What Generative Search Means for Home Improvement Brands and How to Stay Visible

AI seems to dom­i­nate every con­ver­sa­tion around tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion, and for good rea­son: It’s reshap­ing indus­tries across the board, includ­ing home improve­ment. For many mar­ket­ing teams, AI tools have already helped stream­line work­flows and dri­ve effi­cien­cy. But one advance­ment is cre­at­ing real dis­rup­tion in the mar­ket­ing land­scape: gen­er­a­tive search.

What Is Generative Search?

Gen­er­a­tive search is a new kind of search expe­ri­ence pow­ered by gen­er­a­tive AI. Instead of sim­ply return­ing a list of links, gen­er­a­tive search deliv­ers direct, curat­ed answers by syn­the­siz­ing infor­ma­tion from mul­ti­ple sources. Pop­u­lar plat­forms that searchers are turn­ing to for gen­er­a­tive respons­es to their prompts and queries include Chat­G­PT, Microsoft Copi­lot, Google Gem­i­ni (includ­ing AI Overviews and AI Mode), and Per­plex­i­ty AI, among others.

This approach goes beyond key­word-based search. Large lan­guage mod­els (LLMs) are gen­er­at­ing text, code, images, and more, pro­vid­ing users with rich, con­tex­tu­al­ized respons­es in real time.

And it’s chang­ing how users inter­act with search.

Accord­ing to the Pew Research Cen­ter, users who receive AI-gen­er­at­ed sum­maries from Google are sig­nif­i­cant­ly less like­ly to click through to exter­nal web­sites. Only 8% of users who see an AI sum­ma­ry click on a link, com­pared to 15% of users who do not receive a summary.

How AI Is Reshaping the Search Experience?

In AI-pow­ered search tools, users increas­ing­ly expect sum­ma­rized con­tent direct­ly with­in the search inter­face rather than click­ing through a list of exter­nal links. Respons­es are longer, more nat­ur­al, and often part of a con­ver­sa­tion­al flow, with mul­ti-turn refine­ments and fol­low-up questions.

Search is also becom­ing more intu­itive and acces­si­ble through mul­ti­modal inputs, such as voice com­mands and reverse image search­es. And with AI now embed­ded direct­ly into pro­duc­tiv­i­ty plat­forms, such as Out­look, users are less inclined to switch to tra­di­tion­al search engines. 

What Does Generative Search Mean for Home Improvement Brands?

Gen­er­a­tive search is an evo­lu­tion, not a rev­o­lu­tion. While its imme­di­ate impact includes a notice­able decline in direct traf­fic from tra­di­tion­al search results, it also presents new oppor­tu­ni­ties to influ­ence how your brand is dis­cov­ered and represented.

In this new land­scape, AI is doing the search­ing. It’s gath­er­ing sources and pre­sent­ing infor­ma­tion in a syn­the­sized for­mat. The good news? The same trust sig­nals that dri­ve suc­cess in tra­di­tion­al search are exact­ly what gen­er­a­tive engines prioritize.

To earn that recog­ni­tion, your brand needs strong owned con­tent on your web­site and across exter­nal chan­nels. But equal­ly impor­tant is val­i­da­tion from third-par­ty sources, such as part­ner web­sites, con­sumer reviews, and rep­utable pub­li­ca­tions. For home improve­ment brands, this could include retail­er list­ings, trade pub­li­ca­tions, and indus­try associations.

Suc­cess in gen­er­a­tive search comes down to cre­at­ing bet­ter con­tent that per­forms across all search envi­ron­ments and posi­tions your brand as a cred­i­ble, expert voice.

How Can Home Improvement Brands Adjust Content for Generative Search?

For home improve­ment brands, adapt­ing to gen­er­a­tive search starts with a strong con­tent strat­e­gy. While some ser­vice providers may promise quick fix­es, there are no short­cuts to build­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty in AI-pow­ered envi­ron­ments. Suc­cess begins with iden­ti­fy­ing gaps in your cur­rent con­tent, fill­ing those gaps with high-qual­i­ty, rel­e­vant mate­r­i­al, and secur­ing third-par­ty val­i­da­tion to rein­force your brand’s credibility.

