When I think about auditing an agency to find a genuine growth partner, I am often reminded of how many agencies sound the same at first glance. Yet, when we dig deeper, the real differences can be stark, particularly in their methods of optimization, measurement, and scaling.
As a seasoned performance marketing head at an agency, I frequently encounter agencies offering account audits during their sales pitch. Their goal is usually twofold: to deliver immediate value and to showcase their expertise.
But, in my experience, brand marketers seldom reverse roles to audit these agencies during the Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Over the years, I’ve noticed many brands settling for mediocrity simply because they aren’t equipped with the right questions to unearth the weaknesses in a potential partner’s strategy.
If I were a brand, eager to secure a true growth partner, these are the questions I’d make sure to ask.
1. What are your key services, and what percentage of your clients utilize each? I’ve seen many agencies claim they offer ‘full service,’ but true execution excellence is rare. I’d scrutinize where they truly focus their time and efforts. This not only includes channel proficiency but how their strengths align with our brand’s needs.
2. How are you approaching AI-driven account optimization and platform automation? Gone are the days when manual controls set us apart as high-performing marketers. Understanding how an agency balances AI automation without over-reliance is crucial.
3. What is your reporting process, and what KPIs do you focus on for the majority of your clients? A mere sample report won’t do. I need to comprehend their data philosophy, especially if it centers around revenue and ROAS metrics.
4. What’s the average industry tenure of the team on my account? A common query, yet crucial for understanding their ability to retain experienced professionals who leverage AI tools adeptly.
5. How is your team using AI on client accounts? Striking a balance in AI usage is essential. I prefer teams that use AI wisely for operational efficiency without sacrificing strategic insights and creativity.
6. When you take over an account, what are the first things you do to save budget without affecting growth? This is a litmus test of their technical proficiency, focusing on identifying and eliminating budget waste efficiently.
Ultimately, to distinguish a true growth partner from others, I focus on their service utilization rates, tactical AI applications, and budget efficiency approaches. These considerations help identify a partner ready to deliver genuine performance rather than just manage our budget.
As I’ve navigated the evolving landscape of SEO over the years, one truth remains: our biggest challenges often come from within. We’re standing at the brink of 2026, and it’s becoming clear that our organization’s internal issues might be the most significant threat to SEO success.
In recent discussions, AI tools and their impact on visibility have taken center stage. Yet, the conversation often overlooks a crucial issue. The real danger lies within our organizations—fragmented data, unclear KPIs, and poor collaboration silently erode even the most well-crafted SEO strategies.
I want to share a few internal threats that we should start addressing now to ensure our SEO efforts remain effective.
Many of us lean heavily on AI for tasks ranging from brief creation to data analysis. While AI expedites these processes, it’s essential to avoid falling into the trap of a one-size-fits-all solution. AI can provide speed, but the key is still in our unique perspective—what differentiates our content from the rest?
Another concern is our fragmented data landscape. Despite advancements, we still struggle with incomplete information about our users’ journeys. Users engage with AI tools, forming product perceptions before reaching us, but we lack visibility into these early interactions.
This brings us to another challenge: setting appropriate KPIs. While traditional metrics like traffic remain relics of past success, we now need to focus on visibility, considering the evolving role of AI. We’re being pulled towards metrics that may not directly align with business outcomes.
Furthermore, our roles must adapt beyond mere SEO execution to influencing broader strategic goals. Holding ownership without execution leads to misalignment. Instead, our insight should guide multi-platform visibility strategies, while leadership assigns responsibility for execution.
I’ve noticed the absence of cross-team collaboration in leveraging AI visibility. If AI visibility isn’t a shared priority across teams, then executing a unified strategy becomes difficult. Our job includes rallying all teams around common goals.
As SEO shifts to adaptability in a fast-paced AI-influenced world, action becomes vital. We can’t afford to stall in strategizing without executing. As I’ve experienced, prompt action allows us to learn quickly and adapt strategies effectively.
Ultimately, strong collaboration defines successful SEO execution. As our field becomes integral to broader company capabilities, continued team effort ensures sustainable visibility.
I urge you to see beyond traditional SEO. Embrace it as a dynamic business capability. The organizations that recognize this will lead the way in efficient discovery and sustainable growth.
I’ve noticed that AI is drastically changing the landscape for marketing agencies, and it’s a pressure felt from both sides. Though we welcomed AI as a tool to enhance efficiency, it seems to be impacting our margins in unexpected ways.
