[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4015},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-article-leadership-ai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard":3,"header-articles":576,"updatesSection-all":2312,"updatesSection-all-team":3058},{"_path":4,"_dir":5,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":8,"description":9,"_schema":10,"authors":11,"date":13,"img":14,"imgAlt":15,"body":16,"_type":496,"_id":497,"_source":498,"_file":499,"_stem":500,"_extension":501,"category":5,"minutes":502,"people":503},"/blog/leadership/ai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard","leadership",false,"","AI, Agencies, and the Future of Expertise with Kerry Guard","Kerry joins Alex and Jake on the Hypeworks Podcast to break down how AI is reshaping agencies—creating both risk and opportunity.","default",[12],"Kerry Guard","2026-03-20T12:00:00Z","/images/hypeworks.webp","Hype Works  Podcast",{"type":17,"children":18,"toc":487},"root",[19,28,34,39,44,47,54,67,73,78,83,88,93,98,103,108,113,118,123,128,133,138,143,148,153,158,163,168,173,178,183,188,193,198,203,208,213,218,223,228,233,238,243,248,253,258,263,268,273,278,283,288,293,298,303,308,313,318,323,328,333,338,343,348,353,358,363,368,373,378,383,388,393,398,403,408,413,418,423,428,433,438,443,448,453,458,463,468,473,478,483],{"type":20,"tag":21,"props":22,"children":24},"element","h3",{"id":23},"overview",[25],{"type":26,"value":27},"text","Overview",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":30,"children":31},"p",{},[32],{"type":26,"value":33},"AI is reshaping how agencies operate, but it’s not a simple replacement story. In this conversation, Kerry Guard explores the tension between speed and expertise—where some companies are leaning heavily on AI, while others are realizing that tools alone can’t replace strategic thinking.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":35,"children":36},{},[37],{"type":26,"value":38},"Kerry breaks down why low-quality “AI slop” is on the rise, how agencies can evolve instead of becoming obsolete, and why product–market fit still matters more than ever.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":40,"children":41},{},[42],{"type":26,"value":43},"The takeaway is clear: AI will change how work gets done, but real value will come from the teams who know how to use it with clarity, depth, and purpose.",{"type":20,"tag":21,"props":45,"children":46},{"id":7},[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":49,"children":51},"h2",{"id":50},"take-a-listen",[52],{"type":26,"value":53},"Take a listen",{"type":20,"tag":55,"props":56,"children":66},"iframe",{"dataTestid":57,"style":58,"src":59,"width":60,"height":61,"frameBorder":62,"allowFullScreen":63,"allow":64,"loading":65},"embed-iframe","border-radius:12px","https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/4wzSHptRmd4o5leirfk10l/video?utm_source=generator",624,351,"0",true,"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture","lazy",[],{"type":20,"tag":21,"props":68,"children":70},{"id":69},"transcript",[71],{"type":26,"value":72},"Transcript:",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":74,"children":75},{},[76],{"type":26,"value":77},"Alex 0:00",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":79,"children":80},{},[81],{"type":26,"value":82},"It's all right, it's Alex on the highways podcast episode 61, we have with us, Jake, hello as usual. And also joining today is Kerry Guard. Nice to have you, Kerry. So we were just sort of riffing offline about how agencies are being disrupted with AI. So let's get into that, because that's kind of like a really burning topic, and we haven't really talked about that, Jake, have we? We've talked a lot about the technical side of AI and business models and related to, like, a typical kind of company situation, but we haven't talked about the agency side. So that is this",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":84,"children":85},{},[86],{"type":26,"value":87},"Jake 0:43",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":89,"children":90},{},[91],{"type":26,"value":92},"So that's the part we should do, though, because it's kind of how we both ended up here.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":94,"children":95},{},[96],{"type":26,"value":97},"Alex 0:49",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":99,"children":100},{},[101],{"type":26,"value":102},"Yes, that is right. We've gone from we've gone from agency to product and more platform stuff. But anyway, you're an agency. You're an agency. So maybe you can sort of just give us your perspective, like where you kind of were, like, in terms of the agency world, and then take us to today, with the current AI situation.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":104,"children":105},{},[106],{"type":26,"value":107},"Kerry Guard 1:15",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":109,"children":110},{},[111],{"type":26,"value":112},"Yeah. I mean, it's interesting and exciting. There are sort of two camps in how AI has impacted the agency world before. We were very much looked towards as the experts that we were bringing on for our expertise, that we were going to help create extra manpower and support in terms of making sure that content production is going to end up in the SERPs, so on and so forth. And now with AI, it's sort of splitting into two camps. One camp is which literally just happened to us, where we got let go because they figured the marketing manager could do everything that we were doing, thanks to the help of AI. On the flip side, we just got hired because the VP of Marketing said that their marketing manager was too dependent on AI, and she was running in circles and didn't know which way was up, and needed help, and brought us and is now bringing us off. So the AI psychosis, literally, yeah, so it's definitely impacting us, but I also feel like it's an opportunity in terms of helping people understand that AI is great for people to use it as something that makes you go faster when already having the information and knowing what it is and being an expert In the space and then having AI at your disposal makes you be able to go so much deeper and faster at the same time, which we never really had before. Either you had people very shallow but going very fast, or you had people very deep, going very slow. And now there's this, like a lovely middle ground, but you still need the expert in the seat to do the thing.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":114,"children":115},{},[116],{"type":26,"value":117},"Jake 3:00",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":119,"children":120},{},[121],{"type":26,"value":122},"I agree. There's, you know, I think, not to, not to sound like I'm whining here, but there's a, there's a lot of people these days like running Claude code boot camps and open claw boot camps that, who knows how they're actually applying both of those technologies in their day to day, but they suddenly have a group of 1000 people that they're training, or they're getting experts in, or they're outsourcing, I'm not entirely sure. So I think that the hot there is a gold rush as well, and in that gold rush, there are still people that are shallow, but running faster than ever.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":124,"children":125},{},[126],{"type":26,"value":127},"Kerry Guard 3:43",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":129,"children":130},{},[131],{"type":26,"value":132},"Yeah, but it's dangerous. Who's it dangerous for? Gosh, everybody, I mean, especially for the end user, right? Like the amount of slop out there that we have to sort through to get to the good information is like compounding very quickly, right? And if you don't have users, then you don't have money and opportunity to, you know, do more, right? So like, I feel like, if we ostracize them, most importantly, we're in deep trouble. But then even for ourselves, you know, doing really good work and feeling good about it and putting good out into the world. Yeah, I think it's something we're losing, and that's just kind of a bummer. In my opinion.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":134,"children":135},{},[136],{"type":26,"value":137},"Jake 4:32",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":139,"children":140},{},[141],{"type":26,"value":142},"I would agree with that. I also think Alex likes to come back to a conversation that we had earlier, because I feel like the chicken and egg situation these days is really egg before chicken, whichever way you want to see that. But you know, growing an audience and then building the product is a new model that I think is more prevalent now because of things like AI and people being able to build MVPs very quickly. Vibe, coded tools, or even just AI content or distribution of content through automated systems that people are building an audience, such as the open core boot camp, and then they're finding a way to, like, crowbar some sort of product into it. Now that might seem a little bit unethical, but the one moat that AI doesn't have is distribution, and that's also, I guess, that's what I think is dangerous, at least, I think that is dangerous, giving people who don't know what they're doing a potential massive audience to do some real harm. I mean, we can just switch this into a different topic now, because it's very relevant. But the Louis Theroux documentary, I've not seen it, but, you know, I think that the outcome of that documentary, I'm not sure if you know what I'm talking about, Kerry about the enter the manosphere, regardless of what you think about the topic, the I think the takeaway for me was the there's a lot of people out there, just generally in the world, regardless of whatever sphere that they exist in, that have insane amounts of power, insane amounts of influence, through building audiences in a certain topic, or just sounding like an authority in something that they might not necessarily be an expert in.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":144,"children":145},{},[146],{"type":26,"value":147},"Kerry Guard 6:24",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":149,"children":150},{},[151],{"type":26,"value":152},"Yeah, super dangerous. I Yeah. That documentary was definitely eye-opening for so many, not for others. It was sort of a no-duh. It's an interesting conversation that's sort of happening on, you know, the social media platforms. But I would agree, I the echo chamber, right? Getting caught up in that echo chamber, and then the algorithms learning what you're interested in, I'm always so afraid to click on certain things, like in LinkedIn, of like, Oh no, I'm going to comment on this, and then it's all I'm going to see for a while, right? Of like, and I don't want to be stuck in that. I want to see other points of view, and yeah, and what other people might think about it, not be just constantly served the same thing over and over again, but that's what happens, right? And now with AI, people will go have these conversations. It's like that, not, I mean, it's kind of on topic, kind of off topic. But like, you know, the school shooting that happened in canada was it a shooting or stabbing that happened in Canada because somebody was on AI and they were constantly being fed validation of their actions, of going and having the shooting, and how to do it right? So like, just that reiteration, whether it's happening through conversation with AI or coming around you from a channel perspective, totally dangerous and somewhere where we're going to be interesting to see who starts to put some guard rails up. I know Anthropic is a great company to be doing that. I hope they do continue to do that and lead the way and show what that needs to be, because, yeah, we're going to end up with some scary things that happen in those echo chambers, for sure.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":154,"children":155},{},[156],{"type":26,"value":157},"Jake 8:03",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":159,"children":160},{},[161],{"type":26,"value":162},"I think it's a human thing, though, as well. I don't know if you're guilty of this, but having conversations with AI, and I mean in voice mode, I've had conversations with AI in voice mode, my biggest criticism, and I guess why I don't do it anymore, is because it's boring. It just goes around in a loop. It will agree with you, and then you agree with it, and then that's it. The End of the conversation. It happens after about three minutes. Really, there's no more depth after it, and you'll have forgotten what else you wanted to say, because it will have given you a 32nd answer reflecting back at you what you wanted to hear.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":164,"children":165},{},[166],{"type":26,"value":167},"Kerry Guard 8:41",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":169,"children":170},{},[171],{"type":26,"value":172},"I push it a lot. I say, you know, stop blowing smoke. Tell me what you really think. Go look at the experts. So, I'm as an agency, one of the things I'm finding specifically in the SEO space, is that there's a lot of fragmentation happening in terms of how people are talking about showing up, whether it's in traditional SEO or the answer engines, or now generative engines, right? And so I'm trying to unify it now to just say, Listen, let's just talk about this as search visibility optimization. It doesn't matter where your audience is in terms of how they're searching for you, but you need to make sure you're showing up across the board. And in doing so, I'm talking to AI through it, and I said, What's the difference between off-page SEO and GEO? Because there's this argument happening on LinkedIn right now about, like, everybody's like, good SEO will be good AEO and good Geo. And I'm like, Ah, not really. Like, geo is a whole different beast, and you really have to think about that differently. And if we don't define it and just depend on what traditional SEO has done for us. We're never going to actually show up in the llms, and that's a problem, because the llms one day is going to take over. And so I actually asked Gemini and said, Are these two separate things? And Gemini was like, Absolutely not. They are the same thing. Saying off-page is the same as on-page. And I poked at it and worked through it, and I said, here's how I'm thinking about it. And then it came around and, like, agreed with me. And I was like, Okay, well, now it's agreeing with me, and we're stuck in a loop. And so I went over to Claude, and I had the same conversation with Claude. Claude was like, No, these are two different things. They have to stay that way. And I was like, well, here's how I'm thinking about it. And Claude was like, actually, that's really valid, and here's why. And it's like, backed up from all these different sources as to why, this makes a ton of sense. And so it's, it's interesting, of like, how these different platforms are even thinking. And then, to your point of like, yeah, the validation immediately happens. And then it's like, Okay, now what? Yeah, I agree. Even in different platforms, it's happening like, Okay, now, what do we do and where do we go from here, in terms of making sure that we're thinking beyond what the AI can give us exactly?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":174,"children":175},{},[176],{"type":26,"value":177},"Jake 10:55",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":179,"children":180},{},[181],{"type":26,"value":182},"Yeah, I think nailed it there, thinking beyond what the AI can give us, perfect, perfect framing. Because really, the AI, we've had this conversation a couple of times. I had it last Friday. It gives an average, it gives you an average answer, literally average. So thinking beyond it is important to differentiate if you gave it to conflict in perspectives, and then you asked it to make an average of those conflicting perspectives, as long as it wasn't the typical average, then it would be slightly different. But generally, if you ask it a broad question, or for guidance, it's going to give you something very average, and it will agree with you. And I think that you know, as a human, you have a confirmation bias. You want somebody, you want something to agree with you. You don't necessarily want it. You don't want to go. Is this a good idea? And you go, No, that's a stupid.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":184,"children":185},{},[186],{"type":26,"value":187},"Kerry Guard 11:54",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":189,"children":190},{},[191],{"type":26,"value":192},"No, but you do want something that will question you. So I do think putting in parameters, like I'll ask it to ask me, like, what gaps am I missing here? What? What are other people talking about? Is this already being talked about? Right? Go out there and tell me, I'll sort of find ways to prompt it to almost have it disagree with me in multiple to see if it can disagree with me in multiple ways. And sometimes it does. I'll write a LinkedIn post, and they'll be like, This is crap, and here's why. Like, thank you for that. That's what I needed. I'm trying to write off more than I could chew. It's way too long. It's trying to create too many points. I'm known for that on LinkedIn. But like, having it actually tell me that is super helpful, but I've had to train it to do that, which you can do. It just takes effort.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":194,"children":195},{},[196],{"type":26,"value":197},"Jake 12:42",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":199,"children":200},{},[201],{"type":26,"value":202},"I think Alex, at this point, I know that. I'm not sure we usually ask, but I think we have to give Kerry a little bit of Kerry. Why don't you tell us what you do and tell the audience?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":204,"children":205},{},[206],{"type":26,"value":207},"Kerry Guard 12:55",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":209,"children":210},{},[211],{"type":26,"value":212},"Sure. So I own a digital marketing agency, and have for the last 15 plus years, we've always been remote, and that's why I get to live in the UK while the rest of my team is in the US, primary, primarily work with B to B Tech, SAS, companies in the US, helping them scale and build up through SEO and digital ads, making sure that they're found and visible, and that when users can see them and understand their brand, and then they Go search for them, that they're the answer.