Guam businesses urged to optimize for A.I. search engines

BY DANIEL M. PEREZ
Journal Staff



Guam businesses must adapt to the rapid shift toward artificial intelligence-driven search engines to maintain visibility among prospective visitors, local tourism stakeholders were told during the Guam Visitors Bureau quarterly membership meeting held on Sept. 9, at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa.

Keynote speaker Rachel Cano-Krause, search engine optimization analyst at Granicus Destinations, addressed attendees, highlighting how AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, are transforming travel discovery.

"Ranking on Google is not enough anymore," Cano-Krause said, adding that travelers now expect immediate, direct answers rather than manually browsing through multiple websites.

According to Cano-Krause, AI referral traffic to travel sites surged by more than 300% year-over-year in 2025. Furthermore, zero-click searches, where users receive complete answers directly from AI without clicking through to external web pages, now account for more than 50% of online search activity. Rather than searching traditional keywords such as "Guam restaurants," modern travelers are asking detailed, conversational questions, including requests for family-friendly rainy-day activities, specific cocktail bars near Tumon, or beachfront resorts.

Cano-Krause emphasized that individual business websites alone are often insufficient to capture AI search traffic, citing the superior domain authority and trust metrics of destination marketing organization portals. She shared that visitguam.com attracted nearly 1 million users over the past year, with business listing pages receiving hundreds of thousands of views and driving tens of thousands of direct referral clicks.

"A.I. relies on authority to really determine what answers are real," Cano-Krause said, urging local businesses to maintain robust and detailed profiles on the bureau's platform.

To maximize visibility without incurring search engine penalties, Cano-Krause advised business owners against copying and pasting text directly from their primary websites onto public directory listings. Because search engines punish duplicate content across multiple web pages, she recommended utilizing AI tools to rephrase descriptions while ensuring comprehensive details, such as operating hours, accessibility features, specific target age ranges, and updated imagery, are included. mbj