Listen on Spotify [| Watch on YouTube
Episode 01 of Raising The Bar.
Mel Strutt is a co-founder of 3BY2, a B2B marketing agency in Perth running managed marketing services for around 60 clients along with Mon Cook is a sales and marketing manager at 3by2.
Episode 01: Raising the Bar
I’ve lost count of how many conversations I’ve had this year that start the same way. “Mel, are we screwed because of AI?” It’s usually followed by a stat someone’s heard on a podcast or LinkedIn. Sixty percent of searches never leave Google. Websites are dead. SEO is dead. Panic accordingly.
Here’s the straight talk version: AI is changing search, but not in the way most business owners are being told. We run search for around 60 accounts, a good share of them in mining services, industrial fabrication and construction, so this is what the numbers say rather than what the conference circuit says.
Search has always been about keeping answers close
Before we even talk about AI, we need to get one thing straight. Google has spent the better part of a decade optimising how quickly people can get answers. When you search for a business, you’re shown a map, opening hours, directions, photos, reviews, and a phone number. In many cases, you already have what you need without clicking through to a website.
That behaviour isn’t new, and it isn’t driven by AI. It’s platform design. The stat doing the rounds is that around 60 percent of searches end without a click. It sounds alarming until you check when it started. SparkToro’s clickstream research, based on SimilarWeb data, put the zero-click rate at roughly 65 percent back in 2020, years before AI Overviews existed (as seen in this research). The number has moved since, but it hasn’t fallen off a cliff, and AI didn’t cause it.
What is generative engine optimisation?
Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the practice of structuring your content and your credibility signals so a large language model cites your business when someone asks it a question you should win. That’s the definition. What nobody has is a settled rulebook, and anyone selling you one is guessing.
Here’s the honest version. AI search is still being discovered in real time. What we are seeing, however, are early patterns, and patterns are worth paying attention to.
What we do know is this: if your SEO fundamentals are strong and you are genuinely visible for what you specialise in, AI tools are far more likely to surface your business and send traffic your way. Broad, jack-of-all-trades positioning doesn’t scale in AI search the way it once did in traditional search.
Should you be worried if search drives your revenue
If your business relies heavily on people actively searching for what you sell, then yes, you should be paying attention. Not panicking, but paying attention. If search has never been a meaningful channel for your business, then you can relax. People don’t suddenly start searching for businesses they’ve never searched for before just because AI exists.
If Google search, local search, or intent-based queries are how work lands on your desk, AI search is now part of your reality. That means asking better questions of your agency or in-house team and being comfortable with the fact that some answers are still evolving.
How much traffic is AI actually sending?
Across the accounts we run managed marketing services for, AI traffic is real but small. In the first half of 2026 it sat at roughly 3 percent of organic sessions across about 60 accounts, measured in GA4 by referral source. That’s a sliver, not a takeover.
Where it gets interesting is which sectors see it first. High-trust, comparison-heavy decisions surface earlier, which is why our B2B marketing accounts are seeing it before the consumer ones. When a procurement manager asks an AI tool which fabricators in WA can handle stainless pressure vessels, the model has to make a judgement call. It looks for reviews, credibility signals, consistency, and evidence of genuine specialisation.
We’re already seeing conversions attributed to AI tools this year, and that number will grow. Attribution will get messier, which will frustrate people who love perfectly clean reporting. That’s not a disaster. It just means we need to adjust how we measure and think.
Why AI rewards specialists
This is where the biggest shift is happening. AI search does not reward businesses trying to be everything to everyone. For years, SEO could be gamed through keyword stuffing, broad-match tactics, and content written for algorithms instead of humans. That era is over.
AI is very good at detecting surface-level claims without substance. If you say you do ten things but don’t demonstrate actual expertise in any of them, you will struggle. If you are genuinely excellent at one or two specific things, AI can work that out.
A fabrication shop that has published for five years about stainless work for the resources sector will surface when a buyer asks that exact question. Not because of a trick, but because the body of work exists.
This is a B2B marketing strategy problem before it is a search problem. The takeaway:
– Know what you do best
– Say it clearly, on a page you own
– Prove it consistently, for years
Websites still matter because ownership matters
Every few months someone asks whether websites are dead. If they are, we’re both out of a job. Jokes aside, AI still needs a source of truth. That information has to live somewhere, and ideally it should live somewhere you actually control.
Your website is an owned asset. Your domain name is protected by a proper legal framework in Australia. You can choose where it’s hosted and how it’s managed. Social platforms, on the other hand, are rented land. We’ve seen businesses lose years of reputation overnight because a Facebook account was hacked or a Google Business Profile was suspended. No warning. No real recourse.
AI tools pull information from websites, Google Business Profiles, reviews, and public content. If you don’t own where that information lives, you’re taking on unnecessary risk. Websites aren’t going anywhere. They’ll get easier to build and faster to deploy, but the idea that you don’t need one is, frankly, bullshit.
Intent now beats volume
The smartest shift business owners can make right now is thinking harder about intent. Among other things, people no longer search like robots. They ask questions the way they would speak to another human. Longer phrases, more context, more comparison.
If you understand the questions your customers ask when the problem actually matters, that’s where your content should live. Not generic blogs written for volume. Helpful, specific, problem-solving content that reflects expert decision-making.
What should business owners actually do?
Start with your last twenty enquiries. Write down the real question behind each one. If your site doesn’t answer those twenty questions in plain language, on their own pages, that’s your content plan, and it will beat anything a keyword tool hands you.
Then audit yourself. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the three questions a buyer asks before shortlisting anyone in your category. Note whether you appear, who does instead, and what the model says about them. Twenty minutes, once a quarter.
Point your Google Business Profile at the one thing you want to be known for, not the twelve things you’re capable of. If you’re running a small business marketing strategy off one person and a spreadsheet, that single decision does more than everything else on this list.
For businesses that genuinely know their lane and stick to it, this is an opportunity. Marketing isn’t rocket science, but it does reward focus. And bullshit has always been easy to spot. AI just makes it faster.
Key takeaways
AI is reshaping search behaviour. Traditional SEO tricks won’t cut it anymore.
GEO isn’t a standard yet, but it’s coming.
Businesses must focus on real specialisation. Jack-of-all-trades positioning won’t scale in AI search.
Google Business Profile and reviews still matter, especially when they match high-intent, specific searches.
Long-form, intent-driven queries are what large language models prioritise. Structure your content around that.
A website still matters. It’s your owned content source, and AI tools pull from what you control.
Don’t panic, but do plan. AI search referrals are growing, and early adopters are already seeing results.
Own your platform. Relying solely on Meta or aggregators is risky.
Check your own rankings in AI tools. That’s your new real-world search audit.
Frequently asked questions
What is generative engine optimisation?
GEO is the practice of structuring your content and credibility signals so a large language model cites your business when someone asks a question you should win.
How much traffic do AI search tools actually send?
Roughly 3 percent of organic sessions across the accounts we manage, in the first half of 2026, measured in GA4 by referral source.
Do websites still matter if AI answers the question?
Yes. AI tools still need a source of truth to pull from, and your website is the one asset you fully control rather than rent.
Which industries are seeing AI search traffic first?
High-trust, comparison-heavy decisions such as B2B and industrial procurement, where a model has to weigh reviews, consistency and specialisation before recommending a supplier.
How do I check whether AI tools recommend my business?
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the three questions a buyer asks before shortlisting anyone in your category, and note whether you appear.