In 2024, 44% of digital marketing agencies, including mine, identified AI as a potential threat. By 2025, this concern had increased to 53%, as highlighted in SparkToro’s survey of agency owners worldwide.
The real kicker? We aren’t just passive observers in the AI disruption; we’re actually participants. We’ve adopted AI to streamline tasks and reduce costs, attempting to boost our profitability. Meanwhile, our clients are following suit, using AI to cut budgets or opt to handle tasks internally.
This dual pressure has created a challenging environment for agencies like mine.
The Promise That Became a Problem
When advanced AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude emerged, I initially saw them as opportunities. They offered ways to automate tedious tasks, ostensibly improving our efficiency and competitiveness.
Our equation appeared simple: automate more tasks with AI, reduce manpower, and profit from the savings. However, clients performed the same calculations and reached a different conclusion: why pay an agency when AI can produce satisfactory content, analyze campaigns, or generate ads on their own?
This shift prompted unwelcome questions about the value we provide.
Some services we once charged premium prices for are now being completed in-house or through automation tools. Al Sefati, CEO of Clarity Digital Agency, has frequently discussed the hurdles that boutique agencies face in this AI-driven market.
Earlier this year, I faced clients who “put marketing on pause,” despite good performance metrics. One manufacturing client even walked away from a contract due to tariff uncertainties. In tightening budget scenarios, where AI renders some marketing services commoditized, agencies like ours become easy targets for budget cuts.
The Margin Trap Nobody Talks About
We began using AI to do more with fewer team members, expecting to see higher profits. But our clients expect these savings to benefit them, not enhance our bottom line.
This has led to an unpleasant trend of shrinking retainers. SparkToro’s research indicates that sales cycles are becoming longer, with more agencies reporting delays in closing deals that extend from 7-8 weeks to over 12 weeks.
The reason? Potential clients are evaluating, “If AI makes this cheaper and faster, shouldn’t our rates be reduced as well?”
Even as efficiency through AI increases, client expectations haven’t decreased—they’ve grown. Agencies are now expected to demonstrate tangible results, link investments directly to revenue, and offer genuine ROI.
This presents a dilemma: adopt AI and risk downgrading our perceived service value, or resist AI changes and fall behind more adaptable competitors.
The Junior Talent Crisis Nobody’s Preparing For
One concerning insight from the report suggests that 66% of agency owners are worried about dwindling career opportunities for junior staff. Historically, agencies have relied on entry-level employees to perform routine tasks such as keyword research, content optimization, and campaign setup.
While not glamorous, these tasks are crucial stepping stones for junior marketers to develop skills and progress to strategy and client leadership roles. However, AI is rapidly taking over these process-oriented tasks.
This shift raises a vital question: how will we cultivate new talent if there’s no foundational work for them to learn from?
What AI Can’t Replace Yet
Despite the disruptions, some agencies are successfully navigating these changes. Larger agencies report healthier sales and stronger pipelines than smaller firms. This is partly due to their ability to weather economic changes and a focus on strategic offerings that AI cannot easily replicate.
Those of us thriving have stopped competing solely on execution. We now offer something AI can’t easily mimic: strategic insights, market experience, and storytelling that aligns with business outcomes.
“Clients desire teams that truly understand their industry,” notes Sefati.
Agencies that succeed are often those with deep expertise in specific verticals like B2B SaaS, financial services, healthcare, and ecommerce. This specialization allows us to maintain our value by offering nuanced insights and strategic thinking that AI struggles to deliver.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Commoditization
In the past, simply having the technical skills to launch campaigns gave agencies a competitive edge. But as AI and martech tools advance, more brands develop internal capabilities that rival what agencies offer.
This shift is reflected in data from SparkToro’s research, with only 14% of agencies claiming a “very healthy” pipeline, while the majority experience average or below-average pipelines.
Smaller agencies, especially those with 1-10 people, are feeling this pressure acutely. They often lack sales staff, forcing founders to juggle sales and client delivery roles, making it harder to compete when budgets shrink.
How Your Agency Can Escape the Squeeze
It’s crucial to focus on what AI can’t replicate and make strategic adjustments as client expectations rise and margins narrow.
Be Honest About What AI Has Commoditized
Embrace AI rather than shying away from it. Acknowledge what AI has commoditized and concentrate on areas it can’t;
If your agency still relies on AI-performed services such as basic content creation or standard reporting, it’s time to pivot. Focus on strategic, creative, or nuanced tasks that distinguish your agency from AI applications.
Lead with AI, Don’t Hide from It
Change the narrative around AI and lead with it in client discussions. Highlight the unique value add your agency provides beyond AI capabilities.
