The New SEO Funnel: From Indexing to AI Inclusion

Breaking news: classic SEO KPIs like clicks and rankings are now incomplete.  While you should still track these metrics to monitor your performance in organic search, they don’t account for the AI SEO funnel.  What’s that? Thanks to the prevalence of AI search tools and AI-driven search features (like Google’s AI Overviews), the traditional SEO funnel has gone through a drastic transformation.  Consider that approximately 60% of all searches in 2024 ended with no clicks.  This phenomenon is called zero-click search, and it occurs whenever users find the information they need on a search results page (without having to click on any organic results).  Why are zero-click searches rising so rapidly? Well, now whenever someone searches for something on Google or Bing, they’re typically met with an AI-generated overview that dominates the top of the results page: This makes it extremely easy for users to find what they need in the Overview and then click away from Google.  That’s not to mention the growing number of users opting for AI-powered Google alternatives like Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT.  While this may seem like the SEO apocalypse, that’s only if you’re tracking old metrics like clicks and rankings.  Evidence shows that people look up brands after discovering them in AI summaries.  For example, Samsung found out that 28% of its branded search traffic came from zero-click search (i.e., AI Overviews and featured snippets). Booking.com also saw a 24% in brand search volume by optimizing for AI visibility.  Translation: Success with search marketing is still possible, you just need new KPIs.  Read on to learn how to adapt to the new SEO funnel! 

What is the AI SEO Funnel?

While generating leads and sales through AI search is vastly different from traditional SEO, the classic sales funnel stages are still present.  In other words, you’re still using content to guide potential customers through every stage of their buyer’s journey.  Optimizing content for this type of sales funnel means:

1. Earning more brand mentions online (brand mentions and branded search volume are extremely important for AI visibility). 
2. Publishing helpful thought leader content that’s written by experts (with detailed author biographies). 
3. Using proper schema markup (from Schema.org) to ensure LLMs understand your brand, products, and author bios. This aids with NER (named entity recognition). 
4. Adding entries into trusted data repositories like GitHub to establish authority and credibility. 
5. Using semantic HTML to aid with LLM understanding (in the same way schema markup does). 

As you can see, these types of optimizations differ from traditional search marketing practices.  Here’s a table breaking down the difference between the classic SEO funnel and the AI SEO funnel:

	AI SEO funnel	Classic SEO funnel
TOFU (top of the funnel)	AI Overviews, zero-click searches, summaries from tools like ChatGPT – clicks are delayed	Informative blogs ranked in the top 3 organic positions, featured snippets – generates immediate traffic
MOFU (middle of the funnel)	Users look up your brand after seeing you appear in LLM search consistently.  Structured case studies, price comparisons, and Q&A content.	Buyer’s guides, price comparisons, and reviews (commercial intent keywords)
BOFU (bottom of the funnel)	Users either click on a branded search result, fill out a call form, or visit your site directly.	Landing pages, product demos, blog CTAs (all captured through transactional keyword searches)

Next, let’s take a closer look at each stage of the AI search funnel. 

Top of the funnel: Introducing audiences to your brand

At the top of the funnel (TOFU), there’s the awareness stage, which is where you must capture your audience’s attention.  In the AI-dominated search era, this means:

• Appearing in AI Overviews as a cited source 
• Getting mentioned in relevant searches by tools like ChatGPT 
• Gaining attention from zero-click searches 

Rather than gaining immediate clicks from top-ranking content (which is how regular SEO works), clicks from AI search tend to happen hours or even days later.  Your goal here isn’t to generate a bunch of immediate traffic.  Instead, the point is to stick in your audience’s minds so that they’ll want to look you up later.  How can you become more memorable? Here are some quick tips:

1. Use eye-grabbing logos 
2. Publish truly unique content with stand-out headlines 
3. Use schema markup and semantic HTML 
4. Earn more brand mentions through digital PR 

This stage is a big reason why legacy SEO metrics don’t fit the mold anymore.  Instead of generating immediate traffic from your TOFU content, your clicks will be delayed by days or even weeks.  However, as evidence already shows, that doesn’t mean that your audience has forgotten about you. 

