How Xponent21 Became a Globally Recognized Authority in AI SEO

Around the world, marketers are racing to adapt to the new search landscape shaped by artificial intelligence. While many claim to be AI SEO experts, few can prove it.

At Xponent21, we’ve built an international reputation for helping businesses optimize for both search engines and AI systems through rigorous experimentation, formal training, and community leadership.

Our expertise wasn’t earned overnight. It began with a single experiment—on ourselves.

From Experiment to Expertise: Our AI SEO Origin Story

We started by testing AI SEO techniques on our own website, using it as a live laboratory for what worked in the new search environment. The goal was simple: learn exactly how AI systems interpret, rank, and recommend web content.

The outcome? A measurable rise in visibility across AI-driven search platforms—and a proven framework for success. Our AI SEO case study detailed how we achieved top AI rankings through precision, experimentation, and content engineering.

The takeaway: AI SEO success isn’t luck—it’s the result of testing, data, and disciplined learning.

Since launching our experiment, we’ve emerged as a leading voice in AI search optimization. One of our top-performing insights has drawn more than 150,000 views in just 12 months, with readers spending an average of 2 minutes and 55 seconds engaging with the content—proof that strong strategy and valuable ideas earn lasting attention.

Our success in the experiment reaffirmed what we already knew: the future of SEO would require a new kind of expertise. To build on those results and strengthen our leadership in this emerging discipline, we invested in formal AI SEO training and certification for our team.

Certified Training: Building True AI SEO Expertise

AI-Powered Workflows and Content Optimization

Our leadership and senior strategy team—including Courtney, Chuck, and Kiryako—earned their Content Engineering Certifications through AirOps.

This advanced AI SEO training focuses on:

• AI-powered content strategy and semantic structure
• Brand-driven content development for consistent tone and authority
• Custom-built workflows and automation for scalable optimization

Certification in this new field of content engineering became the foundation of how we approach every SEO engagement, aligning human creativity, business goals, and brand identity with machine intelligence.

As our leaders’ expertise deepened, we wanted to create pathways for emerging professionals to build theirs.

Developing Future Experts: The AI SEO Internship Program

We believe the next generation of SEO professionals should grow up fluent in AI. That’s why our AI SEO intern Garry was immersed in hands-on projects applying large language models to keyword clustering, content optimization, and SERP intelligence.

For his internship capstone, Garry recently presented a culminating project that applied an Inbound-Driven SEO Intelligence (IDSI) Framework to a new tool he’s developing in Lovable. The tool leverages buyer personas, deep industry expertise in golf, and our AI SEO methodology to attract qualified traffic, strengthen brand loyalty, and drive revenue for an AI-powered companion app designed for golf fitting.

The internship program gives emerging talent real experience implementing AI workflows, bridging theory and application. It’s how we ensure our team—and our industry—continue to evolve.

Building on that momentum, we expanded our internal training into a formal education program created to support the broader SEO industry.

Expanding Access: The AI SEO Leadership Certificate Course

Education shouldn’t stop at our agency’s walls. We created the AI SEO Leadership Blueprint, an AI SEO professional certificate course to share our methods with both in-house teams and external SEO specialists worldwide.

The course covers:

• AI SEO fundamentals and evolving search behaviors
• Optimizing for AI Overviews and LLM citation visibility
• Prompt-driven content strategy for scalable production
• Leadership skills for managing AI-integrated marketing teams

This program has become a cornerstone of AI SEO training amongst our growing team—rooted in real agency experience, not theory. We’ll be releasing the course, complete with videos and exercises in Fall 2025.

Leading Global Collaboration: A New Community & New Trade Tools

To continue shaping the discipline, we are building Discover AIO, an international community of AI SEO experts, marketers, and innovators.

Here, professionals can share research, compare results, and define what best-in-class AI optimization (AIO) looks like. Professionals can create directory listings, contribute to our body of content, and leverage the platform to establish authority in our field. Through this community, Xponent21 is fostering a worldwide exchange of ideas that accelerates progress for the business community as a whole.

Faced with the need to rapidly scale our own delivery for our growing list of clients, we’re building an AI SEO management platform for agencies and professionals. Internally we’re calling it Trust because much of the work that we do is centered around building trust with the audiences who we are working to attract. It’s designed as an AI Visibility & Trust Scorecard but it has grown to include many of the management functions of an AI optimizer.

The platform assists strategists with completing rigorous evaluations, cataloging content from across a brand’s ecosystem, planning future content and optimization activities, developing work plans that are aligned with service offerings to easily scope in future projects, generating reports and presentations outlining the status of a brand’s AI optimization efforts. We’re also building in agency management features to align activities with profitability.

Why AI SEO Training Matters More Than Ever

Today, search success depends on understanding how machines understand. AI SEO isn’t about guessing the next algorithm update—it’s about aligning content with how large language models process meaning, trust, and relevance.

That requires:

• Ongoing AI SEO training and skill development
• Proven content engineering techniques
• The ability to translate AI behavior into actionable strategies

At Xponent21, this blend of knowledge and practice is what makes us true AI SEO experts—not just early adopters.

Proof in Performance: From Experiment to Global Recognition

Our authority didn’t come from claims—it came from outcomes. Our AI SEO case study and client results prove that our strategies achieve visibility and impact across both traditional and AI-powered search platforms.

Check out this client case study to learn how we drove visibility in AI Overviews, featured snippets, organic search results, and video carousels for a client by producing optimized FAQs paired with videos.

By combining continuous training, experimentation, and measurable success, we’ve become one of the few agencies truly qualified to call ourselves AI SEO experts—recognized globally for the rigor behind our results.

Partner with the Experts Defining the Future of AI SEO

If you’re ready to grow your visibility in the AI-driven search era, partner with a team that has already mastered the transition.

At Xponent21, we don’t just talk about AI SEO—we train it, teach it, and prove it.

Explore our AI SEO services, enroll in the AI SEO Leadership Certificate Course, or join the Discover AIO community to start building your own expertise.

Ready to get started? Let’s launch your visibility journey with an SEO technical audit. Schedule a call today.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Courtney Turrin

Chief Work Officer at Xponent21

As the company’s number two employee, Courtney has helped guide the direction of our business, build a powerhouse team, and implement technology and workflows to improve service delivery and produce outsized results for our clients. Her current role sits at the intersection of analytics, work management, and operations. Drawing on her background in scientific research, Courtney designs efficient processes and supports our teams so they can better serve our clients. She holds masters degrees in Biology and Psychology/Neuroscience from the College of William and Mary and Yale University, respectively. Offline, Courtney is a plant whisperer, Peloton enthusiast, and proud pet mom.

Latest posts by Courtney Turrin (see all)

• How Xponent21 Became a Globally Recognized Authority in AI SEO - October 8, 2025
• The ROI of AI SEO: How ROI Stacking Multiplies Revenue, Efficiency, and Brand Value - September 10, 2025
• Timing Is Everything: How Human Energy Cycles Drive Digital Behavior (and AI SEO Results) - August 19, 2025