How AI Is Changing SEO: What Every Agency Owner Needs to Know with Vishal Mahida | Ep #853

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How are you preparing your clients to start thinking about AI as part of their SEO strategy? Are you educating them on what they can expect now that the landscape is changing with AI optimization? As an agency, you should be starting these conversations because you can be sure your clients are already thinking about AI, even if they still don't understand its applications for how clients will get to their content.

Artificial intelligence isn't just changing how people find information, it's rewriting the rules of search altogether. Today's featured guest is already running AI audits for his clients; he thinks all agency owners should be doing this. He'll unpack what AI optimization really means for agencies, marketers, and business owners who've lived and breathed SEO for decades.

Vishal Mahida is the Director of Digital Marketing at E2M Solutions, where he helps over 100 agencies scale their SEO and digital marketing operations. With a 40+ person team specializing in SEO, PPC, and operations support, Vishal works directly with agencies on systems that drive measurable growth and keep them ahead of major shifts in the industry.

In this episode, we'll discuss:

• SEO vs. AI Optimization

• No, SEO is not dead, so your website still matters.

• Preparing your agency and clients for AI search.

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The Difference Between SEO and AI Optimization

There's a lot of buzz around how AI has come to change and maybe even replace SEO. Vishal clarifies that AI optimization isn't replacing SEO, it's expanding it. Traditional SEO focused primarily on optimizing for Google rankings, keywords, and backlinks. The goal was to get traffic from search results. But as Vishal explains, the modern search landscape has fragmented. Users are now searching on multiple platforms including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, not just Google.

This shift means brands must move beyond "ranking on Google" and focus on being visible wherever their audience searches for information. Whether someone asks ChatGPT for "the best roofers in Austin" or Google's AI mode for "running shoes under $5,000," AI systems are gathering and summarizing information across multiple sources in real time, including social platforms like Reddit, Quora, and LinkedIn.

Think about it as building a multimedia visibility strategy and ensuring your brand, expertise, and answers exist across platforms that large language models (LLMs) pull from. "You're not optimizing for one search engine anymore," he says. "You're optimizing for how the internet talks about you."

Why Your Website Still Matters in the AI Era

Will websites become irrelevant if AI answers everything for users? According to Vishal, websites won't disappear, they'll evolve. Think of them as your source of truth rather than your traffic generator.

When AI summarizes answers for users, it still references real content and authoritative sources. So, your website remains essential for credibility, events, and conversion, even if fewer users arrive there through traditional search. For instance, if someone asks ChatGPT about agency growth events in Austin, and you've mentioned your event across social media, your website, and podcasts, AI will likely include it in the results. "That's how people find you now," Vishal agrees. "Not just through search but through signals from every platform."

Of course, you should still think about the content you're putting out on your website. Are you answering the questions that people are asking? Or you just optimizing f