Stop thinking about keywords: how conversational search really works

Keywords are no longer the unit of search. People now ask AI long, conversational questions, and engines like Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Gemini quietly fan each one out into hidden searches your keyword tool never shows. Simon Young of Question.Marketing explains query fan-out, what People Also Ask was telling us all along, why a top 10 ranking is now a raffle ticket, and what to publish instead. Chapters 00:00 Why stop thinking about keywords? 00:47 From typing keywords to asking questions 01:50 Why so many Google searches are brand new 03:01 What People Also Ask was telling us 04:41 Who writes the People Also Ask answers now? 07:27 Search is now a conversation 08:23 What is a fan-out query? 10:52 Fan-out examples: lawn care and headphones 11:57 Why your keyword tool misses the questions that matter 14:09 Why a top 10 ranking is now a raffle ticket 15:53 How fast is AI Mode growing? 18:10 Longer questions get the machine's answer 19:02 Ad money is following longer searches 20:05 UK searches are getting longer 20:47 How many follow-up questions do people ask? 22:36 Worked example: choosing a recruitment agency 25:44 Is this still just SEO? 28:18 Keywords are no longer the unit of search 28:35 What to do this week: start with questions 30:00 Use People Also Ask as a free map 30:45 One page per conversation 31:15 Say what only you know 32:23 Ask it the long way and check if AI names you 33:07 Sources and wrap-up Read the full article and transcript: https://question.marketing/library/st... Listen to the podcast episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2650282/ep... Read the LinkedIn newsletter:   / stop-thinking-keywords-your-customers-havi...   Notes on figures as spoken 01:25 Semrush's 23 words is for ChatGPT prompts without web search, against about 3 to 4 words for a Google search (2024 data). 03:41, 06:18 and 32:04 Google's 15% new-searches figure covers Google Search only, not AI platforms or the wider web. 10:57 Google's own lawn example lists herbicides, weeding without chemicals and weed prevention. Grass types and watering are my additions. 11:41 No study shows that queries with a date or statistics get cited more. That's my observation, not a published finding. 15:56 Google's billion is monthly active users of AI Mode, not searches. 27:31 AI referrals were about 1% of traffic on Conductor's 2025 US data and 0.14% on Semrush's 2026 data. Key sources Google 15% new searches (Search Engine Journal): https://www.searchenginejournal.com/g... People Also Ask answers now AI Overviews (Brafton, AlsoAsked data): https://www.brafton.com/blog/seo/goog... Query fan-out in Google AI Mode (Search Engine Journal): https://www.searchenginejournal.com/q... Gemini 3 fan-out research (Seer Interactive): https://www.seerinteractive.com/insig... AI Overview citations from top 10 pages (Ahrefs via Search Engine Journal): https://www.searchenginejournal.com/g... Pew Research Center on AI summaries and clicks (The Decoder): https://the-decoder.com/pew-finds-tha... How AI Mode is changing search (Google): https://blog.google/products-and-plat... Google's AI search guide and scaled content abuse (TechWyse): https://www.techwyse.com/news/ai-sear... Semrush ChatGPT prompt length study: https://www.semrush.com/news/379285-n... Google Search Central guide to generative AI features: https://developers.google.com/search/... AI referral traffic benchmarks (Conductor): https://www.conductor.com/academy/aeo... Traffic channel mix study (Semrush): https://www.semrush.com/blog/traffic-... https://question.marketing Simon Young on LinkedIn:   / aeo