Search surfaces
Conversational Search
Searching through a natural-language, multi-turn dialogue that carries context.
Conversational search is search conducted as a natural-language dialogue, where each follow-up question inherits the context of the ones before it. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Mode all work this way: you refine, compare and drill down without restating the whole query each time.
This changes buyer behaviour. Instead of one keyword and a scan of links, a buyer runs a short research conversation — 'best tools for X', then 'which of those work for a small team', then 'how does the first compare to the second'. Your brand has to survive all the way down that funnel of follow-ups, not just the opening question.
Optimising for conversational search means covering a topic deeply enough to stay relevant as the questions narrow, and making sure comparison and use-case content exists for the follow-ups, not only the top-level category page.
Related terms
Google AI Mode
Google's dedicated conversational AI search tab, distinct from the inline AI Overview.
Query Fan-Out
One query becomes many: the engine splits your question, searches in parallel, and merges one answer.
AI Search
Search where an AI reads sources and writes one answer instead of listing links.
Multimodal Search
Searching with more than one input type at once — such as an image plus text.
LLM SERP
The set of sources an AI answer cites — the generative stand-in for a results page.
Want to know where you stand in AI answers?
We’ll show you which engines cite you, and which don’t.
Get a free AI citation audit