Ranking is becoming an illusion.
The future of visibility is semantic. Especially for journalism.
Google no longer thinks in headlines. It thinks in conversations.
Questions do not stand alone anymore. They emerge from context. And AI connects them.
This is what Query Fan-Out means.
Google’s AI breaks every search into a web of follow-up questions.
Your article will not show up unless it fits that structure.
Reach is no longer enough.
Visibility now depends on structure.
What matters is semantic design.
Journalism now requires ontology. Urgency alone no longer gets you seen.
You have to model topics clearly.
You need to define relationships between entities.
You must anticipate questions instead of reacting to them.
What to consider:
❍ Publishing along semantic nodes instead of chasing news cycles
❍ Marking expertise using structured data
❍ Writing for AI with clarity, context awareness, and referencability
❍ Being cited in answers instead of only clicked in search
Andrea Volpini has built a simulator that reflects how AI thinks in follow-up queries. Read his full article. It’s full of insights and practical nuggets for editorial strategy.