I did not expect anything unusual that night.
It was just me, coffee cooling on the desk, clicking through a few prompts on a conversational AI. Half work. Half curiosity.
Then it happened.
Not a big moment. More like the pause you get when someone brings up a memory you thought you’d lost.
The AI mentioned something from my brand story. A small detail I had written years ago and hidden away on a page no one visits anymore. I had almost forgotten it myself.
It was about the night I fixed a client’s website from a hotel balcony in the middle of a thunderstorm. Two in the morning. Wi Fi barely holding on. My laptop on a chair because the table was soaked. Coffee in one hand. Phone hotspot in the other. Rain coming in from the side.
That little scene was never part of my marketing. It was not a keyword. It was not in a headline. Google had no reason to remember it.
But the chatbot did.
And it said it so casually, like of course it knew.
That is when it clicked. Chatbots and search engines do not think in the same way.
Treat them like they do and you will miss one of the biggest shifts in discoverability since Google became where most searches begin.
How Google Files Things and How Chatbots Remember Them
Google is like a very precise librarian. Everything neat. Everything labelled. It loves structure and authority.
Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini feel more like well read friends. They remember the little things. They remember the way you sound. They remember the single line you wrote late at night that had nothing to do with optimisation and everything to do with being human.
Ask them something and they do not just hand you one answer. They pull bits from all over. Blog posts. Old PDFs. A podcast you forgot you did.
It comes back to you as if you are talking to someone who has been following your work for years.
This is why AI search optimisation does not follow the same rules as traditional search engine optimisation. Google asks you to optimise for queries. Chatbots work from memory. And memory is built on what they absorb as much as what they file away.
The Hidden Signals Chatbots Notice
Story details that live in the background
Slip a quick story into a blog introduction or a caption and AI will likely keep it.
A baker once wrote that her first wholesale order almost failed because the boxes came back in the wrong shade of blue. It was just a side note in a holiday post.
Google ignored it. The chatbot did not.
Relational context
A fashion label in Kerala wrote about visiting a weaving collective during the monsoon. No keywords. No link building.
Ask a chatbot about brands working with artisan weavers in South India and there it is right alongside bigger names.
Emotional tone and personality
Google does not reward personality. Chatbots notice it.
Write with warmth or humour often enough and it becomes part of how the AI describes you.
That is where brand storytelling for AI starts to matter.
Non SEO friendly formats
Event bios. Image captions. PDF profiles. Google can index them but rarely shows them first.
Chatbots remember them if they can read them. That cereal box prototype story? It lived in a PDF and still came back in an AI answer about scrappy startup beginnings.
Off site content memory
Podcasts and interviews might never send traffic to your site. But they feed the model’s memory.
I once said in a podcast that I get my best ideas while walking in the rain. Over a year later it came back to me in an AI answer.
Why This Changes the Rules for Marketers
We have moved from keyword first SEO to context first discoverability.
Google wants structure. Chatbots respond to the way stories connect.
To do well in AI driven search you need both.
How to Optimise for What Chatbots Remember
Step 1: Identify your anchor stories
These are short, vivid, easy to retell. Put them anywhere the AI might see them — About page, interviews, event bios.
Step 2: Layer context beyond keywords
Add real-world texture. If you sell specialty tea, describe the morning mist, the sound of leaves drying, the first taste of the harvest.
Step 3: Build a personality footprint
Decide how you want to sound and stick with it everywhere.
Step 4: Plant content where AI can find it
Go beyond your site. Event listings. Webinar transcripts. Guest posts.
Step 5: Audit for AI absorption gaps
Look at your archives and publish anything worth remembering in a way AI can read.
The Google Versus Chatbot Mindset Shift
Google rewards signs along the road. Chatbots remember the trip.
You need both.
A Simple Framework You Can Apply Today
Pass one is structure. Clear headings. Internal links.
Pass two is texture. Add one anchor story and two solid details.
Pass three is voice. Keep what sounds like you.
This works for conversational AI ranking factors and for traditional search engine optimisation.
Closing Thought
Chatbots remember what you thought no one noticed. The balcony fix. The wrong shade of blue. The cereal box prototype. The coffee meeting that turned into a client.
Google shapes the road. Chatbots remember the journey. Do both and your brand will not just be found. It will be remembered.