Why you need a conversation map now
Search has changed faster in the last two years than in the previous ten. These are the reasons a conversation map has moved from useful to essential.
People now ask full questions and follow up on the answers. The next question depends on what the last answer said. A keyword list cannot show you that path. A conversation map can.
When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity which provider to choose, they usually get a handful of names, not ten blue links. If you are not one of them, you are not in the decision at all.
AI Overviews and AI Mode answer many questions on the results page. Being the source an answer is built from now matters as much as ranking, and you cannot see that in your analytics.
Nothing in Search Console or GA4 tells you whether ChatGPT recommends you, or a competitor, when your customers ask. A conversation map measures it directly, question by question.
Most content answers the first question. The choice is made at the evidence and decision stages, when people ask about risks, costs and which provider is best. That is where most brands are weakest and where a map shows the gaps.
AI answers regularly draw on forum threads and videos alongside websites. If you do not know which subreddits and channels cover your industry, you do not know what is shaping the answers your customers get.
Long, specific questions often show no search volume, yet they are exactly what people type into AI assistants and what People Also Ask reveals. A conversation map is built from those real questions.
Most businesses are still measuring rankings for short keywords. Mapping the conversations now gives you a head start that is hard to close once the sources AI assistants trust are settled.
Without a map, teams write what they think customers ask. A map shows what they really ask, in what order, and which of those questions no page on your site answers.
Prices, rules, products and treatments change, and new questions follow. A map built today shows the questions your current content was never written for.
For finance, health and big home purchases, people ask many questions before they act. Answering them well, in the right order, is how you earn the trust that turns research into a sale.
Google, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, YouTube and Reddit each show different winners. A conversation map puts them side by side for the same questions.
Three insights clients value most
A conversation map gives you a long list of insights, set out below. These three tend to change plans the fastest.
Every subreddit that discusses your industry and every YouTube channel and video that appears for its questions, mapped to the concerns they influence. You see exactly which communities and creators shape the answers your customers get.
For every page of yours that is already visible, the related questions it should also answer to become visible for them. It is usually the fastest growth available, because the page has already earned trust.
Which of your videos supports which page, which pages need a video and which videos need a page, so every viewer has somewhere to go next and every page is backed by video where video wins.
Built by hand, backed by 20 years in search
Software collects the questions and measures the answers at a scale no person could. Everything that needs judgement I do by hand.
I decide which questions belong to your market and which do not, from another country's rules to a competitor's brand name, so the map describes your customers and nobody else's.
I group questions by what customers are really worried about and put each conversation in the order a real person would ask it, ending on the decision that matters.
Twenty years working in SEO and search tell me which gaps are worth closing first, which sources are worth your time and which results are noise.
The plan you receive is written by me, for your business, not generated by a tool. It is the difference between a spreadsheet of data and a map you can act on.
What you get
Every question your customers ask, screened for your market, grouped by concern, ordered into conversations and labelled with its buyer stage, with an expanded prompt for each concern.
For every question, who appears in Google organic results, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and YouTube, weighted by how often people ask it, plus the Reddit threads behind the answers.
Which of your pages are visible, for which questions, and what each one needs to add to become visible for the related questions around it.
Which competitors win each concern and each buyer stage, which of their pages and videos are cited, and where they have left gaps.
A prompt set for each product or service, the questions customers ask about it and where AI assistants answer without mentioning you.
Every YouTube channel and video, and every subreddit, that appears for your industry's questions, mapped to the concerns they influence.
A prioritised list of pages to improve, pages to create, videos to make and sources to work with, ordered by the demand behind each question.
Every insight a conversation map gives you
38 insights across your market, your visibility, the sources that shape AI answers, your website, your YouTube channel, your competitors and your products.
