If you’ve ever wondered why your CTRs are dropping despite strong rankings, you’re not alone, as that’s exactly where our law firm client found themselves earlier this year.
The challenge was real, and the results were even realer, with a +648.4% increase in ChatGPT traffic in just five months.
Our client, much like your business, was hit by the knock-on effects of the dawn of AI and a lot of people using the likes of ChatGPT to search instead of the more traditional route, the old faithful, Google. Spoiler alert: With a focused generative AI plan, the client saw incredible results, and we believe you can achieve the same.
It’s the year 2022, and everything is returning to normal, but what no one except a select few at OpenAI can predict is that the world is about to change.
On the 30th of November 2022, ChatGPT launched.
Unsurprisingly, people were sceptical about trusting this new AI technology, but as time went on, people began to realise its true power. Fast forward only nearly 3 years, and ChatGPT is at around 2.5 billion requests daily (according to Sam Altman). Now, while 2.5 billion sounds like a lot, it’s important to note that Google has over 8.5 billion searches a day and that the majority of the ChatGPT requests are:
However, a good proportion of those 2.5 billion requests are from people searching for information and choosing the direct and near-immediate responses from ChatGPT over searching through Google to find the answer there. While this is great for the user, it’s not great for websites, considering Google is how most people find and access their content. Plus, back in the day, ChatGPT was a lot stingier when it came to sources and citations than they are now.
As people transitioned from Google search results to ChatGPT answers, websites, and, in particular, our client saw their organic sessions drop and keep dropping. For years, most of their traffic had come from alerts and insight articles that broke down updates to local laws, executive orders, and other key legal changes.
But then AI tools like ChatGPT began doing the same thing, and doing it instantly. Instead of searching for “new executive order in New York labour law” and clicking through to a detailed article, users could simply ask ChatGPT and get a short, clear summary in seconds. It was faster, easier, and, for most people, good enough. For law firms, this shift also opened up a new opportunity, as people started using GPT tools to shortlist firms, compare expertise, and even request tailored recommendations.
We know, we know, the strategy for driving AI traffic isn’t a one-size-fits-all all but ours worked pretty well (results to come in the next section), so we figured we’d let you in on our secret.
First things first, we did an in-depth training with our client on everything from:
As the attorneys are in charge of fresh content on the site, we wanted their internal marketing team up to speed and in the know. As an agency, we believe in knowledge sharing and upskilling our clients so that they know and understand what we are doing. It’s a win-win for everyone!
Let’s get into it. Here’s the six-month plan that helped our client turn AI potential into performance. But hang on a minute, a quick disclaimer before you read on: this plan was complemented by our usual SEO work.
We started with the basics. Before you can grow traffic, you need a plan that knows where it’s going. So we built an Evergreen Content Plan designed to back up the client’s key landing pages and create a steady stream of organic traffic. The goal was simple: strengthen visibility in both Google and AI tools by answering those core, foundational questions people search for every day.
While we were at it, we also got stuck into Insight article optimisation, fine-tuning existing content based on AI Overview and SERP data. And because visuals matter too, we shared our thoughts on the kind of imagery that could make these pieces more engaging and even explored how AI-generated images might fit into the mix.
Once the groundwork was set, it was time to make sure the website could hold up under the weight of progress. We ran a Structured Data Review, spotting gaps in schema and identifying opportunities that would help AI and search engines better understand the content.
The Technical Health Audit followed, ensuring there were no hidden issues affecting crawlability or visibility. At the same time, we continued refining Insight articles and developed SEO-driven content briefs so the client’s attorneys could start writing with optimisation built in from the first word.
In month 3, we got momentum going by rolling out a series of quick SEO wins across the client’s capabilities pages. These updates may have been small, but they are ones that could make an immediate impact.
We also introduced a repeatable Insight article template, setting out structure and best practices so new pieces would stay consistent, search-friendly, and aligned with AI expectations. Meanwhile, our team began digging deeper into the client’s AI Overview visibility, analysing which queries were triggering results and where the biggest opportunities sat.
With content foundations in place, we shifted focus to the site’s internal ecosystem. Our Internal Link Analysis looked at how key pages connected to one another and suggested new placements to help both Google and AI understand the bigger picture.
We kept improving Insight articles and continued producing content briefs, all while checking in on off-page performance with an Unlinked Brand Mentions Audit. That helped us identify sites already talking about the client but not linking back, i.e., the low-hanging fruit for improving authority and visibility.
This month was about one word: trust. We carried out a full EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) review, identifying where the website could strengthen its credibility signals both on and off the page.
We also refreshed our Technical Health Audit, ensuring the site was still performing as expected after months of updates, and this time focusing more on the aspects LLMs care more about, such as page speed, JavaScript, and indexability. At the same time, we rolled out a new Insight article template designed to help attorneys write in a way that’s structured, search-optimised, and easy for AI to interpret.
