The End of Search Engines: What Business Owners Must Know

0:00So the biggest change in marketing isn't social media. In fact, it's not Google, it's not Facebook, it's not YouTube, it's AI. And most business owners don't realize just how dramatic this shift is. Today, we're going to explore that. I want you to think about this. 10 years ago, people searched Google. Today, most people ask ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity or, but mostly ChatGPT is about 70 % of the market at this point of recording. Tomorrow, they'll simply ask AI assistants, okay? And whoever gets recommended wins, not whoever ranks. See, you got to remember, AI is an answer engine, not a search engine.

0:42Whoever gets recommended, that changes everything. Today, we're talking about AI. Search visibility, trust, authority, and the future of demand for you and I. Because the businesses that adapt will dominate. The businesses that don't may become invisible. I remember just three months ago looking at my AI visibility score and sitting there going, hang on, I'm doing real well on chat GPT. I'm up strong on Claude. Perplexity. I don't even rank. I don't even show up. And with perplexity growing at the rate it is. So these are some of the things we're doing to understand. Okay, so the death of traditional search is here.

1:22For 20 years, marketing followed a simple formula. The customer had a question, customer searched Google, customer clicked on links, customer visited websites, and the customer, or potential customer should I say, made the decision. And that process is disappearing, not completely, but very rapidly today. Today, customers increasingly ask AI. Even if they are using Google, they're probably using Gemini or they're probably clicking the AI link or they've automatically decided to stay on the AI version of Google at this point. So if they ask AI things like, you know, who, what's the best business coach near me?

2:00What's the best accounting software for my business? What's the best CRM for a doctor? What's the best consultant for IT changes in? You know, the AI doesn't provide 10 blue links. It provides them with recommendation. The move from search to answers, Google was a search engine. They're obviously moving towards an AI engine at this point. But all AI has been built as an answer engine. And if you understand the difference, search required you as a customer to investigate or your customers to investigate. AI is giving you and your customers or potential customers conclusions. And that's a massive shift because customers increasingly trust the answer and not necessarily the research process.

2:47So if you think about the new question that people ask in this AI age, they still want to get the information, but it's AI's interpretation of it. So the old question was, can people find me? The new question is, will AI recommend me? Big difference between being found and being recommended. And if the answer's no, we won't recommend you, your visibility declines. If the answer's yes, then obviously your visibility increases dramatically. So what is it that AI trusts in this day and age? And this is where it gets interesting. AI doesn't trust advertisements, if that makes sense. It trusts signals.

3:26Okay, and if we start thinking about the signals that it looks for, reviews are definitely on the list. Authority, listicles, where you're listed on a list type thing. You know, historically, if you'd put a list together of the top 10, like for me, top 10 business coaches, I wouldn't put myself on the list. Today, you have to put yourself on as number one. It also has signals like content, articles that are well written, frameworks that you've created. Mentions are massive on the list. Citations are massive on the list. Publications, definitely up there. Reputation, all the reputation markers are definitely on the list.

4:03Awards that you've won, all of these things. Being on Wikipedia, massive, way more massive than it used to be. Reddit chats. Consistency is also something that AI trusts. The same things humans trust, AI simply measures them at scale. So really authority is becoming an everything fight for right now in social media or in media overall. For years I've taught authority lowers resistance. Now authority also improves discoverability. The more authority you have, the more you mention, the more you reference, the more you cited, the more you trusted. Authority is no longer just a sales advantage, it's a search advantage.

4:43Or should I say an answer advantage and I think that's probably a big part of it. I mean, LinkedIn matters more than ever. Many people still underestimate LinkedIn, I think, and I think that's a big mistake. LinkedIn's become one of the most trusted professional content platforms in the world. Your history is right there, your background, everything about you, how many people have referred you or referenced you or acknowledged you. AI systems increasingly are referencing professional content, thought leadership, expertise. Your LinkedIn newsletter every week is important. See, LinkedIn helps establish all things, content, thought leadership, and expertise.