For instance, emphasize how only your team can fully understand a client’s market dynamics or interpret data insights contextually to improve strategic initiatives.
Rethink Pricing Models
Updating pricing strategies is essential. Outcome-based fees and performance partnerships could better align your agency’s incentives with client success, leveraging the efficiencies AI brings.
Rebuild the Talent Pipeline
Address the diminishing opportunities for junior staff by involving them in high-level strategic work alongside seasoned specialists. This approach will prepare the future frontline of agency talent as their role expands beyond AI-executed tasks.
The Old Agency Model Isn’t Coming Back
Over 64% of agencies are optimistic about revenue growth in the coming year, but this hinges on whether they innovate or wait for an outdated model to return—it won’t.
The squeeze is a lasting reality. The key to thriving is to reimagine what agencies offer and how we deliver it—making our roles indispensable, not replaceable.
Will your agency evolve to leverage AI’s capabilities and become irreplaceable, or will it be swept aside as clients discover they can handle tasks independently?
With over twenty years in SEO, I’ve experienced every major industry disruption—from the days of keyword stuffing on AltaVista to the era of Google’s search algorithms, mobile-first indexing, and now the rise of AI.
What’s striking today is the rapid pace of change and the emotional challenges it brings. I notice mounting pressure among teams, even those who have navigated previous shifts successfully.
The common apprehension is valid: If AI improves speed, where does that leave me? This isn’t just a technical question—it’s deeply personal.
This uncertainty can lower morale and slow adoption. Productivity can wane, and experimentation might stall, leading teams to either over-rely on AI or completely avoid it.
The real leadership challenge is building confidence, capability, and trust in AI-assisted teams.
4 Ways to Boost AI Confidence in SEO Teams
Instilling genuine AI confidence within an SEO team goes beyond just adopting the latest tools—it’s a cultural shift.
The most effective SEO teams don’t just accumulate tools; they use AI purposefully and with discipline—automating data pulls, summarizing research, and clustering keywords—to devote more time to strategy, storytelling, and aligning with stakeholders.
As noted by Harvard Business School, technology adoption is largely cultural. Tools themselves don’t drive change—trust does. This insight is crucial for SEO teams navigating AI today.
Below are four strategies for enhancing AI confidence in your teams through clarity, participation, and shared ownership, instead of pressure or hype.
1. Earn Trust by Involving the Team in AI Tool Selection and Workflow Design
Strengthening trust can effectively be achieved by transitioning from a top-down approach to shared ownership. People generally trust what they help create.
When AI tools are imposed, resistance can increase. Inviting team members to participate in evaluation and workflow design makes AI seem less daunting and more empowering. Involving teams early provides real-world insights into where AI can reduce friction or introduce new challenges.
Effective leaders:
Invite teams to test tools and share feedback.
Run small experiments before scaling adoption.
Communicate clearly about what you’re adopting, what you’re rejecting, and why.
When teams feel included, they are more willing to experiment, and growth and innovation are fueled.
2. Meet People Where They Are—Not Where You Want Them to Be
AI capability varies widely across SEO teams. Some members might experiment daily, while others feel inundated or skeptical, influenced by past automation trends that have come and gone.
Leaders who boost confidence know that capability develops at different speeds. They cultivate environments where curiosity is encouraged, uncertainty is acceptable, and learning is continuous rather than mandated.
This means:
Normalizing different comfort levels.
Creating psychological safety around “I don’t know yet.”
Avoiding the shaming or over-celebration of early adopters.
Offering multiple learning paths.
Acknowledging different starting points makes growth seem attainable rather than intimidating.
When a team member uses AI to reduce a task from hours to minutes, it’s a moment worth recognizing. It demonstrates AI’s potential to support meaningful work without sidelining human insight.
Successful teams:
Share clear examples of AI improving quality and efficiency.
Highlight internal champions who can mentor others.
Create opportunities for demos and knowledge sharing.
Foster a culture of exploration, not criticism.
My agency created AI focus groups with members from various departments. One group worked on integrating AI into project management, including representatives from SEO, operations, and leadership.
This collaborative ownership resulted in more successful implementation. Teams were not just introducing AI; they were defining how it fit within real-world workflows. This approach led to enhanced buy-in, improved collaboration, and increased confidence.
Each group shared its achievements and lessons learned, building awareness of what succeeded and the reasons behind that success. When teams observe their peers embracing AI effectively, momentum flourishes.
