What is conversational search?

By the Variask team · Updated

Definition

Conversational search is searching by asking questions in natural language and following up, as in a chat, instead of typing short keywords.

What changes for brands

  • Queries are longer and include context, such as budget, team size or location.
  • Follow ups narrow the shortlist; a brand can drop out on the second question.
  • The assistant remembers earlier context within the conversation.

What it means for brands

  • Write content that answers specific situations, not just generic category terms.
  • Track prompts as full questions with context.

Questions

Conversational search:
common questions

Voice assistants were an early form of it. Today most conversational search happens in AI chat apps.

Related terms

Keep exploring

Engines and surfaces

Answer engine

An answer engine is a search tool that replies with a direct, written answer instead of a list of links. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Google AI Overviews all work as answer engines.

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Measurement

Prompt tracking

Prompt tracking is regularly asking AI assistants a fixed set of questions and recording how they answer, to measure your brand's visibility, position and sentiment over time.

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How AI search works

Semantic search

Semantic search is search that understands the meaning and intent behind a query, not only its exact words, so it can return results that answer the question even when they use different wording.

Read
Full glossary