bottom line is this, though: the data needed to make the best decisions is still emerging, and marketing playbooks that once worked are quickly becoming outdated.

But amidst this uncertainty, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: to be found in the age of AI, your brand needs to be talked about.

Research just released by Muck Rack found that 27% of links cited in AI responses were from journalistic content. This soared to 49% when the search query indicated a level of recency was required from the answer.

That’s why Public Relations (PR) and brand storytelling have never been more critical.

Our perspective: PR and SEO aren’t separate anymore – they’re symbiotic

At BIG Partnership, we see this as an opportunity. The future of search is about authentic visibility, earned authority and being part of the conversation. PR delivers on all three.

PR has always played a vital role in search success and this latest shift only reinforces that. Traditionally, PR has been used to build brand awareness and credibility, while digital PR has often been seen as a tool for earning backlinks and boosting domain authority. Now, these worlds are coming together. The lines between brand, search and content have blurred. What we’re seeing isn’t just a change in tactics, it’s a change in mindset.

We’re already helping brands pivot their strategies to reflect this evolution and we’re seeing results in AI search visibility, organic growth and brand perception. One of our clients in the medical space seeing an almost 30% uplift in brand traffic YoY.

Because in this new landscape, you don’t just want to rank – you want to be the brand people (and AI) are talking about.

What’s changed in search?

At a top level, the rise of AI-powered search tools – like Google’s AI Overviews (and incoming AI Mode); ChatGPT’s browsing capability; and emerging platforms like Andi – is transforming how people get information.

These tools no longer rely solely on traditional SEO signals like backlinks and keyword density. Instead, they use large language models (LLMs) that are designed to understand context, authority and semantic relevance across the web.

A recent study from Louise Linehan at Ahrefs, which analysed over 75,000 brands, found that the strongest predictor of a brand’s visibility in Google’s AI Overviews was branded web mentions, with backlinks ranked just seventh on the list of 11.

While data is still emerging, all current evidence points in the same direction. Semantic signals – how and where your brand is talked about – are starting to matter more than traditional link metrics.

As marketing guru Rand Fishkin said on a recent episode of The Digital PR Podcast:

“If you ask ChatGPT or Gemini, which powers Google’s AI overviews … to recommend you a plumber in Seattle, it is going to look for plumbers who most frequently come up in all the documents where Seattle and plumbing are talked about. PR, at its base, is making sure that your plumbing business is mentioned in as many places as possible that talk about Seattle plumbers.”

This shift is positioning PR as the strategic centre of digital visibility.

What this means for you as a marketing leader or brand

Whether you’re in retail, B2B, travel, energy, food and drink or any other sector, your customers are discovering brands in new ways. Often, they’re getting answers straight from AI and those answers are shaped by the online conversation about your brand, not just your website.

That’s why, as an integrated agency, we’re working with our clients to:

1. Build narrative-driven visibility

We go beyond backlinks – securing mentions, thought leadership and content that puts your brand into the broader conversation across media, influencers, forums, newsletters, social channels and search-friendly spaces.

2. Measure impact beyond traffic

We help our clients track uplift in brand mentions, share of search, AI visibility and most importantly revenue.

3. Reach the right audiences in the right places

PR isn’t just about national media. It’s about finding where your audience actually consumes content, and ensuring your brand shows up there. That might be Reddit, a trade blog, a podcast or a Substack newsletter.

4. Craft human-led, problem-solving content

We prioritise content that feels genuine, story-led and differentiated by positioning our clients as the answer to the real-life problems their audience are experiencing. The aim of this is to deliver the kind of content that resonates with real people in an AI-saturated world.

So, what should you be thinking about next?

Here are a few thought starters we’re encouraging clients to reflect on:

• Is your brand being mentioned online, beyond your own channels?
• Do your customers see your expertise across trusted third-party platforms?
• Would Google’s AI Overviews (or ChatGPT) find enough context to consider you an authority in your space?

• Are your PR and SEO efforts integrated, or still operating in silos?

The nature of search is changing fast. AI is forcing marketers to shift from technical visibility to narrative visibility. And in this era of semantic search and entity-based understanding, PR has become the driving force behind discoverability.