4. Frame AI as a Collaborative Partner, Not a Replacement
The fear of being replaced by AI is genuine. Ignoring this concern won’t make it disappear. It’s vital for teams to understand where human expertise remains indispensable.
AI accelerates analysis. Humans interpret meaning.
AI drafts. Humans validate, refine, and contextualize.
AI scales output. Humans build trust and influence.
While AI aids execution, it cannot replace strategic instincts, contextual judgment, or cross-functional leadership—skills that ultimately drive performance.
Why Experience Still Matters in AI-Driven SEO
AI has lowered the entry barrier for many SEO tasks. With effective prompts, nearly anyone can produce keyword lists, outlines, or summaries. However, this accessibility often results in fleeting tactics and recycled quick fixes.
Anyone with a lengthy tenure in SEO recognizes this cycle. Tactics evolve. Fundamentals remain. Experience is the key differentiator here.
AI Can Generate Outputs, Not Accountability
AI can create content and analyze data, but it doesn’t bear responsibility for outcomes. It doesn’t uphold brand reputation, compliance, or long-term performance.
SEO professionals remain responsible for:
Deciding what to exclude from publication.
Assessing technical, reputational, and compliance risks.
Weighing long-term consequences against short-term gains.
AI executes. Humans decide. That distinction matters more than ever.
Pattern Recognition Is Learned, Not Automated
AI excels at identifying patterns but struggles to explain their significance or relevance in specific contexts.
Experienced SEOs bring a depth of understanding AI can’t replicate. Their historical insights help them identify true shifts instead of simply reacting to industry noise.
Few industries witness as many tactic fluctuations as SEO. Experience fosters strategic thinking beyond previously successful approaches and avoids repeating tactics that later failed.
AI suggests possibilities. Experience evaluates relevance.
Professional Integrity Remains a Differentiator
In high-visibility search environments, mistakes scale quickly. AI may produce inaccuracies, risking brand trust and compliance dangers.
Teams with strong professional SEO foundations:
Validate AI output instead of assuming correctness.
Prioritize accuracy over speed.
Maintain ethical SEO standards.
Protect brand voice and credibility.
Integrity isn’t automated. It’s a practiced discipline. In a fast-paced AI environment, it holds increasing importance.
As routine tasks become automated, the role of an SEO professional shifts to strategic oversight. Time previously spent on manual analysis can now focus on interpreting user intent, shaping search strategy, guiding stakeholders, and assessing risks.
This evolution makes fundamentals even more critical. Teams still need sound judgment, technical expertise, and accountability. While AI supports execution, professionals remain responsible for decisions, quality, and long-term performance.
Developing future SEOs necessitates more than tool proficiency; it requires teaching:
When to rely on AI.
When to question AI outputs.
How to apply experience and context to its output.
From the very first kickoff to the technical execution phases, I’ve learned that the true value of hiring an SEO agency lies in our partnership and collaboration. Together, we can eliminate bottlenecks, empower cross-functional teams, and clearly demonstrate the ROI of our SEO investment.
Hiring an SEO agency can truly transform how your brand stands out in search results. But remember, an agency’s effectiveness relies heavily on the partnership we build. Realizing the full potential of SEO requires a shared commitment to our goals and maintaining high momentum.
Here’s what I’ve discovered about maximizing the benefits of working with my SEO agency: Alignment leads to faster progress, which makes it easier for us to prove the value of our efforts.
To ensure we get the most out of this partnership, it’s crucial to align our SEO strategy with what truly drives our business. The company sets the business goals, and it’s the agency’s job to attract the traffic that helps achieve them.
Having open discussions with the agency about how to align these goals right from the start enhances the effectiveness of our SEO program. Including cross-departmental stakeholders only reinforces the alignment and ensures everyone is on the same page.
When the entire team understands the foundation of SEO, they can comprehend its role and their contribution to its success. In this spirit of collaboration, I facilitate SEO training across teams to empower everyone involved.
I always come to the kickoff meeting fully prepared, ready to set agendas for productivity. Sharing pain points, detailing business operations, and clarifying the program’s scope helps everyone understand what to expect and what’s expected of them.
Regular communication with my agency, whether through emails, Slack, or meetings, is vital. Clear reporting methods are another key aspect, ensuring everyone remains accountable and the results are measurable.
Switching from seeing the agency as just a vendor to viewing them as a true expert partner helps cultivate trust in their guidance, the very reason I hired them in the first place.
By giving our agency visibility into past and present performance data, I ensure they have all vital information for optimizing our SEO efforts from day one. This setup includes access to essential tools and crucial performance metrics.