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":214,"children":215},{},[216],{"type":26,"value":217},"Jake 13:22",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":219,"children":220},{},[221],{"type":26,"value":222},"That was lovely. That was the best",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":224,"children":225},{},[226],{"type":26,"value":227},"Alex 13:25",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":229,"children":230},{},[231],{"type":26,"value":232},"I want to get into something. I want to get into something. Kerry, you say 15 years, so you've been, you've seen a lot in the agency space. Myself and Jake were in-house, in-house markers. So we worked in the tech industry. We worked for the same company for a while, and we also work together on projects, on agency stuff. And I feel like I would say again around chat, GPT launch, like 2022 - 23, something changed. Something changed. I think that, how can I say, like, the value of what we do change? Because suddenly people had access to all that computing for $20 a month, right? And a lot of the guys we used to work with suddenly started doing stuff themselves, as we talked about before, the pod. Then it feels like value creation. And you've seen this for the stock prices of all the big agencies, the big the blue chip ones, wpps, it's been, it's been flattened, right? You can't charge what you used to charge the business models, the billable hour. Business models are kind of broken now. So I think my question is, how do you, how do you, how do you put a price on value creation now, in this in this time when there's basically free compute and AI.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":234,"children":235},{},[236],{"type":26,"value":237},"Kerry Guard 14:38",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":239,"children":240},{},[241],{"type":26,"value":242},"So it comes down to, I mean, for us, we do still go back into hours just to make sure we understand how much time things are generally taking. But it hasn't necessarily been that we dilute or come down in price over time. It's that now we can just do more. More and be more effective. So when I come, when I talk to clients, I'm like, Well, we have the faster we have the faster plan. So it's two plans. You can either go faster, you can go faster, because that's really what it comes down to these days, you know, we can give you in terms of SVL, we can we can give you all of the content briefs and all of the land. But can you actually implement them? Well, probably not. So let's not, if you're scaling up and you're just starting, doesn't make sense for us to be throwing, you know, 10 to 15 assets at you a month, right? So we're going to go on the fast plan, which makes more sense for the resources you have, or if you're digital ads, depending on your ads budget, right? Like we can't, it doesn't make sense for us to charge an agency fee based off of ad spend in terms of percentage when you're not really spending, you know, 25k plus, and even then, like, the percentage needs to be in relation to really, How many platforms, how many campaigns, what's actually being managed, versus just because you're spending more money? Just because you're spending more money doesn't mean it's necessarily more work for us. So in terms of how we're quantifying it, it's really, really it still comes down to hours and speed and what the client can navigate on their end, in terms of what we're giving them and our expertise, it is a premium because we hire people with 10 plus years of experience, who've done this for a long time, who know what they're doing, who can respond relatively quickly because they aren't learning it as they're doing it. And so I think that also comes down to it, as well as the account direction team that we have, the strategy team that's implemented, right? We don't just give you an SEO expert. We make sure that they're supported in the communication and in the strategic insight that's that's coming out. So it's that holistic team that is also coming to the table with that expertise, versus just that one person constantly pumping out, you know, a thing over and over again. It's based in data, it's based in the expertise. And that's really the value that we're bringing and how we're valuing it, from a from $1 standpoint.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":244,"children":245},{},[246],{"type":26,"value":247},"Jake 17:15",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":249,"children":250},{},[251],{"type":26,"value":252},"I'm gonna push back against Alex in Kerry's team here, but I think, I think it's like this, like the value of what you're describing, in some ways, it almost shouldn't change, because it's human-related. Whereas I feel like, if you take, let's say that you're an automation agency, then the value of that service is still being figured out, you know, because people might not necessarily understand the value of it at that point. On the client side, somebody might say, Well, these guys said that they're gonna automate it, and it will whip up 100 articles every minute. You know, then how you know? You don't know the quality of that, whereas in the Kerry model, at least you have some sort of like, well, for this process, this is the predicted outcome, because we've done this and it's built on X amount of years of experience. So I think on the future side, a lot of value surrounding things using AI is still really being defined. It's still being figured out. Because it's like, imagine, back in the day when websites were new, people go, Oh, you've got to get a website. Well, how much do I pay for a website? Do I pay $100 do I pay $1,000 like, what's the website going to do? How many people are going to find it? Is it going to be SEO ready? Is there somebody that's going to take care of that? So it's like, if you don't know anything about websites, let's just say that you were a business, you know, in the late 90s, and you're not going to understand the value of it, either. And I think we're in a stage right now where everything's crashing because of AI, but we still haven't figured out what's valuable in this new landscape. But what we know is what's valuable in the old landscape, and that's, I guess, in some ways, more predictable, and something that people can trust more easily.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":254,"children":255},{},[256],{"type":26,"value":257},"Kerry Guard 19:16",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":259,"children":260},{},[261],{"type":26,"value":262},"I will say outcomes are really important to you. To what you said, Jake, in regards to, we never want to, you know, if we're working with a company who's making an ARR of 3 million a year, right, we're not going to charge the same as somebody who's making 65 million. Again, that comes down to the resources they have, right? 65 million versus 3 million, they have way more resources. But the same time, the math has to math, right? There has to be a return on what we're producing and how we're bringing in pipeline and and that that there is a return on that investment, and we make sure of that, you know through the reporting that we do, but when we're putting a scope of work together, it's hard to say we know for sure that you're going. Make this kind of revenue in this time without really digging in and wrapping our arms around the company, but we look to get there because we think that's important, to make sure that it's all compounding over time towards that pipeline. Create for sure.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":264,"children":265},{},[266],{"type":26,"value":267},"Alex 20:13",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":269,"children":270},{},[271],{"type":26,"value":272},"Yeah. I also think the thing that people overlook with service businesses is that it's very on trend right now to focus on product, like Claude, ChatGPT, like all these AI products, right? And so we're all, all the next generation in, in, in these companies are like, Oh, I can just use ChatGPT. I guess Claude, it's product, product, product, right? But at the end of the day, like you see these companies themselves, like chat open, AI literally announced yesterday they're going to focus on enterprise. The whole team had a big meeting internally, and they said, We need to focus on enterprise, because that's where the you know that those those customers, those enterprise customers, are way more valuable than a 20 bucks a month, you know, guy so obviously, Anthropic is doing really well with enterprise and customer-focused enterprise. So I think, yeah, I think there's like, I think there's like, right now, there's just this bubble about AI products, and in the long run, it will kind of bend. The arc will bend back towards like, value, actual value creation, and service.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":274,"children":275},{},[276],{"type":26,"value":277},"Kerry Guard 21:23",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":279,"children":280},{},[281],{"type":26,"value":282},"Industries head to this all the time, right? Cybersecurity is a great example of this, if we were to sort of mirror them. One, cyber is a bit ahead of AI. And so right now, there's a lot of consolidation happening in cyber, because people are realizing that certain features that they now need, they could just buy a company that already does that, and now bring it into their company. And so AI is going to eventually, that's just how it goes, right? All these startups pop up for all these specific features, and then they start to consolidate into specific products that do certain thing, you know, multiple features that do certain things. And so we'll see that. But right now, it's definitely that startup of everybody's creating everything. And of course, I'm not surprised, but also like banging my head against the wall a little bit, if you're all going after enterprise, which is a very small subset of how many businesses are really out there, then I think they're all going to crash into each other at some point, and they're going to have to look at where those other businesses that could grow with us, that will eventually be an enterprise or be a bigger business. Man, I hate when companies do that drives me up a wall, like it's so short-sighted to just be like, we're all going to go after enterprise. Well, you and everybody else, and yeah.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":284,"children":285},{},[286],{"type":26,"value":287},"Alex 22:39",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":289,"children":290},{},[291],{"type":26,"value":292},"Yeah, look at the B to B. SaaS stock prices right now. They're all tagging.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":294,"children":295},{},[296],{"type":26,"value":297},"Jake 22:44",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":299,"children":300},{},[301],{"type":26,"value":302},"I also think, though, that, you know, LinkedIn, he's driving that sort of where the traffic is going. Because, you know, one month ago it was lovable. This month, it was like Claude. Next month, I've just seen as well, it's like Claude again. I posted on Twitter, Alex, I don't know whether you saw it, but a lot of this, I just deleted ChatGPT, and now I'm on Claude. It's like, everything's gone crazy this, like last month, but next month it'll be something else, because it was open claw before. It was probably like lovable January, open claw February, and it's been the Claude month this month.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":304,"children":305},{},[306],{"type":26,"value":307},"Alex 23:23",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":309,"children":310},{},[311],{"type":26,"value":312},"But I have another question related to product, actually, do you think so? I saw that WPP, the new lady that took over. WPP, she said, that we're going to be a product-focused agency. We're going to make our own products available to clients. So there's some influencer marketing tool, there's some SEO copywriting tool. Do you think like that is that is kind of really not the direction, like you can't just like you can't convert a service agency into a product company, right? What do you stand with that? Do you think agencies will all need to offer products at some point?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":314,"children":315},{},[316],{"type":26,"value":317},"Kerry Guard 23:59",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":319,"children":320},{},[321],{"type":26,"value":322},"Trying to look like way down the line. My prediction is that it probably will feel and operate a bit like a product, but it's going to be internal of how you sort of set it up, and it operates, and it still needs to have humans and in the loop. But my my, my thinking is that what you'll essentially have is less people doing the work and more overseeing. So like you'll for an SEO team, I'll have one person, but then they'll have like, five agents, and each agent will have a specific job to be done in relation to that SEO person doing their work, so that they're more strategic and thinking about where the business needs to go, versus pulling the keywords down and doing a deep dive into it and seeing what competitors are doing like all this will sort of be served up to them, and then they'll be able to analyze it and then say, Okay, this is where the business needs to go. These are my recommendations. Like. Put together a presentation, and then another agent will go out and actually put together the presentation and bring it back, and then it'll be presented to the client. The client will never see these agents or never interact with them. They'll still be interacting with the humans. But the way that the agency model is going to change is that it's not going to be one person up here managing, you know, four people down here who are then mentioning four people down here. You know, as an org chart normally goes, it's going to be, at some point, an expert of, you know, five to 10 years managing a bunch of agents that are going to help them really think strategically about how to do their job. And I think that. And then the agents will connect across channels as well. So the SEO agents will be talking to digital ad agents. Hey, I'm seeing these keywords work. What are you seeing over there? How do you want to optimize? Here's how I'm thinking about optimizing, right? And they're going to be, we're sort of working together. It's going to feel like a product internally, but I don't know that we can sell it like that, because the client isn't going to be logging into a SaaS product and then telling these agents what to do. You still need a human with the expertise telling the agents and reviewing what the agents are doing and making sure that the work is still getting done to the caliber agency done at so that's and I got I got this because I went to a conference in September, and there was a company there called monks. I don't know if you've heard of them. Oh, yeah, agency, yeah. So they showed off their you know how, and they're doing exactly this. So they have an agent for every job to be done in creating a commercial. So they created a puma commercial. It took them two weeks to do end-to-end. All of the assets were still human. So that created them. The photographs came from humans, of humans, the videos, music, all of it, all the assets, came from creators, real creators of real humans within the photos and the videos. But it was the agents that went out to get those videos, that did the customer research, that stitched things together, that made there was an agent for brand continuity, making sure it was completely on brand end to end. So there, it took them months to build, but now they can pump commercials out in two weeks. That is still the output is still human, and I think that's what's interesting, and I do think that that's probably where agencies need to be thinking about and going. But calling it a product is kind of misleading. In my opinion.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":324,"children":325},{},[326],{"type":26,"value":327},"Jake 27:24",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":329,"children":330},{},[331],{"type":26,"value":332},"I think I'm going to be devils. I'm going to play both sides here. I think it'll be a product, but I also think within that product there will be the sort of customized agentic workflow that does need to be governed by the human, so I don't think that the it's not like the end client is going to be using the product. They may plug their API's of their different stack into wpps new product, but there has to be a manager internally that understands agentic workflows, that can customize those workflows to fit with whatever the needs of that specific client are. Have I played both sides?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":334,"children":335},{},[336],{"type":26,"value":337},"Kerry Guard 28:07",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":339,"children":340},{},[341],{"type":26,"value":342},"Marketers are going to want, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, marketers, I'd love to hear in the comments, but I feel like you don't want to log into another thing to be dealing with a bunch of robots. Like it's like, when you call the bank with a problem, you just want to talk to a freaking human. Please, flow from God, please, just give me a human. Right. I don't want to go through this whole tree of telling you who my mother's maiden name is, you know, whatever. Like, I want a human. Give me a human. I feel like, as you know, an agency, I don't think that's going to go away. I think marketers are still going to want to be able to call up, talk to a human, and say, \" What's going on. Why is this working? Why isn't it? What are we doing about it? What are we going to be doing next? What's coming on the horizon? What are you thinking about? Not just log into a product and hope for the best.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":344,"children":345},{},[346],{"type":26,"value":347},"Alex 29:01",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":349,"children":350},{},[351],{"type":26,"value":352},"I think also the creative piece is interesting, like we talked earlier about hallucinations and stuff. Like, I've been running this open claw for, I think, two months now, and I asked it to schedule content for my own social media as a test, and it doesn't post it, so it just sets up the drafts in my Telegram, and I trained it on all of my social media posts from LinkedIn, Twitter. I dumped all that content from when I signed up to those services into files. I dumped that into the open claw, and the output has been very disappointing from a creative perspective, bang average. And if that's a representation of the creative for all of this stuff that's coming, then the creativity is still going to be the difference.