Search is changing quickly, and so is the way your brand appears online. Generative AI tools such as Google’s AI Mode, ChatGPT and other large language models now answer questions directly. That means people may see an AI summary instead of clicking through to your website. A YouGov poll reported that half of young people are influenced by what these tools say when making purchase decisions. If your brand isn’t mentioned in those answers, you risk missing out on awareness and sales.

Table of Contents

• Why generative search matters for PR
• Strategies to stay visible
• Final thoughts
• FAQs

Why generative search matters for PR

Generative search doesn’t just answer questions—it shapes perception. AI tools summarise information from across the web and present it as fact. Research shows that 75 % of news sites block at least one AI crawler, and some publishers block nearly all of them. If your PR campaign only targets sites that block AI bots, your coverage will never reach generative search results.

AI assistants also favour fresh content. A recent study found that URLs cited by AI assistants are around one year newer than those ranking in classic search results. That means outdated press releases are less likely to be used in AI responses.

Strategies to stay visible

• Target accessible publications – Prioritise PR opportunities on sites that allow AI crawlers. National papers and trusted blogs that are open to AI bots are more likely to feed your brand into generative answers.
• Focus on brand mentions – Make sure your company name appears early and often in press coverage. Unlike SEO, generative optimisation relies on clear brand mentions rather than specific keywords.
• Keep your news fresh – Update press releases and thought‑leadership pieces regularly. Fresh content is more attractive to AI engines than stale posts.
• Use structured content – Bullet points, question‑and‑answer sections and concise summaries make it easy for AI tools to extract your message.
• Monitor sentiment – Track how your brand is being described in AI responses and adjust your messaging where necessary.

Final thoughts

Public relations now extends beyond traditional media and search rankings. To succeed in the age of generative search you need to think about how AI assistants find and summarise your news. By choosing AI‑friendly outlets, emphasising your brand and keeping content up to date, you can ensure your stories appear in the answers your audience sees. If you need help adapting your digital PR strategy, get in touch.

Have you needed to apply styling to only touch devices, or only non-touch devices? Well, great news CSS4’s @media (hover: [value]) can come to the rescue in a multitude of ways.

What is CSS4?

For some time we’ve been working with CSS3, which I think is pretty epic, especially when compared to what came before. And CSS4 goes much further, offering super useful functionality to enhance how we interact with webpages. But, for now, we’re only focusing on the media query above, that, for me, is a breath of fresh air, as it vastly simplifies scenarios where I only want to target devices that have specific ways of interacting with the. e.g a touch-only device.

Use-cases for the hover media query

Here are two use-cases to whet the appetite, hopefully, they’ll show the power and flexibility of this awesome new media query?!

Use Case 1: increase spacing between tap targets on touch devices

I’ve had this one a few times, where the links are considered too close, thus reporting accessibility issues. The solution is to give each link (tap target) more spacing on touch devices. In this use case, I’m also using the media query pointer to detect the type of pointer (none|coarse|fine) – a perfect use-case for the hover media query:

@media (hover: none) and (pointer: coarse) {
  .nav-link {
    margin: $nav-link-margin--touch-only;
  }
}

Use Case 2: hover effects for devices with hover capability

I was recently building a website where the creative direction required a simple animation that zoomed in on images when hovered over. This featured is intended only for devices that support hover (i.e. mouseover, etc). Here’s a code snippet that increases the scale of the image element when its parent is in a hovered state :

@media (hover: hover) {
  .image-wrap {
    overflow: hidden;

    > img {
      transform: scale(1);
      transition: 0.25s ease-in transform;
    }

    &:hover > img {
      transform: scale(1.15);
      transition: 2.5s ease-out transform;
    }
  }
}

As I’ve shown in the two use cases, this is a pretty useful media query and one I will be making a lot of use of. I’m also sure it can be used in conjunction with nest media queries? There is, however, one caveat; there is no support for Internet Explorer and Opera Mobile. But I no longer support IE, unless the client explicitly needs it and frankly cannot support the insanely restrictive Opera Mobile browser (unless the client needs it).

So, there it is, the awesome hover media query in CSS4. Enjoy using it!

Do you have uses for hover media query?

If you’ve got another use-case for this query, or you’d like help implementing it on your sites’ then please get in touch as we’d love to help make use of this great CSS feature.

If you value your website’s search engine positioning then mobile-friendly websites are no longer a nice-to-have.