Brands Turn to This SEO Agency to Improve How AI Describes Them

AI-driven answer engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity are changing how people search. These platforms now play a key role in shaping online brand perception. Brands that want control over how they appear in these AI tools work with specialized partners. One agency, Growing Search, is focused on this exact problem. It supports marketing teams by tracking brand mentions, tone, and AI visibility, then adjusts content and authority cues to improve brand positioning in both traditional and AI-powered search systems.

A new type of SEO agency

SEO once meant optimizing pages for Google site rankings. This work centered on audits, keyword research, content plans, and building links from trusted sites. Those functions are still needed, but AI platforms require different tools as well. Brands now expect their agencies to track how large language models (LLMs) reference and describe them, not only how their websites rank for keywords. 

Growing Search focuses on these demands. Its platform offers classic SEO audits, research, planning, and link development. It also brings in specialized tools that monitor brand mentions and sentiment in AI-generated summaries. This means brands get a picture of both their raw visibility and the way AI talks about them across public web and private query data.

Data on the new search behavior

According to Statista in June 2025, over half of US internet users (53%) use AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity every week. Among younger users (ages 18-34), that usage exceeds 64%. For marketing teams, this user base cannot be ignored. The April 2025 SEO Benchmark Report by Influencer Marketing Hub says, “AI-powered SEO tools are becoming indispensable for brands seeking to optimize their digital presence in 2025. Tools that help identify semantic intent, track brand mentions, and analyze content quality are now essential for staying ahead in AI-driven search environments.”

Data from this report adds more detail:

• Businesses optimizing for AI-generated results report up to 37% more brand mentions in AI outputs after six months.

• Positive sentiment on these brands rises 20-28% when they actively monitor and adjust how AI models describe them.

• Organic traffic from users who found the brand via AI-powered engines goes up an average of 16% in these cases.

Growing Search applies this insight directly. Its system aims at increased brand mentions but also better sentiment and authority cues within the context that large language models generate.

Proprietary tools: StakeView and BrandLens

Growing Search uses its own technology to track, measure, and guide client strategy across AI and classic search:

• StakeView gives real-time dashboards using live SERP data, plus proprietary scraping of AI-generated output to present:

  • Share of voice in AI answers

  • Frequency of expert citations for the brand

  • Relative sentiment levels against top sector competitors

• BrandLens summarizes the language used about each brand, names of most-cited people or topics, and correlation data showing cause and effect between content or authority updates and new AI output

Instead of generic dashboards, clients receive ongoing, granular analytics about brand mentions, tone, and who or what gets cited most frequently. This lets brands rework their strategies in response to genuine, measured data.

In-house delivery and accountability

Industry sources point to a preference for agencies that handle work in-house. This method improves speed, data privacy, and feedback accuracy. Reviewers from Search Engine Land in May 2025 state, “The agencies investing in proprietary analytics to track AI brand citations and sentiment, while maintaining direct in-house execution, are providing the transparency and reliability enterprise clients have been demanding since LLM-based search took off.” For brands that operate in regulated or PR-sensitive sectors, in-house execution is especially important.

Growing Search provides all its analysis and implementation in-house. This arrangement allows for direct control over data and immediate response to client requests. Brands see what is happening in real time and get weekly or monthly updates without waiting for third-party delivery.

Market impact and brand results

Reports from the Digital Marketing Industry Review (April 2025) provide case studies for the AI-driven approach. One national retail brand saw:

• Brand name appearances in AI-generated answers increase by 42% after a six-month program

• Positive AI sentiment scores went up 19 points on a 100-point scale

• Clickthrough traffic from AI answers that referenced the brand increased 23%

These results shift the focus of marketing attribution, as more customers contact brands after reading about them in conversational AI tools first, and then move to official brand sites.

Industry experts confirm the need for dedicated tracking in this space. David Shapiro, a tech analyst cited in Digital Marketing Digest (June 2025), says, “Visibility in AI-generated answers has become a top-3 priority for enterprise brands. Those not tracking their representation in ChatGPT or Perplexity are missing out on both traffic and mindshare. The agencies delivering clear, in-house accountability and transparent reporting are winning brand trust.”

This means brand teams track not only traffic or ranking, but also how AI platforms introduce, contextualize, and describe them compared with competitors each week.

