The Website Success Show: SEO & Website Tips For Beauty & Wellness Businesses Who Want More Website Traffic & Conversions

087: How to Get Your Beauty or Wellness Business Seen in the Age of AI Search

• Jules White • Season 1 • Episode 87

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In this episode, Jules White shares an honest and reassuring update on what’s really changing in the world of SEO - and what still works, especially for beauty and wellness businesses.

With Google’s new AI Mode rolling out in the US, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or behind. But instead of chasing every new trend, Jules encourages listeners to refocus on the simple, powerful foundations that still drive visibility - and that matter even more as AI becomes part of search.

Key Takeaways:

  • What AI Mode actually means: Understand what’s changing with Google’s latest update and how it might impact local search.
  • Why Google Business Profiles matter more than ever: Discover why this free tool is one of the fastest, most effective ways to improve visibility - and how it connects with AI search results.
  • Website copy that works: Jules explains how to write clear, structured website content that helps both search engines and potential customers understand what you do.
  • How to build credibility across the web: Learn why reviews, brand mentions and online reputation are becoming key ranking signals in the age of AI.
  • You don’t need to become an SEO expert: This episode is a reminder that small, thoughtful steps still count - and you’re not behind if you’re building with care.

If you’ve been feeling out of touch or pressured to “keep up,” this episode is for you. It’s packed with calm, clear advice you can take action on today.

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Happy Friday. Good morning.

Google's New AI Mode Updates
So there have been some big updates from Google this week. They've rolled out the new AI mode, which is a new type of search.

They've rolled out this new type of search. It's just in the US at the moment; it's called AI Mode, and it's where we get AI-generated answers right within Google's browsers.

And it's a bit different to the AI overviews, and it's gonna change absolutely everything. No doubt this will roll out soon to the UK and beyond.

We normally tend to be not too far behind the US, and we are usually the next one to get these updates. I've been feeling a bit like, how do I keep up with everything that's going on?

Feeling a little bit out of touch and almost feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all as well. There's so much because I'm in the world where I see lots of SEO stuff.

Feeling Overwhelmed with Changes
I see lots of stuff from the amazing people in SEO who are way more techy than me and way more; they just have a lot more of their ducks in a row.

They have production teams and people within their company where it is literally just their job to keep up to date with these new changes and to try things and experiment and all of those sort of things.

And when you are listening to lots of content like that, I can understand why it leaves me with that 'Am I behind? Am I doing enough? Am I doing enough? Do I know enough?'

And I just have to have a little bit of a word with myself, really.

So I had a little bit of a word with myself and a word with ChatGPT yesterday, just to remember what actually matters to the people that I help. The people I'm helping – my clients, people in my membership, podcast listeners like yourself, people in my Facebook group – are not other SEO professionals; they're just business owners ultimately.

I don't mean just a business owner; I mean that you're not a tech guru, you are not an SEO or website expert. So whether you are a beauty or a wellness brand, or a skin clinic, a salon, a private practice, or even a coach or training academy, you all ultimately want the same thing.

You want your existing website to bring you more customers. You want marketing that feels easier.

You wanna spend less time on social media. It absolutely makes you feel like crap being on there.

People tell me this time and time again. People don't wanna have to rely so much on social media.

They feel like they're spending so much time on social media and not getting great results for the amount of time that they're spending on there. That's what I have to remind myself: those are the people that need my help and want my help and are getting my help.

They wanna be found by local customers as well as making more e-commerce sales, whether that's for your products or your online courses, or it's just becoming fully booked. You want that; you want your website to help you with that.

Tips for Beauty and Wellness Brand Visibility
So I've got a few tips for you today to help you get more visibility in your beauty and wellness brand.

I will touch on why things are changing and how we can actually make sure that what we're doing right now is not only supporting our existing SEO and supporting us showing up in Google searches. It's also supporting things as the world is changing, as things are moving forward, really.

One of the things that I would say is: what still works and what is actually worth your time for you to do at the moment? And one of the big things, especially with local businesses, is this: if you depend on local customers and need to show up more in local searches, then your Google Business Profile still matters.

It matters more than ever, really. So it feeds both into local search and tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Google Search.

Google Gemini will be incorporated more into Google Search, and it will almost disappear. Like, eventually the AI mode of Google will replace the traditional 10 links.

They've already done this when they've shown the updates of what's actually happening with the new version of search in the US. And if you are in the US, let us know.

Have you tried it? There's a button you can go and click where it used to be the I'm Feeling Lucky Button.

You can click on that, and it will then take you into this AI mode, which is very clever. It's gonna be amazing.

