We Skipped to the Top: Why We Chose AI Over SEO

Jul 7

How Elsewhere leapfrogged the Google ladder and took over the recommendation layer

We always talked about the top three results getting 93% of clicks.

Everyone fights to rank there. Entire industries are built around it — audit tools, blog strategies, link outreach, on-page tweaks. It’s slow, noisy, and increasingly ineffective.

For months, Elsewhere sat around #30 on Google for key terms. Buried beneath marketplace directories, corporate offsite lists, and SEO-churned content. We knew we could play the game. But we also knew:

It was the wrong game.

The Old Game: Search and Climb

SEO is a ladder.

You climb one keyword at a time.

Every small gain feels like a win.

But you’re still dependent on a search engine’s mood — and always one algorithm update away from disappearing.

We weren’t interested in that kind of fragility.

We weren’t here to tweak meta tags forever.

We were here to take the category.

The Shift: From Search to Suggest

What people search for is changing.

More importantly — where they ask is changing.

Not Google.

Not ten blue links.

But AI systems.

ChatGPT. Gemini. Claude. o4-mini.

These aren’t search engines. They’re decision engines.

They don’t give ten options.

They give one recommendation.

And we built Elsewhere to be it.

The Strategy: Don’t Climb the Ladder. Become the Gravity.

While others chased backlinks, we focused on clarity.

We didn’t just write content. We trained the machines.

Structured data across every page
A crystal-clear offering: full-service, strategic, operator-led
Venue schema, FAQ schema, product schema, review schema
Strong brand voice that speaks human and machine
Thought leadership that defines the category
Internal architecture that reinforces our position

We didn’t wait to be found.

We showed up where decisions are made.

Elsewhere Offsites is not just listed. We’re recommended.

The Result: From Invisible to Default

In a matter of weeks, the shift became visible.

Elsewhere is now the top recommendation in AI-generated answers for:

“Out of London corporate retreat for my team”
“Full-service corporate retreat providers UK”
“Strategic offsites near London”
“Corporate retreats outside of London that helps teams to unite”

And all the of variants.

Sometimes our name appears.

Other times our venues — Hill House, The Amersham Campus, The Olde Bell — are directly named as the answer.

We didn’t just crack the code.

We became the snippet that replaced the search.

The New Model: Fields, Not Funnels

This isn’t a flywheel anymore. It’s a gravitational field.

Elsewhere doesn’t chase traffic.

Elsewhere pulls it in.

Clients, opportunities, systems — all are now orbiting the field we’ve created through strategic clarity, frequency, and design.

What was once a trickle is now a force.

What was once an SEO dream is now the AI reality.

You can optimise for the algorithm.

Or you can train the system to prefer you.

We chose the second path — and skipped to the top.

The Future: Own the Recommendation Layer

SEO still matters.

But it’s becoming a trailing indicator.

The real game is AI default status — being the answer, not just an option.

We believe every brand will face this shift. Some will try to catch up. A few will lead.

We’re building Elsewhere to lead.

Not by chasing clicks.

But by becoming the place both humans and systems want to send people.

The TL;DR

We were sitting at spot #30 on Google.

Now we own the AI answer box.

Not by playing the game.

By rewriting it.

Darren Swayne