Performance metrics that matter

Growing Search’s reports cover:

• Brand share of voice in AI-written summaries

• Change over time in top-funnel website visits from AI-based referrals

• Sentiment and tone tracking in plain language

• Monthly and ad hoc updates when negative language or competitive displacement appears

These metrics allow brands to detect issues in real time, for example, when an AI engine starts repeating a negative phrase, or when a competitor’s expert gets cited more often in selected query categories. The brand can then respond by updating its site, professional bio pages, or content themes, or by providing new, credible authority cues in partner media.

Alerts within the BrandLens system let brands know if negative or neutral sentiment is rising, so they can act before this harms customer opinion or search visibility. In some cases, negative language detected by BrandLens appears in customer reviews weeks later, showing the importance of early warning systems.

SEO signals for AI and legacy search

Expertise, authority, and trust signals remain important for both Google and AI platforms. These engines now analyze the frequency of brand mentions, the quality of references, and how other sources reinforce a brand’s position as a trusted entity. Growing Search’s model handles this by structuring expert bios, controlling content clusters, and coordinating cross-platform citations for clients.

The April 2025 SEO Benchmark Report states, “As search engine optimization evolves from traditional keyword-based search engines to generative AI-powered systems, your SEO strategy must adapt. We monitor how your site performs in generative search results and simulate AI prompts to test and refine your presence in AI-generated answers”. This focus on role, expertise, and real-time measurement goes beyond classic technical audits.

Client testimonials and agency selection

Client feedback collected by Marketing AI Today (May 2025) underlines key agency features brands value:

• Transparent dashboards

• Prompt responses to changing data

• Active, ongoing measurement of brand authority as interpreted by AI platforms

A beverage brand executive explained how BrandLens detected a negative tone that would have taken months to see using only customer rating platforms. They adjusted their official bios and product pages to address this before broader customer review sites picked up the issue.

Another brand manager in software commented that live reporting and detailed breakdowns made resource planning much simpler. They tracked how changes in content plan or reputation management efforts moved the needle on sentiment and mention frequency.

For all these clients, the need for direct control, real-time tools, and reliable feedback was stressed as core for building and defending their share of conversation in both classic search and new AI platforms.

Changes in marketing priorities

The June 2025 Statista report shows that marketers now rate “visibility in AI-generated results” as their second most important online metric, only Google search page ranking scores higher. This importance even surpasses that of social media reach in some sectors.

With more users running questions through ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity instead of classic search engines, brand teams have shifted budgets and reports toward these metrics as well. Expert commentary finds a split between brands that track and optimize AI visibility, and those still focused only on legacy search. The latter group can lose referral traffic and customer mindshare to faster-moving brands.

Security, performance, and data accuracy

In regulated industries, agencies cannot risk lost time, data leakage, or reliability issues from outsourcing. All Growing Search work is managed in-house. This reduces risk and keeps control close to clients. Their use of proprietary data tools ensures brands see only the most accurate, up-to-date information about their market share, sentiment, and authority in AI and traditional contexts.

A Growing Search senior team member, interviewed by Digital Search Weekly in June 2025, stated, “With proprietary analytics tools and an in-house team, we have real-time control over data accuracy, which is vital for adjusting to live algorithm shifts in AI search.”

This attention to prompt updates and context is a requirement for agency selection at large brands, especially those facing fast-changing public issues.

Ongoing feedback and alerts

StakeView and BrandLens supply automatic alerts about sentiment drift, competitor gains, or brand citation decline. These reports let brand managers act fast when the AI conversation changes, stopping issues from spreading before they appear on customer feedback forums, social sites, or news outlets.

Case studies show that this real-time feedback supports both PR and marketing in handling unexpected changes in AI output or public sentiment.

Conclusion

Brands operating in 2025 need more than traditional SEO. They require direct oversight and adjustment of their profile and reputation within AI-driven search and conversational tools used by millions of users weekly. Agencies like Growing Search apply in-house teams and proprietary tracking tools to deliver this service. Their process includes live measurement, reporting on market share and sentiment, and fast adjustments to content and authority systems across both traditional and AI-first search platforms. This approach results in measured gains in brand mentions, sentiment, and clickthrough traffic, with accuracy and control at the core. As more search and referral flows move into AI engines, such agency models become central for brands that want to manage their online presence with precision.