Building digital PR foundations for the changing search landscape

Understand AI-ready search strategies to future-proof your social impact visibility

Has your website traffic been looking a little different lately? Is volume less than usual? You’re not alone. Organisations in Australia and beyond are seeing shifts as the rules of online visibility change. Traditional search strategies aren’t cutting it anymore.

Are you waiting for traffic that isn’t coming?

The way people search for information is changing. AI overviews now appear in more than half of Google searches, and 3 in 5 searches end without anyone clicking through to a website at all.

For mission-driven organisations, this means understanding the new challenges and opportunities as you rethink your search strategies.

The challenge is that fewer people are visiting your website. The opportunity lies in the new ways to build your visibility and authority.

You don’t need a big budget or technical expertise to be part of this shift. You need clarity about your expertise, consistency in how you present it, and a strategic approach to sharing your knowledge across the digital ecosystem.

This guide will show you why a modern, AI-ready content and search strategy matters and get ready for the evolution of search.

How search is changing (and what it means for you)

People are still looking for what you offer, but they’re getting their answers in new ways. Instead of clicking through to websites, they’re now finding what they need on search pages, in AI tools or on social media.

The numbers tell the story

A 2024 Sparktoro study found almost 60% of US searches that year ended without a click to any website. By mid-2025, AI-generated overviews were appearing in almost 55% of American Google searches.

Meanwhile, traditional search engines are evolving from information retrievers into answer engines. Now they are trying to give complete answers instead of just presenting options.

This marks a shift in priority from keywords to conversations. And that’s where modern search strategies come in.

From search engines to answer engines

If someone searched for information about your sector today, they might see an AI-generated overview at the top of results. This summary, pulled from multiple sources, attempts to fully answer their question before they even see traditional website listings.

It’s not just Google either. People are getting more used to conversational and generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to find information. While their use is still small compared to traditional search, it’s growing fast.

For charities, not-for-profits and social enterprises, this means being a trusted source with the right answer matters more than just ranking highly. Your message and content need to be visible and consistent across multiple platforms and formats.

How does digital PR fit in the new search ecosystem?

Digital PR isn’t about press releases or media stunts. It’s about strategically building your organisation’s reputation where it matters: in search results, AI-generated answers, social media, industry publications and anywhere else your audience seeks information.

This is where an integrated search strategy becomes essential for not-for-profits and social enterprises.

When someone asks ChatGPT about your sector, your online authority and visibility determine whether you’re mentioned as a trusted source. When Google creates an AI summary about your services, your content’s reach and credibility influence whether you’re part of that conversation.

Guiding what the internet thinks of you

Your digital presence isn’t just your website anymore. What the internet thinks of you comes together via a system of interconnected mentions, citations and content across the web.

When AI systems decide whether to mention your organisation, they look at:

• how often you’re mentioned across trusted sources
• whether other trusted organisations link to your work
• how well you cover topics in your area of work
• how much of a digital footprint you have.

Digital PR isn’t about gaming the system. It’s about making sure people can find out about you and the valuable work you do.

And to do this effectively, you first need to make sure you have a solid search and content base to build on.

Building strong search and content foundations

The search engines don’t give away all their secrets, which is why there can be no guarantees when it comes to organic SEO and AI optimisation. But there’s plenty you can do to catch the wave rather than roll with the tide.

Think of it like building a house. You wouldn’t start with the roof. Your website’s structure and content are its foundation. If those elements are not clear, comprehensive, well-organised and reflective of your quality, there’s little point trying to build your reputation elsewhere.

You need to start by making sure your home base is strong before you extend your reach across the web.

What search engines look for in quality content

Search engines look at much more than just keywords. They check whether your site works properly (technical SEO), whether your content comprehensively answers queries (on-page optimisation), and whether people can use and navigate your site easily (user experience and accessibility).

They also evaluate your credibility. Are you a trusted source worth recommending? All these factors work together to determine how visible your content becomes online.

Different search engines may place slightly different weight on different signals. But if you follow best-practice SEO for Google, you’ll almost always be ticking the boxes for other search engines and AI search tools, too.

The technical basics (keeping it simple)

Before search engines can evaluate your content quality, they need to access and understand your site. Your web developer can make sure your site’s technical SEO is up to scratch for things like:

• pages that load in under 3 seconds
• content that works well on mobile devices
• clear navigation that both people and search engines can follow
• no broken links or error pages.