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":354,"children":355},{},[356],{"type":26,"value":357},"Jake 29:49",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":359,"children":360},{},[361],{"type":26,"value":362},"The difference is, got it workflow design, that's the difference, like the creativity and how you design the workflows, what will effectively all. To adjust the endpoint from the average to something that's unique.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":364,"children":365},{},[366],{"type":26,"value":367},"Alex 30:06",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":369,"children":370},{},[371],{"type":26,"value":372},"But you still need a human in the loop, essentially that, yeah, yeah. And also brainstorming and coming up with ideas and trends, jumping on trends, and humor. I mean, they can't do humor, and humor is a big part of barking like the guys are cutting through the noise online. I've got that, that edge in terms of humor, for sure.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":374,"children":375},{},[376],{"type":26,"value":377},"Jake 30:29",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":379,"children":380},{},[381],{"type":26,"value":382},"You know, I've got Alex, when is it is it time? I'm not sure.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":384,"children":385},{},[386],{"type":26,"value":387},"Alex 30:34",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":389,"children":390},{},[391],{"type":26,"value":392},"It's time. Is it time? You have time for one more question?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":394,"children":395},{},[396],{"type":26,"value":397},"Jake 30:37",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":399,"children":400},{},[401],{"type":26,"value":402},"I think it's another question. Then, then it's time. Yeah, okay, yeah, I was, I was gonna say, Kerry, what do you think in the last, I mean, Alex, you said it was about it was the end of it was 2023. We really started seeing this big impact. I still remember when weird we were working with the Chat GPT and nobody else had figured it out at that point. It was just us. But what do you think's been maybe the biggest disruption that you've personally experienced in the last two, two and a bit years?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":404,"children":405},{},[406],{"type":26,"value":407},"Kerry Guard 31:16",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":409,"children":410},{},[411],{"type":26,"value":412},"So I work on websites, my husband is an engineer, and so he taught me how to do just enough to get by with building websites using NextJS, Tailwind, and In View, and it's night and day in terms of what a the caliber of what I can produce. Like, I had one website where it was for a local moving company out in Ohio, and I was like, this is a moving company. Like, this website needs to move. So I was able to create so much thoughtful animation, right just on word, like, just having, if I'm talking about things rearranging, you know, having the words come in and rearrange to the right point, or the only thing you'll have to lift is your coffee, and having that word lift come in, right? So not having overdone it, being really thoughtful and intentional about it, but things I wouldn't have been able to do before because a I didn't know how, and to figure it out would have taken me ages. So I just didn't think it was worth it, right? But now I can add just that little bit of extra flurry to for that customer engagement, right? And that AHA and that wow moment that I wasn't able to do before. And I think that's really again, coming back to what I said earlier. That's the power of AI when you put the tool in the hands of people who have a really good foundational understanding of how things are supposed to work. The output is just so much more phenomenal than what we could have ever done before. And that's that's been the most disruptive, I think, for me personally, and what I'm looking forward to doing more of in the future.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":414,"children":415},{},[416],{"type":26,"value":417},"Jake 32:58",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":419,"children":420},{},[421],{"type":26,"value":422},"Alex, it's a good setup. Very good step. Okay, Kerry, it's time for the final question of the show. Brace yourself. It gets everybody. It's future predictions. What are your future predictions? It could be about anything. It could be your life, your work, the world. Go. Could be agencies?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":424,"children":425},{},[426],{"type":26,"value":427},"Kerry Guard 33:22",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":429,"children":430},{},[431],{"type":26,"value":432},"Yeah, I think, I think we're on a on a turning point with search engine optimization in particular. I think it's very disjointed right now. I think people don't know what to do about it. If I have clients showing up every day asking me, \" How do I show up in chat? GPT, right? Like, that's my traffic is dropping 40%, what do I do about it? So I think the whole marketing, how we do marketing, is about to sort of turn on its head, in regards to what we could get away with before that we can't get away with now, like we could do marketing without true product market fit, right? We could skirt the edges. We could outspend our competitors. We could just have a bigger sales team. And now, if we don't have real product market fit, meaning a problem we really solve that no one else solves, or in a different way, in a way that nobody else solves it, and talk about it in that way consistently almost everywhere, then we're going, we're never going to be found, because you can spend all the dollars and all the land to get seen, but then if people are trying to search for you, to validate what they're seeing, and they can't find you, then your brand is never going to grow and evolve. And so I think we're, we're at a turning point right now with how we show up, from, you know, in marketing, of really having to slow down for a second and understand our customers and really what they go through on a daily basis. How our products show up and support them. And I think we're going to have less products be successful, but they're going to be the better products in the long run anyway. And the marketing is going to get better in doing so and supporting that. It's going to be the next five to 10 years is gonna be really interesting in how AI search, or calling it search visibility optimization, how that really impacts what products actually make it.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":434,"children":435},{},[436],{"type":26,"value":437},"Alex 35:29",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":439,"children":440},{},[441],{"type":26,"value":442},"So 10 blue links are dead, or, Oh yeah, they're dead.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":444,"children":445},{},[446],{"type":26,"value":447},"Kerry Guard 35:35",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":449,"children":450},{},[451],{"type":26,"value":452},"It's, it's a leading indicator, like being knowing that you're ranking top for that keyword in validation to what people are searching for in llms is a leading indicator to the answer engines and to LLMs to say they are an authoritative voice in this space, but it's only one indicator out of many. So yes, you need that, but it's not the only thing you need.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":454,"children":455},{},[456],{"type":26,"value":457},"Jake 35:57",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":459,"children":460},{},[461],{"type":26,"value":462},"I was actually that brings me back. I was about to say this earlier. I'm glad that you reminded me, but I do feel like when the whole LLM SEO, call it what you will, you're more of an expert in it than me. People like, Oh, you've got to hack Reddit, spam Reddit, and Quora, and you'll rank. I think that those kind of tactics are going to disappear, because I agree, I think it's going to be, is this product, or is this service, a credible product or service, not one that's just game to the system, and because we've got the LLM, you'll be able to figure out which ones are gamers and which ones are the real deal quicker.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":464,"children":465},{},[466],{"type":26,"value":467},"Kerry Guard 36:39",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":469,"children":470},{},[471],{"type":26,"value":472},"Yeah. People are panicking right now because there's misinformation out there about their products, because people are gaming the system, but they just need to get out there and keep doing what they're doing. And white hat, black hat's always been a problem, right? So the white hat tactics are always going to win out. Google and Claude, especially, are going to lean into that user experience and always prioritize the user, and in doing so, they're going to prioritize the brands that are showing up in the most morale, the moral way, for sure, in the long run.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":474,"children":475},{},[476],{"type":26,"value":477},"Alex 37:13",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":479,"children":480},{},[481],{"type":26,"value":482},"Oh, not Nope. Did the good guys win? Yeah, that's nice for a change. Normally, we end on like a doom I do more kind of note, so that's good, okay. All right, let's have you back on Kerry in like, a year and see how things are shaping up. Let's do it awesome. All right, guys, that was good. See you in the next one. Take care. Bye. Bye.",{"type":20,"tag":484,"props":485,"children":486},"br",{},[],{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":489},2,[490,492,493],{"id":23,"depth":491,"text":27},3,{"id":7,"depth":491,"text":7},{"id":50,"depth":488,"text":53,"children":494},[495],{"id":69,"depth":491,"text":72},"markdown","content:blog:leadership:ai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard.md","content","blog/leadership/ai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard.md","blog/leadership/ai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard","md",31,[504],{"_path":505,"_dir":506,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":12,"description":507,"ref":508,"name":12,"team":509,"quote":510,"images":511,"twitter":513,"isLeader":63,"jobTitle":514,"linkedIn":513,"sequence":515,"quoteCite":516,"imageDescription":517,"body":518,"_type":496,"_id":573,"_source":498,"_file":574,"_stem":575,"_extension":501,"category":506,"minutes":515},"/team/kerry-guard","team","Meet Kerry Guard, one of MKG Marketing’s founders. She currently fills the role of CEO of MKG as well as hosting the podcast, Back on T-R-A-C-K.","kerry-guard","Leadership","I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.",{"landscape":512},"kerry-guard.webp","kerryguard","Founder & CEO",1,"Brené Brown","Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing’s Owner/CEO, stands on a street in Guernsey with the Town Church behind her | MKG Marketing",{"type":17,"children":519,"toc":570},[520,527,541,554,560],{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":521,"children":524},{"className":522},[523],"text-lg",[525],{"type":26,"value":526},"Kerry Guard (she/her) is a mom of twins - boy and a girl. She understands what work life balance really looks like and is on a mission to build a company that honors parents having a career and a life. She’s out to prove you really can have both with policies like ensuring 20 days of vacation each year, no client emails after 6PM or weekends, unlimited sick days, and everyday flexibility.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":528,"children":529},{},[530,532,539],{"type":26,"value":531},"She also hosts our podcast, ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":534,"children":536},"a",{"href":535},"/podcasts/marketing-leaders/",[537],{"type":26,"value":538},"Back on T-R-A-C-K",{"type":26,"value":540},", which brings eight digital marketing experts to your ears every quarter.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":542,"children":543},{},[544,546,552],{"type":26,"value":545},"Kerry is responsible for HR. If you’d like to join MKG where people are first and your expertise matter, Kerry will be with you through the entire interview process ensuring each candidate meets the necessary requirements and gets a fair shot. Want to join MKG and Kerry’s mission of bringing People First to as many people as possible? Check out our ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":547,"children":549},{"href":548},"/about/jobs/",[550],{"type":26,"value":551},"Jobs page",{"type":26,"value":553}," and see if we have a position right for you!",{"type":20,"tag":21,"props":555,"children":557},{"id":556},"fun-facts",[558],{"type":26,"value":559},"Fun facts",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":562,"children":563},"ul",{},[564],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":566,"children":567},"li",{},[568],{"type":26,"value":569},"Kerry now lives in Guernsey — a tiny nook in the world between England and France. Come visit for a spot of tea any time!",{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":571},[572],{"id":556,"depth":491,"text":559},"content:team:kerry-guard.md","team/kerry-guard.md","team/kerry-guard",[577,876,1184,1543,1969],{"_path":578,"_dir":579,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":580,"description":581,"date":582,"img":583,"imgAlt":584,"body":585,"_type":496,"_id":872,"_source":498,"_file":873,"_stem":874,"_extension":501,"category":579,"minutes":875},"/blog/seo/the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-is-your-icp-finding-your-competitors-in-the-llm","seo","The 2026 Brand Visibility Audit: Is Your ICP Finding Your Competitors in the LLM?","When your target accounts use AI search to shortlist vendors, do you exist? Here is how to audit your brand presence and reverse competitive displacement.","2026-05-27T14:44:51.901Z","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/1ebdbd36-b81a-40c3-b8d6-528986294139-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-hero-image.webp","Brand Visibility Audit",{"type":17,"children":586,"toc":863},[587,592,597,618,623,631,641,646,651,656,661,670,675,680,698,703,710,719,724,729,734,739,748,753,758,771,776,783,792,797,802,820,825,834,839,844,849,858],{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":588,"children":589},{},[590],{"type":26,"value":591},"For years, B2B marketing operated on a straightforward logic: win the search engine results page, win the pipeline. Teams engineered content to capture specific keywords, mapped backlinks to boost domain authority, and celebrated when landing pages claimed the top spots on Google. If a prospective customer in your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) looked for a solution, your site appeared.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":593,"children":594},{},[595],{"type":26,"value":596},"That logic no longer holds. A complete decoupling has occurred between traditional website traffic and the actual vendor shortlisting process. B2B buyers are bypassing the endless lists of blue links entirely. Instead of clicking through five different websites to read corporate marketing copy, they are leveraging large language models (LLMs) to perform the heavy lifting of vendor evaluation.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":598,"children":599},{},[600,602,616],{"type":26,"value":601},"This behavior is a structural reality. Data from",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":603,"children":607},{"href":604,"rel":605},"https://company.g2.com/news/g2-research-the-answer-economy",[606],"nofollow",[608,610],{"type":26,"value":609}," ",{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":612,"children":613},"u",{},[614],{"type":26,"value":615},"G2’s 2026 Answer Economy Report",{"type":26,"value":617}," reveals that 51% of B2B software buyers now begin their vendor research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. Buyers are leaning into a centralized discovery model in which they issue a single, structured prompt to an LLM to compare market options. The model synthesizes data from across the web, evaluates capabilities, and surfaces a definitive recommendation.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":619,"children":620},{},[621],{"type":26,"value":622},"The challenge arises when your target accounts run these prompts, and your competitors are consistently cited as the preferred solution while your brand is completely left out of the answer. It is a highly efficient form of Competitive Displacement. If your organization does not appear in the model's synthesized output, you are filtered out before a sales representative is even considered. Reclaiming your place in the funnel requires moving past traditional SEO and mastering Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO).",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":624,"children":625},{},[626],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":628,"children":630},"img",{"alt":7,"src":629},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/15431b64-54bd-447a-b57e-c64f2f7b9398-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-image-1.png",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":632,"children":634},{"id":633},"the-reality-of-llm-synthetic-vetting",[635],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":637,"children":638},"strong",{},[639],{"type":26,"value":640},"The Reality of LLM Synthetic Vetting",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":642,"children":643},{},[644],{"type":26,"value":645},"When an LLM builds a B2B vendor shortlist, it doesn’t scan the web like a human. It isn’t impressed by a sleek homepage or polished brand copy. Instead, it treats the digital landscape as a single, connected dataset and assesses vendors based on entity clarity, semantic relevance, and pattern recognition.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":647,"children":648},{},[649],{"type":26,"value":650},"If an enterprise software buyer asks an LLM for platforms that meet specific compliance standards, deployment models, and pricing structures, the model goes back to its processed data layers for hard evidence. It searches for alignment across technical documentation, community conversations, and independent sources before producing an answer.