What We Heard at SMX Advanced, and What It Means for Your Visibility

Search is changing. Here's what our team brought back.

Hi H Client!

As part of our ongoing education and staying ahead of marketing changes in the landscape industry, we participate in a variety of training, regularly read industry articles, monitor trends across clients, and analyze signals. Most recently, our SEO/GEO team was at SMX Advanced in Boston (a prominent annual SEO industry event).

The event reinforced our findings. We saw this increasing over time, and it continues to increase: AI now controls nearly a third of what a potential client sees above the fold when they search for services like yours. That shift happened faster than most people expected, and it's not slowing down. That’s not a bad thing! There are ways to embrace this and make it work positively for your company. The part worth understanding is what separates the companies showing up in AI results from the ones that aren't. It's not budget, it's clarity. AI doesn't guess at who to cite. It surfaces businesses that made themselves easy to understand: clear positioning, content that answers real questions, and authority built consistently across the web over time.

Ultimately, there is a mindset shift that happened: we are not just optimizing your company to be found by users, we are optimizing your company to be found by users and AI.

Since these signals align with our approach to SEO/GEO (which, of course, evolves over time), your foundation is in good shape, and this shift works in your favor.

Your Project Manager can walk you through what this means for your visibility specifically.

Book a chat with your Project Manager here.

One quick note before the long weekend: we'll be closed Friday, July 3rd for Independence Day.

Until next Friday,

Lauren Cullnan

Senior Director of Client Experience & Operations