AI for SEO? Nope. Why I Won’t Let AI Fully Run My or My Client’s SEO
TL;DR: AI is a great assistant for SEO work and a terrible replacement for SEO judgment. I’ve been doing SEO for more than 20 years, and I use AI every day. It still can’t win my most important keywords or get my brand cited in ChatGPT and AI Overviews. And even if it could, I […]
Ecommerce Has Swung Too Far Toward AI. Here’s Why the Brands Winning Right Now Are Pulling Back.
TL;DR: I’m a huge proponent of AI… automating the mundane, building tools, moving faster. But I’m watching too many fast-growing ecommerce brands take it too far, and I think the pendulum needs to swing back. Customers can spot AI-generated content and AI-run support faster than ever, and the brands pulling ahead right now aren’t the […]
What Cloudflare’s September 15 Deadline Means for Your Ecommerce Brand
TL;DR: On September 15, 2026, Cloudflare is changing how it handles AI crawlers by default and if you don’t check your settings, you could accidentally block Google and the AI platforms your customers are starting to shop through. Cloudflare is splitting bots into three buckets (Search, Agent, and Training) instead of one blanket “allow or […]
Microsoft Clarity: The Free Tool Every Ecommerce Brand Needs for AI Search Visibility
TL;DR: A growing share of ecommerce traffic (5-7% for most brands we work with) is now coming from AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot, and that number is only going up. Two free Microsoft tools, Clarity and Bing Webmaster Tools, let you see exactly which questions are driving AI traffic to your site […]
One Huge Reason Why Your Brand Isn’t Showing Up in ChatGPT (And It’s Not a Tactics Problem)
TL;DR – Most ecommerce brands trying to win in AI search are focused on the wrong things: schema, LLMs.txt, chunking, markdown formatting. Those tactics don’t matter if your brand is sending mixed signals about who you are, what you sell, and who you serve. LLMs synthesize information from across the web to form a consensus […]
Your Competitors Are About to Steal Your AI Search Visibility – YouTube Shorts Is How You Beat Them to It
Let’s talk about something most ecommerce brands aren’t paying attention to yet… and it’s going to cost them dearly in the near future. As I’ve talked and written about before, Google’s AI Overviews are rapidly reshaping how shoppers discover products, compare solutions, and make buying decisions. That box at the top of the search results […]
Your Shopify Store Just Got a New Storefront – And You Probably Don’t Know About It
Imagine a customer opens ChatGPT, types “I need a gift for a new mom under $50,” and within seconds an AI agent browses, compares, and completes a purchase, without ever visiting a website. No Google search. No clicking through ads. No browsing your product page. If your products aren’t plugged into the right data pipelines, […]
SEO vs AEO vs GEO: What Ecommerce Brands Need to Know (And Where to Invest)
If you run or are a marketer for an ecommerce brand doing $500K-$5M in revenue, there’s a good chance your marketing strategy still revolves around a familiar playbook: Build product pages Publish blog content (maybe????) Earn backlinks Rank on Google Convert traffic That playbook still works for the most part. But it’s also missing a […]
6 AI Visibility Strategies Ecommerce Brands Should Be Using Right Now To Grow Their Digital Footprint
Let’s get one thing clear…. AI search is not Google. It doesn’t rank pages the same way. It doesn’t weigh authority the same way. And it definitely doesn’t surface content the same way. You’ve likely seen this as you’ve been using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or others and if you’re running a 6- or 7-figure […]
Top Ecommerce AI Search/LLM Optimization Agencies In The US In 2026
With millions of brands competing for attention online, search remains one of the most important ways customers discover products and services. But search is no longer limited to ranking well in Google. AI-powered search engines and large language models (LLMs) like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are now shaping how people find answers, […]
Top 7 Mistakes Ecommerce Brands Make When Hiring An AI Search Optimization Agency
TL;DR As AI transforms how consumers search, hiring the right AI search optimization agency can make or break your ecommerce growth. Many brands still rely on outdated SEO tactics, vague metrics, and one-size-fits-all strategies. This guide reveals the seven biggest mistakes ecommerce companies make when hiring an AI search agency and how to avoid them […]
When Is AI Search Optimization NOT a Good Fit For Your Brand?
TL;DR AI search optimization is powerful, but not universal. For ecommerce brands without solid SEO foundations, sufficient budgets, or long-term horizons, it can be a costly distraction. This post explains when AI optimization isn’t the right fit, what to focus on instead, and how to know when your business is ready to invest in AI-driven […]