How to Help AI Discover Your Work — and Send the Right People Your Way

Written By Danielle Gardner

A reader left a question on my Visibility Without Social Media: A Quiet Marketing Approach blog article recently, and it highlighted something many of us are wondering about. "With AI now serving search results directly, have you noticed a decline in your website traffic?"

It's a fair question. When someone searches for help with the challenges they're facing, they're increasingly met with AI-generated summaries at the top of their results. Clean, concise answers that often satisfy their immediate need without requiring them to click through to any website. The information is served up instantly, which means fewer people are visiting the original sources.

— In this article —

    What I uncovered about my website traffic

    When I looked into this for my own business, I found something interesting. At first, I thought I hadn't been affected because my overall website visitors seemed steady. But when I examined Google Analytics more closely, I could see that click-throughs from Google searches had indeed declined since AI overviews became standard.

    However, since I don't rely on Google search traffic alone, I hadn't felt the impact.

    Over the past few years, I've been intentionally expanding where my work can be found. My ideas now live in places where search engines and AI systems can discover them, which means they surface naturally when people are actively seeking solutions. Someone might find my work through a YouTube video, discover a blog post from two years ago, or come across my book on Kindle whilst browsing a completely different topic.

    I call this a passive marketing ecosystem - where content continues working long after I've created it, without requiring my constant presence or promotion.

    Why searchable content matters more than ever

    If your work lives only on social media, you're at the mercy of each platform's indexing policies and algorithms. Whilst some social media content does get indexed by search engines, it's inconsistent and largely outside your control. Social media posts disappear into feeds, have limited searchability, and aren't discoverable in the same reliable way as a blog post that you own and control.

    This shift towards AI-driven search results reinforces the importance of letting your ideas travel beyond gated platforms and temporary content.

    When you create searchable content—blog posts, books, podcast episodes with transcripts—you're building something that can be found, referenced, and suggested by the systems people use to navigate information. You're creating a foundation that works independently of any single platform's algorithm or policy changes.

    There's something deeply reassuring about knowing your work is out there, accessible to the people who need it, even when you're offline. It's a different kind of visibility—one that doesn't require you to be constantly present or promotional.

    So how do you make this shift in practice?

    Building your AI discoverability

    Here's how to expand your online footprint beyond social media so AI systems and search engines can find and reference your work:

    • Focus on creating comprehensive, well-structured content that answers questions people are searching for

    • Create blog articles on your own website that can be found long after you've published them

    • Consider publishing books or guides on Kindle, which uses AI-powered recommendations to suggest your content to relevant readers

    • Develop podcast content with transcripts that AI can read and reference

    • Create video content on YouTube, which is heavily indexed by AI systems

    The goal isn't to abandon social media entirely if it's working for you, but to ensure it's not your only point of visibility. If someone is searching for the exact solution you provide, you want to be findable where they're looking.

    This is the kind of sustainable visibility I support clients in building inside the Quiet Marketing Mastermind—creating an ecosystem of searchable content that works for your business whilst honouring your energy and natural rhythm.

    The future of being found online isn't about shouting louder. It's about having a presence where people are spending their time - places like ChatGPT and other AI tools when they're seeking solutions to their challenges.

    Danielle Gardner
    The Quiet Marketer
    View my bio

    Danielle Gardner
    Next

    2/4 Profile Applied to Business and Marketing — What I Now Do Differently