Middle of the funnel: Convincing prospects that you’re the best 

At this point, prospects have become aware of your brand through frequent appearances in AI-generated search snippets.  Now, your goal is to convince them that your brand has the solution they’ve been looking for (and that you’re better than the competition).  How can you do this with an AI SEO funnel? One of the best ways is to get LLMs to start recommending your brand.  For instance, if you’re a professional photographer in Fresno, California, you’d want a tool like ChatGPT to recommend your services to its users for queries like:

• Who are the best photographers in Fresno?
• Which photography studios in Fresno take the best wedding pictures?

As you can imagine, receiving a direct recommendation from a tool like ChatGPT would be great for business.  Let’s try out one of the queries and see who it recommends: Here, ChatGPT provides us with what it believes to be the highest quality photographers in the area we requested.  Why did it choose these particular photographers? Going by what it told us, it’s clear that Yelp and Reddit reviews play major roles, but let’s dive a little deeper: This lets us know that factors like review volume, transparent pricing, and third-party vetting are also extremely important for earning recommendations.  So, if you want to strengthen the middle of your AI SEO funnel, you should:

1. Manage your online reputation and reviews (especially on third-party sites like Yelp, but also your Google Reviews). 
2. Include schema markup for the reviews on your website (to make them easier to identify).
3. Get your products and services listed in credible industry round-up articles. 
4. Provide transparent pricing models. 
5. Include your credentials, certifications, and business experience (along with Author schema markup. 

These optimizations will increase your chances of AI search tools recommending your brand to your target audience. 

Don’t have time to manage your reviews? Check out our Review and Reputation Management Service!

Bottom of the funnel: Sealing the deal   

The last stage of the funnel represents when a prospect is about to convert into a paying customer.  In the AI SEO funnel, this can happen when:

• A tool like ChatGPT directly recommends your brand 
• A user decides to visit your website after determining that your brand is the best 
• A user clicks on a well-placed CTA (call to action) in a FAQ section cited by an AI tool 

Going with that last point, it’s now crucial to embed CTAs in your AI visible content like FAQ sections and snippet-rich text (like definitions, answers, and explanations).  Do it right, and your CTAs can actually appear in Google AI Overviews: Schema markup matters for your BOFU AI content, too.  Don’t forget to hit landing pages and lead capture pages with schemas like:

• Service
• Product 
• ContactPoint

Also, use semantic HTML to label all your CTA and form buttons. 

Which Signals Influence Progress Through the AI SEO Funnel?

Now that you’ve got a grasp of the stages of the funnel, how do you know when users are progressing through them? In classic SEO, you could measure things like click-through rates (CTRs) and organic search rankings.  As stated previously, a new set of KPIs is necessary for AI SEO.  Here are the metrics you should track for each stage of the funnel. 

TOFU KPIs

Here are the KPIs you should measure for TOFU visibility:

1. Your presence in Google’s AI Overviews (you can track with Ahrefs, Semrush, Keyword.com, and a few other tools). 
2. Your brand mentions (Ahrefs, Brand24, Hootsuite). 

MOFU KPIs

Some middle-of-the-funnel KPIs include:

1. Branded search volume (Ahrefs, Brand24, etc.)
2. Entity recognition on various platforms (Wikipedia, Wikidata, GitHub, etc.)
3. Time-on-site for AI referred visits (GA4 average engagement time)

BOFU KPIs 

Lastly, here’s what to track at the bottom of the AI SEO funnel:

1. Lead attribution from AI brand mentions (GA4 paired with a CRM)
2. Content-to-conversion rate (i.e., which content pieces drive business by appearing in AI search?)
3. Conversion rate from zero-click search exposure (monitor for spikes in branded terms on Google Search Console and monitor behavior post-exposure). 

These KPIs will ensure users are progressing through each stage of your AI search funnel. 

Concluding Thoughts: Why You Need an AI SEO Funnel Strategy 

Search isn’t the same as it was just two years ago, and it’s imperative for brands to adapt to the changes.  That means developing a strategy for the AI search funnel instead of relying on traditional SEO KPIs (which will leave you blind and confused).  Are you not sure how to make the transition? Don’t want to book a free strategy session with us to learn how to thrive in the era of AI-dominated search!