I think it will ultimately be helpful. It will ultimately be good for businesses who have spent some time working on this kind of stuff.

And even though, like, traffic will drop to a lot of websites for a lot of informational queries. But hopefully, it will be good because those businesses who are making sure that their content is optimised, making sure that they're delivering and they're getting good reviews and they're getting mentioned, and they are actually delivering a good service [will benefit].

Then hopefully this is all gonna help to filter out the ones who have just done the most work on their SEO and the ones who have maybe paid the most to and have gamified the system. I'm hopeful for it.

I am optimistic that ultimately this is gonna help. There's definitely some work to do, but the majority of my customers haven't really done a lot with their SEO.

So when they first come to work with me, they might have built their website themselves; they might have had it built for them a while ago and not ever then looked at it again. They had not really done a lot to change it and update it.

They never really sort of thought about their SEO. So this is all about getting those fundamentals in place.

Google Business Profile Importance
But anyway, I've digressed a little bit there 'cause I was talking about Google Business Profiles and why they still matter. If you are a local business, Google Business Profiles are one of those things.

It's a real quick win. You can make changes to it today and see the effect right away.

The changes you make will show up on your profile straight away. So it's not like Google, where you have to wait for Google to crawl through your website and understand those changes and then see if it decides to show you up in the search results.

Your Google Profile is much more of a quick win, and it's something I often focus on with clients when they first come into my world. I make sure that their profile is optimised.

You are making the most of it. It's a free tool from Google that connects you with local customers on the map, and over 40% of searches on Google are with a local search intent.

So, it's really important. If you've not spent any time on your Google Profile, then I would say that's something to really think about.

If you don't know what to do and you're not sure about how to do that, I have a Google Business Profile course on my website. So I'll link to that in the show notes, and you can go and check that out.

Or I actually offer this as a one-to-one service as well, where we spend three hours together on Zoom, optimising your profile together. It's something that I absolutely love doing.

There are always real nuggets that come out of that, and not just for optimising your profile. Also, some of the messaging that always comes out when we're actually working through your profile are things that you can use on your website as well.

Why it matters if you actually update your Google Profile.

As we're moving forward for both SEO and AI mode, the AI mode and the AI bots are actually scanning through your website and your Business Profile. These are the things that it needs to understand about your business.

That is the kind of stuff that it will pull in from your Google Business Profile. So, like, for local questions, it might be things like, "What's our [business name's] business hours or opening hours?"

Does [Business Name] offer click and collect? You know, those kinds of things where actually they're much more specific queries.

And it might even be longer queries that people will be having much more conversational chats with AI mode. Where it might be, you know, um, "Find me a local spa that's open now and offers vegan products," or something like that.

And it will go off and then break that down into different searches to search and find those queries, and then deliver results. And if your business is on the map and you've got your Google Business Profile, then actually that's one of the things that it's gonna be showing in local results.

So, here's something you can do today. Just log into your profile.

Make sure that you've got your essential information, and it's all up to date. Ensure you've added all the different parts into your profile that you can.

Sometimes it's just a case of going in and checking what's there. You'll discover things like, "I can add frequently asked questions (Q&As)."

"I can add my attributes." "I can add that I've got parking outside."

Those are the kinds of things that if you just go through and look at the basics of your profile, you'll discover things in there where you can add in extra information about your business. So, look at your categories as well.

Make sure that you've selected all the categories that are appropriate for your business. Make sure your primary category is the one that's most appropriate, although there are a few things with that.

I would be hesitant to change your primary category unless it's something that's going to make a real difference. This is because that can then trigger a re-verification if you change your primary category.

Not always, but ideally, we don't want to be having to re-verify with Google. It's a bit of a pain doing that.

But certainly, you can add up to 10 categories that can really help you to show up in other local searches as well. However, only add the ones that are relevant for your business.

You can update your description in there as well. Add a recent post if you've got events going on in your business or if you've been involved in something locally.

Add that in as an update, or add it as an event. Add relevant Q&As as well for things that aren't covered elsewhere on your profile.

So I wouldn't suggest adding questions on things like your opening times, because that can be added and that information is elsewhere on your profile. And it's gonna then stay more up to date if it's like bank holiday closures and things like that.

So I would definitely recommend doing that. You know, I'm all about creating content that you own though, as well.

So I would say if you are adding Q&As to your Google Profile, if you're adding relevant things that people may search for around your business – questions that people might have about the products that you offer or the services that you offer – then making sure you've also got those questions on your website as frequently asked questions is really important.

