How PR Helps Protect Your Online Visibility in a Zero-click World

By Leslie Richards and Elizabeth Ogilvie

Estimated reading time 7 minutes

If you’ve searched online lately, you’ve probably noticed: something’s different. Search results aren’t what they used to be. Generative AI is changing the way we interact, the way we work. It’s reshaping how search information is delivered and how visibility is earned. For any business with an online presence—which today means almost every company—this shift is about more than just technological advances; it’s existential. If terms like “backlinks” or “zero-click search” sound unfamiliar, or if your rankings are slipping month after month, it’s time to understand what’s happening and how an effective PR effort is key to adapting.

Declining click-throughs

Only 18 months ago, a typical search engine results page followed a predictable pattern: users would see a few sponsored listings at the top, followed by organic search results, and more sponsored results below. Organic results are those earned based on the content and its relevance to a searcher’s query. Organic results deliver significantly higher click-through rates than sponsored links. With 75 percent of all clicks going to the top five organic listings, your website traffic was highly dependent on placement in organic search results.

Welcome to the zero-click world

Generative AI has changed search. Google’s AI summaries now give searchers full-text responses to their queries. You’ve probably noted that your search queries now receive paragraph-long text results ranked at the top of the page, rather than a list. There is no longer a need to click through to websites to find the answer to your search query.

What you are experiencing is zero-click search, AI-generated summaries that provide immediate responses, bypassing the need to visit a website altogether.

Because of Gen AI and zero-click search, the focus of SEO efforts has shifted to becoming a resource for the summaries that AI generates. It’s time again to up your search game to stay current with the ever-changing demands of the Internet.

The new goal for online visibility

In this new normal, our agency is fielding a lot of questions about zero-click search: How do I maintain? How do I become a source for that AI summary? Are there specific criteria for getting sourced in an AI summary?

The answer is that our understanding is evolving. As summaries become increasingly prolific, we are getting a better sense of what Google might be prioritizing now. And we have some thoughts . . .

Think about SEO and the three C’s of SEO: content, code, and credibility. For Google and other search engines, credibility isn’t optional—it’s essential to ranking. Increasingly, we operate in a trust economy, and Google increasingly prioritizes credibility when determining which sites to cite for AI summaries. Google has a framework for evaluating websites called ‘E-E-A-T’ or expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Your new SEO goal is to position yourself—or your business—as a credible expert: an authoritative and trustworthy source in your field. You might be thinking, “Aren’t we already doing that?” Likely, yes—but today, search visibility requires a renewed focus on high-quality website content and alignment with other reputable sources.

The company you keep

Businesses establish online credibility and expertise by keeping good company. That means you’re not hanging out with low domain score websites that nobody knows about, that people don’t reference regularly. Instead, you’re best friends with websites that have built well-established reputations online. Google will evaluate your credibility based on the credibility of the website that link to yours, or your “backlinks”.

While backlinks have always been part of a strong SEO campaign, they are increasingly important. Considering the co-authors of this piece, it won’t surprise the reader that great public relations and a great PR team are the pathway to backlinks and credibility. By placing thought-leadership articles, opinion pieces, bylines, and news coverage with websites like Reuters, Law 360, or Bloomberg, you are showing Google you’re hanging out with quality content websites. These placements all create solid, credible backlinks to your website.

PR-driven content and news coverage positions your organization to earn AI summary inclusion, sustain visibility, and generate meaningful interest, even as traditional click-throughs decline. This shift isn’t hypothetical. Businesses, including our agency, are already seeing referral traffic from Gen AI tools. If you examine your website analytics, platforms like ChatGPT often appear in your referral reports. Recently, a law firm client shared an email from a prospect who found the lawyer by researching a niche legal issue with ChatGPT. When our Furia Rubel team replicated the query, we saw our client cited as an authority five times within the AI-generated results.

Given what we’ve shared, CMOs should recognize that today’s PR budgets are doing double duty. To maintain your brand strength and current visibility, your budget allocation must continue to cover everything that is working, while also addressing new earned media challenges powered by zero-click search. Being cited in credible, high-authority publications is more important than ever as AI-generated summaries increasingly dominate search results. Strategic media placements in top-tier national, industry, and legal outlets don’t just influence peers and strengthen brand perception—they now directly feed the knowledge graph and large language models that power AI search. In short, earned media is no longer just about headlines—it’s about being the source that search engines summarize, cite, and trust.

Public relations is search strategy now

Generative AI isn’t replacing search, it’s reshaping it. To remain competitive, you must establish expertise and credibility. Your PR and communications strategy can help you do this by:

• Demonstrating clear expertise and citing the credentials of authors
• Building a credible, consistent body of knowledge
• Earning visibility in trusted, relevant media outlets and creating a strong backlink profile

In the age of AI-driven, zero-click search, high-quality content and credible news coverage aren’t optional—they’re foundational. Earning visibility now means playing the long game. Credibility isn’t built overnight; it’s earned through consistent, strategic communications that foster trust, amplify your presence, and signal lasting relevance to both humans and algorithms.