How to Use Semrush’s AI Mode to Boost AI Search Visibility
As AI-powered search becomes a major part of online discovery, marketers need to understand how their brands appear in AI-generated results. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to analyze and improve AI visibility using Semrush’s AI Mode, based on a real client example from Baseball Tips.
Why AI Visibility Matters
AI platforms—like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s Gemini—are reshaping how users discover businesses. Recent data shows that AI-driven searches now account for about 40% of total search behavior.
Here’s the catch: users may find your brand through AI first, but when they’re ready to take action, they’ll often visit your website or Google Maps listing directly. That’s why improving your visibility inside AI results is crucial for long-term SEO and brand awareness.
Step 1: Analyze AI Visibility in Semrush
Inside Semrush, each website now has an AI Visibility Score.
For example, our client Baseball Tips has a score of 18 out of 100, while the industry average is 35.
Semrush shows:
- Mentions in AI outputs (e.g., ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Gemini)
- Keywords connected to AI prompts
- Pages appearing in AI search results
- Estimated audience reach (Baseball Tips currently reaches about 53,000 monthly users)
Even though that’s smaller than traditional Google traffic, it represents a fast-growing audience we can’t afford to ignore.
Step 2: Review Prompts and Topics
Semrush breaks down AI search data into topics and prompts:
- Topics are general subjects users search for (like “baseball field grooming”).
- Prompts are the exact AI questions users ask (like “What’s the best baseball field drag machine?”).
When reviewing this data, I sit down with the client and identify which prompts make sense for their business. For example:
- ✅ “Baseball field grooming and drag equipment”
- ✅ “High-quality baseball dugout benches for sale”
- ❌ “Football drills” (not relevant)
This process filters out unrelated searches and helps us focus on high-intent opportunities where AI users are already looking for what the brand sells.
Step 3: Build an AI Strategy Document
After reviewing the prompts, create a structured AI Strategy Document for each client:
- Save it at the top of the client’s main folder (e.g., “00_AI_Strategy”).
- Include all approved prompts and relevant topics.
- Prioritize content creation around these AI-driven opportunities.
Once the document is ready, pass it to your writing tool—like Claude, which can generate long-form, optimized articles for each prompt.
Step 4: Add Internal Linking for SEO Strength
Publishing new AI-optimized content is great, but it’s only part of the equation.
You’ll need to integrate strategic internal links using prompts or automation workflows to connect related pages. This helps Google and AI engines understand your site’s topical structure and strengthens your overall authority. Additionally, it’s essential to ensure that your content aligns with the latest google guidelines on ai content to maintain visibility and trustworthiness. Regularly updating your internal linking strategy can also enhance user experience, leading to longer page visits and lower bounce rates. By focusing on these elements, you can further optimize your site for both users and search engines alike.
Step 5: Set Visibility Goals
The goal is to raise each client’s AI Visibility Score from wherever it starts (in this case, 18) to at least 35 or higher.
This may take multiple rounds of publishing, internal linking, and AI prompt optimization—but the results compound over time as your content becomes part of AI’s “knowledge graph.”
Final Thoughts
AI search isn’t the future—it’s the now.
Using Semrush’s AI Mode allows you to see exactly how AIs perceive your brand and what topics they associate with it. From there, you can build targeted, AI-optimized content strategies that bridge the gap between human search intent and machine understanding.
If you’d like help building your own AI visibility strategy, reach out anytime—I’m happy to share the full workflow and templates.
— Jeremy Ashburn, PushLeads