These technical foundations are like making sure the doors are open and the lights are on before inviting visitors over.

Content that works for everyone

On-page optimisation ensures your content is set up for success. Beyond keywords, content optimisation includes:

• clear, descriptive headings that help people scan your content
• meta descriptions that accurately preview what each page offers
• image descriptions (alt text) that explain visuals for people who can’t see them
• plain language with good readability
• breaking up long paragraphs
• logical heading structure
• good colour contrast.

When your content is accessible, it’s not just good for inclusion, it’s also easier for search engines to understand and recommend.

Proving your expertise: the EEAT factor

EEAT stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. It’s an important way that Google assesses content quality.

Digital PR to take your message further

You might have heard that digital PR is just about getting backlinks; that is, links from other websites to yours. While backlinks from credible, quality sites remain important for SEO, there’s more to digital PR than that. Effective public relations – whether digital or traditional – is about context, credibility and consistent brand presence.

Search engines keep getting better at understanding context. They are increasingly able to assess your reputation, expertise and how you’re talked about across the web, not just the number of links pointing to your site.

For mission-driven organisations this shift means authentic relationship-building and sharing expertise matter more than ever.

Some of the ways digital PR achieves this include:

• earned coverage on relevant digital platforms and online publications
• building relationships with digital content creators and thought leaders within your sector
• creating content that positions your organisation as an expert source
• presenting the same clear message across every digital platform
• strategic storytelling that builds trust and recognition online.

Content that works harder

The days of creating content for a single purpose are over. Modern content marketing strategy means every piece you create should be designed to work across multiple platforms and serve various user needs.

You can also look for ways to promote your content across earned channels. This is where digital PR will come into play. Are there aspects of your content that may be of interest to mainstream or industry media, or perhaps leading social media voices that are relevant to your sector?

Look at your content’s potential beyond your website. Not only does this increase your presence with a consistent message, it’s also cost effective.

Topic clusters vs keyword targeting

Instead of focusing on single keywords, think about topic groups. It’s important to note that this content strategy applies more to blog style content than to service and sales pages.

Blog posts explore broad topics in depth. They help improve internal linking and topical authority. Blogs are especially useful when people are in the research or awareness stage of their journey but can also direct visitors to sales pages to help drive conversions.

Create comprehensive ‘pillar’ content that covers a broad topic thoroughly.

For example, rather than separate blogs targeting ‘disability employment support’, ‘workplace accessibility’, and ‘inclusive hiring’, create a comprehensive guide to inclusive employment, with detailed sections that can also stand alone. Then develop shorter ‘cluster’ pieces that explore specific parts of that main topic in further detail.

Content chunking for AI extraction

AI systems often extract specific passages rather than entire pages. This is where answer engine optimisation (AEO) comes in.

Leverage this by structuring your content with clear sections, descriptive headings and self-contained paragraphs that make sense out of context. Each section should be able to answer a specific question completely.

Maintain a consistent tone and message

Social media as searchable content

Google indexes social media content, which means social posts from Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok can appear in search results outside the platforms themselves. That makes your social posts part of your searchable digital footprint. Make the most of this by:

• putting effort into your social profiles
• reinforcing authority with consistent messaging across platforms
• posting regularly to signal relevance and current operation.

Getting started: audit your current position

The first step is defining your starting point. Begin with a technical and on-page SEO pulse check of your website and priority pages.

If these aren’t up to scratch, your content can’t reach its potential. Read more about this in my article about setting up content for SEO and accessibility.

Check what the internet thinks of you

1. Google your organisation: what comes up? Is it accurate? Current?
2. Ask an AI tool about your sector: does your organisation get mentioned? If not, who does? What kind of content do they have on their site?
3. Check your key service pages: could individual sections answer specific questions? FAQs are a great way to do this.
4. Show your experience and authority: are your team members’ expertise and credentials clearly displayed?
5. Review your blog content: does it cluster around themes or scatter across random topics? Is anything outdated and in need of removal or refreshing? (Important: never delete pages without first redirecting them or you may lose SEO benefits).
6. Examine your digital footprint: where else does your organisation appear online? Think about social media platforms, directory listings, supporter websites. Does it present consistent, current information?

This exercise will give you an idea of your strengths and weaknesses and help you identify content areas to focus on.

Building your content ecosystem

When you’re focused on delivering your social mission, taking time to plan, research and create an interconnected web of strategic content seems like a distraction. But what if it helps more people discover your organisation and its services?

