How To Improve AI Visibility With Digital PR

About This Episode

AI visibility comes down to brand authority, so which digital PR work actually earns you the citation?

In this episode of SEO On-Air, host Koa Kauwe sits down with Kelsey Libert, co-founder of Fractl, who has spent nearly two decades studying what makes content earn coverage and now researches why AI cites some brands and ignores others.

The panel explores the data behind brand mentions. Kelsey points to an Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands finding branded web mentions correlate most strongly with AI visibility while backlinks correlate far lower, MuckRack finding 95 percent of AI citations come from non-paid media, and Stacker research suggesting third party coverage can lift AI citations by 325 percent over relying on your blog alone. Her argument is that listicles have become the new keyword stuffing, and proprietary research is the one thing AI cannot simply regurgitate.

They also discuss why AI visibility is probabilistic rather than a ranking, why testing a single prompt tells you nothing, the SparkToro study showing niche publishers deliver 1.7 times higher audience affinity than major outlets, why AI Overviews favor mainstream authorities while LLMs surface vertical specialists, what PR teams should automate and what must stay human, and where Kelsey would put a 20,000 dollar budget over 90 days.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Why branded web mentions correlate more strongly than backlinks

– Why 95 percent of AI citations come from earned and non-paid media

– Why listicles have become the new keyword stuffing

– How to design research credible enough to earn coverage

– Why testing one prompt tells you nothing about your visibility

– Why niche publishers can outperform major logos

– Why AI Overviews and LLMs cite different types of sources

– What digital PR teams should automate and what must stay human

– Why only half of AI generated content gets fact checked

– Where to spend a 20,000 dollar budget over 90 days

Whether you’re an agency owner, PR or content lead, SEO professional, or brand marketer, this episode provides actionable insights into earning AI citations, designing research worth covering, and spending an authority budget where it actually moves the needle.

Because the brands AI trusts won’t be the ones publishing the most on their own site.

They’ll be the ones everyone else is already citing.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction to SEO On-Air & Meet Kelsey Libert

02:08 Why Brand Authority Drives Visibility Everywhere

03:28 The Listicle Problem: Quality vs. Quantity

05:48 How to Design Research Credible Enough to Earn Coverage

08:46 Why AI Visibility Is Probabilistic, Not a Ranking

12:22 Building a Digital Footprint of Authority

14:28 Do Not Be the Story, Be Part of the Story

15:58 Niche Publishers vs. Chasing the Big Logos

18:58 Why AI Overviews & LLMs Cite Different Sources

20:07 What PR Teams Should Automate & What to Protect

26:00 The 90-Day, 20,000-Dollar Brand Authority Challenge

29:57 What Marketers Will Understand Two Years From Now