Eric Richmond is a (recovering) rock and roll roadie and President of Expert SEO Consulting, a Connecticut-based digital marketing consultancy he founded in 2006. With nearly two decades focused on organic search, Eric now specializes in AI search optimization — helping businesses get cited and recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and other generative platforms. He is also the creator of CiteMetrix, an AI citation tracking platform, and Chatly, an AI-powered chatbot for WordPress. Before Expert SEO Consulting, Eric held senior roles at Complex Media, TechMediaNetwork, 360i, and Grey Interactive, and has spoken on search optimization at SMX, SES, HSMAI, and MTMP. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Internet Oldtimers Foundation and is a founding Board Member of the US Internet Pioneers Foundation. A lifelong car enthusiast, Eric is the founder of Cars and Coffee Darien — held at the historic starting line of the 1979 Cannonball Run — and Cars and Coffee Events, the largest car and motorcycle event listing website in the US. He is an accredited member of the International Motor Press Association, and on weekends you can often find him and his Mazda Miata on the track at Lime Rock Park.
AI search is no longer a side feature layered on top of traditional results. It is now the front door to discovery for a growing share of users, and that changes everything about how brands earn visibility online. If you’re still obsessing over where you rank in the "ten blue links," you’re essentially fighting for…
Let’s be honest: the old marketing funnel doesn’t feel like much of a funnel anymore. If you’re still measuring success by how many blue links you’ve turned into clicks, you’re playing a game that ended two years ago. People are getting answers faster, making decisions earlier, and forming opinions before they ever reach a website.…
Let’s be honest: the era of "ten blue links" isn't just dying: it’s effectively a ghost. If you’ve spent the last decade perfecting your keyword density and backlink profile, you’ve done a great job for the 2010s. But it’s 2026, and the game has fundamentally changed. According to the latest data, a staggering 58% of…
Let’s face it: the traditional "ten blue links" era of Google is effectively a relic of the past. If you haven't looked at a search results page lately, you might have missed the fact that 58% of Google searches are now AI-powered. Whether it’s Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, or ChatGPT’s SearchGPT, the way users consume…
58% of Google searches are now AI-powered. Take a second to let that number sink in. If you’re still operating under the assumption that SEO is just about keywords and backlink counts, you’re missing the seismic shift happening under your feet. We aren’t just optimizing for human users anymore; we are optimizing for highly sophisticated,…
It is Wednesday, May 6, 2026, and the digital landscape has fundamentally shifted. If you are still relying on a static XML sitemap and hoping a weekly crawl will keep your rankings afloat, you are already behind. The numbers don’t lie: 58% of Google searches are now AI-powered. We are no longer optimizing for a…
Let this sink in for a second – the majority of Google Searches are AI-powered. We aren’t talking about a “future trend” or a “beta test” anymore. In April 2026, the traditional list of ten blue links is effectively the backup plan. The primary real estate: the “Position Zero” of the modern era: is the…
58% of Google searches are now AI-powered. Think about that for a second: more than half of the queries your potential customers are typing into their phones are being filtered, summarized, and served by an AI engine before a human ever sees a traditional blue link. We are no longer living in the era of…
58% of Google searches are now AI-powered. If that statistic doesn't make you pause, it should. We aren't just optimizing for a list of blue links anymore; we are optimizing for a world where AI agents synthesize, translate, and serve content directly to users. In this new landscape, the margin for error has vanished. If…
58% of Google searches are now AI-powered. Let that sink in for a second. If you’re still looking at your SEO strategy through the lens of 2023, you aren’t just behind: you’re essentially invisible to more than half of your potential market. The traditional "blue link" era hasn't ended, but it has certainly been demoted.…