Search Journeys: How your customers ACTUALLY find you in 2026

Search isn’t broken, but the way people discover your business has fundamentally changed.

This blog will cover:

• How search and discoverability really work in 2026
• What that means for modern marketing teams
• How forward-thinking businesses stay visible, credible and chosen in an AI-driven world

So, how has search and discoverability changed?

Search used to look pretty linear. A user would search on Google → Scroll through blue links →
clicks a website → compare options → convert. You were simply competing against the other people that had a place on page 1.

AI-powered search, social discovery, recommendation engines and intent-led journeys have quietly dismantled the traditional sales funnel. Customers no longer search, compare, convert in neat stages. They explore, validate and decide across multiple platforms, often without ever visiting your website until the very end. In practice, this could look like…

• Asking ChatGPT for recommendations – and receiving product or service provider suggestions, comparisons and buying guidance directly inside the interface. In many cases, they can move from question to purchase without ever opening a traditional search result or landing page.
• Someone with itchy skin doesn’t “research skincare brands.” They open TikTok, search the symptom, and watch creators explain what worked for them. A few swipes later, your paid ad appears – already contextualised by content they trust.
• Another consumer reads a Reddit thread discussing real experiences using your project management tool. Only then do they search your brand name directly and read your Google reviews – not to explore, but to confirm.

They’re still searching, but it’s not search as we used to know it.

via GIPHY

What does this mean for modern marketing teams…(other than stress?!)

Deep breath. Yes it looks intimidating. Yes it looks confusing. But don’t worry, this actually brings a great opportunity to be more visible and we’re here to help you make the most of it!

The benefits of being present across the entire search journey include:

• More touchpoints with your customers: You’re no longer limited to the Google homepage
• Less reliance on paid traffic alone, because visibility is built on presence, not how much you spend
• Stronger trust signals because you’re showcasing your expertise through consistent content across platforms
• Higher-intent audiences when they finally reach your site, because they’re arriving informed and closer to conversion as they’ve started their research elsewhere

Cool, so AI is taking over and social is the new SEO 😭…how do we stay visible?

To stay visible in 2026, brands need to:

Create expert-led, original content AI can trust and reference

AI systems reward authenticity and originality. This means moving away from generic, surface-level content and providing clear points of view, first hand insights and original analysis demonstrating your expertise on the topic, rather than content written for an algorithm. You’re the subject expert – use that knowledge! And show Google why you’re qualified to add to the conversation – an easy example is be linking your blog content to author pages with credentials. The goal isn’t to repeat what’s already out there, it’s to be a source, not a summary.

Show up consistently across search, social and community spaces

Discovery happens across various platforms: on Google, AI-powered SERPs, social platforms, such as LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube; and, industry communities, forums, and newsletters so it is important you have a distributed search presence. Because expertise + narrative = discoverability.

But showing up consistently doesn’t mean posting the same thing everywhere.

A search-first approach starts with understanding where your audience actually searches. That means doing the audience research and building a strategy around the platforms your customers use to find answers and validate decisions.

If your audience searches on TikTok, you need to be answering their questions there – using platform-native, short-form video that explains problems, tells stories and shares insight.

If they use Reddit, you need to participate in the spaces where those conversations already happen – contributing helpful, experience-led insight where decisions are validated, not sales messages.

Platform-native content means starting with one core insight or idea, rather than one piece of content. That core insight is then adapted to match the format, language and expectations of each platform.

This is how brands stay visible in 2026: not by being everywhere, but by showing up in the right places, in the right way.

Optimise for intent, not just keywords

Intent now matters more than keywords. A search-first approach now focuses on the context around a customer’s problems, decision stages and outcomes. When creating content you may want to consider questions, such as:

• Why is the user searching?
• What decision are they trying to make?
• What question are they really asking?
• What reassurance or clarifications do they need to make the conversion?

That’s why ranking for a keyword alone isn’t enough. If your brand isn’t part of the wider conversation – across AI search, social platforms, communities and trusted content – you’re invisible at the moment decisions are formed. Your content needs to work harder. Build brand authority, not just traffic Trust is the new success metric. For a long time, trust was based on who ranks the highest – if a brand showed up at number one, people assumed it was the best choice. That’s no longer how decisions are made.

Today, customers trust the brands they recognise – the ones they’ve seen repeatedly across platforms, formats and conversations. If someone is discovering solutions on TikTok, scrolling LinkedIn, reading Reddit threads, or watching YouTube, the brand that feels familiar often wins – regardless of who technically “ranks” first. Authority is built through consistent messaging across platforms, strong topical depth (and this means owning the topic, not just dabbling in it) and being mentioned (positively) beyond your own site.

AI – and humans – don’t just rank pages, they evaluate brands.The goal isn’t more visitors. It’s to be the brand that AI, platforms and people repeatedly recognise as a reliable choice.

Make content easy for humans and machines to understand

Clarity is a clear advantage. Modern Search – for humans and AI search platforms alike – depends on: clear structure, simple language, logical content flows, strong internal linking, explicit signals like schema to remove ambiguity, all alongside and content designed to be summarised, extracted, and interpreted.

If humans struggle to understand your content, machines will too. The brands that stay visible are the ones that remove friction – making it easy for users to get answers and easy for AI to interpret meaning, relevance and authority.

To summarise…

Search hasn’t disappeared… it’s grown.

Customers now discover brands through a web of AI-driven, social, and recommendation-led experiences. The traditional funnel is gone, but the opportunity is bigger than ever.

And instead of being stressed about how SEO has changed… use it to your advantage to make sure you’re a brand that wins. 💪