I’ve worked on websites from multiple angles: leading digital teams, delivering complex builds, and managing marketing for small businesses where every lead matters. In every context, search has shaped the outcome, not as a marketing afterthought, but as something that influences structure, content and visibility from the start.
So when I say search has changed, I don’t mean incrementally, I mean fundamentally.
For decades, the “Holy Grail” of digital marketing was appearing on the first page of Google. We obsessed over the blue link, the featured snippet, and the coveted Position Zero. We treated search like a filing system. If we used the right tabs (keywords) and had enough social proof (backlinks), we believed we would be found.
But last year, that filing system was replaced by an ecosystem of agents.
We’re no longer optimising only for humans who click. We’re now optimising for language models that synthesise information, interpret intent and act on behalf of users. If traditional SEO was about being found, the new frontiers of AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) are about being cited, trusted and surfaced by the machines that now sit between us and our customers.
In this agentic world, visibility has changed shape. Traditional SEO ensures you can be found. But increasingly, value comes from being chosen as the answer and trusted as a source when information is summarised. The shift is subtle but significant. We are moving from optimising for clicks to optimising for interpretation.
Think of AI as a non-visual user.
As someone who is legally blind in one eye, accessibility is deeply personal to me. Too many businesses still treat accessibility as a compliance checkbox, whereas they should see it as a strategic advantage. The way AI interacts with content is closer to assistive technology than it is to human browsing.
LLMs and AI agents don’t see high-res images or fancy animations. They see structure and interpret semantic cues. If your HTML lacks clear hierarchy, if your alt text is missing or unhelpful, your content becomes invisible to the very engines you want to reach.
In the synthesis economy, unstructured data is invisible data. Accessibility is no longer just ethical design; it is discoverability. That is a reality in 2026.
Visibility is now structural
If search is becoming interpretive, then traditional SEO is no longer enough. Not because keywords are irrelevant, but because relevance is now determined by comprehension.
AI does not just read content. It evaluates credibility. It maps relationships. It looks for signals of authorship, authority and trust. Organisations that want to be repeated, cited or surfaced need to become easier to verify.
This is where “entity trust” matters. Not as a technical concept, but as a strategic one. Content needs to connect to real people, real organisations and real expertise. If a system cannot confidently attribute a claim, it is less likely to reuse it.
The same principle applies to structure. AI increasingly favours content that is clear, extractable and answer-oriented. Not because it is lazy, but because the user experience depends on speed and certainty. Pages that explain processes, outcomes and proof points in plain language are easier to interpret and more likely to be surfaced.
And finally, depth matters. Thin content is not just underwhelming; it is incomplete. AI systems reward contextual completeness, which means fewer shallow pages and more deliberate clusters of insight. Case studies, summaries and structured explanations don’t just help humans. They help your brand become legible.
Search is evolving from retrieval to interpretation. That shift affects every organisation that publishes information online, from global brands to government agencies. In this new layer of the web, clarity, credibility and accessibility are not enhancements; they are prerequisites.