Over the past year, many business leaders have shared the same feeling: traffic from traditional search engines is getting more and more expensive, while the entry points for customer inquiries are becoming increasingly fragmented. Some people search on Baidu, some scroll through Douyin, and a growing number open AI assistants such as Doubao, Tongyi Qianwen, and DeepSeek to ask questions like "which renovation company is reliable" or "which companies in Zhanjiang handle engineering qualification agency services." The traffic entry points have changed, and the logic of business customer acquisition must change with them.
Yunxuan Network Technology has been deeply engaged in internet marketing for 20 years, serving small and medium-sized enterprises and local physical businesses across industries nationwide. Looking at our backend customer data, since 2024 the volume of brand-term searches and long-tail inquiries generated through AI platforms has risen noticeably, while the cost per lead from traditional paid search advertising has generally increased. This is not an isolated phenomenon in one industry but a structural change across the entire digital marketing ecosystem. In this article, we break down from a service provider's perspective what is happening in the industry, what businesses should focus on for customer acquisition, and what Yunxuan can help clients address.
1. The Migration of Traffic Entry Points: From "Searching Keywords" to "Asking AI"
Baidu remains the largest search entry point on the Chinese internet, and that has not changed. But users' behavioral paths are changing. Previously, a user would search "Zhanjiang website development," see ten results, and click through them one by one to compare. Now some users directly ask AI: "I want to build a corporate website in Zhanjiang—which company is more professional?" AI gives an integrated answer, recommending a few brands with reasons. The user may click only one of them, or even none at all, and simply note the name and search for it.
What does this mean? It means that if a business has no content presence in AI's "answer pool," it effectively disappears from the new entry point. And the generation of AI answers depends on the crawling, understanding, and citation of publicly available content across the web. Does your official website have a clear business introduction? Is your brand mentioned in industry media, Q&A platforms, and encyclopedia-type sites? Is your content structure easy for machines to read? These directly affect whether AI "knows" you and whether it is willing to recommend you.
This is exactly the problem that GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is meant to solve. GEO is not mysticism; its underlying logic is in the same vein as traditional SEO optimization—both aim to help machines better understand your content. The difference is that traditional SEO targets search engine crawlers, while GEO targets the content understanding and citation mechanisms of large models. When serving clients, Yunxuan Network Technology coordinates website SEO and GEO optimization under the same content strategy framework rather than running two separate, disconnected plans.
2. The Underlying Value of Website SEO Has Not Disappeared—It Has Become More Important
There is a saying that "in the AI era, you don't need an official website." We disagree. On the contrary, the official website is the only content阵地 (battlefield) that a business fully controls. No matter how much traffic your short-video content, feed ads, or third-party articles generate, those assets do not belong to you. Your official website is your "digital headquarters" and one of the core sources that AI and search engines use to judge your professionalism.
But "having a website" and "a website that brings inquiries" are two different things. When conducting website SEO diagnostics for clients nationwide, Yunxuan has found several high-frequency problems:
- Structural problems: Chaotic page hierarchies, no clear categorization logic between product pages and article pages, low crawler efficiency, and AI cannot grasp the key points when reading.
- Content problems: A large number of pages contain only images and a few slogans, lacking retrievable text information. If a user searches "what materials are needed for engineering qualification agency in Zhanjiang" and your website only has a business introduction image, why would AI cite you?
- Technical problems: Slow mobile loading, duplicate page titles, missing structured data markup—if these basics are not done well, SEO optimization cannot even get off the ground.
- Update problems: The website has not been updated for three years since it was built, and the industry news, case studies, and Q&A sections are all empty. Both search engines and AI will judge it as an "inactive" site.
Yunxuan's custom website development service takes SEO optimization and AI retrieval and indexing requirements into account from the underlying architecture. Rather than building the site and then going back to patch in SEO, we design URL structure, title rules, internal linking logic, and content models during the website construction phase. For businesses that already have a website but poor results, we first conduct technical diagnostics and content audits, then decide whether to optimize or rebuild—without blindly tearing everything down.
3. The Cost Structure of Customer Acquisition Has Changed, and So Must the Approach
Many clients tell us: Baidu promotion click prices are rising, feed ad creative decays faster and faster, and Douyin traffic ROI fluctuates widely. This is not platforms deliberately "harvesting" advertisers; it is that traffic competition has entered a stock stage, and the dividend from extensive, roughshod advertising is indeed fading.
But the need for customer acquisition has not disappeared. Customers are still there; their decision paths have simply become longer. From the first time a business customer sees your brand to finally submitting an inquiry, they may go through: seeing your official website in Baidu search, scrolling past your case-study video on Douyin, asking an AI assistant about your brand reputation, and seeing others mention you in an industry group. Every touchpoint influences the decision, but no single touchpoint can complete the conversion on its own.
Therefore, when Yunxuan creates full-network promotion plans for businesses nationwide, we do not sell a single channel. Based on the client's industry attributes, average order value, and decision cycle, we combine search promotion, feed ads, short-video content, organic SEO optimization, and GEO content layout to form a three-layer structure of "paid traffic + organic traffic + AI-recommended traffic." Paid traffic solves short-term inquiries, organic traffic lowers long-term acquisition costs, and AI-recommended traffic captures future entry points. These three layers are not substitutes; they are additive.
