Semantic SEO and Other AI-Driven Changes to Marketing Swiss Firms Must Consider

Just like most, local Swiss businesses relied on well-regarded digital marketing strategies to maintain visibility online. Tactics like keyword-focused search engine optimisation, regular blog updates, and large-scale backlinking once delivered predictable results. But now, with search giants like Google making AI foundational to its technology, marketers are also being forced to abandon their once closely held secrets.

Take, for example, SEO.

Instead of indexing content based purely on keywords, search engines now assess meaning, credibility, and how well a piece of content fits into a broader context. “That shift has left many SEO experts scrambling because what was once their bread and butter no longer works,” observed OMN, a Swiss-based marketing agency, which saw the signs early and promptly adopted AI into its service suite.

“If you’re a marketer or doing marketing for your business, you need to integrate AI in some way, otherwise you’ll be ignored by the platforms you’re courting for attention,” they added.

Rethinking Content Strategy

To win the SEO game, agencies such as OMN counsel businesses to rethink their content strategies.

“Success no longer comes from volume or frequency; it comes from clarity, coherence, and thematic depth,” said OMN’s spokesperson, adding that adapting to an AI-first environment means shifting from creating isolated pieces of content to building structured ecosystems. “Instead of single blog posts, what you need to do is produce collections of related articles that explore a subject comprehensively.”

This approach also helps search systems interpret a brand’s expertise in a specific domain. “A company that demonstrates depth on a single topic is now more likely to rank than one that superficially covers many,” they added.

Machine-Readable Content

Martec companies, including OMN, have observed that businesses globally are reworking how their websites are structured.

Adapting to AI crawlers involves improving site navigation, clarifying topic hierarchies, and using structured data that search engines can read easily. “One change that’s a bit hard to swallow is that we’re no longer writing exclusively for people; the focus now is on making information palatable to the AI that’s scanning your site,” OMN’s spokesperson said.

Building Better Backlinks

Backlinking today has also undergone a major shift and no longer involves just placing links on random sites that would accept them.

“Rather than accumulating links from a broad range of websites, the emphasis is now on securing links from sources that are topically and geographically aligned,” OMN’s representative explained. For example, they said, a Swiss architecture firm will gain more credibility from a feature in a respected European design journal than from a generic international directory.

“Topical relevance and regional context are now key indicators of trust. Even if your backlink figures are low, you’re still ahead if they are hosted by relevant platforms or publications.”

AI-First Agencies

Despite the availability of these strategies, execution may remain a challenge for many businesses, either because they lack the internal capacity to adapt or are unsure where to start.

OMN’s advice is to work with tech-forward agencies that are following Google’s example and are making AI foundational to their approaches and workflows. “We’re not telling you to drop people for machines, but to get people who know how to use the machines to get you ahead,” its spokesperson clarified.