WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.279 So what if the strategies you've used for, I 00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:04.679 don't know, 20 years to get seen online suddenly 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:06.960 made you invisible? And I'm not talking about 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:09.400 a small algorithm change here. We've been watching 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:14.359 this staggering statistic, a 527 % increase in 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:17.379 sessions referred by AI. That's not a new channel. 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:19.179 It's a whole new reality. So you have to ask 00:00:19.179 --> 00:00:22.239 yourself, are you still playing by the old rules? 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:25.440 Or are you ready for the new game? Welcome to 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:27.399 the Deep Dive. Yeah. And that is exactly what 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:29.859 we're digging into today. The new rules of visibility 00:00:29.859 --> 00:00:34.619 for 2026 in this new age of generative AI. Yeah. 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:37.100 And the shift is, I mean, it's huge. Things like 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:40.840 chat GPT, Google's AI overviews, perplexity. 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:43.799 They're not just search filters anymore. They're 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:45.719 becoming the main way people find things. Right. 00:00:45.780 --> 00:00:47.579 They're not just sending you traffic. They summarize, 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:49.939 they synthesize the information. And a lot of 00:00:49.939 --> 00:00:51.799 the time, the journey ends right there inside 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:53.979 the app. So our mission today is to unpack that. 00:00:54.060 --> 00:00:55.600 We're going to break down five massive trends 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:58.299 and a bonus one that are basically replacing 00:00:58.299 --> 00:01:00.880 traditional SEO as we know it. And the main takeaway, 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:03.079 the thing to really hold on to is that success 00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:05.260 isn't about chasing links or keywords anymore. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:10.000 It's about proving brand authority, real verifiable 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.409 expertise. So let's start with that first big 00:01:13.409 --> 00:01:16.489 trend. Okay, so for two decades, it was simple. 00:01:16.609 --> 00:01:18.510 Link building was everything. The more sites 00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:20.310 that linked to you, the better you did. Quantity 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:22.969 was king. That whole area is collapsing. Because 00:01:22.969 --> 00:01:25.730 an AI doesn't see a link as a simple vote of 00:01:25.730 --> 00:01:28.409 confidence. It sees it as a data point that, 00:01:28.450 --> 00:01:32.250 well, that can be easily faked. So the AI isn't 00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:34.840 just like... counting beans. It's making a judgment 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:36.799 call. It's trying to figure out if your brand 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:39.019 is actually trustworthy. Exactly. It's building 00:01:39.019 --> 00:01:41.980 a real -time authority score. And how does it 00:01:41.980 --> 00:01:44.859 do that? What goes into that score? It's based 00:01:44.859 --> 00:01:47.299 on what the LLMs, you know, the large language 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:50.299 models, the AI is generating the text, can verify 00:01:50.299 --> 00:01:52.319 instantly. And they seem to look at three main 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:54.879 things. First is source relevance. I mentioned 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.819 in, say, Forbes or a major industry journal, 00:01:57.959 --> 00:02:00.359 carries so much more weight than 100 links from 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:02.719 random blogs. So the quality of who's mentioning 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:07.000 you is paramount. Totally. Second, it looks at 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.219 domain credibility and age. It checks your history. 00:02:10.379 --> 00:02:12.240 How long have you been around? Are you consistent? 00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:14.599 It's sniffing out the cheaters who just popped 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:17.139 up yesterday. And what's the third factor? This 00:02:17.139 --> 00:02:18.780 one's really interesting. It's brand framing. 00:02:19.619 --> 00:02:22.139 How are you being talked about? Is your name 00:02:22.139 --> 00:02:24.939 just dropped in a list? Or are you framed as 00:02:24.939 --> 00:02:27.699 this solution, the expert? The linguistic context. 