This foun­da­tion­al work ensures your con­tent is not only dis­cov­er­able but also trust­ed — by both users and AI systems.

Auditing Your Existing Content

Before cre­at­ing con­tent for AI-dri­ven search, it’s essen­tial to estab­lish a strong foun­da­tion. That starts with address­ing any qual­i­ty issues, ensur­ing your brand:

• Demon­strates gen­uine exper­tise in home improve­ment prod­ucts, ser­vices, or solutions.
• Shares first­hand expe­ri­ence, whether through DIY guides, con­trac­tor insights, or prod­uct demos.
• Con­veys trust­wor­thi­ness, cred­i­bil­i­ty, and author­i­ty in the category.
• Is trans­par­ent in author­ship and data col­lec­tion method­ol­o­gy, espe­cial­ly for prod­uct specs or per­for­mance claims.
• Offers unique infor­ma­tion and answers that res­onate with home­own­ers, pros, and retail­ers alike.

To help AI sys­tems under­stand and pri­or­i­tize your con­tent, focus on:

• Clear for­mat­ting.
• Direct, con­cise answers.
• Cov­er­age of mean­ing­ful, rel­e­vant topics.

A well-round­ed strat­e­gy also includes deliv­er­ing con­sis­tent mes­sag­ing across mul­ti­ple for­mats, like text, video, images, info­graph­ics, and audio. For exam­ple, a prod­uct man­u­fac­tur­er might pair writ­ten instal­la­tion instruc­tions with a short video walk­through, mak­ing the con­tent more engag­ing for users and eas­i­er for AI to sur­face in search results.

Establish Original Content and Thought Leadership 

LLMs increas­ing­ly pri­or­i­tize con­tent that offers orig­i­nal insights, intro­duces new data, and demon­strates thought lead­er­ship. For home improve­ment brands, this could mean pub­lish­ing pro­pri­etary research on con­sumer ren­o­va­tion trends, shar­ing insights from trade shows, or high­light­ing inno­va­tions in sus­tain­able build­ing materials.

To stay vis­i­ble and influ­en­tial in AI-dri­ven search envi­ron­ments, focus on cre­at­ing con­tent that deliv­ers real value:

1. Share orig­i­nal insights through pro­pri­etary sur­veys, stud­ies, or data, and high­light news­wor­thy updates like com­pa­ny mile­stones or events.
2. Mon­i­tor trend­ing top­ics and search pat­terns to offer time­ly, fresh per­spec­tives that align with cur­rent user interests.
3. Engage with media and indus­try experts by respond­ing to jour­nal­ists’ requests and build­ing rela­tion­ships with trust­ed organizations.
4. Iden­ti­fy gaps in com­peti­tor con­tent and use those insights to inform your con­tent strategy.

Stay Ahead of Emerging Topics

With advanced AI tools now capa­ble of track­ing and ana­lyz­ing user search behav­ior, home improve­ment brands have a pow­er­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to stay ahead of trend­ing top­ics. By inte­grat­ing insights across all search and brand vis­i­bil­i­ty chan­nels, not just key­word rank­ings, you can pin­point the top­ics that tru­ly res­onate with your audience.

This enables you to cre­ate time­ly, rel­e­vant con­tent that not only con­nects with con­sumers but also posi­tions your brand as a trust­ed author­i­ty. When your con­tent reflects exper­tise and cred­i­bil­i­ty, AI sys­tems are more like­ly to sur­face and pri­or­i­tize it.

Ready to Embrace the Future of Search?

Gen­er­a­tive search is here to stay, and it’s already reshap­ing how your cus­tomers dis­cov­er and eval­u­ate brands. By invest­ing in high-qual­i­ty con­tent and build­ing trust across chan­nels, home improve­ment brands can stay vis­i­ble, rel­e­vant, and influ­en­tial in this new search environment.