The Agency Search Engine is Dead, Long Live the Agency Search Engine
AI is transforming how clients find PR agencies.
With AI summaries, today more than half of searches do not result in a click to a third-party website. Nine of out 10 AI search results are driven by earned media and verified directories. When ChatGPT and Gemini answer questions, half of their citations from third-party directories and listings rather than individual company sites. Perplexity has an even stronger preference for industry-specific directories.
AI models rank information based on a number of dimensions including verified professional data, structured directories for decision-making and experience, and favor sources with high-integrity metadata and professional verification over unverified, high-volume review sites.
Two years ago, I was told that the agency search engine database was essentially dead. With the mass adoption of generative AI and the shift to using LLM based tools to search the internet and recommend agencies with specific areas of expertise, it seemed clear that the benefits of CommunicationsMatch™’s highly structured database-driven search tool was, at minimum, an open question.
One thing I did was to talk to technology leaders in AI and asked a simple question – Do databases still have value in the AI Age? And, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum (it’s a reference to the Stephen Sondheim musical)… the answer was absolutely.
As companies and agencies focus on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), one thing should be increasingly evident – AI prioritizes and needs “trusted” efficient-to-access structured data. Long live CommunicationsMatch’s agency search database!
Validation for this is reflected in the dramatic increases in generative AI-driven search results on CommunicationsMatch™ over the last year and a half. Over this period around a million searches have been conducted on the platform.
One of the things that is different about AI search today is the way it draws upon primary sources to synthesize information. This does not diminish the value of the sources LLMs go to, but does change the dynamic of the search process. Direct traffic to individual websites has been impacted by this process.
A search platform or website is not less valuable, simply their value proposition has changed, and they are being accessed differently. In fact, earned media and a search platform like CommunicationsMatch™ are working 24/7, but more often than not in the background, to contribute to new business generation.
The agency search database is infrastructure required for AI search. That means it is important to have an updated profile and make it as comprehensive and structured as possible for LLMs to access.
This is our tenth anniversary. No one could have anticipated that a decade after our launch, that the search tools and database would arguably be more valuable than ever, and in an interesting twist of fate that the narrowness of focus of our database structure would make it perhaps even more compelling today than in the past.
As we lean into AI across the platform including our updated RFP search tools (coming soon), through the end of February if you are a CommPRO subscriber use code AI2026 to save 25% off profiles which start before the discount at $10 a month and if you are creating a profile for the fist time – we’ll give you 50% off with NEWAI2026 until February 28.
With our partnership with CommPRO, agencies and corporate communicators have the option to become an industry member and realize significant additional value. This includes posting articles on CommPRO to enhance their visibility and distribution through its newsletter to 60,000 communicators (half being corporate communicators), banner advertising and the option of organizing webinars and events to reach its community.
In the same way our agency search data is optimized for an AI world, CommPRO both reaches a broad audience and provides the search authority that is prioritized by AI tools.
Contact us at support@communicationsmatch.com or fays@commpro.biz for more information.