00:02:28.139 --> 00:02:31.080 Yep. And the Esmarsh SEO branding report just 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:33.439 confirmed all of this. They found that brand 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:35.580 reputation and those authoritative mentions, 00:02:35.819 --> 00:02:39.259 they're now way more important for AI visibility 00:02:39.259 --> 00:02:42.340 than just the raw number of links. So the big 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:45.939 action item here is to... what shift your budget 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:48.599 move resources away from old school link building 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:51.520 immediately start investing that time and money 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:53.680 in citation building getting mentioned as an 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:56.379 expert in trusted publications on podcasts and 00:02:56.379 --> 00:02:58.539 reports and managing reviews and social media 00:02:58.539 --> 00:03:00.840 sentiment becomes critical too i imagine a bunch 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:02.819 of bad reviews could just tank that trust score 00:03:02.819 --> 00:03:06.000 it's a direct toxic signal to the ai absolutely 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.620 okay so since this judgment is happening in real 00:03:09.620 --> 00:03:13.199 time and it's uh basically a black box with zero 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:17.539 transparency. How does an AI even quantify something 00:03:17.539 --> 00:03:20.819 as fuzzy as trust? It uses semantic analysis 00:03:20.819 --> 00:03:23.960 to cross -reference high authority signals and 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:26.840 sentiment. It builds a live aggregated brand 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:29.400 reputation score. That makes sense. And if trust 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:32.319 is the foundation, then verifying who is creating 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:35.000 that trusted content, that leads right into the 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.199 next shift, doesn't it? It does. Community platforms 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:39.960 like Reddit and Quora, they're losing their power. 00:03:40.539 --> 00:03:43.319 Fast. They used to be SEO gold. They were. But 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:46.159 the problem is manipulation. bots, fake up votes, 00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:48.539 coordinated campaigns, AIs are getting really, 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.020 really good at spotting that noise. The signal 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:53.120 to noise ratio is just too low for them. Exactly. 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:55.879 So instead, the AI is prioritizing verifiable 00:03:55.879 --> 00:03:58.180 expertise. It's looking for published research, 00:03:58.419 --> 00:04:00.379 articles from people with clear, checkable credentials. 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:03.099 We saw that in the Contensify HQ report. It said, 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:05.500 AI is actively preferring content from verified 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:08.379 experts over content that's too full on community 00:04:08.379 --> 00:04:11.400 sites. So the takeaway is pretty clear. Stop 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:14.250 leaning on Reddit for your main strategy. Focus 00:04:14.250 --> 00:04:16.870 on publishing where authority is built in. Industry 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:19.050 magazines, academic sites, that sort of thing. 00:04:19.209 --> 00:04:21.149 And it's not just the content. You have to publicly 00:04:21.149 --> 00:04:23.529 establish your own credentials, your bio, your 00:04:23.529 --> 00:04:26.230 qualifications, so the AI can see not just what 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:28.449 was written, but who wrote it. The author matters 00:04:28.449 --> 00:04:30.449 just as much as the article. So why are those 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:32.649 credentials suddenly so much more important than, 00:04:32.709 --> 00:04:35.629 say, a comment with a thousand upvotes? Because 00:04:35.629 --> 00:04:38.370 AI trusts the verifiable qualifications of the 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:41.649 writer more than anonymous upvotes from a crowd 00:04:41.649 --> 00:04:44.379 that can be easily manipulated. All right. Now, 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:46.839 trend three. This one is, I think this is the 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:49.579 most revolutionary. LLMs are becoming transaction 00:04:49.579 --> 00:04:52.579 endpoints. This changes the entire goal. It used 00:04:52.579 --> 00:04:55.839 to be get the click to my website. Now, the transaction 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:57.720 can happen without the click ever happening. 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:00.000 Right. The big example was that partnership between 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.959 OpenAI and Stripe back in September of 25. It 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:05.980 allows for instant payments right inside of ChatGPT. 00:05:06.220 --> 00:05:08.480 Wow. Okay. So walk me through that. A user asks 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:11.879 for what? The best headphones. Yeah, best noise 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:14.720 -canceling headphones. The AI gives a summary 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:16.839 of the top three options, and you can just buy 00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:19.860 one right there. Payment, shipping, everything. 