In-house partners since 2023, this year Unilever Food Solution’s search visibility was on the climb, SERP features were up, impressions up, but click through rate was on the decline. The global search strategy needed to adapt to the new ‘zero-click’ reality of the AI era. 

Refocusing the search strategy to power visibility with performance – keeping the brand discoverable across Google’s rankings and now AI Overviews, while guiding visitors from search to action. The strategy centred on optimising high-intent pages and refining content for both human readers and AI engines.

Our in-house team audit and maintain 49+ local market websites to identify opportunities for stronger visibility, improved user journeys, and better conversion performance. Experiments were launched to make UFS content more AI-readable and discoverable, leading to a sharp rise in citations within AI Overviews. At the same time, high-intent pages were optimised to turn visibility into action. The ‘Where to Buy’ page was refreshed with chef-focused keywords, driving a 265% increase in organic referrals, while the ‘Cook & Save’ page was restructured to simplify the journey and boost engagement, delivering a 33% month-on-month rise in registrations.  

UFS achieved a 950% increase in AI Overview citations and gained over 3,000 new keywords on page one, driving an 18% uplift in overall search visibility. This dual optimisation approach not only safeguarded the brand’s presence amid AI disruption but also positioned it as a trusted source within AI-driven answers. Beyond visibility, the shift toward quality traffic helped deliver measurable commercial impact – product referrals, cart additions, registrations and conversion rates all increased across key markets. In a year where AI disrupted the search status quo, we not only protected organic visibility but turned it into a stronger commercial engine that our original partnership set out to achieve – earning recognition as the leader in Marketing Effectiveness at the Campaign In-house Agency Awards.