You can maybe slightly reword them so Google doesn't treat it as sort of duplicate content. But I think that's probably not gonna be too much of a problem.

But making sure that you've got that there on your website is really, really, really, really important. Because it all helps with those kinds of questions that people are going to be asking – more specific questions to AI mode – then that really helps with that.

You can also then, with those frequently asked questions, if you are using social media and you are looking for content ideas, you could add those frequently asked questions as a carousel or something. And that will help you with content for social media as well.

These are all the things that people are going to be wanting to know about your business, really. So, definitely, Google Business Profile.

Make sure that it's updated. Make sure that you're using it as you can.

Make sure that you are making the most of it, really.

Website Copy and Structure
And then your website copy is really important. So the website copy is the words that you are saying on your website, the things that you are talking about, and how you get across what your business is all about, the problems that you solve for your customers and the ways that your business is unique, what makes you different from your competitors down the road, and your website copy needs.

Any content on your website really needs to be the things that you want to be found for. And they need to be written in a clear and structured way.

And this is really important. This is, like, the basics of the SEO on your website.

And the basic, the foundational SEO, is really important for the bots to be able to scan your website and to understand it, whether that is AI bots, Google bots, or whatever is actually scanning your website to understand that data.

Your pages are laid out in a hierarchical way. So imagine it like an English essay where you've got one heading at the top, that's your H1 heading.

Then we come down and have subheadings within that, which are your H2s. And then maybe within those, we have some subtopics, which might be H3s.

Make sure as well that you are looking at your homepage and your products and services page. Look at whether the information you're talking about on there is relevant.

Is it relevant? Is it clear?

Optimising it for natural conversational language is good as well. So make sure that if people are actually having conversations with AI mode, or if people type into Google and it's much more conversational now, then make sure that you've got that kind of language on your website.

Don't be too formal. Don't use language that you wouldn't use with your customers.

This is where you could add that into your frequently asked questions. Think about how people would actually ask you that question in real life, and then integrate that into the way that you are writing your copy.

I always say it's really important that as soon as someone lands on your website, they know within three seconds what you do, how you're gonna make their life better, and what they need to do to get it. And really, we don't wanna make them burn mental calories trying to work out what you do, really.

And that is even more important with AI searches, making sure that the bots and Google can understand your website, really.

Reviews, Mentions and Credibility
And then number three: for local businesses and for any businesses really that want to be showing up in AI search, want to be recommended by ChatGPT, recommended by Google and actually showing up, moving forward, are reviews, mentions, and credibility.

These are the things that are gonna make a massive difference. There's a company called Ahrefs, and they have an SEO tool.

So, you can do keyword research and things like that through it. And they've just recently, literally in the last week, released some things where they've done research on what they think the AI overviews are actually using as ranking factors.

So Google has over 200 ranking factors – the things that Google looks for in a website to decide what's gonna be the best thing to rank for for a particular search query. And Ahrefs have gone off and done this study.

Ultimately, the thing that came out on top of that is brand visibility across the internet. So whether it's Google Reviews, getting linked from a local website, or directories like Yelp and Yell and TripAdvisor.

It includes all sorts of places where you can get your website mentioned, and industry-specific sites as well. So if you are getting mentioned across different websites or forums, or through any sort of digital PR that you're doing, or any in-person stuff where people might mention being at an event with you – perhaps for networking.

If you're involved in local causes, podcast interviews, anything that's sort of publicly available can all help with that brand visibility and with your brand reputation as well. And ideally, what we want is, obviously, a positive sentiment about our business across the internet.

So whether people are talking about you on forums, or whether they're talking about you on public local Facebook groups and things like that, or public events boards or Pinterest boards. Anything like that, that is not hidden behind having to be a member of a group, can all help.

And some of the things that are sort of coming out now is that maybe actually getting links to your website is going to become less relevant. They still are relevant.

It's still really important. It still helps to build the trust and the domain authority of your website.

But it's likely moving forward that actually your brand mentions, your web mentions of your website will become more relevant. Because AI can understand that your brand is the one that's being talked about, even if it's not actually got a direct link to your website.

And that's quite interesting. I think that will be quite an interesting development and probably a good thing as well.

Because then hopefully, as I said at the start, it's not gonna be just people who've gamified the system or people who've just bought a load of links to their website. It's getting so much smarter.

And this has been part of the evolution of Google over the years; actually, every update has then made it that it's more relevant content. It's less easy to do spammy SEO tactics.