5:25Especially if you're B2B and you're ignoring LinkedIn, you're ignoring one of the strongest authority building platforms that we have available today. I want to go back to also the Reddit effect, okay? It's a surprising development, but I think that communities and opinions matter today. Forums matter. Conversations matter. And Reddit's become one of the largest trust databases on the internet. And some people ask, why is that the case? Well, because people trust people. They don't trust so much corporate messaging. They trust real conversations, real experiences. And this is, again, why I think that having testimonials published so that they can be seen.

6:06And we'll talk more about that in a moment. But real experiences, real opinions, all of those things, AI increasingly sees those conversations and ranks them as important. And it's almost like if you think of what SEO used to be, I think reviews are the new SEO. Let's be blunt about it. Reviews matter more today than ever before because reviews influence, well, not just AI, but they also review, sorry, they also influence customers, search engines, and let's be blunt, search engines are not dead. I'm not saying that in any way, shape, or form. Yes, all of this stuff influences AI systems, but reviews create trust signals for SEO and AI.

6:52So all of them, the businesses with stronger trust signals today become more visible. It really is that simple. Let's think of the content library advantage that I've been talking about now for weeks. You know, the content compounds. Think about your content differently going forward. Every article, every podcast you go on, every webinar, every video, every book, every case study. I'm literally adding a page to my website which lists every single interview I've ever done, every single award we've ever won, every single podcast I've been on with the transcript so AI can read it. Now with Google saying they're going to reduce the number of pages they're going to be spider searching through, it's like hang on how's this going to work out?

7:39Well every one of these becomes part of your digital footprint. The larger your footprint is the easier it becomes for AI to understand who you are, what you do, and why you're credible. So this is why podcasts matter, not just a podcast you're doing, like for me doing this podcast, but podcasts you appear on. I basically attend or appear on two podcasts a week at the moment just to make sure that I can be found. And these things are knowledge assets. They're not just trust builders anymore. Every episode teaches, it explains, it demonstrates expertise, you tell stories, you get asked different questions in different ways.

8:18Over time, hundreds of episodes create a massive authority footprint. And that's valuable, not just for people, your potential customers, but for AI as well. I know with all of my podcasts that I've been on, making sure that, and this is where I said, my perplexity score was low. My score on Claude was low. But once it started to learn all of these things, and this is where I think the personal brand advantage kicks in. AI understands people more easily than corporations. Think about that. People have stories, interviews, pods, books, e-books, speeches, content, reviews, testimonials, all of those sorts of things.

9:00And the more visible your personal brand becomes, the easier it becomes for AI systems to understand your expertise. And it's another reason why personal brands matter. And you may need to go back a couple of my podcasts ago to really understand the depth to which that will kick in. So I think about a graph and maybe it's like the knowledge graph effect. The internet has always been one giant ball of information, right? Well, I think it's becoming now a giant knowledge graph because the AI has the ability to connect. The computing power shift has made it so different to what it used to be. Historically, it could archive everything and then share with you the most important parts.

9:47That's what Google did. Well, AI connects people, companies, ideas, industries, expertise. The more connections you create, the more visible you become. And this is why I will say this over and over again, guest podcasts, radio interviews, TV interviews. Like I did a radio show in the UK. First time it went live, 135 ,000 listeners. The second time over 120 ,000 listeners. The articles that you're quoted in or that you're in, partnerships that you work on, these matter so much because they create connections. And you'll rarely hear me say, okay, I want to be the niche because I love being the platform.

10:27but oftentimes now we're seeing niche wins, okay? And this might just be that your content needs to niche down as well, or niche, sorry, for some parts of the world. Generalists may struggle and specialists may thrive in this. Why? Because AI loves real clarity. If you're trying to be everything for everyone, AI will struggle to categorize you. See, like if you're the expert, the specialist, or the authority on a certain thing, AI can understand you immediately. And that's why specialization can create better visibility for certain people. You know, whether it's geographical or whether it's industry specific or whether it's a topic of specificity, that to me is really important.

