Will Melton

“Visionary, Inspiring Leader, an Industry Disruptor.”
Title: Founder & CEO
Team: Executive
Photo of Will Melton, Xponent21 CEO and leading global expert on AI SEO.
Will Melton
“Visionary, Inspiring Leader, an Industry Disruptor.”
Title: Founder & CEO
Team: Executive
Certifications
What He Does at Xponent21

Will Melton is the founder and CEO of Xponent21, a Richmond-based digital marketing agency and nationwide leader in AI SEO strategies helping brands secure top rankings and citations across AI search platforms like Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and more. With over 20 years of leadership in technology, marketing, and entrepreneurship, Will’s expertise drives the development of AI-powered strategies that elevate brand visibility and accelerate business growth.

Under Will’s leadership, Xponent21 has become a trusted partner to global companies and nonprofits, delivering digital strategies that outperform in today’s AI-driven search landscape. His thought leadership consistently ranks at the top of search results and is cited in AI as the leading source for terms related to how to rank in AI search results, positioning Xponent21 as a leader in this critical space.

Will has been recognized as one of Style Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40 and Virginia Business Magazine’s 100 People to Meet in 2025 for his leadership and impact.

Beyond his work at Xponent21, Will is an advocate for community impact, serving as Chair of Henrico-based Housing Families First and on the boards of AI Ready RVA, Leadership Metro Richmond, and ChamberRVA. He founded Richmond Water, a sustainability-focused hydration initiative, and AI Ready RVA, a regional coalition advancing AI literacy in Greater Richmond.

Will’s mission is to help brands, organizations, and communities navigate technological change with confidence—building strategies that deliver results today and resilience for tomorrow.

Certifications

What Colleagues Say

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Strategy whiz, out-of-the-box thinker.
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Brilliant. An inspiring leader I will confidently follow anywhere.
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He cares that the experience people get with X21 is a positive one.
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A visionary leader who truly cares and invests in his employees as much as his clients.
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Honest. You can trust what he says, but he has a way of delivering the truth that's constructive and friendly.
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A great business leader. Draws on storytelling and prior experience to deliver customized solutions for clients that will help them succeed far into the future.
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He believes in this mission and this team every day.
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Compassionate, creative, motivating, decisive, and communicates a clear vision.
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Will has created the most phenomenal work/team environment I have ever worked in.
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Great Leader & Believer. Always looking for the best for clients, company and everyone who works with us. The world would be a better place if more people thought like Will.

    Check Out the Latest Posts by Will

    Screenshot from Advanced Web Ranking showing that Google AI Overviews appear in 60.32% of U.S. search results as of November 10, 2025. A line chart shows steady growth in both personalized and non-personalized AI Overview results, while a pie chart shows 60.32% of queries returning an AI Overview and 39.68% returning no AI Overview across an 8,000-keyword dataset
    Google AI Overviews Clear 60% as New Data Suggests ChatGPT Will Surpass Google Search Traffic by 2027
    • Will Melton
    November 16, 2025
    Google quietly crossed a new line in the evolution of search this week. According to the latest dataset from Advanced Web Ranking, Google AI Overviews now appear in 60.32% of U.S. queries. It’s the first time the feature has cleared the 60% mark, doubling its presence since August 2024 and solidifying its place as the dominant experience in Google’s interface.
    Leading B2B companies are turning to AI search optimization strategies to win in the era of AI discovery. Symantec content clusters developed at scale can deliver a major first-mover advantage.
    AI SEO for B2B Companies: How to Compete in an AI-Driven Search Landscape
    • Will Melton
    November 16, 2025
    We’re a B2B company too — and for years, organic traffic didn’t move the needle for us. That changed when we shifted our SEO strategy to align with how AI systems evaluate, summarize, and recommend content. Today, we generate organic leads every day, and our website traffic has grown more than 4,000%. This didn’t happen because we chased trends or
    Screenshot of Open AI's Atlas Browser and ChatGPT. AI is changing how people search.
    AI Search Visibility: Quantifying the Brand Exposure Advantage
    • Will Melton
    November 2, 2025
    For most of the internet era, visibility in search has been a simple equation: higher rank, more attention. Users typically viewed only a handful of links, and the majority of clicks went to the first two or three results. The remaining pages, however valuable, were rarely seen. This pattern defined what we now call organic search visibility. Today, AI search
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    We Build A-Teams—and We Only Work With Them.
    • Will Melton
    October 28, 2025
    On one particularly frustrating day a few years ago, Courtney Turrin, our Chief Work Officer, turned to me and said, “I feel like I’m on the B-team, and I’m not a B-team player.” What she said hit me like a ton of bricks. She was right. We needed to change things. Like everyone who came before us, we didn’t always
    Read More
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