SEO isn’t just an isolated activity—it requires contributions from multiple teams within the company. By including team leaders early in planning, I make sure everyone is engaged and accountable, from SEO briefings to content collaboration.
My agency excels in SEO, but I bring invaluable brand knowledge to create content that aligns both with business goals and customer needs. By maintaining active involvement in content development, we produce material that truly resonates.
Streamlining content reviews and setting clear guidelines helps eliminate approval hurdles that can slow down our SEO progress. Prioritizing high-impact tasks ensures we stay competitive in search results.
Each implementation, however small, contributes significantly to our overall SEO success. I prioritize these tasks during planning phases and involve technical teams early to ensure seamless execution.
Maintaining engagement with my agency beyond the initial excitement stage is crucial for ongoing success. Continual communication, involvement in reviews, and flexibility help adjust to shifting business landscapes effectively.
Ultimately, strong SEO results are built on strong partnerships. By working together, my agency and I drive our SEO program forward, creating a strategic and valuable business initiative.
On episode 341 of PPC Live The Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Andrea Cruz, Head of B2B at Tinuiti. We delved into a challenge that many senior marketers face: the struggle of providing immediate answers when clients press for details without prior notice.
We explored how missteps in communication can amplify client stress, and how adopting a proactive mindset can turn these challenges into pivotal moments of growth in one’s career.
As Cruz progressed from a hands-on marketer to leading entire teams, she encountered the challenge of advocating for projects she wasn’t directly managing daily. This shift brought new struggles, especially when clients questioned campaign performance or outcomes.
In those moments, freezing or delaying responses can damage trust. Cruz realized that senior leaders must offer clear direction, even without knowing every detail, to maintain confidence in discussions.
Through her experiences and mentorship, Cruz honed a technique for buying time without losing trust: asking thoughtful questions. This strategy not only buys time but also ensures that the responses are precise and address the core of the client’s concerns.
Her method includes asking clients to clarify expectations, requesting additional context, and confirming their understanding. This approach is crucial, especially in emotionally charged situations, and, for Cruz, it allowed her to manage complex conversations effectively despite being a non-native English speaker.
At Tinuiti, the focus is on a solutions-driven culture over assigning blame. By addressing ‘Where are we now?’ and ‘How do we get where we want to be?’, teams foster a safe space to discuss errors and learn from them. Cruz believes that leaders should set the standard by openly sharing their own mistakes.
Cruz advocates for proactive communication, urging teams to address issues before clients notice. Tailoring communication styles to client preferences fosters stronger relationships and transforms agencies into strategic partners.
Common mistakes in B2B advertising include spreading budgets too thin and underfunding campaigns. Cruz emphasizes that it’s better to focus on fewer channels with adequate resources to avoid ineffective outcomes.
Regarding AI, Cruz warns against limiting its use to basic tasks and shares how her team is leveraging AI for advanced operations, enhancing strategic execution.
Cruz’s message is clear: growth requires preparation and a willingness to adapt. By anticipating client needs and embracing experimentation, marketers can turn pressure into golden opportunities.
I’ve learned that SEO is evolving beyond just marketing and into the realm of organizational design. It’s about structuring, validating, and aligning information across the business to enhance visibility.
When our information becomes fragmented, visibility suffers, leading to more than just rank instability; it threatens our brand’s interpretation and mentions.
For those of us leading SEO, the choice is clear: remain as channel optimizers or become architects of systems that define brand understanding and citation. With AI systems now assembling information at scale, this transformation isn’t happening in isolation.
The visibility shift beyond rankings
As we look to the future, LLMs will shape organic search alongside traditional algorithms. Simply chasing rankings isn’t enough. We need to optimize for interpretation, citation, and synthesis across AI systems.
While our click rates may vary, the real transformation means treating visibility as an interpretation issue rather than just positioning. AI systems rely on cohesive data, narratives, and mentions. Discrepancies lead to inconsistent output.
Now, collaboration can’t be casual. LLMs demand clarity and consistency in the information they process. When our messages and data are fragmented, so too is our visibility.
This is a leadership challenge. Our visibility shouldn’t exist in silos but as a system that manages information creation, validation, and distribution across our organization.
If we want structural visibility, we must build the system to support it.
Building the visibility supply chain
I’ve realized that collaboration needs to be ingrained in the supply chain. It shouldn’t rely on the relationship between the SEO manager and PR manager.
For a seamless transition from a marketing silo to an operational framework, we must treat content as a product needing precise refinement before entering the broader ecosystem.