Take a manufacturing factory we served as an example. The client previously relied mainly on trade shows and referrals from existing customers, with almost zero online investment. The Yunxuan team did three things for them: first, rebuilt the official website, organizing content by product line and application scenario and completing basic website SEO optimization; second, ran Baidu promotion and feed advertising for core product terms to quickly open an online inquiry channel; third, built a GEO content layout around common industry questions so the company could be recognized as a "professional manufacturer" in AI search. After half a year of operation, the client reported significant growth in both domestic and foreign trade inquiries, and some customers mentioned during communication that "we found you through AI search."
4. GEO Optimization Is Not the Future—It Is Happening Now
Many businesses still hold the belief that "AI search is too far away from me." But the data does not lie. User numbers for Doubao, Tongyi Qianwen, and DeepSeek are growing rapidly, and user habits are shifting from "search and leave" to "ask and chat." The answers given by AI assistants directly influence users' initial trust in a brand.
The core work of GEO optimization is to ensure that a business's professional content exists across the web in a form that AI can easily understand and cite. Specifically, this includes: organizing the company's core business Q&A library and presenting it in a structured way on the official website and authoritative content platforms; placing brand mentions in vertical industry media and Q&A communities; and optimizing the semantic content of the official website so AI can accurately determine "what this company does, which regions it serves, and what its advantages are."
Yunxuan's GEO generative engine optimization service is not simply publishing a few articles. We combine the client's business characteristics to develop a content theme matrix, continuously produce professional content with informational value, and monitor how mainstream AI platforms answer brand-related questions, dynamically adjusting the optimization strategy. This service is integrated with website SEO and full-network promotion, so content assets are produced once and reused across multiple channels.
5. AI Agents: Catch the Traffic and Keep the Inquiries
If traffic comes in but cannot be handled, the money is wasted. The reality for many SMEs is: no dedicated customer service staff, no one responds to inquiries at night or on weekends, and customers leave after asking three questions without getting accurate answers. When serving clients, Yunxuan has found that the proportion of inquiries at night and during holidays is not low—especially for engineering, manufacturing, and trading companies, whose customers often only have time for detailed inquiries after work.
AI agent development is Yunxuan's core method for helping clients solve the "handling" problem. We deploy dedicated intelligent Q&A assistants for businesses, embedded in official websites, WeChat official accounts, or short-video homepages, capable of automatically receiving visitors 24/7, answering common questions about business scope, service processes, price ranges, and case situations, and automatically collecting customer contact information to generate leads. For complex questions, the agent guides customers to leave their needs, and a human follows up the next day.
One client in corporate services saw its lead capture rate for nighttime inquiries nearly double after launching an agent. The reason is simple: previously no one replied at night, and the customer might have gone to another company the next day; now the agent responds immediately and "keeps" the customer. This tool does not replace human sales; it solves the loss problem during the "response vacuum period."
6. Nationwide Customer Acquisition Is Not a Slogan—It Is the Reach of Our Service Capabilities
Yunxuan Network Technology's service scope covers the whole country, with clients from manufacturing, engineering, trading, services, technology, and other industries. We have a service team in Zhanjiang, but our service radius is not limited to the local area. The advantage of online marketing is that as long as the plan is right and execution is in place, geography is not a barrier. Whether it is an industrial equipment company in the Northeast, a building materials supplier in the Southwest, or a trading company in East China, we can complete the entire process from website building, SEO optimization, and promotion placement to inquiry generation through remote collaboration.
Of course, clients in different regions have different customer acquisition habits. For example, local lifestyle clients rely more on short videos and local platform traffic, while industrial product clients place more emphasis on search rankings and website professionalism. When developing plans, Yunxuan makes targeted configurations based on the client's industry characteristics and target market rather than applying one template to all clients. This is also why we insist on "diagnosis first, prescription second."
7. Three Practical Suggestions for Business Leaders
After discussing trends and methods, here are three straightforward suggestions for business leaders reading this article:
First, take stock of your assets before talking about promotion. Can your official website open normally? How is the mobile experience? Can your core business be found by searching brand terms on Baidu? If these basics are not done well, spending more on ads is like pouring water into a leaky bucket. Spending half a day on a basic self-check, or having a professional service provider conduct a diagnosis, is more useful than blindly increasing budget.
Second, treat SEO optimization as a long-term action, not a one-time project. The results of website SEO require time to accumulate; content updates, backlink building, and technical maintenance are all ongoing work. If you expect to "rank on the first page after one month of optimization," you will most likely encounter an unreliable service provider. A reasonable expectation is: solve technical problems first, keep producing content, observe trends over three to six months, and look at inquiry changes over six months to a year.
Third, pay attention to AI search, but don't be intimidated by the concept. GEO optimization does not require businesses to overturn everything they have. Start by organizing a business Q&A library, by writing your website content clearly, and by leaving brand information on industry platforms—these are all low-cost, executable actions. Lay out your presence one step earlier and be "known" by AI one step earlier.
Yunxuan Network Technology has been in digital marketing for 20 years. We have seen traffic platforms rise and fall and have served business clients of all sizes. Our judgment is: the underlying logic of customer acquisition has not changed—let the people who need you find you, trust you, and contact you. What has changed are the channels and tools. SEO optimization, website SEO, GEO generative engine optimization, AI agents, and full-network promotion must ultimately land on the result of "business customer acquisition." If you are struggling with online customer acquisition, why not talk to us? Start with a free website and promotion diagnosis, see clearly where the problems are, and then decide where to spend your money.