Using Third-Party Data for SEO Strategy

Most PR teams are about to get blindsided by AI search. Not because they're doing bad work. Because they're optimizing for rules that stopped mattering months ago. Google's AI Overviews fundamentally changed how brands get discovered. AI search engines now prioritize brand mentions on third-party sites over everything you publish yourself. Traditional SEO tactics are becoming obsolete. The gap between teams that understand this and teams that don't is widening fast. Consider the mechanics: → One major press release distributor restructured their entire content approach based on how AI engines parse information—making releases more conversational and front-loading critical details. Because AI doesn't dig the way human readers do. → Smart PR teams have stopped chasing CNN and started targeting niche platforms. Industry-specific publications. Trade sites. Category authorities like WebMD for healthcare brands. The data backs up this shift. Ahrefs found that brand mentions across the web are among the three strongest factors for AI overview visibility. Yet over 25% of brands have zero mentions in AI search results—meaning they might as well not exist when prospects search for solutions. Then there's the crisis dimension: Reddit threads about your brand can surface in AI search results now, thanks to licensing deals with OpenAI and Google. Community conversations have unprecedented visibility. Your traditional crisis playbook wasn't built for this. But here's the strategic opportunity hiding in plain sight: AI search engines depend on exactly what earned media provides. Authoritative content from multiple independent sources. Third-party validation. Multi-sourced credibility. This might be PR's biggest moment in decades. While marketing tactics struggle to adapt, PR strategy naturally aligns with what AI engines value. The distinction between leaders and laggards over the next 12 months will come down to one factor: adaptation speed. Your competitors are either already moving or still operating on outdated assumptions. Which side are you on? P.S. Grateful to Brandon Doerrer and Asa Hiken from Ad Age for the reporting that sparked this analysis: https://lnkd.in/eshcSC5P

SEOs, this is really powerful!! You can connect the Ahrefs and Google Analytics MCPs to have AI perform analysis using your traffic + SEO data: For those that don't know, MCPs basically allow you to connect your AI tool of choice to a data platform. For instance, you can connect to the Google Analytics MCP and use AI to ask questions about your traffic performance data. Well I think the even bigger value of MCPs will be when you can start merging multiple data sources together. You'll be able to have AI pull from multiple data sources and platforms without ever having to login. In this example, I merged both the Ahrefs + Google Analytics MCPs together for even more powerful analysis. Now I can have AI use both traffic data from the Nectiv site and our SEO data for even more comprehensive insights. For instance, I had it look at an example competitors in Ahrefs and their key pages with the Ahrefs MCP. I then had it look at our traffic data and find gaps in pages that we're driving traffic. I also had it look up trending queries in the Ahrefs MCP that we might want to create content around. I could then also use traffic data to see if there is already content around that. Our site is pretty small but there's a lot more you could do with it. Have the MCPs analyze content that gets links but no engagement, content that ranks well but has poor user metrics + more. The best part is that once this is set up, it's much easier to manage. No exporting data from both platforms or merging it together in Excel. Connect once and have your AI system of choice begin the analysis.

GEO Vs SEO: What the LATEST Research is Saying. A New University Academic Research Paper on GEO Just Landed From the University of Toronto: The findings (their words): "Traditional SEO techniques remain necessary for visibility but are insufficient for AI search dominance. The core principles of technical SEO—such as having a well-structured, crawlable site—are foundational, as AI agents require clean, machine-readable data to function. However, the findings reveal that a new strategy, which can be termed Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), is required" The core tactics outlined: 1. Prioritise Earned Media and Authority Building Digital PR, content collaborations, and, yes, link building. "Shift investment from strategies focused solely on brand-owned content and social engagement to a concerted effort in earning third-party coverage". 2. Structure Content for Scannability and Justification. "Optimize website content not just for keywords, but for scannability and justification. Ensure your content explicitly highlights key decision-making factors in a format easily extracted by an AI". 3. Develop a Language-Specific Authority Strategy. Their words: "A one-size-fits-all multilingual SEO strategy is ineffective". Worth looking at for international campaigns. 4. Create Comprehensive, Lifecycle-Oriented Content. "A gap in content for any stage of the customer journey (e.g., post-purchase support) could lead to a competitor being recommended when a user asks for help. Audit and create content for the entire customer lifecycle, not just top-of-funnel discovery". Their conclusion: "In conclusion, while technical SEO provides the necessary foundation, optimizing for AI search requires a paradigm shift. Success hinges on building verifiable, third-party authority, structuring content for machine synthesis, and implementing a nuanced, language aware strategy that prioritizes earned media over brand-owned and social content". Now, if you're going to say "that's just SEO"...fine. But not according to the Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and his research colleagues who did a deep analysis of what's ranking vs what's being recommended. I'll just reiterate: "A new strategy, which can be termed Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), is required". Now, for the love of SEO careers, can the industry finally move on. GEO is categorically different from SEO.