Black Hat SEO Is Dead Weight: Why AI Search Is Closing the Door on Manipulative Tactics
June 7, 2025
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Will Melton
In the age of AI-powered search, your content doesn’t just need to rank—it needs to deserve to rank. That means the days of black hat SEO tricks—keyword stuffing, link farms, cloaking, fake author bios—are numbered. And if your SEO agency is still deploying them, you’re not just falling behind. You’re actively burning your budget. ContentsAI Search Engines Are Getting Smarter…
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Why Discovering Your Brand’s Most Valuable Questions Is the Smartest AI SEO Strategy Today
June 7, 2025
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Will Melton
We’re living in the era of answer engines, not search engines. If your brand isn’t authoring the best answers, you’re invisible to your next would-be customer. It’s no longer enough to rank for broad, high-volume keywords. Today’s most effective content strategies are built around answering the right questions—specifically, your brand’s Most Valuable Questions (MVQs). ContentsWhy Short-Tail Keyword Optimization Is ObsoleteWhat…
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Why Most Digital Marketing Agencies Are Behind on AI SEO
June 7, 2025
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Will Melton
If you’ve recently asked your agency how they plan to help you rank in AI search results—and got blank stares or vague answers—you’re not alone. AI-powered systems like Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT are transforming how people discover products, services, and brands. The top of the search page is no longer filled with ten blue links—it’s dominated by AI-generated…
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AI SEO and the SaaS Visibility Shift: Preparing for AI-Driven Decision-Makers
June 4, 2025
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Will Melton
On a recent afternoon, a marketing director searches Google for “best subscription management software.” Instead of the usual scroll of blue links, he’s greeted by an AI-generated summary at the top of the page. It lists a few familiar tools with pros and cons, all before the first organic result. Later, he asks ChatGPT the same question and gets an…
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From SEO to AEO: The Wake-Up Call Businesses Need to Survive the AI Search Shift
June 4, 2025
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Will Melton
Search engines aren’t gateways anymore. They’re filters—and AI is the one deciding what gets through. It determines what people see when they search, how answers are framed, and which brands stay visible. That shift has made traditional SEO feel slower, less reliable, and harder to measure in real time. If your business isn’t actively working to be recognized across AI-powered…
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How to Optimize Your Website and Content to Rank in AI Search Results
May 29, 2025
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Will Melton
Latest update: June 23, 2025 As AI-powered search engines like Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews—and now AI Mode—as well as tools such as ChatGPT continue to reshape how users find information, content creators must evolve their SEO strategies to keep up. In 2024, 60% of Google searches never left the search engine results page (SERP), underscoring the need for tactics that…
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Ads Are Now in AI Search: How Google’s AI Mode Redefines SEO and Paid Visibility
May 27, 2025
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Will Melton
We knew it was coming: Google’s 2025 Marketing Live confirmed that AI search results will now include ads, changing the game for marketers. Google announced that its new AI Overviews (AI-generated search summaries) will now include Search and Shopping ads on desktop, and that the recently launched AI Mode in Google Search will also show ads. In practice, this means…
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Google’s AI Mode Just Changed Everything. Here’s What Businesses Need to Know
May 21, 2025
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Will Melton
After 27 years of Google, the era of search is over. Google’s launch of AI Mode—its full generative search experience—marks the official end of traditional search as we knew it. If you’ve built your business on organic traffic from Google, it’s past time to reassess everything. This is not a drill. It’s the acceleration of a trend that’s been in…
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Video vs. Text: Which Drives More Conversions in B2B?
May 20, 2025
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Kayleigh Crandell
In the battle for B2B buyer attention, is video or text content more effective at driving conversions? Business professionals new to digital strategy often wonder where to invest their time and budget. Both video and text have roles to play, but video content has been surging in effectiveness across the entire B2B buyer’s journey for the past several years. The…
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10 Leading AI SEO Agencies Helping Brands Rank in AI Search and Beyond
May 12, 2025
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Will Melton
Your organic traffic has taken a dump, search visibility dropped off a cliff, and paid search ads cost more but produce fewer leads. You have an agency, but they have no idea what’s happening and when you ask them for their plan to compete in the age of AI search, they give you blank stares or point to irrelevant data…
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Most of our clients don’t have the time—or interest—to scan endless industry updates, and they shouldn’t have to. That’s our job. At Xponent21, we stay on the cutting edge of digital marketing and AI-driven search so you don’t have to. Our blog distills what matters most—how to improve performance across SEO, content, video, UX, and AI visibility—so you can make confident decisions, know your investment is working, and stay ahead where it counts.
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