Enter visibility gates—nonnegotiable checkpoints filtering brand data for AI consumption.
Implementing visibility gates
Think of our content moving through a pipeline. At each joint, a gate refines the output:
The technical gate (parsing)
Does the product page template use valid schema.org markup (product, FAQ, review)? The goal here is to ensure that the data is structured for seamless AI consumption.
The brand signal gate (clustering)
Does our PR align with core entities? Are we using consistent terminology to help LLMs cluster our brand? This phase aims to prevent linguistic drift.
The accessibility/readability gate (chunking)
Is the content ready for RAG systems? Here, we focus on delivering high-information-density prose suitable for AI retrieval.
The authority and de-duplication gate (governance)
Does this asset induce “knowledge cannibalization” or unnecessary noise? This step filters out conflicting information to ensure a single source of truth.
The localization gate (verification)
Is entity information consistent globally? This ensures alignment in cross-referencing data to build trust in models.
While gates guard the ecosystem entry points, accountability is key to ensure changes translate into actions.
Embedding visibility into cross-functional OKRs
Alignment without visible results can’t sustain change. Sophisticated infrastructure will fail without cross-functional influence.
To advance beyond mere collaboration, visibility must be embedded into our organizational performance strategy.
We need shared visibility OKRs, not just SEO-specific goals.
When stakeholders are incentivized with visibility KPIs, SEO becomes more than just a team job. It becomes a vital business priority.
For product teams: “Achieve 100% schema validation and <100ms time-to-first-byte for top-tier entity pages.”
For PR and communications: “Increase ‘brand-as-a-source’ citations in LLM responses by 15%.”
For content teams: “Ensure 90% of new assets meet ‘high information density’ for RAG retrieval.”
This collective focus aligns our organization with modern search engine mechanisms.
Measuring visibility across the organization
While gates assess the quality entering our ecosystem, a unified dashboard measures output, enhancing transparency.
If PR teams understand which mentions drive AI citations, they’ll focus on authoritative publications rather than any media outlet.
We need to transition from rank reporting to assessing entity health and Share of Model (SoM). This dashboard becomes our brand’s single truth source.
While systems and incentives are important, they need active management.
Join us at Semrush for tools to enhance your brand’s visibility.
Hiring for AI-era visibility
Building a visibility system isn’t enough; we need a workforce matching this model. We should hire beyond generalists, focusing on two pillars: the hacker and the convincer.
Feature
The hacker (technical architect)
The convincer (visibility advocate)
Core mission
Ensuring the brand is discoverable by machines.
Ensuring the brand is supported by humans.
Primary domain
RAG architecture, schema, and LLM testing.
Cross-departmental OKRs, C-suite buy-in, and PR alignment.
Success metric
Share of model (SoM) and information density.
Resource allocation and budget growth.
The gate focus
Technical, accessibility, and authority gates.
Brand signal and localization gates.
The hacker: The engine room
The technical visionary, constantly pushing boundaries. They optimize beyond just search bars, ensuring our brand’s discoverability by AI.
The convincer: The social butterfly of data
This individual bridges technical insights with business results, ensuring the hacker’s ideas are realized in practice.
As we adapt to operational SEO, consider these first steps:
Set the vision: Define what visibility-first looks like for your business.
Take stock of talent: Do you have the hackers and convincers? Evaluate for skills and mindset.
Audit the gaps: Identify and address communication breakdowns between SEO and PR, or SEO and product teams.
Shift the KPIs: Focus on authority, impressions, sentiment share, and revenue, not just rankings.
Be radically transparent: Share data in real time, without siloed thinking.
During the first 90 days, focus on:
Days 1-30 (Audit): Map your brand’s entity footprint to identify conflicts.
Days 31-60 (Infrastructure): Integrate visibility gates into your CMS or project management tools like Jira or Asana.
Days 61-90 (Incentives): Link 10% of PR and product teams’ bonuses to entity integrity or citation growth in AI.
The SEO leader as a systems architect
As AI advances, an effective SEO leader transitions to becoming a systems architect, crafting the infrastructure for both machine and human brand interactions.
This journey is complex, demanding upfront changes to ingrained processes and transparent communication.
The future goes beyond keywords to optimizing how information flows through the digital ecosystem, embracing this transition will build a resilient organization visible by default.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Amanda Farley, the brilliant CMO of Aimclear, on episode 340 of PPC Live The Podcast. Amanda’s journey from owning a gallery and tattoo studio to leading award-winning global campaigns is nothing short of inspiring. Her unique T-shaped marketing expertise, combining in-depth PPC knowledge with a broad skill set across social, programmatic, PR, and integrated strategies, offers valuable insights into modern marketing.