Next up, we’ll be revisiting the Evergreen Content Plan to introduce a new wave of topics that continue supporting long-term traffic growth. Alongside this, we’ll prepare two fresh content briefs for upcoming articles and keep optimising Insight content for AI visibility.
We’ll also turn our attention to image optimisation, where we’ll suggest recommendations for:
By fine-tuning how the firm’s offices and attorneys appear in search, we have a chance to boost visibility across Google and AI-generated results.
As the year winds down, we’ll shift gears into reflection mode. December will be dedicated to evaluating the impact of everything implemented so far by measuring improvements in visibility, rankings, and AI performance.
We’ll continue to refine Insight articles and prepare additional content briefs for the new year. We’ll also conduct a Content Removal Audit to identify pages that no longer pull their weight and streamline the overall content strategy (our client produces timely content daily, so this is important for them).
We’ll kick off the new year with another Internal Link Analysis, reviewing how the site’s structure has evolved and where new opportunities for optimisation lie. Insight content will remain a top priority, supported by another round of SEO-focused briefs to keep momentum high.
Finally, we’ll revisit the AI Overviews Analysis, assessing how the site is surfacing within generative results and identifying new keywords worth targeting as the strategy moves into its next phase.
Now, we’re not done yet. The next stage of the plan is already in motion, and 2026 is shaping up to be all about refinement, consistency, and pushing visibility even further. Here’s what’s on the horizon.
We’ll be consistently revisiting the Evergreen Content Plan to keep the momentum going. The goal here is simple: continue building a bank of high-performing, search-friendly articles that answer real user questions and strengthen the client’s position across both Google and AI-led results.
It’s an answer-first world now, not a rank-first world anymore.
Alongside that, we’ll be creating fresh content briefs so that every new article is written with a clear SEO purpose and aligned with the evolving search landscape.
On the technical side, we’ll be running another Technical Health Audit focused specifically on how AI crawlers read and interpret the site. This will help us make sure that as algorithms and AI systems advance, the site remains fully understood, properly indexed, and surfaced in the right contexts.
But that’s not all. We’ll be taking a hard look at content consolidation and cannibalisation, making sure there’s no overlap between pages competing for the same keywords. We’ll clean up 404s and redirects, too, to keep everything running smoothly and make the user journey seamless.
Finally, we’ll be running an LLM traffic analysis to understand how the brand and its competitors appear across AI-driven platforms. Once we know what’s working and where the gaps are, we’ll tackle multi-platform alignment, ensuring that the firm’s website and key social profiles are sending the same clear signals to both users and AI systems alike.
It’s a big year ahead, but the direction is clear: keep building on what works, evolve with the technology, and make sure every move we make helps the client stay visible, relevant, and ready for what’s next.
Drum roll, please… It’s time for the part you’ve all been waiting for… the results! We know you’ve done a lot of reading just to get to this point, so to make it easier, here’s a nifty graph:
That’s a +648.36% increase in ChatGPT referral traffic since we launched our AI initiative.
Yes, we know that just as Google isn’t the only traditional search engine, ChatGPT isn’t the only LLM available, but in this case, it’s responsible for over 90% of the LLM traffic we are seeing coming to the website. However, we did see the following results across the other AI platforms:
Since you’re here, we will let you in on a little secret. That first spike in September was thanks to the implementation of structured data across the site, while the second spike was thanks to the optimisation of key outdated posts on the website, which used to perform well. Yes, the other tasks made a positive difference, but those two were standouts.
If you read through the ‘what we did’ section, you may have realised that those two tasks were planned long before those spikes, which is true, but as with any big company, it can take a while to get things approved, signed off, and implemented. But clearly, good things take time in this case.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably thinking the same thing most businesses are right now.
“How do we get in front of people when AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are answering questions before users even reach our website?”
The good news is that you can. As we’ve just shown you, you just need to know how to play the new game.
The reality is that LLMs are not here to replace search, but they are reshaping it. They pull from millions of data points to form opinions, build answers, and, most importantly, decide which brands to surface when someone asks a question. That means the brands that understand how to speak the language of AI will be the ones getting visibility while others fade into the background.
We’ve already seen how much impact this can have. By focusing on entity consistency, structured data, trust signals, and content that answers the questions AI models actually use, we helped our client win back visibility not just on Google, but across AI-powered search. And if they can do it, so can you.
This is where Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, comes in. GEO is all about teaching AI models to recognise who you are, what you do, and why you’re the best answer to the question being asked. It’s SEO for a world where search engines don’t always look like Google anymore.
At Verkeer, we’ve made GEO our speciality. So, if you’re ready to make AI work for you instead of against you, get in touch.