Competitive Ranking - Win Commercial Queries in AI Search

Problem

Like traditional search, you want to come out on top; seeing how you stack up (or don’t) against competitors in AI search results is key to identifying opportunities for content and reaching prospects.

In general, AI services will directly answer informational queries (instead of sending them to your site), so you want to focus on the commercial queries that result in people opting to learn more about your company.

These are the middle-of-funnel questions that used to make up the latter part of people’s search journeys.

Now folks are using AI to cut the time and hassle of that research and jumping right into “what’s the best X”, “top y in Z”

Action

Knowatoa builds these questions for you based on the traditional search keywords that you already rank for and filters them to the types of questions prospects are asking in AI Search.

But it’s up to you to then write the appropriate answers to these questions, publish them to your site, and push them out to the right distribution channels for each AI search service, which we will cover next.

Key Takeaways

• AI search directly answers informational queries—focus on commercial intent questions
• Middle-of-funnel queries like “best X” and “top Y in Z” drive conversions
• Track your competitive rankings systematically to identify content opportunities
• Create targeted content answering commercial queries your prospects are asking

Next Step: Learn how to strategically distribute content to platforms favored by each AI service → Continue to Unique Data Sources