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":652,"children":653},{},[654],{"type":26,"value":655},"That creates a serious blind spot for teams still operating on legacy marketing assumptions. You might own the top spot on a traditional search engine for a high-intent keyword, but if the model can’t confidently interpret your product architecture or validate your customer satisfaction, you’ll be excluded from its comparison set. Instead, it will surface competitors whose data is clean, structured, and consistently verified across the web.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":657,"children":658},{},[659],{"type":26,"value":660},"In this new reality, visibility is less about acquisition and more about indexation and structure. To influence how models evaluate your company, you must deliberately manage the information they ingest. Treat the public web as your LLM training data layer—and consider audited, third-party environments as your core competitive arena.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":662,"children":664},{"id":663},"executing-a-diagnostic-brand-visibility-audit",[665],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":666,"children":667},{},[668],{"type":26,"value":669},"Executing a Diagnostic Brand Visibility Audit",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":671,"children":672},{},[673],{"type":26,"value":674},"To correct a deficit in AI search visibility, an enterprise cannot rely on guesswork. You need a systematic, repeatable diagnostic protocol to discover exactly where the models are pulling their information, why they favor alternative solutions, and how they perceive your overall Search Sentiment.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":676,"children":677},{},[678],{"type":26,"value":679},"This diagnostic process requires three foundational execution phases:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":681,"children":682},{},[683,688,693],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":684,"children":685},{},[686],{"type":26,"value":687},"Intent-Based Prompt Baselining: Test a standardized matrix of procurement prompts across major models like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT. Document the exact terminology used to describe your category, track which competitors populate the shortlists, and analyze the specific source citations generated by the engines to back up their recommendations.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":689,"children":690},{},[691],{"type":26,"value":692},"Review Ecosystem Quantification: Assess the volume, recency, and detailed text sentiment of your third-party evaluation profiles. Models rely heavily on independent customer validation to verify brand claims; a stagnation in your review pipeline signals a high risk of model omission.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":694,"children":695},{},[696],{"type":26,"value":697},"Entity Verification and Mapping: Inspect how consistently your core capabilities, naming structures, and integrations are stated across public channels. Inconsistent nomenclature across your website, product registries, and press releases dilutes the LLM's pattern-matching capability, causing it to bypass your brand due to data uncertainty.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":699,"children":700},{},[701],{"type":26,"value":702},"By treating this audit as a precise engineering diagnostic rather than a creative exercise, you reveal the specific technical gaps that are causing your competitive omission. You shift the conversation from a vague discussion about brand awareness to a concrete roadmap for structural data optimization.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":704,"children":705},{},[706],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":707,"children":709},{"alt":7,"src":708},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/7ff92deb-11ff-4c70-acaa-433b513eeac0-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-image-2.png",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":711,"children":713},{"id":712},"establishing-narrative-control-via-consistency",[714],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":715,"children":716},{},[717],{"type":26,"value":718},"Establishing Narrative Control via Consistency",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":720,"children":721},{},[722],{"type":26,"value":723},"The definitive solution to an AI visibility deficit is a relentless dedication to operational Consistency. In a marketing landscape that changes every quarter, consistency is the operational framework that turns sporadic actions into a predictable, compounding authority engine. For a language model to confidently output your brand name as a trusted option, it must recognize a steady, unfragmented pattern of authoritative data over time.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":725,"children":726},{},[727],{"type":26,"value":728},"This operational rhythm applies directly to how you structure and distribute your subject matter expertise. Language models prioritize information that is backed by verified experts, deep industry use cases, and recurring, high-value concepts. When your technical leaders contribute regular, deep-dive insights to reputable public engineering repositories, trusted community hubs, and authoritative industry spaces, you continuously feed the exact data pools that models crawl.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":730,"children":731},{},[732],{"type":26,"value":733},"A short-term, campaign-driven approach fails completely under this model. You cannot run a one-time push to force your way into an LLM's next update cycle. The models are designed to identify long-term consensus and verified domain expertise.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":735,"children":736},{},[737],{"type":26,"value":738},"Maintaining a disciplined, predictable cadence of technical data output ensures your company is recognized as an immutable category leader. This approach hardcodes your product capabilities into the data layers that models rely on to construct competitive matrix responses, thereby protecting your pipeline from displacement.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":740,"children":742},{"id":741},"why-structured-data-ingestion-wins-the-funnel",[743],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":744,"children":745},{},[746],{"type":26,"value":747},"Why Structured Data Ingestion Wins the Funnel",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":749,"children":750},{},[751],{"type":26,"value":752},"The primary advantage of a fully optimized brand footprint is the velocity at which you can capture modern buyer intent. When an AI search engine is tasked with compiling an urgent vendor shortlist, it favors the path of least risk and highest data integrity.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":754,"children":755},{},[756],{"type":26,"value":757},"Consider the contrasting outcomes between two distinct structural approaches:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":759,"children":760},{},[761,766],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":762,"children":763},{},[764],{"type":26,"value":765},"The Unstructured Site: A company relies on creative, stylized copywriting buried inside static image layouts or gated PDF forms. The LLM cannot confidently extract technical metrics, security protocols, or API pricing structures. Fearing a hallucination, the model excludes the company from the generated answer.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":767,"children":768},{},[769],{"type":26,"value":770},"The Structured Knowledge Base: A company deploys an advanced technical semantic layer that utilizes clean schemas, verified review pipelines, and consistent cross-platform definitions. The model instantly extracts, categorizes, and validates the company's compliance credentials, placing them at the top of the recommended shortlist with explicit trust citations.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":772,"children":773},{},[774],{"type":26,"value":775},"This dynamic demonstrates why modern technical documentation is an essential component of a mid-funnel conversion strategy. API tables, security registries, and integration matrices are no longer just assets for post-sale implementation; they are high-value entry points for automated procurement discovery. By making this information perfectly machine-readable, you eliminate the friction that keeps your brand from being detected by automated evaluation systems.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":777,"children":778},{},[779],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":780,"children":782},{"alt":7,"src":781},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/80069c1b-7cc2-44cd-abe9-bc52ca56473f-mkg-blog-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-image-3.png",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":784,"children":786},{"id":785},"systematized-brand-visibility-optimization",[787],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":788,"children":789},{},[790],{"type":26,"value":791},"Systematized Brand Visibility Optimization",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":793,"children":794},{},[795],{"type":26,"value":796},"Succeeding in this decentralized landscape requires moving past ad-hoc optimization tactics and installing a repeatable, unified operational system. Marketing programs must stop acting like creative experimental centers and begin running like structured technical operations.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":798,"children":799},{},[800],{"type":26,"value":801},"This requires aligning your cross-functional execution around three operational areas:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":803,"children":804},{},[805,810,815],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":806,"children":807},{},[808],{"type":26,"value":809},"Citations and Authority Share: Track how frequently major models cite your domain or your trusted third-party profiles relative to your primary competitors during category-focused prompts.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":811,"children":812},{},[813],{"type":26,"value":814},"Data Pattern Uniformity: Enforce a strict internal governance model to ensure that every public reference to your product capabilities, pricing architectures, and compliance standards matches perfectly across the web.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":816,"children":817},{},[818],{"type":26,"value":819},"Review Ingestion Velocity: Build an automated customer feedback mechanism that continuously streams fresh, high-context review text into independent directories, keeping the models supplied with recent trust signals.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":821,"children":822},{},[823],{"type":26,"value":824},"When these operations run on a fixed, uninterrupted schedule, your organization builds an enduring market advantage. You stop chasing shifting search engine algorithms and start managing the foundational data infrastructure that governs all automated business decisions.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":826,"children":828},{"id":827},"reclaiming-the-initiative-in-the-era-of-inference",[829],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":830,"children":831},{},[832],{"type":26,"value":833},"Reclaiming the Initiative in the Era of Inference",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":835,"children":836},{},[837],{"type":26,"value":838},"The emergence of the AI-driven buyer is not an existential threat to organizations that lead with deep expertise, operational clarity, and strict engineering discipline. It is a threat to organizations that rely on high-volume, generic content inflation and unverified marketing claims. If your digital presence reads like an un-indexed corporate brochure, automated systems will drop you from consideration.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":840,"children":841},{},[842],{"type":26,"value":843},"We specialize in designing and implementing the technical architectures and operating cadences that keep organizations highly visible across the entire modern discovery funnel. By combining technical semantic layer engineering with disciplined execution rhythms, we ensure your brand authority is clear, verifiable, and undeniable to both human buyers and machine-learning algorithms.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":845,"children":846},{},[847],{"type":26,"value":848},"Do not allow your company to be quietly displaced from your ideal market segments by an information structure failure. Audit your digital footprint, structure your institutional knowledge, and implement a brand-visibility operating model built to dominate the modern synthesis.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":850,"children":852},{"id":851},"summary",[853],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":854,"children":855},{},[856],{"type":26,"value":857},"Summary",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":859,"children":860},{},[861],{"type":26,"value":862},"The B2B purchasing journey has undergone a dramatic structural shift, with 51% of software buyers now launching vendor research inside AI chatbots rather than traditional search engines. This behavioral change introduces a major risk of Competitive Displacement for brands that are missing from model outputs or excluded from automatic shortlist synthesis. To protect your pipeline, enterprises must deploy a rigorous Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO) strategy. By running systematic prompt diagnostics to audit Search Sentiment, maintaining a regular schedule for publishing expert content, and ensuring that all product capabilities are cleanly embedded in LLM Training Data, organizations can secure automated market discovery and reclaim narrative control across every AI search interface.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":864},[865,866,867,868,869,870,871],{"id":633,"depth":488,"text":640},{"id":663,"depth":488,"text":669},{"id":712,"depth":488,"text":718},{"id":741,"depth":488,"text":747},{"id":785,"depth":488,"text":791},{"id":827,"depth":488,"text":833},{"id":851,"depth":488,"text":857},"content:blog:seo:the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-is-your-icp-finding-your-competitors-in-the-llm.md","blog/seo/the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-is-your-icp-finding-your-competitors-in-the-llm.md","blog/seo/the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-is-your-icp-finding-your-competitors-in-the-llm",8,{"_path":877,"_dir":579,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":878,"description":879,"date":880,"img":881,"imgAlt":882,"body":883,"_type":496,"_id":1181,"_source":498,"_file":1182,"_stem":1183,"_extension":501,"category":579,"minutes":875},"/blog/seo/escaping-the-black-box-installing-an-svo-operating-system-that-runs-without-you","Escaping the Black Box - Installing an SVO Operating System That Runs Without You","When marketing feels like a high-priced experiment you have to babysit, it's time to build a system that captures AI demand autonomously.","2026-05-20T16:17:50.900Z","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/24970ef5-a49e-4a91-b5fd-c8c55d107084-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-hero-image.webp","Thought leadership workspace with AI strategy planning.",{"type":17,"children":884,"toc":1173},[885,890,895,900,914,919,924,931,937,942,947,980,985,990,996,1001,1006,1039,1044,1051,1057,1062,1067,1100,1105,1111,1116,1121,1126,1133,1139,1144,1149,1154,1159,1163,1168],{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":886,"children":887},{},[888],{"type":26,"value":889},"Many founders eventually hit a point where marketing feels less like a predictable growth engine and more like an expensive experiment. Budgets get spent, campaigns go live, and specialized agencies share intricate dashboards full of surface-level metrics. But despite all that activity, what's actually happening inside the operation remains unclear. Pipeline swings up and down, and the real drivers stay hidden in a \"black box\" of technical jargon, fragmented reports, and assumptions no one can confidently prove.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":891,"children":892},{},[893],{"type":26,"value":894},"When marketing runs this way, the burden shifts back onto leadership. You're pulled into weekly status calls to fix strategy on the fly, interpret conflicting channel data, and manually translate between siloed teams. Instead of guiding the company's growth, you're stuck overseeing execution. You effectively become the project manager of your own growth engine—a role that drains your attention and pulls you away from running the business.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":896,"children":897},{},[898],{"type":26,"value":899},"As the digital landscape continues to evolve, this model simply doesn't hold. The old approach, buying traffic and sending it to a static landing page to collect a form fill, is breaking down under new buyer behavior. The customer journey has split into multiple paths, and traditional search alone can no longer capture every qualified prospect who raises their hand.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":901,"children":902},{},[903,905,912],{"type":26,"value":904},"According to",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":906,"children":909},{"href":907,"rel":908},"https://learn.g2.com/g2-2026-ai-search-insight-report",[606],[910],{"type":26,"value":911}," G2's 2026 Answer Economy Insight Report",{"type":26,"value":913},", 51% of B2B software buyers now begin their purchasing research inside an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. These buyers are bypassing search results entirely, using structured prompts to command large language models (LLMs) to synthesize vendor shortlists on their behalf. They are looking for direct, synthesized comparisons rather than an endless list of blue links to open individually.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":915,"children":916},{},[917],{"type":26,"value":918},"If your marketing program only works when you're personally involved, it isn't built for a world where machines are increasingly evaluating other machines. When a large language model scans the web to build a vendor shortlist for an enterprise buyer, it's not admiring your branding or clicking on your clever CTAs; it's processing data.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":920,"children":921},{},[922],{"type":26,"value":923},"Breaking out of this pattern requires moving away from one-off tactics and toward Systematized Growth. That means putting a true operational structure in place, a Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) framework, designed to automatically capture demand from generative search, so your company can scale without constant founder oversight.