Truth is, your integrated search strategy is exactly how you’ll stay part of the queries and conversations that will deliver clients, participants, volunteers and supporters to your virtual door.

Your digital footprint audit may have highlighted content gaps, easy wins or areas for improvement. This is where you can start building up your content.

Create your content pillars

As mentioned above, pillar content is typically a comprehensive, blog-style article about one of your core service areas. This content should:

• answer the questions your audience is asking
• link to supporting detailed content (cluster blog content or service pages)
• include practical examples and case studies
• be structured for easy scanning and extraction.

Pillar content serves as a central hub for a topic. With its larger word counts (often 2,500+), a pillar blog also lends itself to repurposing. One pillar piece can generate:

• multiple social media posts
• email newsletter content
• downloadable resources or checklists
• video or audio summaries
• guest article submissions.

Topic clusters to support the pillars

Cluster content refers to shorter, more focused blog posts that dive deeper into sub-topics related to the pillar. These are usually 600 to 1,200 words in length.

Pillar and cluster content work together to create a content web that helps your organic visibility and reach by:

• boosting internal linking
• helping search engines and AI tools understand topic relevance
• set you up as a topic authority
• assist users to find relevant information across your site.

Ignite your content and extend your reach

Now that your SEO and content foundations are solid, you’re ready to try out some digital PR tactics to expand your digital footprint. Remember, modern and effective digital PR is about building relationships, not just collecting links.

Here are some digital authority building ideas that don’t need a huge budget:

• guest contributions: share expertise through articles on industry platforms
• collaborative content: partner with complementary organisations or individuals
• directory listings: ensure you’re in relevant, quality sector directories
• media relationships: build connections with journalists covering your sector
• strategic citations: reference and be referenced by peer organisations.

Query fan-out

Search engines are beginning to break single queries into multiple related questions, searching from different angles simultaneously. This is called query fan-out.

New tools can send a single content-related query, such as ‘What are people asking about youth homelessness in Australia?’, to multiple data sources such as social media, Google and Reddit. The information and insights gathered can:

• inform your blog topics or FAQs
• identify relevant keywords and search terms to better optimise content
• shape your understanding of what different audience segments are searching for, or engaging with, to help tailor content.

More personalised search

With Google announcing a shift towards ‘hyper-personalised’ search experiences, we can expect to see our search results becoming heavily personalised based on previous searches and user context.

So, an identical search query, such as ‘volunteering with kids’, would yield different results for a retired grandparent versus a student teacher.

This is an example of how topic clusters come into play, allowing you to answer specific user questions with different pieces of targeted content.

AI agents acting on behalf of users

This is where the AI model takes on and complete a task on behalf of the user. It could be selecting a cause to donate to, booking a service or choosing a volunteering opportunity.

Say someone asks their AI assistant to find and book a local art therapy session. As the AI agent searches, any obstacles – such as logins, multi-step sign-up forms or unstructured PDFs – will likely make it opt for sites with a simpler user experience.

So, reducing friction in sign-up, booking and donation processes is more important than ever, both for humans and for AI assistants.

Start from where you are

The search landscape is changing, and it feels like a lot. But you don’t need to transform everything overnight. Every organisation, regardless of size or resources, can take steps to strengthen its digital foundations and improve its search strategy.

Building manageable workflows

• Create templates for common content types.
• Look for opportunities to repurpose every piece of content.
• Document processes to make delegating easier.
• Focus on evergreen content that won’t need constant updating.

Prioritise content with greatest impact

If you’re just starting out, or have limited resources, focus on:

• building content to support your highest-value service areas first
• content that answers your audience’s most common enquiries
• establishing authority in one topic cluster before moving to the next.

Guide what the internet thinks of you

You might not be able to control what the internet thinks of you, but you can guide it. Instead of spectating from the sidelines, start now and take advantage of the opportunities to boost your visibility in the new search landscape.

Remember: your expertise and experience are competitive advantages. Firm up your foundations and then start building authority and trust through consistent, quality content.

Consider one area where you could develop your search strategy and strengthen your digital presence this month. Maybe it’s updating your organisation’s description across all platforms, creating one comprehensive piece about your core service, or reaching out to a peer organisation about a content collaboration.

Start from where you are and guide the narrative to ensure the valuable work you do is found and recognised by the people that need it.

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Tanya Hollis is a communication specialist with 30 years’ experience across journalism, public relations and marketing communications for the health, medical, not-for-profit and social enterprise sectors.

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