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:21.819 You never leave the chat. You never even see 00:05:21.819 --> 00:05:24.500 the brand's e -commerce page. Never. It's the 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:26.220 same thing we saw with Instagram and Facebook 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:28.839 building in -app checkout. They want to keep 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.100 you inside their world. And that's the paradox, 00:05:31.300 --> 00:05:35.790 isn't it? We saw that... huge 527 % jump in AI 00:05:35.790 --> 00:05:38.089 -referred traffic. But the real story is that 00:05:38.089 --> 00:05:40.149 the AIs are becoming the destination themselves. 00:05:40.629 --> 00:05:43.810 And that has huge implications. If the AI owns 00:05:43.810 --> 00:05:47.410 the sale, who owns the customer data? It creates 00:05:47.410 --> 00:05:49.790 this whole new layer of commerce. So the action 00:05:49.790 --> 00:05:52.769 item is you have to stop thinking of AI as just 00:05:52.769 --> 00:05:55.110 a referral source. You have to treat it as a 00:05:55.110 --> 00:05:57.649 sales channel, a direct one. You need to optimize 00:05:57.649 --> 00:05:59.829 for those on -platform conversions. Which means 00:05:59.829 --> 00:06:01.529 integrating with their commerce systems, like 00:06:01.529 --> 00:06:03.990 the Stripe one. Yep. And your old analytics won't 00:06:03.990 --> 00:06:06.029 even see these sales, will they? Nope. You need 00:06:06.029 --> 00:06:08.509 entirely new systems for attribution. So if the 00:06:08.509 --> 00:06:11.470 AI handles the wholesale, what happens to traditional 00:06:11.470 --> 00:06:14.189 website traffic and analytics? Traffic volume 00:06:14.189 --> 00:06:16.290 might drop, but the conversion channel just shifts 00:06:16.290 --> 00:06:18.990 to the AI platform, requiring totally new ways 00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:23.089 to track it. Sponsor. Okay, so if the LLMs are 00:06:23.089 --> 00:06:24.629 starting to own the sale, we all know what comes 00:06:24.629 --> 00:06:27.920 next. That brings us to trend four. AI ads are 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:30.379 about to take over everything. Yeah, this is 00:06:30.379 --> 00:06:32.839 it's like history repeating itself. But on fast 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:35.279 forward, think back to the early days of. Google 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:38.279 ads. Right. Paid ads slowly pushed all the organic 00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:40.180 results down the page. And that's exactly the 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:42.519 monetization wave that's hitting generative AI 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:44.860 now. There's a lot of reporting that OpenAI is 00:06:44.860 --> 00:06:48.000 building its own ad platform for 2026. They're 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:50.740 hiring sales teams, ad experts. They have to 00:06:50.740 --> 00:06:52.480 monetize all those queries. And when the ads 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:55.639 arrive, all that free organic visibility is going 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.379 to shrink. Immediately. Yeah. The brands that 00:06:58.379 --> 00:07:01.220 were winning in 2025 with great organic mentions 00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:03.660 are going to find themselves having to pay just 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:06.819 to stay visible. in 2026. So the advice is to 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:09.939 act now. Maximize your free visibility while 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:12.500 you still can and start earmarking, what, 10, 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:15.019 15 percent of your ad budget to test these new 00:07:15.019 --> 00:07:17.040 platforms as soon as they launch. Absolutely. 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:19.779 Start testing Google's AI overviews ads today. 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:22.170 Get ahead of it. But wait, given everything we 00:07:22.170 --> 00:07:24.750 said about brand trust, will those organic mentions 00:07:24.750 --> 00:07:27.529 still have value once the ad platforms are running? 00:07:27.750 --> 00:07:30.370 Yes. Organic trust is still the foundation, but 00:07:30.370 --> 00:07:32.129 you'll almost certainly have to pay for the premium 00:07:32.129 --> 00:07:34.850 placement on top of that trust. Trend five is 00:07:34.850 --> 00:07:36.550 the one that, I have to admit, kind of keeps 00:07:36.550 --> 00:07:39.790 me up at night. The idea that voice -based AI 00:07:39.790 --> 00:07:42.350 search creates winner -takes -all markets, the 00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:45.230 monopoly effect. It's so true. With Siri or Alexa 00:07:45.230 --> 00:07:48.470 or Google Assistant, it only gives you one answer. 00:07:48.810 --> 00:07:51.189 There is no second place. None. If you ask your 00:07:51.189 --> 00:07:52.769 smart speaker to order the best chicken sandwich 00:07:52.769 --> 00:07:55.509 nearby, it triggers one sale. There's no scrolling, 00:07:55.649 --> 00:07:58.430 no comparing options. One winner. And that's 00:07:58.430 --> 00:08:00.529 exploding. Voice is being integrated everywhere. 00:08:00.670 --> 00:08:04.129 Cars, wearables. Younger users just expect a 00:08:04.129 --> 00:08:07.029 single definitive answer. Whoa. I mean, just 00:08:07.029 --> 00:08:09.850 imagine scaling that. A single answer system. 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:13.560 For a billion queries a day, that is. Yeah. That's 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:15.839 unbelievably disruptive. So for brands, this 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:18.319 is incredibly high stakes. It's not about being 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:20.180 a good option anymore. You have to be the answer. 