Here it is: the long-awaited conversation about AI Search and my hot take(s?) on it!
First, let me start by saying AI Search isn’t quite there yet.
The reality is, most consumers are still turning to search engines like Google to find information and navigating websites to make purchasing decisions.
But understanding the thing before the thing becomes the thing—wow, can’t believe that sentence actually worked—is crucial for any business owner or entrepreneur. Seriously, I can’t stress this enough.
If you don’t ride the wave, someone else will—and you’ll be left struggling to stay afloat.
With that picture painted, let’s dive into AI Search.
More and more platforms are leveraging AI Search to help consumers find the information they need faster. For business owners, that means we need to rethink how we approach copywriting, marketing strategies, and SEO to keep driving traffic, capturing leads, and turning those leads into clients.
I’m going to break down how AI Search is reshaping SEO, how you as a financial advisor or RIA business owner can adapt your brand voice and copywriting to stand out in AI-driven results, and the best ways to ride the wave—not get swept under it.
How AI Search Directly Impacts Financial Advisors
There are two types of strong writing that can make a financial advisor’s website—or really, any business owner’s website—stand out:
Niche messaging.
And SEO optimization.
From what I’ve found, the best advisor websites either speak directly and effectively to their target audience or are optimized for SEO. Ideally, a great website does both, since these are both critical aspects of great copywriting.
With AI shifting the way people search, leaning more into question-and-answer formats, having these two key components covered sets you up for success.
That said, there’s always more work to be done.
By taking a thoughtful approach to your website’s copy—and extending that same care to social media and other channels—you can position yourself even better for AI-driven search. The focus is generally on delivering conversational, context-rich responses that resonate, rather than relying on keyword stuffing or narrowly focusing on your niche.
Creating Content That Resonates with AI and Prospects
One of the easiest strategies to start ranking higher in AI Search is to write FAQ-style blogs that address your most commonly asked questions. This approach actually also serves a bit of a double purpose, since you can share these blogs to prospects and clients that actively ask you these sorts of questions, rather than typing them out each time—leveraging email templates can also help you out here!
Back to the point, why do these FAQ-style formats work? AI search platforms are constantly scanning and serving content that provides clear, concise, and relevant information to those prompting them.
AI Search is almost purely driven on users, like you and I, searching for specific answers to our specific questions; whereas those searching the same types of questions on search engines, like Google, are receiving the best 'fits' for their answers—despite whether or not those search results answer your questions well.
So, your best bet as it comes to AI Search is to provide answers to those searching for them.
Now, let's just make it clear that this doesn't mean that you give up on SEO or on niche messaging. I think it's pretty clear that these two haven't actually went anywhere. Today, the best questions to answer are still the keywords people are searching for that are easy to rank for with high search volume: nothing has changed here.
What has changed is that AI Search is a little better at serving relevant content to someone in your niche who would otherwise have found a much larger competitor, like Edward Jones, answering via a search engine result. So, I would throw together a mix of both strategies: continue to target (or start targeting) easy-to-rank-for keywords with high search volume, while also prioritizing the more actionable questions you get on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Adapting Niche Marketing for AI Search
Specificity is the name of the game for AI Search.
To get a little more specific myself, AI Search leaves financial advisors with a great opportunity to create more targeted content towards the needs and challenges of your niche.
Addressing highly specific pain points, like "Tax Planning for Millennial Business Owners," is far more likely for AI models to match to your niche's questions.
So, it's going to be more increasingly important to focus on a niche in the following years as AI models match your niche's exact needs that you can easily target.
Optimizing Your Website for AI Search
One of the key components that can give your website a competitive edge over your competitors in the financial industry and in AI-driven results is structured data (also known as schema markup), semantic tagging, and hierarchy. Here’s a simple breakdown of how to apply these strategies to your site:
Structured data helps search engines understand what your content is about—now I admit, this one often requires a bit of code, which makes it difficult to implement for the average Joe. That said, implementing structured data allows you to mark up your business information, services, or client reviews so that search engines display them more clearly in results. This can help your business stand out with rich snippets, like showing your ratings or events directly in search results. Keep your meta titles (under 60 characters) and descriptions (under 160 characters) clear and concise for better search engine visibility.
Semantic tagging is a little easier, but again, a little tougher to implement than just fixing up some copy or swapping out an image. Essentially it entails making sense of the content on each page both for search engines and your visitors.
This means using proper headers like H1 for your main page title, H2 for section titles, and H3 for smaller subsections. It also involves tagging elements correctly—like labeling a specific section as "Section" and your navigation bar as "Navigation."
A clear content structure improves both your search engine rankings and your user experience. Make sure your website’s navigation and footer are organized, with links to your most important pages like your services, blog, or contact info.
If you’d like help with any of these strategies or need a hand optimizing your site, simply give us a shout!
Using E-E-A-T to Build Trust in AI Search
As AI Search becomes more and more prominent, you'll want to focus on establishing better E-E-A-T—experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. For financial advisors, this means highlighting your qualifications, certifications, and any relevant achievements so search engines see you as a somebody.
If you're blogging, and you should be, then it's important to create an author page. This simple page should essentially just detail your expertise, background, and accomplishments to help search engines (and both your prospects and clients) understand your authority. It's a must to link your blog posts to your author page and further reinforces your credibility and boosts your SEO efforts, as it ties your insights directly to your qualifications.
One other great way to showcase your E-E-A-T is through client success stories and testimonials. I think both of these sort of go without saying that clients want to see tangible results and feel confident in what you're offering.
Staying Ahead of Competitors in an AI Search Era
As AI tools continue to evolve, financial advisors must adapt to stay ahead of the competition. One way to do this is by regularly updating your content. Search engines—especially those driven by AI—favor fresh, relevant content.
This is nothing new—I've been telling clients all along that having a professionally designed website is a fundamental first step, but posting new content to your website makes all the difference between receiving search traffic and engagement or sitting stagnant.
Leverage AI tools to rank in AI Search—all around, just play the AI game! Research what your niche is searching for, create content around those keywords, and track shifting search trends.
While I don't believe AI Search is taking search by storm yet, it probably will only continue to grow larger and larger. This ongoing process of updating content and adjusting your approach is how you stay relevant—not just today, but as AI Search continues to reshape the landscape.
At Aryze Design, we specialize in helping financial advisors build brands and marketing strategies that are optimized for today’s digital landscape, including AI-driven search. We would love to help you scale your firm with confidence, and that starts with booking a Free Assessment today!
