CASE STUDY

A Steady Stream of SEO Wins for a Global Water Treatment Enterprise

We helped a global water treatment enterprise soar on SERPs with a +285% increase in SERP feature positioning YoY.

“We leveraged [Brafton] for their core strengths, SEO copywriting and strategy. They have been very effective. Also, the people in particular are highly pleasant to work with and great partners.”

Content marketing manager at global water treatment company.

THE CHALLENGE

Zero-Click Searches Causing Low SERP Visibility

Google launched its AI Overview SERP feature in May 2024, sending a ripple through ranking strategies that every search-optimizing brand and SEO expert felt. With AI-generated summaries now capturing more attention at the top of the page, traditional organic listings often receive less visibility — even when they rank well. This shift has accelerated the rise of zero-click searches, creating a new normal where brands have to work harder to earn user engagement, not just placement, as fewer searchers scroll beyond AIOs, let alone click through to individual websites.

Since then, there has been a gradual yet necessary shift in SEO strategy toward these new generative SERP features. Combining traditional SEO and new generative engine optimization (GEO) tactics, many SEO-concerned organizations’ SERP goals split the difference between traditional high-position rankings and AI Overview citations.

THE SOLUTION

SEO content audits & assessments.

Search Performance Briefs.

Competitor & EEAT analyses.

Net-new content creation.

Topic Cluster-based keyword research.

Anticipating this new norm for SERPs, Brafton built an ongoing search engine optimization and generative engine optimization strategy for a global water treatment leader. Our approach included:

Performance monitoring to measure changes.
Multi-Phase SERP Features and AIO analyses based on topic clusters.
Editorial implementations to refresh the copy of high-opportunity blog URLs.

THE OUTCOME

Nearly Quadrupled SERP Feature Positioning

+285%

YoY increase in SERP feature positioning.

+286%

YoY increase in People Also Ask features.

+30%

MoM increase in AI Overview citations.

Despite many brands facing traffic challenges at the hands of now-common generative SERP features, Brafton’s generative engine-aware approach to SEO not only slowed traffic drops for our client, but established a strong foothold in AI Overviews, Featured Snippets and People Also Ask SERP features.

Just one year after Google’s AI Overviews took over top SERP spots, our client saw a +285% YoY increase in SERP feature positioning, including a +30% month-over-month increase in AI Overview citations.

Traditional ranking improved as well. On our client’s blog, target keywords increased 9 rankings across Brafton-produced articles for an average (climbing) SERP position of 13.86. 71 tracked keywords saw 1st page ranking increases, 34 of which obtained new AI Overview citations.

Earning a top spot ahead of competitors on challenging-to-win SERP features signifies greater brand authority and customer-facing expertise, positioning our client as a leader in their industry.

Looking ahead, we plan to continue building on the success of the SERP features we’ve seen so far. That means expanding our AI Overview optimization efforts through new target keywords for additional service verticals to increase our clients’ growing foothold.

Are zero-click searches taking the spotlight away from your brand? Brafton can help bring you back to the top through generative search features instead of being buried below them.

Ask About AI Search Optimization