HOME > INSIGHTS

What are your potential customers searching for online in 2026?

People aren’t searching like they used to. The rise of Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI tools has completely changed how people are seeking out information across the web. How can you gain an understanding of what your potential customers are searching for online?

Authored by James Crothall [external] with the assistance of AI - 6 minute read on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO)

Since starting out in SEO over 20 years ago, keyword volume has been my foundational metric for building search strategies. It made total sense: if you wanted more traffic to your online shop, you found out which text queries had the most monthly searches, mapped out user intent and optimized your pages accordingly.

I think that might have just changed.

Google's introduction of Multimodal Search Reporting inside Google Search Console (GSC) gives us the explicit ability to isolate visual queries - such as Google Lens, Circle to Search and image based searches - from standard text queries.

Here is the kicker: GSC does not provide text query data for Multimodal traffic.

Think about what that means. If a potential customer circles a product on their smartphone screen, scans a physical item with their camera, or uploads a photo to solve a problem, no typed keywords exist. As search habits shift toward visual, context-driven and AI-assisted queries, relying solely on traditional text volume creates a massive strategic blind spot.

To succeed today, we have to reassess how we discover what our potential customers are searching for and where they are searching.

Navigating the 3 Channels of Searching in 2026

Before updating your research process, it is vital to understand that your audience no longer interacts with "search" in a single uniform way. Your potential customers find answers across three distinct digital channels, each operating under different mechanics:

Photo by Scott Graham [external] on Unsplash

Channel How Users Are Searching How Content's Discovered By These Channels Why These Channels Are Important
1. Traditional Search Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) Typed text phrases, short-tail keywords, and long-tail questions. Crawling, indexing, on-page keyword matching, and backlink authority. Some Internet users are still using search engines! Some sectors more than others.
2. Google's AI Overviews & Google's AI Mode Complex multi-part queries, natural conversational phrasing, combined text + visual inputs. Real-time Web Retrieval (RAG), entity extraction, structured data, and authoritative sources. When users do use Google Search, these functions are appearing more and more often.
3. AI Assistants (ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini) Open-ended context, situational problem solving, direct uploads (photos, PDFs, screenshots). Large Language Model (LLM) training, direct API integrations, real-time web search synthesis. AI Assistants are becoming widely accepted as a 'first port of call' for many Internet users now.

If your SEO strategy only takes into consideration Channel 1, you may miss the explosive growth happening across Channels 2 and 3.

Six New Ways to Research Potential Customer Demand

While traditional keyword tools still offer a helpful baseline, researching user demand in 2026 requires looking beyond plain text volume. Here are six actionable ways to uncover what your potential customers are searching for right now:

1. Start with Your Domain Expertise & Visual Customer Scenarios

Nobody knows your business or customer pain points better than you do. Start by putting yourself in your customer’s shoes—not just in terms of what they might type, but what they are looking at when a problem arises.

  • What physical setups, broken parts, or visual scenarios trigger a need for your product or service?

  • What non-standard jargon or everyday descriptions do real human beings use when describing those problems to your customer service team?

2. Isolate Your GSC Multimodal Traffic

If your website is verified in GSC, navigate to your Performance on Search Results report. Use the search type filter to isolate Multimodal traffic alongside standard text based data.

While GSC won't give you exact text query strings for multimodal impressions, tracking the growth of this segment tells you which pages are being pulled into visual search results (like Google Lens or Circle to Search). If a page gets high multimodal impressions, optimize its images, schema markup and visual clarity immediately.

3. Analyze Google Autocomplete & Visual SERP Features

Take your core topic to Google Search. Pay close attention to Google Autocomplete (dropdown suggestions predicting queries as you type) to capture long-tail text variations.

Then, examine the visual layout of the results page itself:

  • Are Image Packs, Product Carousels, or Visual Stories dominating the top of the SERP?

  • Does Google trigger an AI Overview summarizing visual steps or product comparisons?

If visual blocks dominate the page, users are looking for visual proof, not just wall-of-text articles.

4. Benchmark Macro Demand via Google Ads Keyword Planner

The Google Ads Keyword Planner remains an essential tool for gauging macro-level commercial interest and seasonality. Use it to identify core baseline phrases, compare geographic search volume and prioritize competitive terms. Just remember: treat keyword volume as a baseline metric for text interest, not the maximum ceiling of your audience's digital activity.

5. Mine Conversational Intent via Answer The Public & Community Queries

Tools like Answer The Public aggregate categorised comparisons and "Who, What, Where, Why, How" questions directly from search engines. Because AI Assistants and AI Overviews thrive on natural language queries, mapping out full conversational questions helps you format your content to directly answer user intent.

6. Use AI Tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini) for Entity & Scenario Mapping

AI tools are phenomenal research partners when given rich context. Instead of asking AI for simple "keyword lists," ask it to map out scenarios, entities and visual contexts.

Try this prompt structure:

"Hey AI Assistant, act as a potential customer facing [specific business problem]. They don't know the exact technical terms for [proposition]. What physical objects, visual symptoms and conversational search terms would they use to find help across visual search engines and AI assistants?"

What’s Next? Optimizing for the "Beyond Text" Era

Once you’ve gained an understanding what your customers are searching for across text, visual and AI tools, the next step is building content that aligns with user intent. Watch this space for the next article!

Related Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • Multimodal search refers to user queries that combine or rely on non-text inputs—such as image searches via Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android devices, or multisearch queries combining an image with text. Google Search Console allows webmasters to filter and report on this multimodal traffic separately from traditional text search.

  • Multimodal searches often originate from a camera snapshot, an on-screen image circle, or a visual scan rather than a typed set of keywords. Because there is no initial text string entered by the user, traditional keyword query tracking cannot be applied.

  • Traditional SEO focuses heavily on matching specific typed keywords, earning backlinks, and ranking on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). SEO for AI Assistants (and AI Overviews) focuses on Entity Authority - ensuring your content is structured clearly, factually accurate, rich in original experience (E-E-A-T), and easily retrieved by generative AI models during answer synthesis.

  • Yes, keyword search volume remains a valuable indicator of macro demand, commercial interest, and general market trends. However, it should no longer be viewed as the sole compass for your digital strategy, as it misses unrecorded visual searches, long-tail conversational prompts, and direct AI Assistant interactions.

Ready to Future-Proof Your Search Strategy?

Navigating the shift from basic keyword matching to AI and multimodal optimization can feel overwhelming but it also represents a great opportunity to get ahead of your competitors who are still playing by the old rules.

It all starts with a chat…

We think that having a conversation is always the best first step. Book a Zoom call so we can get a better feel for what you do.

LET'S TALK ▶