I just watched a great episode from The Grow and Convert Marketing Show that breaks down the exact question many of us in marketing have been asking: what should we actually do to increase our AI visibility? The episode cuts through the noise and fearmongering from some of the AI visibility tools and gives a clear, practical framework you can use today. Here’s the short, friendly recap I’d share with a colleague—what I learned, what to avoid, and a simple plan you can implement this week.

Why marketers are suddenly anxious about AI visibility

First, the context: a bunch of CMOs, founders, and marketing leads are opening up AI visibility dashboards, seeing competitors “winning,” and getting understandably nervous. The common pattern is this: an SEO/AI tool runs a bunch of prompts, tallies how often your brand is mentioned in AI overviews, spits out a single percentage or “share of voice,” and then you look bad on paper.

That panic is often misplaced. The episode makes a core point I agree with: these tools tend to prioritize quantity over quality. They measure how frequently your brand appears across a wide net of prompts—but they don’t judge whether those prompts actually matter to your business. In other words, a high visibility score that’s driven by irrelevant, top-of-funnel, or non-buying-intent queries isn’t valuable.

The common traps: irrelevant prompts and false comparisons

Two client examples from the episode illustrate this well:

• A B2B software client saw a competitor showing up in AI overviews for a bunch of queries like “things to do in Illinois,” “most visited cities,” and city-specific travel guides. That competitor publishes consumer-facing content, so they naturally appeared in those AI prompts. But our B2B client sells software to vacation-related businesses—not consumer travel guides—so those AI mentions are largely meaningless.
• A look at SEMrush’s AI brand performance demo for Warby Parker showed a “share of voice” percentage and dozens of specific queries. Some prompts made total sense (e.g., “Which retailers have the best customer reviews for eyewear?”) and mattered to Warby Parker. Other prompts—like “Who offers in-app virtual try-on for glasses?”—might be irrelevant or of very low commercial value.

Both examples show the same problem: tools give a big-picture metric without filtering for intent or business relevance. That metric can make leaders panic even when the brand is doing the right things for its customers.

Two rules that will save you from unnecessary panic

If you remember only two things from this article (and the episode), let them be these:

1. Intent matters. Not all prompts are equal. A mention in a “what are fun things to do in Springfield” overview is not the same as ranking in an AI overview for “best property management software for vacation rentals.” Pick queries aligned to buying intent.
2. SEO fundamentals still matter most. From the data referenced in the episode and our own observations, there’s a strong correlation between ranking in Google search results and showing up in AI overviews (including ChatGPT and Google’s AI responses). So prioritize the core things that make you rank well on Google.

How AI overviews actually decide what to show

The episode summarizes this neatly into two inputs that influence LLM answers like ChatGPT and Google AI overviews:

• Training data: The LLM’s broad knowledge built from public datasets, books, podcasts, and web content. Getting into that training data is a long-term brand effort—centuries of marketing activities add up here.
• Live web search: Many LLMs “search the web” when they don’t have enough internal information, and they use Google or other web sources. That makes your presence in current Google search results a very direct lever to influence AI answers.

Practically: focusing on appearing in top Google results (your domain or reputable third-party pages that mention you) is the most tangible way to influence whether AI mentions your brand.

A simple, practical framework you can implement today

Stop staring at a single “AI visibility” percentage and start controlling what matters. Here’s a step-by-step playbook I’d use right now if I were advising a marketing team with limited budget:

1. Pick 5–10 core topics (not a thousand prompts). These should be the queries that directly indicate buying intent and align with your product. Examples: “prescription glasses online,” “equipment rental software,” “best content marketing agency for SaaS.” Keep them tight and product-focused.
2. Map intent for each topic. Decide whether each topic is TOFU (top of funnel), MOFU, or BOFU (bottom of funnel) and what a successful outcome looks like: visits, demo signups, trial starts, or direct conversions.
3. Audit your current rankings. For those 5–10 topics, track where your pages currently appear in Google. Do this monthly. You can use a paid tool or a simple spreadsheet with manual checks.
4. Fix and optimize your pages. Update content, clarify intent, add conversion opportunities, and ensure pages answer the user’s question better than competitors. This is classic SEO content work—do it well.
5. Earn placements on other relevant pages/lists. If other sites produce “best of” lists or roundups for these topics, get on them. Traditional PR outreach and relationship building still work here—email editors, share case studies, provide data, and be helpful.
6. Monitor AI overviews for those topics, not your overall percentage. If you want, use an AI-tracking tool and focus reporting on those 5–10 queries rather than a single share-of-voice metric.
7. Be wary of short-term “hacks.” Commenting across many Reddit threads, paying for placement, or other manipulative tactics might give transient wins. They’re not a substitute for sustainable SEO and product-driven marketing.

Examples of good vs. bad AI visibility efforts

From the episode, here’s how to classify potential activities:

• Good: Updating core product pages and buying-intent content. This improves organic rankings and is likely to increase AI mentions in meaningful ways.
• Good: Earning placements on authoritative lists that already rank well. That amplifies signals without being spammy.
• Less useful: Trying to rank for dozens of irrelevant prompts the tool suggests. This wastes effort on topics that won’t convert.
• Risky: Paying for placements that violate policies or trying to game AI algorithms with low-quality tactics. Short-term gains can become long-term penalties.

What about expensive AI visibility tools?

There are helpful tools out there that can automate monitoring and give you a big dashboard. But if you can’t justify the budget, you don’t need them to make progress. The hosts suggested a pragmatic alternative:

• Pick your 5–10 priorities, build a simple spreadsheet, and check them periodically.
• Have your team discuss status and actions every month. This focuses your efforts on topics that matter.

If you do decide to invest in a tool later, you’ll have clarity on which queries you care about and can ask the tool to monitor those specifically—rather than relying on whatever list it auto-generates.

Final takeaways — what I’m telling my team

If you’re feeling that uneasiness after opening an AI visibility report, here’s the friend-to-friend advice I’d give:

• Don’t panic over a single share-of-voice number. It’s easy to misinterpret. Ask: which prompts contribute to that number, and do those prompts matter?
• Pick a handful of meaningful queries and own them. Monitoring and optimizing 5–10 buying-intent topics is far more productive than chasing hundreds of irrelevant prompts.
• Double down on SEO basics. Strong organic ranking signals are the most reliable way to influence AI outputs today. Create great content, earn links, and fix UX/conversion issues.
• Use PR and list placements strategically. Getting on trusted lists that already appear in search results is a sensible, scalable tactic to increase the chances AI tools reference you.
• Avoid reliance on hacky short-term tactics. They might work momentarily, but long-term brand and product strength wins.

“Do the basics. If you’re not doing the basics right now, then you’re going to have a lot harder time showing up in AI.” — Summarized from The Grow and Convert Marketing Show

How to get started this week (quick checklist)

1. Pick 5–10 product-related topics with clear buying intent.
2. Search each topic on Google and note the top 3–5 results.
3. Audit your content for those topics—are you answering the searcher’s question? Is there a clear conversion path?
4. Update or create the highest-value pages first (optimize for intent and conversions).
5. Identify 3 external sites/lists where your brand should appear and start outreach.
6. Set a monthly review to check rankings and AI overview presence for your chosen topics.

Closing thought

AI visibility is real and worth thinking about, but it’s not a magic replacement for SEO or product-driven growth. Focus on the queries that drive value, do the SEO fundamentals well, and use PR/list placements to complement your efforts. If you do that, the AI mentions will follow—without the panic and without wasting resources on irrelevant metrics.

If you want to dive deeper, follow The Grow and Convert Marketing Show for more breakdowns like the one I summarized—it’s a great resource for practical, no-nonsense marketing advice.