Until recently, getting found online meant one thing: appearing in Google search results. That is still true. But it is no longer the whole picture.
Commissioners are researching potential partners in ChatGPT. Grant-makers are asking Claude which charities work in a particular area. Social workers are using Perplexity to find referral destinations. Journalists are using AI tools to identify expert sources before making calls.
If your charity appears in Google but not in those AI-generated answers, you are present in one channel and invisible in another. This article covers both: what each channel requires, where they overlap, and what a single strategy looks like that serves both without doubling your workload.
How Google search has changed in 2026
Google is not the same search engine it was five years ago. The March 2026 Core Update continued a trend that has been clear since 2022: Google is prioritising content that demonstrates genuine expertise, first-hand experience, and trustworthiness over content that is merely optimised for keywords.
The introduction of AI Overviews has also changed how search results look. For many queries, the top of the page is now occupied by an AI-generated summary that synthesises multiple sources, with individual links below. Appearing in that summary requires the same structural qualities as appearing in a standalone AI tool response: clear content, verifiable identity, and genuine depth on the topic.
Search Engine Land tracks these changes closely. The consistent finding is that the sites losing ground in the March 2026 update are the ones with thin content, no author information, and no demonstrable expertise. The sites gaining ground are those with genuine, specific, well-attributed content on a focused set of topics.
For charities, this is an opportunity as much as a challenge. You have genuine expertise. You work directly with the people your sector is about. Most of what Google now rewards, authentic experience and specific knowledge, is exactly what you have. The question is whether your website makes it visible.
How AI search works differently
Google returns a list of pages. AI search returns an answer. That difference has significant implications.
When someone searches Google for "domestic abuse charities in Bristol," they get a ranked list and decide which site to visit. When they ask ChatGPT or Perplexity the same question, they get a response that names specific organisations, summarises what each does, and sometimes makes a recommendation. The organisations named in that response win without the person ever visiting their website.
AI tools draw from training data and, in the case of tools with real-time retrieval, from live web content. Kevin Indig's work on generative engine optimisation identifies the key patterns: AI tools prefer sources that are clearly identified, factually specific, consistently authoritative on a given topic, and cited by other credible sources. Anonymous or vague organisations do not get cited.
Rand Fishkin at SparkToro has tracked the shift in referral traffic patterns and found that for some sectors, AI tools now account for a meaningful share of discovery journeys. That share is growing. The organisations building AI visibility now are the ones with an advantage as that channel grows.
Where the two channels overlap
The requirements for Google E-E-A-T and for AI citation are not the same, but they have substantial overlap. Understanding that overlap is where you find the strategy that serves both.
Both channels reward:
- Clear organisational identity: who you are, what charity number or registration you hold, and where you operate
- Specific, factual content: named places, real numbers, actual service descriptions rather than aspirational copy
- Named people: a director or lead contact with a professional background, visible on the about page
- Topical depth over breadth: genuine expertise on a focused set of topics, rather than shallow coverage of many
- External citations: being mentioned in sector publications, council directories, or commissioning frameworks
The difference is that Google also weighs traditional signals like page speed, mobile usability, and structured HTML. AI tools weight conversational content, FAQ formats, and the ability to answer specific questions directly. Both matter, and neither is impossible to address with a well-structured charity website.
Where they diverge
There are a few areas where the two channels pull in different directions.
Keyword targeting. Google still benefits from deliberate keyword placement in titles, headings, and content. AI tools are less sensitive to this. A page optimised for "domestic abuse support Bristol" will rank better in Google for that phrase. Whether it gets cited in an AI answer depends more on the specificity and depth of the content than the exact phrasing.
Content freshness. Google uses crawl frequency and content dates as ranking signals. AI tools with real-time retrieval also factor in recency. But AI models that rely purely on training data may cite content from several months or years ago, particularly if it is comprehensive and specific. For charities, this means the investment in good foundational pages pays dividends over time in both channels.
Schema markup. This structured data helps Google understand what your content means. It is less directly relevant to AI citation, though organisation and FAQ schema can make your content more machine-readable generally. Worth adding, but lower priority than the content itself.
A five-point plan that works for both
If you want to improve visibility in both Google and AI tools, these five changes will do the most work.
1. Write a clear service description for every service you offer. Not a paragraph, a full page per service. Who it is for, what it involves, where it operates, who to contact, and what happens next. This is the single most impactful content change for both channels.
2. Make your organisational identity verifiable. Charity Commission registration number in the footer. Named director on the about page. Consistent name, address, and contact details across your website, Google Business Profile, and any sector directories. This is the trust foundation both channels need.
3. Publish content that answers specific questions in your area. Once a quarter, write a page or article that addresses a question your referrers, commissioners, or service users actually ask. Not a news update. A genuine answer to a genuine question. This builds topical authority for Google and citation relevance for AI tools simultaneously.
4. Get cited elsewhere. Contact your local council's voluntary sector team and ask to be listed in their directory. Contribute a quote or data point to a sector publication. Reach out to partner organisations and ask if they link to you from their referral pages. Each of these is an authority signal for both channels.
5. Test your visibility in both channels quarterly. Search for relevant queries in Google and note your position. Ask the same questions in ChatGPT and Perplexity and note whether you appear. This takes 30 minutes and tells you whether your efforts are working.
Before working on Google or AI visibility, check whether the fundamentals are in place. The free Charity Safety Content Audit takes under three minutes and shows whether critical information is easy to find on your site.
Take the free audit →The deeper articles in this series
If you want to go further on any of these topics, we have written detailed guides on each area.
On AI visibility specifically: Is your charity invisible to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity? explains why most charities are absent from AI-generated answers. How to get your charity referenced by AI tools, not just ranked on Google covers the practical steps. What makes a charity website a source that AI tools actually trust and cite goes into the structural qualities in detail.
On Google SEO: E-E-A-T for charities covers what the trust framework means and how to address it. Small charity, limited budget: where to focus your SEO effort in 2026 is the practical prioritisation guide for organisations with limited digital resource.
If you want someone to handle this for your organisation rather than doing it yourself, our SEO and AI visibility service covers both channels. Book a free 20-minute call and we will tell you honestly where your site stands and what the highest-value changes would be.