11:09Now, are we saying it's the end of keyword thinking? Almost. You know, old SEO focused on keywords. New visibility focuses on expertise. think less about how do I rank for this phrase and more about how do I become known for this subject? You know, other people reference me, other people mention. I think social mentions and article mentions and podcast mentions. See, authority will beat optimization is my basic guess of where it's going to be. So when we look at the future of content, most content today is becoming real commodity. AI can generate commodity, gang. AI can generate information. What AI struggles to generate is experience, stories, opinions, wisdom, judgment, frameworks.

11:59I know for me, I built a whole new section of my website just on the frameworks that'll go live in a couple of weeks. And I think that's your advantage. The future belongs to people who combine expertise, experience, and personality. Let me say that again. The future of content, in my opinion, is where we combine expertise, experience, and personality. I think human trust still matters. And despite everything AI changes, humans still buy from humans. Humans still trust stories. Humans still trust proof. And they still trust relationships. AI can accelerate things, and it can especially accelerate discovery, but trust still closes the sale.

12:42The more ratings, rankings, reviews, testimonials, articles, mentions you have, that trust accelerates the discovery, but it builds your level of trust and authority out there. Never forget that. So there is a great opportunity for all of us right now, especially if you're on this pod, because it means you're ahead of the curve, if that makes sense. Most business owners are behind right now. That's just the reality. And this creates a massive opportunity for you and me. The businesses that act now can build enormous advantages. Imagine creating 500 articles, 200 podcast episodes, 1 ,000 videos, hundreds of reviews over the next few years, right?

13:22Not this week or this month say, hey, AI, write me 500 articles and publish them. It doesn't work that way. See, if you do it over the next few years, the authority gap will become enormous between you and the next person. It's very difficult for competitors to close the gap once you have that content lead, okay? Remember, content compounds. If you can, over the next few years, put in a strong effort and build, this is where I say, what should a business owner do right now or the head of marketing do right now? Focus on these things. reviews massively important right now content massively important authority building anywhere awards etc that builds authority linkedin you got to be thinking linkedin podcasts your own interviewing your customers interviewing your staff interviewing your suppliers but podcasts you can attend and be on personal branding today very much on the list seventh i would focus on customer stories.

14:23Make sure you've got case studies and stories out there. Eighth, community building. The more your community chats about you, and especially if that's out in the open, the better. Thought leadership, obviously. Expertise. That's the top 10, if you ask me. And these are long-term assets, gang, not short-term tactics. Don't think of this as a do it this week type thing. It's a strategy. You've got to shift to, as I said a few pods ago, a media company. Questions to ask yourself, and that's, would AI know who I am? Would AI know what I do? Would AI recommend me? Am I creating enough authority today?

15:00Am I creating enough content? Am I becoming known for something out there or something specific? Am I remaining visible? And that's where it leads us to these common mistakes that happen way too often at the moment. Obviously, ignoring AI and And ignoring reviews, ignoring those things is just putting your head in the sand. If you don't build a strategy for authority, a strategy for content, a strategy for your personal brand, that to me is a big mistake. The keyword obsession turning into more, and it's still, that's a short-term thinking mistake. You've got to be thinking long-term with your content strategy.

15:40The future belongs to trusted experts, not anonymous companies. So build long-term strategy right now. Put that in place. Think about it. Debate it. Go back, re-watch the last few pods and get this clear. I'll give you an action challenge for right now, okay? Ask AI these questions, okay? Just three of them. Number one, who are the leaders in my industry? What companies dominate my category? And what experts are recommended? If you appear, great. If you don't, start building authority assets required to change that. Now, whatever the answers are, spend another five or 10 minutes asking it, why this?

16:18Why that? How did that happen? Why did you rank me here? Why didn't you rank me there? That's going to be an important aspect behind all of this. So the future of marketing isn't about ranking. It's about being recommended. The future of search isn't about links. It's about trust and authority. And the businesses that become the most trusted will become the most visible.

16:44Thank you.