Eight ways to stay discoverable when search, social and AI stop sending people your way

For many years, getting found online was pretty easy for any creative. You'd learn basic SEO and make your website discoverable for certain keywords. You might write a blog to give the crawlers a reason to revisit often. And social media didn't have all the forever-changing algorithms it has today. All we had to do is invest a little time and energy, and our brand would travel far and wide.

Oh, how things change. The days of organic search are over. Social media rewards quantity over quality and is always moving the goalposts. Now we're faced with LLMs that decide who gets recommended.

For those of us who have strived to keep up for many years, it's all very exhausting. And now we have today's big news that Pinterest is moving away from traditional search. Great.

But it's not all bad news. There are still a handful of things independent creatives can build effectively: a direct audience and a distinctive name with a reputation AI recognises as important. Yes, we're all exhausted, so here's where to put your energy.

1. Build an audience you actually own

Build your own audience. I've been saying it ever since Meta ruined Facebook for publishers in 2016. Overnight, the game changed for Creative Boom. What once drew tens of thousands of readers was gone in a second.

But we were renting that Facebook page. It wasn't a platform we owned or controlled. And like Instagram and Pinterest, it decides who sees your work, and it can change things whenever it likes.

An email list, however, is the one audience you can control. It's a list of subscribers who chose you. And you can reach them directly whenever you want. Start with a simple newsletter and go from there. That's what I did a decade ago with Creative Boom, and it led to 55,000 subscribers today.

2. Get talked about

If you want to be found online, you need an LLM to recommend you. That's how people search these days. For example, if someone asks Claude for a graphic designer in Manchester, it will suggest the name most talked about and mentioned online. That might be on listicles or interviews, on podcasts or in awards. It means being talked about matters more than ever, especially if you want to be optimised.

It's also why media relations is having such a resurgence. Now is not the time to be shy. Say yes to the guest magazine piece or scary panel session on stage. Pitch yourself for round-ups in your niche. Wherever your name pops up online it means people – and AI crawlers – can find you.

3. Make your site easy for the bots to understand

If an LLM is going to recommend you to someone searching for your services, it has to be able to read your website. That means not blocking AI crawlers. And it means spelling out what you do, who you do it for and what makes your work uniquely yours.

Optimising for AI is pretty similar to SEO – something many of you have been doing for ages. So you know having a portfolio with images and no alt text isn't going to be helpful. You'll also be aware that keywords are important, as is lots of juicy text on your about page.

4. Show the human aside

Your biggest advantage is your humanity and craft. So share how you make things. The process with all the sketches and ideas. Reveal the "why" behind every decision and the story of a commission. Creating content that shares how things are made and gives a real point of view builds trust and can turn browsing visitors into clients. More importantly, it's the stuff AI can't copy from existing pages.

5. Make referrals easy to give

Word of mouth is always so powerful, so don't leave it to chance. Tell happy clients you'd welcome an introduction. Keep a tidy one-line description of what you do that someone can paste into a message without having to think. Stay in touch with people you've worked with so you're the name that comes up when they're asked, "Do you know anyone good who can…?"

And don't forget testimonials on your own website or LinkedIn, either. Seeing others praise your services might convince others to pick up the phone.

6. Turn up in real rooms

"In real life" is back, as I can attest to our own IRL events at Creative Boom (fourteen chapters and counting). Meet-ups like ours, along with talks and community gatherings – they're all back on the table after those weird post-pandemic years. Like word of mouth, networking is hugely powerful. Nothing beats a conversation at a portfolio night or a friendly face remembered from a meet-up.

These moments can lead to commissions that no number of impressions or page views can ever match. You don't need a stage, but turning up consistently where your peers and potential clients gather will eventually open doors. Just remember to enjoy yourself and make friends, first and foremost. Don't go in with a hard sell; nothing is more off-putting.

7. Don't rent your presence in one place

It's too risky to rely on one platform to be your shop window. In which case, spread your presence across many things you own and earn. That might mean your website and newsletter list, plus a couple of socials and media. The goal isn't to be everywhere. It's to make sure no single algorithm tweak or new AI release can ruin all your marketing efforts in an instant.

8. These things take time

Search, in the traditional sense, might be dead. AI might be disrupting the web forever. And social media can, as far as I'm concerned, keep up its frustrating, endless changes.

Those of us who stay "discoverable" won't be the ones who keep chasing algorithms or renting followers on netowrks we can never own; they'll be the ones who built their own platforms and focused on the marketing they can control.

I've taken this approach with Creative Boom for over a decade, and I can assure you, by taking these steps, you'll never have to rely on anyone else ever again.