Through our engaging conversation, Amanda shared her lessons on overcoming setbacks and balancing AI with human insight. Her experience underscores the importance of mixing calm leadership with a relentless curiosity and drive for continuous learning.
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs and Embracing Creativity
Amanda once ran an gallery and tattoo parlor while believing she wasn’t an artist herself. Surrounded by creatives, she eventually realized her only barrier was a limiting belief. After embracing painting, she created hundreds of artworks and discovered a powerful outlet for expression.
This mindset shift mirrors marketing growth. Success isn’t just technical — it’s mental. By challenging internal doubts, marketers can unlock new skills and opportunities.
When Campaign Infrastructure Breaks: A High-Stakes Lesson
Amanda recalls a global campaign where tracking infrastructure failed across every channel mid-flight. Pixels broke, data vanished, and campaigns were running blind. Multiple siloed teams and a third-party vendor slowed resolution while budgets continued to spend.
Instead of assigning blame, Amanda focused on collaboration. Her team helped rebuild tracking and uncovered deeper data architecture issues. The crisis led to stronger onboarding processes, earlier validation checks, and clearer expectations around data hygiene. In modern PPC, clean infrastructure is essential for machine learning success.
The Hidden Importance of PPC Hygiene
Many account audits reveal the same problem: neglected fundamentals. Basic settings errors and poorly maintained audience data often hurt performance before strategy even begins.
Outdated lists and disconnected data systems weaken automation. In an machine-learning environment, strong data hygiene ensures campaigns have the quality signals they need to perform.
Why Integrated Marketing Is No Longer Optional
Amanda’s background in psychology and SEO shaped her integrated approach. PPC touches landing pages, user experience, and sales processes. When conversions drop, the issue may lie outside the ad account.
Understanding the full customer journey allows marketers to diagnose problems holistically. For Amanda, integration is a practical necessity, not a buzzword.
AI, Automation, and the Human Factor
While AI dominates industry conversations, Amanda stresses balance. Some tools are promising, but not all are ready for full deployment. Testing is essential, but human oversight remains critical.
Machines optimize patterns, but humans judge emotion, messaging, and brand fit. Marketers who study changing customer journeys can also find new opportunities to intercept audiences across channels.
Building a Culture That Welcomes Mistakes
Amanda believes leaders act as emotional barometers. Calm investigation beats reactive blame when issues arise. Many PPC problems stem from external changes, not individual failure.
By acknowledging stress and focusing on solutions, leaders create psychological safety. This environment encourages experimentation and turns mistakes into learning opportunities.
Testing Without Fear in a Changing Landscape
Marketing is entering another experimental era with no clear rulebook. Amanda encourages teams to dedicate budget to testing and lean on professional communities for insight.
Not every experiment will succeed, but each provides data that informs smarter future decisions.
The Tasmanian Devil Who Practices Yoga
Amanda describes her career as If the Tasmanian Devil Could Do Yoga — a blend of fast-paced chaos and intentional calm. It reflects modern marketing: demanding, unpredictable, and balanced by thoughtful leadership.
Through over 20 years of experience in varying SEO roles, I’ve witnessed a recurring theme: the root of SEO performance issues often stems from organizational factors, not technical glitches.
Many times, problems manifest through decision rights, lack of ownership, and insufficient processes. These often precede noticeable traffic dips, obfuscating the real issues beneath the surface.
The technical fixes may expose symptoms but rarely uncover why progress has stalled.
No governance
The real limitations become apparent much earlier, rooted in reporting structures and decision-making authority. When SEO stumbles, governance—or lack thereof—is often to blame.
I discovered that when ownership of CMS templates was unclear or when cross-departmental priorities conflicted, SEO suffered. It wasn’t until I understood governance that the underlying issues became clear.
Only two companies in my career had the right conditions, with clear ownership and structured release pathways. Leaders recognized the importance of deliberately managing visibility, rather than reacting post-traffic drops.
Elsewhere, metadata and schema often didn’t limit performance. Organizational behavior did.
Beware of drift
Quarterly sales pressures often lead to sites making numerous small, seemingly innocuous changes that accumulate over time. These can range from navigation alterations by a new UX hire to content wording tweaks.
Individually, these shifts may not seem detrimental; however, collectively, they contribute to a decline in performance. This is something industry commentary often glosses over—while tangible technical fixes are more teachable, they aren’t where SEO outcomes are typically determined.
