NDCS creates a new measure of success for AI search

The National Deaf Children's Society is the UK's leading charity for deaf children and young people. Its Every Moment Counts strategy depends on reaching families, professionals and young people with life-changing information and advice when they need it.

Organic search has an important role in that mission. A parent may need guidance after a diagnosis, a Teacher of the Deaf may be looking for practical resources, or a young person may be navigating a new stage of education or adulthood.

But the way those audiences find information is changing. More research now happens inside AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Gemini before a click occurs. A useful answer can reach someone without producing the visit that traditional reporting would record.

That made traffic and click-through rate incomplete measures of success. Declining clicks could look like declining impact, even when NDCS information was still appearing within the search experience.

NDCS wanted to understand its visibility in AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Gemini alongside traditional search. Website traffic alone could not show whether its information appeared in AI-generated answers, so the charity needed additional measures linked to the topics and life stages it supports.

NDCS needed a way to understand visibility across traditional and AI search, connect measurement to family life stages and show whether it was present with the right information at the right moment.

We began with an AI discovery audit to understand where NDCS appeared in AI search and how that overlapped with the visibility already tracked in Accuranker. NDCS operates within a relatively small peer set, allowing us to build a focused picture of performance across both types of search.

The audit also considered how AI Overview presence had developed over the previous 18 months. This established the context for a measurement model that could distinguish between conventional ranking performance and appearance within generated answers.

Next, we used NDCS's restructured support section to group topics using keyword volumes and linked them to family life stages and when they search for help.

We used empathy mapping and keyword research to develop realistic AI prompts around audience needs.

Finally, we set up Peec.ai prompt tracking alongside Accuranker. The combined data shows where NDCS is visible, where conventional strengths carry into AI answers and where an entire topic or section needs clearer structure, additional coverage or richer media.

NDCS now assesses AI visibility alongside traditional rankings and traffic, linking the measures to its organisational goals. Appearance across relevant prompts can be considered alongside rankings and traffic, with each measure connected to the organisation's strategic goals.

The framework highlights topical strengths and gaps at section level. That gives teams clearer evidence for deciding where to improve sentence structure, fill missing information, add mixed media or rethink how content is organised for both people and AI systems.

NDCS can now review relevant AI visibility alongside traditional search measures and use the findings to guide content priorities against its strategy.