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":925,"children":926},{},[927],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":928,"children":930},{"alt":7,"src":929},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/01d3c7af-7410-4a50-8d1c-d1ed6728438d-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-image-1.png",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":932,"children":934},{"id":933},"the-operational-breakdown-of-gated-marketing",[935],{"type":26,"value":936},"The Operational Breakdown of Gated Marketing",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":938,"children":939},{},[940],{"type":26,"value":941},"When marketing turns into an unmanaged black box, it's often because the company has grown on random acts of marketing. One contractor runs ads, an agency owns organic search, and someone in-house is responsible for content. Each group uses its own tools, cadence, and success metrics—leaving the founder to play interpreter and enforcer, tying everything together by hand.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":943,"children":944},{},[945],{"type":26,"value":946},"This manual oversight introduces severe structural vulnerabilities across the organization:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":948,"children":949},{},[950,960,970],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":951,"children":952},{},[953,958],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":954,"children":955},{},[956],{"type":26,"value":957},"Fragmented Data Layers:",{"type":26,"value":959}," The advertising team measures cost per click, while the content team tracks page views. Neither team can tell you how their efforts affect the AI models actively shaping your industry's vendor shortlists, leaving a massive gap in your overall pipeline attribution.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":961,"children":962},{},[963,968],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":964,"children":965},{},[966],{"type":26,"value":967},"Wasted Executive Energy:",{"type":26,"value":969}," You spend critical leadership hours in meetings that read updates out loud, rather than making strategic adjustments based on data trends. Instead of reviewing outcomes, you are tracking tasks.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":971,"children":972},{},[973,978],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":974,"children":975},{},[976],{"type":26,"value":977},"Invisible Funnel Leaks:",{"type":26,"value":979}," When a buyer asks an LLM to compare your product to a competitor, and the model misrepresents your pricing or ignores your core security features, your team doesn't catch it. The loss happens in private, untrackable environments before a lead is ever generated.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":981,"children":982},{},[983],{"type":26,"value":984},"To remove this friction, marketing needs to run on a repeatable, transparent operating system. Work can't live in someone's inbox or on a personal drive—it has to move through a shared workspace where priorities, blockers, and owners are immediately clear.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":986,"children":987},{},[988],{"type":26,"value":989},"With this kind of systemic visibility in place, you can achieve true off-my-plate execution. The founder can quickly check progress at any time, without chasing down updates or pulling the team into extra status meetings.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":991,"children":993},{"id":992},"structuring-the-svo-operating-system",[994],{"type":26,"value":995},"Structuring the SVO Operating System",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":997,"children":998},{},[999],{"type":26,"value":1000},"A scalable marketing engine cannot rely on human vigilance; it must rely on a closed-loop infrastructure. We apply a standardized architecture that aligns strategy, processes, and people into a singular operating rhythm. This framework ensures that your technical authority is structured correctly for both the human prospect and the LLM crawler, operating entirely without founder hand-holding.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1002,"children":1003},{},[1004],{"type":26,"value":1005},"This structural shift requires executing three distinct operational deployment steps:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1007,"children":1008},{},[1009,1019,1029],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1010,"children":1011},{},[1012,1017],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1013,"children":1014},{},[1015],{"type":26,"value":1016},"Funnel Bottleneck Diagnosis:",{"type":26,"value":1018}," Strip away channel-specific commentary to analyze exactly where pipeline value is stalling—whether it is an attribution deficit in your digital advertising or a visibility failure inside AI search databases. We locate the single point of failure rather than spreading focus across twenty different minor metrics.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1020,"children":1021},{},[1022,1027],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1023,"children":1024},{},[1025],{"type":26,"value":1026},"Weekly Sprint Cadence:",{"type":26,"value":1028}," Shift execution from monolithic quarterly goals to predictable weekly sprint cycles. Each sprint must assign clear deliverables, explicit ownership, and measurable output criteria to eliminate execution drift and keep the team focused on high-priority tasks.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1030,"children":1031},{},[1032,1037],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1033,"children":1034},{},[1035],{"type":26,"value":1036},"Semantic Layer Integration:",{"type":26,"value":1038}," Map your product specifications, technical case studies, and compliance data into clean, structured schemas that LLMs use to validate brand capabilities, turning your website into an authoritative knowledge base that can be indexed programmatically.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1040,"children":1041},{},[1042],{"type":26,"value":1043},"When these components run in harmony, marketing ceases to feel like a series of disconnected bets. It becomes a predictable workflow that converts institutional knowledge into structured data, ensuring your business is automatically indexed wherever buyers are conducting research. The machine does the heavy lifting of discovery, freeing up your team to focus on conversion and retention.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1045,"children":1046},{},[1047],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":1048,"children":1050},{"alt":7,"src":1049},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/0d285696-fa87-49eb-8fb7-497be4070be7-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-image-2.png",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1052,"children":1054},{"id":1053},"why-a-systematized-infrastructure-always-wins",[1055],{"type":26,"value":1056},"Why a Systematized Infrastructure Always Wins",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1058,"children":1059},{},[1060],{"type":26,"value":1061},"The primary benefit of removing the founder from the daily execution loop is speed and consistency. When your marketing is run through a rigorous operating system, it builds a compounding data advantage that ad-hoc campaigns cannot match. It shifts the organization from a reactive posture to a proactive, predictable model of demand generation.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1063,"children":1064},{},[1065],{"type":26,"value":1066},"Consider the operational differences between an ad-hoc marketing structure and a systematized environment:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1068,"children":1069},{},[1070,1080,1090],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1071,"children":1072},{},[1073,1078],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1074,"children":1075},{},[1076],{"type":26,"value":1077},"Continuous Market Alignment:",{"type":26,"value":1079}," While an unmanaged team waits for a monthly review to pivot strategy, a sprint-based system adjusts execution every seven days based on real-world data signals and performance trends.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1081,"children":1082},{},[1083,1088],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1084,"children":1085},{},[1086],{"type":26,"value":1087},"Automated Authority Building:",{"type":26,"value":1089}," Instead of treating executive thought leadership as a sporadic task dependent on free time, a systematized cadence turns your team's subject-matter expertise into machine-readable assets on a fixed schedule.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1091,"children":1092},{},[1093,1098],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1094,"children":1095},{},[1096],{"type":26,"value":1097},"Predictable Scaling:",{"type":26,"value":1099}," By isolating the exact variables that drive discovery—such as peer review frequency, schema deployment, or technical documentation clarity—you can scale your program based on operational data rather than guesswork or creative intuition.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1101,"children":1102},{},[1103],{"type":26,"value":1104},"This infrastructure turns your digital footprint into an automated sales engine. When an AI search engine crawls the web to construct a head-to-head comparison table for a prospective buyer, a systematized site provides unambiguous, verified criteria that force the model to rank your brand as a low-risk option. The competitor relying on creative, un-indexed copywriting is filtered out before a sales call is ever booked, giving your sales pipeline an unfair advantage.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1106,"children":1108},{"id":1107},"shifting-from-babysitting-to-strategic-calibration",[1109],{"type":26,"value":1110},"Shifting from Babysitting to Strategic Calibration",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1112,"children":1113},{},[1114],{"type":26,"value":1115},"Stepping out of the marketing black box doesn't mean giving up visibility into your growth metrics. Real operational control doesn't come from micromanaging tasks or personally reviewing every headline; it comes from having a single, reliable source of truth where progress is obvious, data is unfiltered, and accountability is built in.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1117,"children":1118},{},[1119],{"type":26,"value":1120},"Your job as an executive is to tune the engine, not to crank the gears yourself. Once you have an operating system that runs on its own, your relationship with marketing changes. Weekly status calls full of personal updates give way to focused working sessions aimed at clearing technical roadblocks, improving conversion performance, and removing friction for your execution team.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1122,"children":1123},{},[1124],{"type":26,"value":1125},"That level of clarity also reshapes how you invest in growth. You stop betting on scattered channel experiments and start funding specific data advantages. If your analytics show that buyers are discovering you through technical reviews cited in AI tools, you can allocate budget precisely to strengthening that part of your digital footprint. The guesswork disappears from your spending, and every dollar is tied to a clear, system-driven objective.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1127,"children":1128},{},[1129],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":1130,"children":1132},{"alt":7,"src":1131},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/88f64901-fbdc-41f1-ae77-6a2cee60417f-mkg-blog-escaping-the-black-box-image-3.png",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1134,"children":1136},{"id":1135},"building-the-off-my-plate-reality",[1137],{"type":26,"value":1138},"Building the Off-My-Plate Reality",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1140,"children":1141},{},[1142],{"type":26,"value":1143},"For a growing company, marketing maturity means moving past a reliance on individual heroics or founder oversight. A business that depends on the founder's daily cognitive energy to execute its visibility strategy cannot scale its pipeline, build predictable equity, or achieve true operational freedom.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1145,"children":1146},{},[1147],{"type":26,"value":1148},"Establishing this maturity requires an intentional investment in your company's operational skeleton. It means rejecting vague performance summaries, dismantling uncoordinated team structures, and installing a unified system that operates systematically across every channel, platform, and automated interface.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1150,"children":1151},{},[1152],{"type":26,"value":1153},"We design and implement the technical architecture and operating rhythms that allow business leaders to confidently step away from daily campaign execution. By replacing the black box with radical visibility and a closed-loop sprint cycle, we ensure your growth engine compounds value every single week, building one that automatically captures modern demand.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1155,"children":1156},{},[1157],{"type":26,"value":1158},"Do not let your company's market visibility remain tethered to your personal schedule or individual oversight. Systematize your expertise, build a structured digital footprint, and install an operating system designed for the future of automated discovery.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1160,"children":1161},{"id":851},[1162],{"type":26,"value":857},{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1164,"children":1165},{},[1166],{"type":26,"value":1167},"Many B2B founders find themselves stuck babysitting their marketing because teams are fragmented and reporting is hard to trust. That level of dependency poses a serious risk as the market shifts into the Answer Economy, where more than half of software buyers now rely on AI chat tools rather than traditional search engines to build their vendor shortlists.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1169,"children":1170},{},[1171],{"type":26,"value":1172},"To get out of this bottleneck, you have to move beyond disconnected tactics and adopt a Systematized Growth model built on a disciplined Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) framework. By putting an operating system in place, one that runs on weekly sprints, full task transparency, and machine-readable technical architecture, lean teams can achieve true \"off-my-plate\" execution, capturing AI-driven demand without constant founder involvement.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":1174},[1175,1176,1177,1178,1179,1180],{"id":933,"depth":488,"text":936},{"id":992,"depth":488,"text":995},{"id":1053,"depth":488,"text":1056},{"id":1107,"depth":488,"text":1110},{"id":1135,"depth":488,"text":1138},{"id":851,"depth":488,"text":857},"content:blog:seo:escaping-the-black-box-installing-an-svo-operating-system-that-runs-without-you.md","blog/seo/escaping-the-black-box-installing-an-svo-operating-system-that-runs-without-you.md","blog/seo/escaping-the-black-box-installing-an-svo-operating-system-that-runs-without-you",{"_path":1185,"_dir":579,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1186,"description":1187,"img":1188,"date":1189,"body":1190,"_type":496,"_id":1539,"_source":498,"_file":1540,"_stem":1541,"_extension":501,"category":579,"minutes":1542},"/blog/seo/the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms","The Synthesized Buyer - Mastering the 2026 Brand Visibility Audit for LLMs","If you aren’t in the training data, you aren’t on the shortlist. Here is how to master Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO) for the AI-driven buyer.","https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/73b38499-1c0a-46c3-aaaf-a824ff083005-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-hero-image.webp","2026-05-06T15:28:34.835Z",{"type":17,"children":1191,"toc":1529},[1192,1197,1221,1226,1231,1241,1246,1251,1256,1261,1266,1272,1284,1296,1301,1311,1316,1321,1355,1360,1366,1378,1383,1388,1398,1403,1408,1441,1446,1452,1457,1462,1467,1473,1478,1496,1501,1505],{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1193,"children":1194},{},[1195],{"type":26,"value":1196},"The B2B buying journey isn’t happening on search results pages anymore. For a long time, marketing success basically meant winning on Google: rank in the top organic spots, pick the right keywords, watch the clicks, and call more traffic “more authority.” But in 2026, something else is quietly running the show in procurement: large language models (LLMs).",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1198,"children":1199},{},[1200,1202,1212,1214,1219],{"type":26,"value":1201},"This isn’t a distant trend; it is the current reality of B2B procurement. New research from",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1203,"children":1205},{"href":604,"rel":1204},[606],[1206,1208],{"type":26,"value":1207},"  ",{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":1209,"children":1210},{},[1211],{"type":26,"value":615},{"type":26,"value":1213}," shows that ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1215,"children":1216},{},[1217],{"type":26,"value":1218},"51% of B2B software buyers",{"type":26,"value":1220}," now begin their research in an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine. These buyers aren’t paging through search results. They are using single prompts to ask AI tools to compare enterprise platforms based on specific needs. In that moment, the AI synthesizes an answer from the data it has already processed, effectively \"one-shotting\" the shortlist before a vendor is ever contacted. ",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1222,"children":1223},{},[1224],{"type":26,"value":1225},"If your brand isn’t in that data, if you’re missing from high-authority industry conversations, technical communities, or archives of executive thought leadership, you’re effectively shut out of that synthesis. Buyers don’t see you, long before they even think about visiting your website. That means we need to rethink what brand authority actually looks like and how we measure it.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1227,"children":1228},{},[1229],{"type":26,"value":1230},"To stay in the game, traditional SEO alone isn’t enough. You need to focus on Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO). BVO isn’t about gaming an algorithm; it’s about becoming a stable, trustworthy source of information that automated systems consistently recognize and surface. In practice, that means ensuring your brand appears in the internet’s most trusted and widely referenced data sources.