About your market
- Every concern your customers have, and how many questions sit behind each one
- Which buyer stage each concern belongs to, from first learning to living with the product
- What people worry about most before they buy
- The words customers really use, compared with the words your industry uses
- Common misconceptions that your content could correct
- The questions that come up just before a decision, and the alternatives people weigh at that moment
- Where conversations drift towards an alternative product or a competitor category
- Questions about rules, funding, eligibility and safety that customers need answered before they act
- Which questions are specific to your country, and which ones the internet answers with another country's rules
About your visibility
- Your share of visibility across seven channels, weighted by how often each question is asked
- The exact point in each conversation where you drop out
- The concerns where you are invisible, and the ones where you lead
- The difference between ranking in Google and being cited by AI assistants for the same question
- Which AI assistant recommends you and which recommends someone else
- Which questions have no strong answer anywhere, so the first good page can win them
About the sources that shape the answers
- Every subreddit that mentions your industry, and the concerns its threads influence
- Every YouTube channel and video that appears for your industry's questions
- The websites, publishers and comparison sites AI assistants cite most for your market
- Which sources matter for which concern, so outreach and partnerships go where they count
- Which sources favour a competitor, and which mention no brand at all
About your website
- For every page that is visible, the related questions it should also answer to become visible for them
- The questions with no matching page on your site, ready to become new page briefs
- Which page should answer each question, so pages stop competing with each other
- The order a page should answer its questions in, taken from the real conversation
- Internal links that follow the conversation from one concern to the next
- FAQ content for each page, in the words customers use
About your YouTube channel
- The map between your YouTube videos and your pages, showing which video supports which page
- Pages that need a video, because video wins their questions
- Videos that need a page, so their audience has somewhere to go next
- The video topics competitors rank for that you have not covered
About your competitors
- Who wins each concern and each buyer stage, in Google and in each AI assistant
- The competitor pages and videos that AI assistants cite, and why they are chosen
- The concerns your competitors have ignored
- Where a competitor is recommended for a question your product answers better
About your products
- The questions customers ask about each product or service
- Where AI assistants describe your product category without naming you
- The comparison questions that put your product side by side with alternatives
- Product questions that are answered with out-of-date or wrong information
What you can do with it
Turn each conversation group into a page brief, with the questions to answer and the order to answer them in.
Use the expanded prompts and conversations to track how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features describe you, and to create the content that gets you cited.
Add the missing questions to pages that are already visible, which is usually the fastest way to grow.
Create pages for the concerns no page on your site covers, starting with the ones people ask about most.
Make the videos the map shows are winning questions, and link each video to the page that continues the conversation.
Know which communities discuss your industry and what they ask, so you can take part in a way that is genuinely helpful.
Use what people worry about as story angles, and target the publishers AI assistants already cite.
Write help content in the order customers think, in their words, for the questions they really ask.
Answer the evidence and decision questions on the product page itself, where the choice is made.
Give your sales team the questions prospects are likely to ask next, and the decision they are working towards.
Prepare answers for the ownership questions customers ask after they buy.
Order email sequences the way real conversations unfold, from first question to decision.
Train your own chatbot on the questions and conversations your customers really have.
Find question-led search terms and landing page angles that keyword tools underreport.
Show leadership one number for visibility across Google and AI assistants, weighted by real demand, and track it over time.
Give writers, video teams and PR agencies a brief built from evidence, not guesswork.
How it works
Map
I build the conversation map for your industry and market from the real questions people ask. I read every question, decide what stays, group them by concern and order each conversation by hand.
Measure
I run every question through Google, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and YouTube, and record who appears, including the Reddit threads behind the answers.
Diagnose
I review the results against your website, your YouTube channel, your competitors and your products, page by page and concern by concern, using 20 years of search experience to separate what matters from the noise.
Plan
You get a prioritised plan, written by me rather than generated by a tool: pages to improve, pages to create, videos to make and sources to work with, ordered by the demand behind each question.
See a conversation map
Twelve complete industry maps are published on this site. Each shows the questions, concerns and conversations for one UK market. Read how conversation mapping works or open an example.
Questions
How long does a conversation map take?
A map for one industry and market takes a few days, depending on how wide the industry is and how many products and competitors are included.
Which industries does it work for?
Any industry where customers research before they buy. It works best for considered purchases such as finance, insurance, health, home improvement, B2B services and high-value products, where people ask many questions first.
Do you need access to my website or analytics?
No. Everything is built from public data: the questions people ask, the search results and AI answers they get, and the pages, videos and threads those answers draw on. Access to Search Console can add detail, but it is not required.
How is this different from an AI visibility tool?
AI visibility tools track prompts you give them. A conversation map decides which prompts matter in the first place, from what real customers ask, and connects the results back to your pages, videos and products with a plan for what to change.
Can I see an example?
Yes. There are twelve complete industry conversation maps on this site, from funeral plans to walk-in baths. They show the map itself. Your version adds the visibility, website, competitor, product, YouTube and Reddit analysis for your business.
How often should a map be updated?
Every six to twelve months, or sooner if your market changes. Rerunning the visibility measurement more often shows whether the changes you make are working.
Which markets do you cover?
The examples are for the UK, but a conversation map can be built for any country and language where the search data is available.
What does it cost?
Conversation maps have a guide price of £600 to £900, depending on the scale and complexity of your industry, products and competitors. Maps start at £600. It is priced to be an easy decision, a fraction of a typical agency audit, for work you can act on straight away. Request a custom proposal with a short description of your business and I will confirm the exact price.
Get a conversation map for your business
Tell me your industry, website and main competitors, and I will send a custom proposal for a conversation map covering your market, your site, your competitors, your products, YouTube and Reddit.
£600 to £900 guide price, depending on scale and complexity. Maps start at £600.
Request a custom proposal