The calendar just flipped … but not nearly as much as digital marketing flipped in 2025. Do you realize the monumental shift in marketing that is underway? People talk so much about how AI is changing work and life, but when it comes to being found online, we aren’t talking about faster or cheaper … we are talking about a giant leap forward.
Our recent survey of leaders at professional services firms showed that more than half of firms consider their GEO strategies “advanced;” of the rest, 72% say that their GEO strategy will be implemented within six months.
The train has left the station, but too many are still carrying baggage from the past.
Especially for those of us at professional services firms, we need to lose that baggage—the SEO-first mindset. As AI search becomes more sophisticated and “smart,” nuance will win out.
SEO practitioners have a methodology—do these things, get that result. It’s tried and true, but it ignores the fast-emerging reality of AI search, because AI does not reward this methodology. Having success in AI search requires a philosophy—a strategic commitment to creating and publishing great thinking that matters to your industry in the places that they care about.
I wrote about this for The Trust Web Times. Please take a moment to read “Into the Great Wide Open: Moving Forward in AI Search.”