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1232,"children":1234},{"id":1233},"the-transition-of-the-procurement-funnel",[1235,1239],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":1236,"children":1238},{"alt":7,"src":1237},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/accd88f6-f3c6-4b91-bb0e-bb9642914996-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-1.png",[],{"type":26,"value":1240},"The Transition of the Procurement Funnel",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1242,"children":1243},{},[1244],{"type":26,"value":1245},"For years, traditional marketing treated visibility like a straight line: push out enough content and ads, and sooner or later, buyers would notice you. But that’s not how people actually buy today.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1247,"children":1248},{},[1249],{"type":26,"value":1250},"Modern buyers lean on what’s often called \"dark social\"—recommendations, peer reviews, and technical back-and-forth that live in private Slack channels, Discord servers, group DMs, and niche community forums. None of this shows up in your typical analytics, but it heavily shapes who makes the shortlist.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1252,"children":1253},{},[1254],{"type":26,"value":1255},"AI models are being trained on this messy, decentralized ecosystem. When they generate a recommendation, they’re effectively scanning for patterns: where is there consensus, and which brands keep getting mentioned in these communities?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1257,"children":1258},{},[1259],{"type":26,"value":1260},"That creates a real risk for lean B2B teams: cranking out large volumes of generic content that adds nothing new. If what you publish reads like a generic brochure, the model will treat it as background noise rather than a signal.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1262,"children":1263},{},[1264],{"type":26,"value":1265},"To be surfaced and cited by an AI, your brand needs to contribute something specific and useful—unique, field-tested insight that helps the model justify its answer. In other words, you have to publish the kind of information the model relies on to feel confident that it’s right.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1267,"children":1269},{"id":1268},"establishing-the-pattern-the-consistency-cadence",[1270],{"type":26,"value":1271},"Establishing the Pattern: The Consistency Cadence",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1273,"children":1274},{},[1275,1277,1282],{"type":26,"value":1276},"At the core of Brand Visibility Optimization is the concept of ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1278,"children":1279},{},[1280],{"type":26,"value":1281},"Consistency",{"type":26,"value":1283},". This is the factor that separates a single campaign from a reliable growth system. For a model to recognize your brand as an authority, it needs to see a persistent, high-quality pattern of information over time.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1285,"children":1286},{},[1287,1289,1294],{"type":26,"value":1288},"Executive thought leadership is a critical technical asset in this process. Models prioritize data linked to verifiable experts and recurring themes. When your leadership team maintains a consistent cadence and regularly contributes technical insights to industry forums and reputable publications, you establish your brand as a primary source in the ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1290,"children":1291},{},[1292],{"type":26,"value":1293},"LLM Training Data for Brands",{"type":26,"value":1295},".",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1297,"children":1298},{},[1299],{"type":26,"value":1300},"A short-term approach does not work here. You cannot establish authority in a training set with a single project. You must show up regularly and deliver a steady stream of professional insights. This approach ensures that when models are updated, your brand is a core component of the system's understanding of your category.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1302,"children":1304},{"id":1303},"the-brand-visibility-audit-where-do-you-exist",[1305,1309],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":1306,"children":1308},{"alt":7,"src":1307},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/9639ded1-86f0-4500-bb1a-c2ad511e205b-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-2.png",[],{"type":26,"value":1310},"The Brand Visibility Audit: Where Do You Exist?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1312,"children":1313},{},[1314],{"type":26,"value":1315},"Mastering BVO begins with a technical audit of your brand's digital footprint. You must ask: if an automated agent were vetting this company, what evidence would it find?",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1317,"children":1318},{},[1319],{"type":26,"value":1320},"The audit should focus on three primary areas:",{"type":20,"tag":1322,"props":1323,"children":1324},"ol",{},[1325,1335,1345],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1326,"children":1327},{},[1328,1333],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1329,"children":1330},{},[1331],{"type":26,"value":1332},"Community Mentions:",{"type":26,"value":1334}," AI models place a heavy weight on community-driven platforms like Reddit and technical forums. Are practitioners discussing your product or solving problems using your documentation? Without community discussion, the model is unlikely to recommend you.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1336,"children":1337},{},[1338,1343],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1339,"children":1340},{},[1341],{"type":26,"value":1342},"Expert Proximity:",{"type":26,"value":1344}," Is your brand associated with recognized experts in your field? When your team is cited in third-party research or technical interviews, it creates a link that models use to determine authority.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1346,"children":1347},{},[1348,1353],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1349,"children":1350},{},[1351],{"type":26,"value":1352},"Technical Transparency:",{"type":26,"value":1354}," Models require structured, accurate data. If your technical specifications, API documentation, and pricing structures are inconsistent or difficult to access, the system cannot build an accurate profile of your business.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1356,"children":1357},{},[1358],{"type":26,"value":1359},"Many brands are currently failing this audit because they are invisible in the places where information is synthesized. To fix this, stop treating social media as just a distribution channel and start treating it as a space to establish your brand’s technical authority.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1361,"children":1363},{"id":1362},"navigating-dark-social-attribution",[1364],{"type":26,"value":1365},"Navigating Dark Social Attribution",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1367,"children":1368},{},[1369,1371,1376],{"type":26,"value":1370},"A significant challenge of the BVO era is that the most valuable interactions are difficult to track. ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1372,"children":1373},{},[1374],{"type":26,"value":1375},"Dark Social Attribution",{"type":26,"value":1377}," is often invisible to those who rely only on dashboards. A lead might appear as a direct search, but the reality is that the buyer spent months seeing your name in private communities and reading summaries of your executive's insights.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1379,"children":1380},{},[1381],{"type":26,"value":1382},"Because you cannot track every touchpoint, you must optimize the environment where the buyer spends time. This means providing human, relatable, and technical content that people want to share in private channels.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1384,"children":1385},{},[1386],{"type":26,"value":1387},"When your content is shared in a private group, it eventually reaches the public web through summaries and community archives. This is the long-term goal of BVO. You are establishing authority in private spaces that eventually informs the data models used in public searches.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1389,"children":1391},{"id":1390},"systematizing-authority-moving-from-reactive-to-rhythmic",[1392,1396],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":1393,"children":1395},{"alt":7,"src":1394},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/fdbe942b-e9d7-4a74-8829-9e9587fdd7b6-mkg-blog-the-synthesized-buyer-image-3.png",[],{"type":26,"value":1397},"Systematizing Authority: Moving from Reactive to Rhythmic",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1399,"children":1400},{},[1401],{"type":26,"value":1402},"The transition to a BVO-focused strategy requires moving from reactive marketing to a systematic operation. A \"launch and leave\" mentality is no longer effective. You need a system that ensures your brand's data is constantly updated and reinforced.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1404,"children":1405},{},[1406],{"type":26,"value":1407},"This involves:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1409,"children":1410},{},[1411,1421,1431],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1412,"children":1413},{},[1414,1419],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1415,"children":1416},{},[1417],{"type":26,"value":1418},"Executive Cadence:",{"type":26,"value":1420}," A strict schedule for your leadership team to contribute to external platforms.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1422,"children":1423},{},[1424,1429],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1425,"children":1426},{},[1427],{"type":26,"value":1428},"Structured Knowledge:",{"type":26,"value":1430}," A website that acts as a hub of structured data that is easy for agents to crawl and understand.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1432,"children":1433},{},[1434,1439],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1435,"children":1436},{},[1437],{"type":26,"value":1438},"Community Engagement:",{"type":26,"value":1440}," Participating in the spaces where your buyers live and providing value without expecting an immediate click.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1442,"children":1443},{},[1444],{"type":26,"value":1445},"When these elements are connected, marketing moves from disconnected tactics to a reliable system. You stop spending budget on ads that are ignored and start building brand authority that models are required to cite.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1447,"children":1449},{"id":1448},"the-future-of-b2b-visibility",[1450],{"type":26,"value":1451},"The Future of B2B Visibility",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1453,"children":1454},{},[1455],{"type":26,"value":1456},"The rise of the modern buyer is not a threat to brands that prioritize accuracy and consistency. It is a threat to brands that rely on generic, high-volume content. If your content sounds like a brochure, the AI will summarize the basic points and move on. But if your content contains specific tactics and operational honesty, you add value that the system recognizes.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1458,"children":1459},{},[1460],{"type":26,"value":1461},"We show personality through accuracy and tone, not through forced branding. In the world of generative search, being clear and authoritative is what gets your brand cited. It is about being professional and direct.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1463,"children":1464},{},[1465],{"type":26,"value":1466},"Recalibrating for 2026 is about returning to the fundamentals of building a brand that matters to both people and the systems they use. It is about moving away from short-term shortcuts and focusing on lasting authority.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1468,"children":1470},{"id":1469},"final-thoughts-the-path-to-synthesis",[1471],{"type":26,"value":1472},"Final Thoughts: The Path to Synthesis",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1474,"children":1475},{},[1476],{"type":26,"value":1477},"The B2B measurement gap is widening, and the ways we prove marketing value are changing. However, the goal remains the same: to be the most trusted and visible option for the buyer.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1479,"children":1480},{},[1481,1483,1488,1490,1494],{"type":26,"value":1482},"In 2026, that buyer is assisted by an LLM. By mastering ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1484,"children":1485},{},[1486],{"type":26,"value":1487},"Brand Visibility Optimization",{"type":26,"value":1489},", addressing the ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1491,"children":1492},{},[1493],{"type":26,"value":1375},{"type":26,"value":1495}," gap, and maintaining a consistent output of expertise, you ensure that your brand is recognized.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1497,"children":1498},{},[1499],{"type":26,"value":1500},"Do not be the brand that is missing from the synthesis. Build the authority that makes your presence clear. The success of your growth depends on this systematic approach.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1502,"children":1503},{"id":851},[1504],{"type":26,"value":857},{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1506,"children":1507},{},[1508,1510,1515,1517,1521,1523,1527],{"type":26,"value":1509},"The 2026 B2B buyer journey has changed: 35% use AI tools for vendor selection. To remain visible, brands must adopt ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1511,"children":1512},{},[1513],{"type":26,"value":1514},"Brand Visibility Optimization (BVO)",{"type":26,"value":1516}," to ensure they are present in ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1518,"children":1519},{},[1520],{"type":26,"value":1293},{"type":26,"value":1522},". Success requires navigating ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1524,"children":1525},{},[1526],{"type":26,"value":1375},{"type":26,"value":1528},", the private channels where peer consensus is formed. By implementing a consistent cadence for executive thought leadership and treating the digital footprint as a data pattern for AI recognition, B2B teams can overcome inefficiencies and build authority in an AI-driven marketplace.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":1530},[1531,1532,1533,1534,1535,1536,1537,1538],{"id":1233,"depth":488,"text":1240},{"id":1268,"depth":488,"text":1271},{"id":1303,"depth":488,"text":1310},{"id":1362,"depth":488,"text":1365},{"id":1390,"depth":488,"text":1397},{"id":1448,"depth":488,"text":1451},{"id":1469,"depth":488,"text":1472},{"id":851,"depth":488,"text":857},"content:blog:seo:the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms.md","blog/seo/the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms.md","blog/seo/the-synthesized-buyer-mastering-the-2026-brand-visibility-audit-for-llms",7,{"_path":1544,"_dir":579,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1545,"description":1546,"_schema":10,"authors":1547,"date":1548,"img":1549,"imgAlt":1550,"body":1551,"_type":496,"_id":1965,"_source":498,"_file":1966,"_stem":1967,"_extension":501,"category":579,"minutes":1968},"/blog/seo/monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026","Monthly Search Industry Report - April 2026","Stay updated with the April 2026 search landscape: core update impacts, back button crackdown, task-driven search, and the rise of agent-powered visibility.",[],"2026-05-05T16:25:00Z","/images/blog/mkg-blog-search-industry-overview-april.webp","Monthly Search Industry Report",{"type":17,"children":1552,"toc":1958},[1553,1562,1605,1614,1619,1703,1712,1717,1783,1792,1802,1815,1824,1858,1867,1877,1886,1891,1896,1929,1937,1955],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1554,"children":1556},{"id":1555},"executive-summary-the-tldr",[1557],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1558,"children":1559},{},[1560],{"type":26,"value":1561},"Executive Summary (The TL;DR)",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1563,"children":1564},{},[1565,1575,1585,1595],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1566,"children":1567},{},[1568,1573],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1569,"children":1570},{},[1571],{"type":26,"value":1572},"March Core Update Completion:",{"type":26,"value":1574}," The major ranking update that began in March finished on April 8. It shifted traffic toward specialist sites and away from general content aggregators.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1576,"children":1577},{},[1578,1583],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1579,"children":1580},{},[1581],{"type":26,"value":1582},"The \"Back Button\" Ban:",{"type":26,"value":1584}," Google officially labeled \"back button hijacking\" as spam. Sites that trap users by blocking their ability to return to search results will face penalties starting June 15.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1586,"children":1587},{},[1588,1593],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1589,"children":1590},{},[1591],{"type":26,"value":1592},"Search as a \"Task Engine\":",{"type":26,"value":1594}," Google is adding agentic features, like AI that can call stores to check inventory or build travel itineraries, shifting the focus from clicks to completed actions.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1596,"children":1597},{},[1598,1603],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1599,"children":1600},{},[1601],{"type":26,"value":1602},"GPT-5.5 Launch:",{"type":26,"value":1604}," OpenAI released its most capable agentic model yet, designed to perform multi-step work independently, further changing how users find professional information.