“10 blue links” era is over, Create AI-Resistant Content | Avinash Kaushik

Nonprofits, your “10 blue links” era is over. In this episode, Avinash Kaushik (Human-Made Machine; Occam’s Razor) breaks down Answer Engine Optimization—why LLMs now decide who gets seen, why third-party chatter outweighs your own site, and what to do about it. We get tactical: build AI-resistant content (genuine novelty + depth), go multimodal (text, video, audio), and stamp everything with real attribution so bots can’t regurgitate you into sludge. We also cover measurement that isn’t delusional—group your AEO referrals, expect fewer visits but higher intent, and stop worshiping last-click and vanity metrics. Avinash updates the 10/90 rule for the AI age (invest in people, plus “synthetic interns”), and torpedoes linear funnels in favor of See-Think-Do-Care anchored in intent. If you want a blunt, practical playbook for staying visible—and actually converting—when answers beat searches, this is it. About Avinash Avinash Kaushik is a leading voice in marketing analytics—the author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day and Web Analytics 2.0, publisher of the Marketing <> Analytics Intersect newsletter, and longtime writer of the Occam’s Razor blog. He leads strategy at Human Made Machine, advises Tapestry on brand strategy/marketing transformation, and previously served as Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist. Uniquely, he donates 100% of his book royalties and paid newsletter revenue to charity (civil rights, early childhood education, UN OCHA; previously Smile Train and Doctors Without Borders). He also co-founded Market Motive. Resource Links

• Avinash Kaushik — Occam’s Razor (site/home) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

• Marketing <> Analytics Intersect (newsletter sign-up) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

• AEO series starter: “AI Age Marketing: Bye SEO, Hello AEO!” Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

• See-Think-Do-Care (framework explainer) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

• Books: Web Analytics: An Hour a Day | Web Analytics 2.0 (author pages) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik+1

• Human Made Machine (creative pre-testing) — Home | About | Products humanmademachine.com+2humanmademachine.com+2

• Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade) (company site) Tapestry

• Tools mentioned (AEO measurement):

  • Trakkr (AI visibility / prompts / sentiment) Trakkr

  • Evertune (AI Brand Index & monitoring) evertune.ai

• GA4 how-tos (for your AEO channel + attribution):

  • Custom Channel Groups (create an “AEO” channel) Google Help

  • Attribution Paths report (multi-touch view) Google Help

• Nonprofit vetting (Avinash’s donation diligence):

  • Charity Navigator (ratings) Charity Navigator

• Google for Nonprofits — Gemini & NotebookLM (AI access)

  • Announcement / overview | Workspace AI for nonprofits blog.googleGoogle Help

• Example NGO Avinash supports: EMERGENCY (Italy) EMERGENCY

Transcript

Avinash Kaushik: [00:00:00] So traffic's gonna go down. So if you're a business, you're a nonprofit, how. Do you deal with the fact that you're gonna lose a lot of traffic that you get from a search engine? Today, when all of humanity moves to the answer Engine W world, only about two or 3% of the people are doing it.

It's grow