When you search online these days, something has changed. Instead of the familiar blue links and short snippets, Google now gives you entire paragraphs of AI-written summaries – often answering your question before you even click.
For Welsh businesses, that shift has quietly redrawn the rules of online visibility. And for Cardiff-based agency Appear Online, adapting to it has become their defining mission.
Search Has Changed – and So Have the Stakes
Google’s new AI Overviews feature, which launched across the UK this year, pulls together information from multiple websites into a single AI-generated answer. For small businesses that once relied on “page one rankings,” that means being referenced by the AI itself is now just as valuable as a traditional top spot.
“AI results don’t just show the best-optimised sites anymore – they show the most trusted ones,” says Andrew Weston, co-founder of Appear Online. “The rules of SEO are evolving fast, and Welsh businesses need to evolve with them.”
Appear Online’s work now focuses on AI visibility – optimising websites so they appear inside the AI’s summaries and recommendation boxes, not just beneath them.
What AI-Driven Search Means for Welsh Businesses
It’s not just a technical change – it’s an economic one. According to a BrightEdge Research study (Q2 2025), AI Overviews now influence nearly one in four search clicks in the UK. That means thousands of Welsh businesses – from florists in Cardiff to builders in Newport – are competing not only for human readers, but for machine interpretation.
For Appear Online, this has created a new kind of digital strategy: one where structured data, E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), and brand reputation carry more weight than ever.
“The businesses we work with are starting to think like publishers,” Weston explains. “They’re creating content with credibility and real expertise – because that’s what the AI recognises.”
Turning SEO into Smart PR
One of the agency’s key adaptations has been blending digital PR with AI-friendly SEO. Appear Online now helps clients secure credible mentions and coverage across the web – in part because those third-party references boost trust signals for AI systems.
Their “Best [Industry] Agencies” series, for example, now ranks nationally across Google AI and organic results alike, driving inbound leads for the firm and its clients.
“The future of search is no longer about just ranking – it’s about reputation,” says Weston. “And in that sense, AI hasn’t replaced SEO. It’s raised the bar.”
Cardiff as a Hub for Digital Innovation
The shift couldn’t come at a better time for Wales’s growing tech scene. According to Tech Nation’s 2025 Regional Innovation Index, Cardiff has seen a 42% rise in digital and creative agencies since 2020, many specialising in AI, content automation, and marketing analytics.
Appear Online’s success fits that narrative: a locally founded agency building global digital visibility for Welsh businesses – and showing that the AI era isn’t something to fear, but to shape.
A Human Approach to a Machine Future
Despite the tech-heavy subject, Appear Online’s message is a simple one: build trust, create value, and communicate like a real person – because even AI now rewards authenticity.
“Search might be changing,” Weston says, “but the fundamentals haven’t. The businesses that tell real stories and offer genuine expertise will always find their audience – even if that audience includes Google’s AI.”