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1606,"children":1608},{"id":1607},"algorithm-technical-seo-updates",[1609],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1610,"children":1611},{},[1612],{"type":26,"value":1613},"Algorithm & Technical SEO Updates",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1615,"children":1616},{},[1617],{"type":26,"value":1618},"The focus this month shifted from ranking keywords to punishing deceptive user experiences and rewarding technical efficiency.",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1620,"children":1621},{},[1622,1641,1663,1684],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1623,"children":1624},{},[1625,1630,1632,1639],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1626,"children":1627},{},[1628],{"type":26,"value":1629},"March Core Update Wraps:",{"type":26,"value":1631}," Google confirmed the March 2026 Core Update ended on April 8. Analysis from ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1633,"children":1636},{"href":1634,"rel":1635},"https://searchengineland.com/march-2026-google-core-update-what-changed-474397",[606],[1637],{"type":26,"value":1638},"Search Engine Land",{"type":26,"value":1640}," indicates that niche, authoritative brands saw the most growth, while broad comparison sites lost ground.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1642,"children":1643},{},[1644,1649,1651,1661],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1645,"children":1646},{},[1647],{"type":26,"value":1648},"Back Button Hijacking Policy:",{"type":26,"value":1650}," On April 13, Google introduced a ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1652,"children":1655},{"href":1653,"rel":1654},"https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/04/back-button-hijacking?authuser=2",[606],[1656],{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":1657,"children":1658},{},[1659],{"type":26,"value":1660},"new spam policy",{"type":26,"value":1662}," targeting sites that interfere with browser navigation. If your site uses scripts to trap users or redirect them when they try to leave, you face automated demotions.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1664,"children":1665},{},[1666,1671,1672,1682],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1667,"children":1668},{},[1669],{"type":26,"value":1670},"The 2MB Fetch Limit:",{"type":26,"value":609},{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1673,"children":1676},{"href":1674,"rel":1675},"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/technical-seo-audit-new-layer/571583/",[606],[1677],{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":1678,"children":1679},{},[1680],{"type":26,"value":1681},"Search Engine Journal",{"type":26,"value":1683}," highlighted a critical technical threshold: Googlebot generally stops reading a page after the first 2MB. For tech companies with heavy code or long documentation, this makes code efficiency a direct ranking factor.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1685,"children":1686},{},[1687,1692,1694,1701],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1688,"children":1689},{},[1690],{"type":26,"value":1691},"\"Read More\" Optimization:",{"type":26,"value":1693}," There’s now ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1695,"children":1698},{"href":1696,"rel":1697},"https://searchengineland.com/google-adds-read-more-links-best-practices-474807",[606],[1699],{"type":26,"value":1700},"new guidance",{"type":26,"value":1702}," for content hidden behind \"Read More\" buttons. Google now recommends keeping key information visible on page load to ensure it is indexed for AI answers.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1704,"children":1706},{"id":1705},"the-geoaeo-frontier",[1707],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1708,"children":1709},{},[1710],{"type":26,"value":1711},"The GEO/AEO Frontier",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1713,"children":1714},{},[1715],{"type":26,"value":1716},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) is moving into the \"Agentic Era,\" where AI doesn't just find information, it performs tasks.",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1718,"children":1719},{},[1720,1742,1764],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1721,"children":1722},{},[1723,1728,1730,1740],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1724,"children":1725},{},[1726],{"type":26,"value":1727},"Google's \"Task Assistant\":",{"type":26,"value":1729}," Google launched new features that allow ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1731,"children":1734},{"href":1732,"rel":1733},"https://www.lumar.io/blog/industry-news/seo-ai-search-industry-news-april-2026/",[606],[1735],{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":1736,"children":1737},{},[1738],{"type":26,"value":1739},"AI to call stores",{"type":26,"value":1741}," to check product availability and manage complex travel bookings directly in the SERP. This prioritizes structured data (Schema) over traditional blog content.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1743,"children":1744},{},[1745,1750,1752,1762],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1746,"children":1747},{},[1748],{"type":26,"value":1749},"GPT-5.5 Agentic Workflows:",{"type":26,"value":1751}," Released on April 23, ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1753,"children":1756},{"href":1754,"rel":1755},"https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/gpt-5-5-is-openais-most-capable-agentic-ai-model-yet-at-twice-the-api-price/",[606],[1757],{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":1758,"children":1759},{},[1760],{"type":26,"value":1761},"GPT-5.5",{"type":26,"value":1763}," is built to handle real work, such as planning and tool coordination. This model is more likely to cite sources that provide clear, executable data rather than long-form prose.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1765,"children":1766},{},[1767,1772,1774,1781],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1768,"children":1769},{},[1770],{"type":26,"value":1771},"Chrome's AI Mode Integration:",{"type":26,"value":1773}," Google is rolling out an ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1775,"children":1778},{"href":1776,"rel":1777},"https://www.seroundtable.com/google-tests-enter-ai-mode-button-37145.html",[606],[1779],{"type":26,"value":1780},"\"Enter AI Mode\"",{"type":26,"value":1782}," button in the Chrome address bar. This allows the browser to answer questions by reading the user's open tabs, making on-page context more valuable than ever for brand visibility.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1784,"children":1786},{"id":1785},"strategic-implications-for-leaders",[1787],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1788,"children":1789},{},[1790],{"type":26,"value":1791},"Strategic Implications for Leaders",{"type":20,"tag":1793,"props":1794,"children":1796},"h4",{"id":1795},"what-to-ignore",[1797],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1798,"children":1799},{},[1800],{"type":26,"value":1801},"What to ignore:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1803,"children":1804},{},[1805],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1806,"children":1807},{},[1808,1813],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1809,"children":1810},{},[1811],{"type":26,"value":1812},"Vanity Link Building:",{"type":26,"value":1814}," With Google's new focus on \"Experience\" and \"Task Completion,\" old-school guest posting for links is yielding diminishing returns. Focus on being the answer-first resource, ** ** the domain AI chooses to complete a user's task.",{"type":20,"tag":1793,"props":1816,"children":1818},{"id":1817},"where-to-pivot",[1819],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1820,"children":1821},{},[1822],{"type":26,"value":1823},"Where to pivot:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1825,"children":1826},{},[1827,1848],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1828,"children":1829},{},[1830,1835,1837,1846],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1831,"children":1832},{},[1833],{"type":26,"value":1834},"Audit for \"History Hijacking\":",{"type":26,"value":1836}," Ensure your marketing or ad scripts aren't accidentally violating the new ",{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1838,"children":1840},{"href":1653,"rel":1839},[606],[1841],{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":1842,"children":1843},{},[1844],{"type":26,"value":1845},"Back Button policy",{"type":26,"value":1847},". Even vignette ads can sometimes trigger these penalties.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1849,"children":1850},{},[1851,1856],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1852,"children":1853},{},[1854],{"type":26,"value":1855},"Structure for Agents:",{"type":26,"value":1857}," To be hired by a Google or OpenAI agent, your business data (pricing, features, availability) must be in a machine-readable format, such as JSON-LD. If an agent can’t \"read\" your inventory, it will recommend a competitor with better-structured data.",{"type":20,"tag":1793,"props":1859,"children":1861},{"id":1860},"looking-ahead",[1862],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1863,"children":1864},{},[1865],{"type":26,"value":1866},"Looking Ahead:",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1868,"children":1869},{},[1870,1875],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1871,"children":1872},{},[1873],{"type":26,"value":1874},"The \"Side-Panel\" Habit:",{"type":26,"value":1876}," Watch how Google's new side-by-side view in Chrome changes click behavior. Users are now staying on your site while chatting with an AI on the side. In May, we expect to see \"Time on Page\" metrics rise, but \"Internal Clicks\" fall as the AI does the navigating for them.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":1878,"children":1880},{"id":1879},"call-to-action-optimize-for-the-future",[1881],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1882,"children":1883},{},[1884],{"type":26,"value":1885},"Call to Action: Optimize for the Future",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1887,"children":1888},{},[1889],{"type":26,"value":1890},"The April updates signal a shift from a \"web of pages\" to a \"web of actions.\" For B2B and SaaS leaders, being found is no longer enough; your site must be optimized to help AI agents complete their work.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1892,"children":1893},{},[1894],{"type":26,"value":1895},"MKG helps VC-backed companies dominate this new landscape via:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":1897,"children":1898},{},[1899,1909,1919],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1900,"children":1901},{},[1902,1907],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1903,"children":1904},{},[1905],{"type":26,"value":1906},"GEO/AEO Gap Analysis:",{"type":26,"value":1908}," Identifying where AI agents are failing to \"see\" your core product data.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1910,"children":1911},{},[1912,1917],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1913,"children":1914},{},[1915],{"type":26,"value":1916},"SVO Focus:",{"type":26,"value":1918}," Incorporating all areas of search into one, holistic and coherent strategy.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":1920,"children":1921},{},[1922,1927],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1923,"children":1924},{},[1925],{"type":26,"value":1926},"Full-Funnel Attribution:",{"type":26,"value":1928}," Measuring how AI Mode interactions contribute to your bottom line, even without a traditional click.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1930,"children":1931},{},[1932],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1933,"children":1934},{},[1935],{"type":26,"value":1936},"Don't get trapped by the old playbook.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1938,"children":1939},{},[1940,1953],{"type":20,"tag":533,"props":1941,"children":1944},{"href":1942,"rel":1943},"https://mkgmarketinginc.com/book-a-call/",[606],[1945],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":1946,"children":1947},{},[1948],{"type":20,"tag":611,"props":1949,"children":1950},{},[1951],{"type":26,"value":1952},"Book a Discovery Call",{"type":26,"value":1954}," to secure your visibility in the agentic search era.",{"type":20,"tag":484,"props":1956,"children":1957},{},[],{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":1959},[1960,1961,1962,1963,1964],{"id":1555,"depth":488,"text":1561},{"id":1607,"depth":488,"text":1613},{"id":1705,"depth":488,"text":1711},{"id":1785,"depth":488,"text":1791},{"id":1879,"depth":488,"text":1885},"content:blog:seo:monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026.md","blog/seo/monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026.md","blog/seo/monthly-search-industry-report-april-2026",4,{"_path":1970,"_dir":579,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":1971,"description":1972,"img":1973,"date":1974,"imgAlt":1975,"_schema":10,"authors":1976,"body":1977,"_type":496,"_id":2309,"_source":498,"_file":2310,"_stem":2311,"_extension":501,"category":579,"minutes":875},"/blog/seo/agentic-procurement-is-your-website-machine-readable-or-just-human-centric","Agentic Procurement - Is Your Website Machine-Readable or Just Human-Centric?","Procurement is moving to AI agents. If your site isn't optimized for agent readiness, you are invisible to the new buyer.","/images/blog/mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-hero-image.webp","2026-04-29T17:59:00Z","Agentic Procurement",[],{"type":17,"children":1978,"toc":2299},[1979,1984,1989,1994,1999,2006,2015,2020,2025,2030,2035,2044,2049,2054,2059,2064,2071,2080,2085,2090,2095,2128,2133,2138,2147,2152,2157,2190,2195,2202,2211,2216,2221,2226,2231,2240,2245,2250,2255,2260,2269,2274,2279,2284,2291,2296],{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1980,"children":1981},{},[1982],{"type":26,"value":1983},"B2B procurement is undergoing a fundamental restructuring. For the past twenty years, the B2B buying process has been defined by human-to-human interaction. Marketing teams built websites to persuade, inform, and nurture human prospects. Companies focused on mobile design, conversion paths, and lead forms.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1985,"children":1986},{},[1987],{"type":26,"value":1988},"That era of human-centric commerce is ending. By 2026, a massive portion of B2B spend will be mediated by AI agents. This is a shift in the fundamental infrastructure of the global economy.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1990,"children":1991},{},[1992],{"type":26,"value":1993},"In this environment, a website is no longer just a digital brochure for a human audience. It is a data source for an automated vetting process. When an AI agent is tasked with finding a vendor that meets specific security, price, and capability criteria, it does not analyze copy in a traditional sense. It does not assess branding or testimonials. It evaluates the site as machine-readable data. If a digital presence cannot be parsed, validated, and structured by an agent, the company does not exist in the procurement funnel.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":1995,"children":1996},{},[1997],{"type":26,"value":1998},"This transition is the emergence of Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO). The winners in 2026 are the companies that stop treating their websites as destinations for humans and start treating them as dynamic, structured knowledge bases that AI agents can use to provide direct answers and make procurement decisions.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2000,"children":2001},{},[2002],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":2003,"children":2005},{"alt":7,"src":2004},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/f48096ed-38dd-417b-a905-819c2602bc6e-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-1.jpg",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":2007,"children":2009},{"id":2008},"the-reality-of-agentic-procurement",[2010],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2011,"children":2012},{},[2013],{"type":26,"value":2014},"The Reality of Agentic Procurement",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2016,"children":2017},{},[2018],{"type":26,"value":2019},"Agentic procurement is the process of delegating the vendor selection and vetting phase to an AI agent. Instead of a procurement manager spending weeks issuing requests for proposals and scanning websites, they provide an AI agent with a set of constraints and objectives. The agent scans the web, analyzes the technical capabilities of potential vendors, assesses compliance, compares pricing, and shortlists candidates.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2021,"children":2022},{},[2023],{"type":26,"value":2024},"This process is objective and data-driven. It removes the friction of subjective marketing claims and replaces them with an audit of the technical layer of a web presence. When an AI agent visits a site, it looks for specific, unambiguous data points to synthesize an answer. It needs to know API capabilities, pricing, uptime guarantees, and security certifications.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2026,"children":2027},{},[2028],{"type":26,"value":2029},"If this information is trapped inside an image file, buried in a document, or obscured by marketing copy designed for humans, the agent ignores it. It does not include instructions for inferring meaning from general articles. It needs structured, machine-readable data to provide a direct answer.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2031,"children":2032},{},[2033],{"type":26,"value":2034},"Many B2B companies have a disconnect. They have invested in high-end design, video, and storytelling. While these elements have value for human stakeholders, they are often invisible or confusing to an AI agent. The technical architecture of most corporate websites is designed for visual display, not for programmatic extraction. To succeed in the era of AI-mediated spend, companies must implement a strategy that prioritizes machine-readability.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":2036,"children":2038},{"id":2037},"moving-beyond-seo-to-agent-readiness-optimization-aro",[2039],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2040,"children":2041},{},[2042],{"type":26,"value":2043},"Moving Beyond SEO to Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO)",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2045,"children":2046},{},[2047],{"type":26,"value":2048},"For years, SEO was the primary discipline for increasing visibility. Teams focused on keywords, search intent, and ranking in search results. Agent Readiness Optimization (ARO) is a different discipline. ARO is not about ranking for a search term; it is about providing the definitive, structured data that an AI agent requires to vet a vendor and provide a direct answer.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2050,"children":2051},{},[2052],{"type":26,"value":2053},"ARO requires a shift in how digital assets are structured. It requires implementing a technical semantic layer. A semantic layer acts as a translator between raw data and the AI agents that need to consume it. It ensures that when an agent asks, \"What are the core technical capabilities of this platform?