The CMO’s Guide To Winning In AI Search With Ahrefs

As generative AI reshapes the way people search, traditional SEO tactics alone are no longer enough. From Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) to AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity, the future of search is conversational, context-rich, and hyper-personalized.

For Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs), this shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge? Keeping your brand visible as AI intermediaries become gatekeepers between users and content. The opportunity? Using tools like Ahrefs to stay ahead of the curve, adapting your strategy to dominate AI-driven search results.

In this guide, we’ll explore how CMOs can leverage Ahrefs to thrive in the era of AI search.

Also Read: Beyond ROAS: Aligning Google Ads With Your True Business Objectives

Understanding AI Search: A New Paradigm

Before diving into tactics, it’s essential to understand how AI search differs from traditional search.

AI search tools synthesize content in real-time using natural language processing and large language models. They don’t just list links — they generate summaries, answer queries directly, and often cite sources selectively. This means ranking #1 is no longer the only goal — being cited as a trusted source in AI-generated answers is now equally (if not more) important.

Implications for CMOs:

• Your content must be AI-readable, not just SEO-optimized.

• Authority, clarity, and topical depth are critical.

• Structured data, semantic relevance, and high E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust) matter more than ever.

Why Ahrefs Is Still a Power Tool in the Age of AI

Ahrefs, traditionally known for backlink tracking and keyword research, is evolving with the times. It remains one of the most comprehensive SEO platforms — and now it can serve as your AI-search readiness toolkit. Here’s how:

1. Find AI-Relevant Keywords

AI search queries are more conversational and long-tail. Think “What’s the best CRM for a 10-person startup?” instead of just “CRM software.”

With Ahrefs:

• Use Keyword Explorer to identify long-tail and question-based keywords.

• Filter by Search Intent to focus on informational and commercial investigation queries.

• Use Questions and Phrase Match reports to find natural-language queries AI tools love to answer.

2. Understand Your Competitive Landscape

AI-generated answers often cite high-authority domains. You need to understand:

• Who’s currently being cited or linked to?

• What kind of content is being pulled into AI responses?

Use Content Explorer and Site Explorer to:

• Analyze top-performing content in your niche.

• Identify the top pages and referring domains for your competitors.

• Spot trends in format and tone that align with AI-generated summaries.

Bonus Tip: Ahrefs’ Content Explorer lets you filter by domain rating (DR), traffic, and backlinks — helping you prioritize the most influential pages.

3. Build Authority With Strategic Backlinking

While AI models don’t directly read backlinks the way Googlebot does, the authority of your domain still plays a huge role in getting cited. High-authority content is more likely to show up in AI search citations.

Use Ahrefs to:

• Conduct Backlink Audits and identify lost or broken links.

• Find Link Intersect opportunities to uncover sites that link to your competitors but not to you.

• Outreach to relevant, authoritative sites in your industry for guest posts, PR features, and citations.

CMO Takeaway: Build link equity not just to rank in Google but to become the kind of trustworthy source AI relies on.

4. Optimize for Featured Snippets & AI Citations

AI search engines often pull content from featured snippets, knowledge panels, and structured data. These are “prime real estate” for visibility.

Here’s how to optimize using Ahrefs:

• Use Site Audit to ensure proper schema markup is in place.

• Target snippet-friendly formats like tables, bullet lists, how-tos, and definitions.

• Monitor SERP Features in Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer to spot high-potential opportunities.

Pro Tip: Format content to directly answer questions within the first 100 words — AI tends to grab concise, clearly written content.

5. Audit & Future-Proof Your Content

Ahrefs makes it easy to track your content performance and identify pieces that need updating. This is critical because AI favors fresh, accurate, and relevant information.

Use these steps:

• Run a Content Audit to find pages with declining traffic.

• Refresh and republish old blog posts with updated data, sources, and structure.

• Use Top Pages to see which pieces are earning links — then build clusters around them to signal topical authority.

CMO Pro Tip: Regularly feed fresh, well-structured content into your site — this signals to both search engines and AI models that your domain is active and trustworthy.

6. Embrace Topical Authority and Semantic SEO

AI models understand concepts and context better than ever before. This means you need to go beyond keywords and build topical depth.

Use Ahrefs to:

• Identify related subtopics with Keyword Clusters.

• Create pillar pages and interlink to supporting content to build semantic relationships.

• Map your content strategy to user journeys and use Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool to find what you’re missing.

When your site becomes a go-to resource on a specific topic, AI tools will notice.

7. Monitor AI Mentions & Brand Visibility

The future of SEO is partly about being cited by AI itself. While Ahrefs doesn’t directly show AI citations (yet), you can infer your authority by:

• Tracking branded keyword volume.

• Monitoring your referring domains and traffic changes over time.

• Watching for surges in links from tech, AI, or Q&A-related sites.

As AI search becomes more integrated with user experiences (like ChatGPT plugins or Google’s SGE), being mentioned by AI is the new first page.

Final Thoughts: The CMO’s Mindset Shift

Winning in AI search isn’t just a technical challenge — it’s a strategic mindset. As a CMO, your job is to:

• Guide your team to create genuinely helpful, expert-driven content.

• Invest in content that builds trust, clarity, and authority.

• Use tools like Ahrefs not just for SEO, but for strategic visibility in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Think beyond clicks and traffic. Think about influence, trust, and positioning in the AI-powered search environment.

TL;DR — Action Plan for CMOs

The next wave of digital dominance will belong to brands who embrace AI, not resist it. With Ahrefs in your toolkit and a forward-thinking strategy, your brand can stay visible, valuable, and one step ahead in the new era of AI search.