And a thought just popped into my head here: there's me stressing about knowing enough and making sure that I can give you the up-to-date information when the information is changing on a weekly basis. But I had a conversation with someone last week where she'd been told to just stuff a load of keywords into a page and make them invisible, like make them a really small font or make them in the same colour as the background.

And she'd been literally given that information a couple of weeks ago, and it's like that wouldn't even work, you know, 10 years ago, probably, let alone now. So I definitely have to have a word with myself and remind myself that actually, I'm doing everything I can to stay up to date to give the information to you that is relevant for you right now.

The moment you are in, and with it, given the constraints that you, actually, are not trying to become an SEO expert. You're not trying to become a website expert.

You're trying to run your business and use your website to make the most of your marketing and have your website actually bringing customers into you. So, yeah, hopefully I'm achieving that.

Hopefully, I'm helping you to understand more without it being overwhelming as well. So moving forward, the big thing is about if you want to be featured in the AI overviews and showing up in Google as well, making sure that your brand awareness and your brand visibility is out there across the internet.

You're being mentioned in different places. So, what you can do to help with that is making sure that you are actually asking for reviews.

That's a small part of this, and reviews are one of the really important bits. Actually, I say a small part, but reviews are one of the things that will actually become more important with AI overviews and with AI trying to work out what's a good recommendation.

So if I'm asking for a recommendation for new swimwear, for example, one of the things that AI, like Gemini, ChatGPT, Google's new AI mode, is gonna be looking at is what is the overall sentiment on that particular brand that it's recommending to me? And are there lots of reviews?

And it will understand the reviews a lot more. It will understand those nuances of what people have actually said in those review conversations, really.

So, it's really important. Make sure that you are responding to your reviews as well.

Encourage detailed reviews from your happy customers, taking snippets of those reviews and popping those onto your website as well. So that if people come through to your website, they can scan-read and see those reviews, and that all helps with that social proof on your own website as well.

SEO Evolution with AI
So, SEO: it hasn't been replaced by AI mode. It's just evolving.

Things are changing, but the truth is that clear, helpful content, a solid website that's well structured, and a good reputation are still the things that help you get found. And I would always say that focusing on your own content, first and foremost, is critical.

If you decided that it was more important to post on Instagram or TikTok than to make sure that your spa, your clinic, or your shop was ready for customers, and you opened the doors to your customers and the shop was messy, disorganised. You hadn't really planned what you were gonna do when people come through the door.

You haven't, you know, you haven't swept the floor for a few days and you've basically left things in a disordered way. If you ignored that part of your business, ignored your housekeeping within your business, and decided actually it's more important for me to create an Instagram post, you would know that that's not, you know, that just immediately as you're saying, it doesn't make sense.

So, your website is your online store. And I think often we don't treat it that way.

We will think it's more important to go and create a social media post than it is to get our own website sorted and get our own ducks in a row, as I say. And the important thing is it's what you own.

It's an asset to your business, and no algorithm can take that away from you. So I would, one hundred per cent, say before you start thinking about all of your posts that you need to do and what you need to do for social media, think about your website; think about your Google Business Profile.

As much as you don't own that, you're probably gonna get more results as a local business from actually making sure that's in order, making sure that information is on your website as well. As I say, with things like the frequently asked questions, making sure your website just isn't confusing; it's helping people to know what to do.

Actually, you've put some thought into what you want people to do when they come through, and just spend a little bit of time with that, and it's gonna make all the difference, really. So I am keeping a little info base with what I learn each week about AI search and what seems to be working, what's not.

But I'm not rushing with this. I know that.

It is so important to get those SEO foundations in place, and this is the first step to showing up in AI search. So I'm focusing on teaching what I know helps you at whatever stage you're at.

And my clients are not the ones who need a million customers right now. They're the ones who want to connect with the right people and have a steady stream of clients and customers into their business without burning out on social media.

And I'm making sure that everything I do and everything I teach is layering in the new bits as they become useful as well. And we are preparing for the changes that are definitely coming.

Things are changing in the world of search. Those foundations and having your SEO basics in place first is really, really important.

Getting Help and Next Steps 

So if you need some help right now, getting started with making your website work for your business, then book a Website Potential Discovery Call. Or join my membership, The Website Growth Club. Here you can take bite-sized action steps to make your website work for you and make it your hardest working team member. 

So you don't need to become an SEO or a website expert. You don't have to keep up with everything. That's what I'm here to help you with. 

But you can take a few simple steps that make your website work harder for you, and I'll keep showing up with the real talk and making sure that I'm keeping up to date, hopefully, with what's actually helping. 

So I hope you found this episode helpful, and I hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you soon. 

Bye. 

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