\", it receives a direct, unambiguous answer, not a marketing description.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2055,"children":2056},{},[2057],{"type":26,"value":2058},"This involves several components. First, it requires using standardized schemas, such as Schema.org, to define the entities on a page. By marking up content, a company tells the AI exactly what each piece of information represents. Second, it requires that data be accessible and consistent across the entire web presence.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2060,"children":2061},{},[2062],{"type":26,"value":2063},"When a company treats its website as a knowledge graph, it maps the relationships between products, technical specifications, and organizational data. It creates a clear, interconnected structure that an AI agent can navigate to build its response. It moves from unstructured content to structured knowledge. This allows an AI agent to build a profile of a company without needing human intervention.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2065,"children":2066},{},[2067],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":2068,"children":2070},{"alt":7,"src":2069},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/d42946f6-7f69-4eed-853f-c8f845347ce1-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-2.png",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":2072,"children":2074},{"id":2073},"the-systematic-approach-treating-your-site-as-a-knowledge-graph",[2075],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2076,"children":2077},{},[2078],{"type":26,"value":2079},"The Systematic Approach: Treating Your Site as a Knowledge Graph",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2081,"children":2082},{},[2083],{"type":26,"value":2084},"The approach to this challenge is to move beyond the page-by-page content strategy and view the website as a comprehensive data system. It is necessary to focus on integrating services and technical architecture to create a resilient knowledge graph.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2086,"children":2087},{},[2088],{"type":26,"value":2089},"Superficial fixes are not effective. Instead, a technical audit of a site’s ability to communicate with AI agents is required. A company must analyze its ability to output structured data and ensure that technical documentation, pricing structures, and capability matrices are fully indexable.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2091,"children":2092},{},[2093],{"type":26,"value":2094},"This involves specific operational steps:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":2096,"children":2097},{},[2098,2108,2118],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":2099,"children":2100},{},[2101,2106],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2102,"children":2103},{},[2104],{"type":26,"value":2105},"Intent-Based Categorization:",{"type":26,"value":2107}," Structure your content based on how an agent classifies information, rather than how a human visitor navigates a menu.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":2109,"children":2110},{},[2111,2116],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2112,"children":2113},{},[2114],{"type":26,"value":2115},"Data Prominence:",{"type":26,"value":2117}," Surface your most critical technical and commercial specifications within your structured data to ensure they are instantly discoverable during an automated audit.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":2119,"children":2120},{},[2121,2126],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2122,"children":2123},{},[2124],{"type":26,"value":2125},"Machine-Ready Compliance:",{"type":26,"value":2127}," Format your compliance documentation—including security protocols, certifications, and uptime logs—for machine-learning ingestion, so automated systems can verify your credentials without human intervention.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2129,"children":2130},{},[2131],{"type":26,"value":2132},"This approach requires collaboration between your technical and marketing teams. The marketing team provides the strategic narrative, while the technical team ensures it is translated into a language agents understand. By combining these perspectives, a brand ensures its authority is reflected in its machine-readable data.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2134,"children":2135},{},[2136],{"type":26,"value":2137},"When a company treats its site as a knowledge graph, it prepares the business for the future. It moves from a model in which it hopes marketing materials influence the buyer to one in which it actively supplies the data the agent uses to confirm fitness as a vendor.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":2139,"children":2141},{"id":2140},"why-machine-readable-content-wins",[2142],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2143,"children":2144},{},[2145],{"type":26,"value":2146},"Why Machine-Readable Content Wins",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2148,"children":2149},{},[2150],{"type":26,"value":2151},"The primary advantage of having a machine-readable website is the velocity of the procurement process. An AI agent is not slowed by human schedules or traditional sales bottlenecks. When a site provides the answers a company needs immediately, that site becomes the direct, verifiable option.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2153,"children":2154},{},[2155],{"type":26,"value":2156},"Key advantages of machine-readability include:",{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":2158,"children":2159},{},[2160,2170,2180],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":2161,"children":2162},{},[2163,2168],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2164,"children":2165},{},[2166],{"type":26,"value":2167},"Always-On Availability:",{"type":26,"value":2169}," Unlike human sales teams, AI agents operate 24/7. Your site is being vetted for procurement regardless of time zone or office hours.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":2171,"children":2172},{},[2173,2178],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2174,"children":2175},{},[2176],{"type":26,"value":2177},"Removal of Friction:",{"type":26,"value":2179}," AI agents do not wait for sales representatives to respond to emails or demo requests. They require immediate, self-service access to technical data to complete their vetting process.",{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":2181,"children":2182},{},[2183,2188],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2184,"children":2185},{},[2186],{"type":26,"value":2187},"Instant Verification:",{"type":26,"value":2189}," By surfacing specs, security protocols, and pricing in a machine-readable format, you allow an agent to confirm requirements in seconds, positioning your company as the most efficient and low-risk choice.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2191,"children":2192},{},[2193],{"type":26,"value":2194},"Contrast this with a competitor whose site is visually polished but lacks the technical structure required for indexing. That competitor is filtered out by the agent before a human ever sees their brand. This is an automated process of elimination. A company may not even know it was considered for a procurement mandate, nor why it was passed over.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2196,"children":2197},{},[2198],{"type":20,"tag":627,"props":2199,"children":2201},{"alt":7,"src":2200},"https://assets.mkgmarketinginc.com/4840c7d2-ba0e-4ce6-a9f7-3eb021a8fb44-mkg-blog-agentic-procurement-image-3.jpg",[],{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":2203,"children":2205},{"id":2204},"the-competitive-advantage-of-structured-data",[2206],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2207,"children":2208},{},[2209],{"type":26,"value":2210},"The Competitive Advantage of Structured Data",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2212,"children":2213},{},[2214],{"type":26,"value":2215},"The transition to ARO is a competitive advantage. Companies that understand how to present data in a structured, semantic format will have an advantage in the automated B2B marketplace.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2217,"children":2218},{},[2219],{"type":26,"value":2220},"Consider the difference in how two companies present service levels. One company uses an infographic with text that an agent cannot parse. The agent cannot process the information, which creates a high level of risk. The company is filtered out. The second company uses a structured data table that clearly maps service levels to technical specifications, accompanied by schema markup that validates those claims. The agent ingests this data instantly, verifies it against the procurement requirements, and flags the company as a candidate with high confidence.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2222,"children":2223},{},[2224],{"type":26,"value":2225},"This second company wins because it made the task easier for the agent. It demonstrated operational maturity. In the era of AI-mediated spend, technical documentation is sales collateral. API references are landing pages. Compliance data is the brand story.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2227,"children":2228},{},[2229],{"type":26,"value":2230},"Organizations must build this infrastructure. They must move from a focus on brochures to a data-driven model. A website should act as a sales engineer, providing the data agents need to select a company as their preferred partner.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":2232,"children":2234},{"id":2233},"recalibrating-your-digital-strategy",[2235],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2236,"children":2237},{},[2238],{"type":26,"value":2239},"Recalibrating Your Digital Strategy",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2241,"children":2242},{},[2243],{"type":26,"value":2244},"If a digital strategy is currently too human-centric, now is the time to recalibrate. This is not about sacrificing brand voice or the experience provided to human visitors. It is about adding a layer of technical rigor that makes the site work for both the human buyer and the procurement agent.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2246,"children":2247},{},[2248],{"type":26,"value":2249},"A structured approach to ARO involves a technical audit of the existing infrastructure. Companies must analyze where data is hidden, where structures are brittle, and where opportunities are lost because information is not parsable. They then implement a structured data strategy that enables knowledge to flow into the systems that drive the majority of B2B procurement decisions.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2251,"children":2252},{},[2253],{"type":26,"value":2254},"This is not a project that can be delegated to a generic agency. It requires a combination of technical capability, strategic oversight, and an understanding of how AI models consume information. It requires the discipline to treat information as a system.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2256,"children":2257},{},[2258],{"type":26,"value":2259},"By controlling the technical semantic layer, a company controls its future in the B2B market. It ensures it is not left behind as spend shifts to vendors who have built the infrastructure to support AI-driven answers.",{"type":20,"tag":48,"props":2261,"children":2263},{"id":2262},"final-thoughts-the-new-era-of-visibility",[2264],{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":2265,"children":2266},{},[2267],{"type":26,"value":2268},"Final Thoughts: The New Era of Visibility",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2270,"children":2271},{},[2272],{"type":26,"value":2273},"The transition to AI-mediated procurement is a significant shift in the business environment. It requires a change in mindset—from how to persuade the buyer, to how to provide the data the agent needs to select a vendor.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2275,"children":2276},{},[2277],{"type":26,"value":2278},"We specialize in the intersection of services and technical architecture. We help clients navigate this shift by building websites that are robust, structured, and intelligent. We provide the technical backbone that allows a business to thrive in a world of automated decision-making.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":2280,"children":2281},{},[2282],{"type":26,"value":2283},"Do not let a brand fall into the gap between traditional marketing and AI-driven procurement. Organize expertise, structure data, and build a digital presence that's future-ready. The era of the agent is here. 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She started her career in Center City, Philadelphia working for several law firms.  After she was married and had her first son, she left the bustling city to work closer to home at an international publishing company.  In 1994, Kathy and her husband Bill moved with their two sons to Charlotte, North Carolina.  They eventually completed their family with two more boys born in Charlotte.\n",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":3340,"children":3341},{},[3342],{"type":26,"value":3343},"In 2000 they relocated to Chester County, a suburb of Philadelphia. After a hiatus and four sons, Kathy returned to work in Chester County. This time, she gave retail a whirl so that she could be home when her school age boys were home. She quickly found out Ann Taylor was employing one of their best customers. Kathy then spent the following 10+ years in the Non-Profit arena where she did whatever needed to be done to further the mission. 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She decided to apply for a remote job (before it was the norm) and was able to get experience that wasn't as prevalent in the smaller area in which she resides.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":3461,"children":3462},{},[3463],{"type":26,"value":3464},"After working from home for the past 6 years the opportunities kept coming and when MKG reached out to her, she knew that there was something special about them and decided to take the leap. The people first environment is not just talked about here, but it is practiced everyday. 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Her view from her kitchen window was the Hollywood sign. Not a bad first apartment.",{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":3486},[3487],{"id":556,"depth":491,"text":3479},"content:team:leigh-snyder.md","team/leigh-snyder.md","team/leigh-snyder",{"_path":3492,"_dir":3493,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3494,"description":3495,"name":3494,"imageDescription":3496,"ref":3497,"jobTitle":3498,"images":3499,"linkedIn":3497,"quote":3501,"quoteCite":3494,"sequence":1542,"body":3502,"_type":496,"_id":3576,"_source":498,"_file":3577,"_stem":3578,"_extension":501,"category":3493,"minutes":515},"/team/marketing-leadership/celeste-jacroux","marketing-leadership","Celeste Jacroux","Meet Celeste Jacroux, a strategic GTM partner to MKG and Founder of Sweel Marketing Advisors. 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As the Founder of ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":3511,"children":3512},{},[3513],{"type":26,"value":3514},"Swell Marketing Advisors",{"type":26,"value":3516}," and a strategic partner to MKG, she brings deep expertise in aligning product, sales, and marketing into a cohesive GTM strategy.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":3518,"children":3519},{},[3520],{"type":26,"value":3521},"Celeste understands that for founders, the hardest phase is often bridging the gap between a great product and the market that needs it. She specializes in clarifying positioning, defining ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and building the strategic roadmap that turns vision into traction.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":3523,"children":3524},{},[3525,3527,3532],{"type":26,"value":3526},"At MKG, Celeste steps in as a Marketing Leader for our ",{"type":20,"tag":636,"props":3528,"children":3529},{},[3530],{"type":26,"value":3531},"Marketing Leadership + Activation",{"type":26,"value":3533}," clients. 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She works directly with founders to build scalable marketing engines while hosting the podcast, Back on T-R-A-C-K.","Fractional Marketing Leaders",{"landscape":512},5,{"type":17,"children":3586,"toc":3660},[3587,3593,3633,3644,3649,3653],{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":3588,"children":3590},{"className":3589},[523],[3591],{"type":26,"value":3592},"\nKerry Guard (she/her) is the strategist founders call when they are tired of guessing. As the CEO of MKG Marketing, she doesn’t just run the agency; she steps into the trenches with clients as a Fractional Marketing Leader. She specializes in helping founders navigate the \"Growth Valley\"—building the systems, strategy, and teams required to scale from traction to expansion.",{"type":20,"tag":29,"props":3594,"children":3595},{},[3596,3598,3603,3605,3610,3612,3617,3619,3624,3626,3631],{"type":26,"value":3597},"Her recent work focuses on bringing enterprise-level rigor to growing businesses. 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As a mom of twins, she built MKG on a \"People First\" methodology—championing policies like 20 vacation days and zero after-hours emails—because she knows that rested, respected experts drive the best ROI.",{"type":20,"tag":21,"props":3650,"children":3651},{"id":556},[3652],{"type":26,"value":559},{"type":20,"tag":561,"props":3654,"children":3655},{},[3656],{"type":20,"tag":565,"props":3657,"children":3658},{},[3659],{"type":26,"value":569},{"title":7,"searchDepth":488,"depth":488,"links":3661},[3662],{"id":556,"depth":491,"text":559},"content:team:marketing-leadership:kerry-guard.md","team/marketing-leadership/kerry-guard.md","team/marketing-leadership/kerry-guard",{"_path":3667,"_dir":3493,"_draft":6,"_partial":6,"_locale":7,"title":3668,"description":3669,"name":3670,"imageDescription":3671,"ref":3672,"jobTitle":3673,"images":3674,"linkedIn":3672,"quote":3676,"quoteCite":3670,"sequence":3677,"body":3678,"_type":496,"_id":3761,"_source":498,"_file":3762,"_stem":3763,"_extension":501,"category":3493,"minutes":515},"/team/marketing-leadership/laura-mcaliley","Laura Mcaliley","Meet Laura McAliley, a strategic partner to MKG and Founder of Pebble Marketing. 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