SEO loses power when it lives in the wrong place
I’ve observed how such drift can negatively impact rankings, with SEO unjustly taking the fall. Often, the actual cause was a lack of governance, which became apparent when outside agencies confirmed conclusions I had already reached.
The placement of SEO within an organization’s structure profoundly influences whether potential issues are identified early or only discovered post-launch. It affects whether changes are implemented promptly or languish for months.
SEO embedded under marketing, product, or IT each faces a unique set of challenges, restricting its effectiveness when placed too low on the organizational hierarchy.
Changes by engineering, product, or marketing often ship without SEO input, leading to misalignments that can reduce the efficacy of SEO strategies.
Positioning the SEO function
When SEO lacks proper placement within the organizational framework, it devolves into a reactive, cleanup role. The best results come when SEO is sufficiently integrated to influence early decision-making processes.
Organizations where SEO achieved significant success had the SEO function near leadership, ensuring visibility into upcoming changes and the ability to coordinate across departments.
The most favorable outcomes arose in environments where SEO acted as an integrated part of the infrastructure, reinforcing its importance as a contributor to long-term visibility and consistency.
Working as an office manager in my early 20s, I discovered Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
The timeless principles in that book have been my guiding compass through various career shifts. I’ve realized that success in most professions hinges on how we interact with others—be they clients or colleagues.
For many years, combining human touch with technical skills has been a winning formula for digital marketers. It was this ability to demystify complex machines coupled with strong relationship-building that allowed agencies to retain clients.
But now, this model is under scrutiny as AI becomes integral to PPC platforms, raising a pertinent question: why shouldn’t clients dive into an entirely AI-driven approach?
What agencies have an edge on is their relational strength—their ability to communicate effectively and understand what business owners genuinely need.
1. Ask questions
I’ve learned that one of the most effective ways to understand people and what makes them tick is by asking questions. Though it seems straightforward, communication often becomes lost in translation or obscured by assumptions.
Whenever I walk into a sales call, I arm myself with a list of questions. How much can I uncover about this potential client in a brief half-hour conversation?
Similarly, during strategy discussions, I prepare a comprehensive set of queries—some for myself, and some for the client. What are they aiming to achieve? What aspects of their current strategy need refinement? How can we enhance it?
To this day, AI can’t fulfill this role—not yet, at least. Our exchanges with AI remain predominantly one-sided.
AI doesn’t actively seek to understand us as individuals or identify our unique challenges. These discoveries only come from asking questions and actively listening, which leads to the next point.
How often do I find myself in conversations, impatiently waiting for a pause to insert my thoughts? I’m guilty of this, but I’ve found that clients crave the opportunity to be heard.
Allow them to express themselves fully, encourage them with more clarifying questions, and just keep listening. It’s remarkable what you can learn about someone when you enter a conversation with no other agenda but to understand the other person.
Fill the silences only if they become awkward, and if you have valuable agenda points to address based on what you’ve learned. This approach fosters collaboration and generates ideas more swiftly than dominating the conversation could. It solidifies agreement, which is foundational in building relationships.
Whenever possible, I aim to discover commonalities between myself and new acquaintances. By doing so, I build rapport, enriching both personal and professional relationships.
Being personal and specific, whether dealing with a friend or a client, is key. I love recalling little details about people and bringing them up in future conversations. People appreciate being remembered and valued.
Though AI is beginning to develop memory, finding shared experiences with others is a uniquely human skill that, fortunately, remains beyond AI’s reach.
In the fast-paced marketing realm, it’s easy to succumb to the all-consuming cycle of data analysis and testing. Remember, though, not to take ourselves too seriously.
After all, this profession is relatively new, and its evolution is unpredictable. Let’s not forget why we ventured into marketing—to help and connect with people. Let’s embrace opportunities to be less serious and inject humor when it fits.
We’re human, and it’s vital for those we work for to recognize this humanity as an integral part of any relationship.
In a world increasingly dominated by AI, the focus is shifting from technical prowess to personal connection. AI excels at data and analysis, available at a moment’s notice, but knowledge alone isn’t sufficient anymore.
Empathy, shared experiences, and true rapport are beyond AI’s capability to replicate. These human principles, combined with expertise, are what enabled agencies to decode machines for clients and nurture enduring relationships.
By returning to relational basics—posing insightful questions, practicing active listening, and establishing common ground—agencies can affirm their indispensable value.
These relational skills are vital in distinguishing a partner from an algorithm, ensuring that the work of agencies remains not just relevant but essential.
