For years, landing the #1 spot on Google has been the holy grail of digital strategy. But today, there’s a new paradox: You can rank first on Google and still be invisible to AI.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and even Google’s own AI Overviews no longer “search” the way we’re used to. Instead, they summarize. They decide which sources to trust, synthesize answers, and recommend brands without necessarily sending traffic back.
This shift is reshaping ecommerce, SEO, and brand visibility. As I often tell the Amazon sellers and DTC founders I work with: “If AI can’t see your brand, it can’t recommend it.”
And in 2025, that’s not a hypothetical. It’s already happening.
According to Semrush (June 2025):
This means that traditional SEO is no longer the sole entry ticket. You could be ranking #1 and still be ignored by AI if your brand lacks the signals these systems prioritize.
And here’s where it gets interesting: platforms like Reddit, Quora, and YouTube are overrepresented in AI answers, often cited above traditional brand pages.
The difference lies in how LLMs (large language models) perceive your brand:
In other words, SEO is about clicks. AI is about confidence.
For Amazon sellers, startups, and even established retail brands, this is a massive shift. AI doesn’t just summarize what you say, it weighs what others say about you across forums, reviews, and independent sources.
Semrush has been one of the first platforms to address this challenge head-on with their AI Toolkit.
Here’s what it brings to the table:
Put simply, it’s the first real way to quantify whether your brand is “visible” to AI systems, or quietly excluded.
Zero-click searches aren’t new. But AI Overviews have taken them to another level.
Studies show:
This means your content may still influence decisions, even if traffic doesn’t flow directly back to your site.
For ecommerce teams, that raises a strategic question: Would you rather fight for clicks, or secure recommendations at the source?
One of the most surprising findings in Semrush’s research is the dominance of user-generated content (UGC). Reddit threads, Quora answers, and YouTube reviews are consistently cited in AI Overviews and ChatGPT answers.
Why? Because LLMs value authenticity, discussion, and context. A single detailed Reddit thread about your product can sometimes outweigh a polished landing page.
For brands, this isn’t bad news. It’s a chance to activate communities, seed conversations, and encourage authentic reviews that AI will pick up naturally.
So what can brands do today to close the gap between Google SEO and AI visibility?
Let’s bring this closer to home. For Amazon sellers and DTC brands:
Ranking on page one of Amazon is no longer just about conversion, it’s about visibility in the AI systems that summarize entire categories.
If you’re leading a growth team, here’s a checkpoint worth running this quarter:
These aren’t SEO questions. They’re visibility questions. And they’re becoming just as critical as inventory forecasts or ad budgets.
I’ve spent my career helping brands grow across retail, Amazon, and DTC. And here’s the shift I’m seeing up close: Ranking first is still valuable, but being recognized by AI is becoming non-negotiable.
The winners in this new landscape won’t just be those who know how to optimize for Google. They’ll be the ones who adapt their strategy to the systems where decisions are already being made. If your team hasn’t asked, “How does AI perceive us today?”, now is the time.
At HatchEcom, we’re helping brands audit, adapt, and execute strategies built for both search and AI. Because in 2025, visibility isn’t about links. It’s about presence.