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.319 The definitive one. So the takeaway is to start 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:25.800 optimizing your content for those conversational, 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:29.300 what's the best type questions and test how you 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.439 show up on voice assistants right now. You have 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:33.879 to. So how can a brand actually ensure it gets 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:36.360 picked as that single definitive answer? It has 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:38.500 to be seen as the most trusted, comprehensive 00:08:38.500 --> 00:08:41.779 answer for that entire topic, not just one keyword. 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:44.179 And that's a perfect lead into our bonus trend. 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:46.899 The idea that keywords are, well, they're dead. 00:08:47.500 --> 00:08:49.600 It's all about topic coverage now. Yeah, that 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.860 2023 strategy of optimizing one blog post for 00:08:52.860 --> 00:08:55.820 one keyword. That now looks like a low -quality 00:08:55.820 --> 00:08:58.299 signal to an AI. It's funny. I still wrestle 00:08:58.299 --> 00:09:00.240 with prompt drift myself, you know, making sure 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:02.360 my content really covers the whole topic, the 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.559 full user intent, and not just the one phrase 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:07.080 I started with. Right, because the AI is looking 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:10.000 for complete topic coverage. If you want to be 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.019 the authority on, say, email delivery, you can't 00:09:13.019 --> 00:09:14.879 just talk about sending emails. You need to cover 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.379 all the technical stuff, too. All of it. SBF, 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:21.539 DCAM, DMRs, list cleaning, security. The AI rewards 00:09:21.539 --> 00:09:24.100 that depth because it proves you're a real expert. 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:27.000 So the move is to stop counting keywords. You 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:29.299 need to be building these big, comprehensive 00:09:29.299 --> 00:09:32.100 content hubs that show deep knowledge across 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:35.100 a whole subject. Instead of just thin, standalone 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:37.980 posts. Yeah. And structure it clearly. with good 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:40.759 headers so the AI can read it easily. What would 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:43.240 you say is the single biggest mistake businesses 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:45.820 are making with content right now? Creating weak, 00:09:45.899 --> 00:09:48.320 single keyword content that fails to cover the 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:50.240 topic completely. It just shows they're skimming 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:52.500 the surface. So let's bring this all together. 00:09:52.740 --> 00:09:55.679 The core plan is this. Shift your focus from 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:58.799 links and keywords to building real, verifiable 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.960 authority through mentions in trusted places. 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:03.139 And remember that AI isn't just sending you traffic 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:06.080 anymore. It's a direct sales channel. Your visibility 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:08.879 strategy has to be comprehensive, covering entire 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.639 topics, and it needs to be dominant because in 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:13.919 voice search, winner takes all. The message is 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:16.379 pretty clear. Adapt fast or you're going to become 00:10:16.379 --> 00:10:18.799 invisible. That's it. The stakes are just so 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:21.500 high, especially because, as we said, this AI 00:10:21.500 --> 00:10:23.759 is making these real time judgments about your 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:27.360 brand's authority with zero transparency. We 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:29.519 don't get to see the score. So here's a thought 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:32.159 for you to take with you. If voice search really 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:34.500 does create these monopolies where only the best 00:10:34.500 --> 00:10:37.440 answer gets chosen, what happens to smaller, 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.340 excellent brands? Think about the economic impact 00:10:40.340 --> 00:10:42.620 of being permanently hidden by an algorithm that 00:10:42.620 --> 00:10:45.799 is designed to pick just one winner. Thanks for 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:48.019 joining us on this deep dive. Go check out your 00:10:48.019 --> 00:10:50.779 AI visibility score. Now's the time before it's 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:52.139 too late. How TRO music.