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.

How to Choose the Best SEO Consulting Company in 2026 (AI-Era Comparison Guide)

The SEO consulting landscape has fundamentally transformed in 2026. With AI-powered search experiences now driving 47% of all organic traffic and Google’s Search Generative Experience becoming the default for complex queries, choosing the right SEO partner is no longer just about traditional rankings: it’s about survival in an AI-dominated search ecosystem. Here’s the reality: 73%…

7 Signs Your SEO Consultant Isn’t Ready for Generative Search

Here's the brutal truth: 73% of businesses are still paying for outdated SEO strategies that won't work in the age of AI search. While you're burning budget on keyword rankings that matter less each month, your competitors are optimizing for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity: where your customers are actually finding answers. If your…

Thought Leadership Content: How To Build Authority And Trust With Your Audience

Here's the reality: 70% of marketers actively invest in content marketing, yet only 29% of B2B organizations report having a documented content strategy. This gap represents a massive opportunity: and it's exactly where thought leadership content becomes your competitive advantage. Thought leadership is no longer optional for businesses serious about building authority online. It's the…

How to Use Screaming Frog’s Log File Analyzer to Track AI Bot Crawling

AI bots are crawling your website right now, and you probably don’t even know it. While traditional search engine crawlers like Googlebot have been on SEO professionals’ radar for decades, a new generation of artificial intelligence crawlers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, and other AI platforms are silently consuming your content for training data, real-time citations,…

Forensic SEO Explained in Under 5 Minutes: How to Diagnose Traffic Drops Like an Expert

73% of websites that experience sudden traffic drops never fully recover their rankings. That's not because recovery is impossible: it's because most business owners approach traffic loss the wrong way. They panic, make random changes, or worse, ignore the problem hoping it'll fix itself. Here's the thing: when your organic traffic tanks, you need forensic…

Google AI Overviews Guide Research, But Classic Search Still Wins the Sale

Google’s AI Overviews dominate the research phase, but traditional search results still drive the actual sales. Recent data from BrightEdge reveals a clear division in how consumers navigate their buying journey: and understanding this split is no longer optional for businesses that want to stay competitive. The Research vs. Sales Reality AI Overvivers have become…

Are Traditional SEO Services Dead? What Businesses Need to Know About AI Search in 2025

The death of SEO has been greatly exaggerated. While 34% of businesses report decreased click-through rates from Google's AI Overviews, and zero-click searches now account for nearly 65% of all queries, traditional SEO services aren't dying: they're undergoing the most fundamental transformation in the industry's 25-year history. Here's what's actually happening: SEO is evolving, not…

Google’s New AI Tool ‘Opal’ for Scalable Content Creation

Google has quietly launched one of its most ambitious AI tools yet: and it's creating waves across the digital marketing world. Opal, a no-code AI application builder, promises to help businesses "create optimized content in a scalable way." But here's where it gets interesting: Google's own marketing language for Opal appears to directly contradict their…